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[deleted988364]

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[Stellaartwa]

This post is too hard to follow. What are your uGPA, sGPA and pbGPA? Have you taken the MCAT? If so, what was your score?

Your extracurriculuars look great.

 

[Stellaartwa]

Okay so, your situation is pretty bad. The post-bacc is the time to REALLY excel and prove that you have changed and matured academically. A bad post-bacc (in your case worse than undergrad) is extremely hard to come back from (though not impossible!).

I'm thinking your only chance now is an SMP but I can't recommend you attempt an SMP if you're still getting Cs in undergrad classes. Med school/smp courses will be a lot faster paced than undergrad courses. You need to diagnose and fix your academic issues ASAP. Are you bad with time-management? Do you cram the night before the test? Do you not attend class and do the practice problems? None of us can help you figure these things out. Don't attempt an SMP until you've learned to study or your med school dreams will die a fiery death which would be unfortunate since you have such great ECs and a chance at a good MCAT!

I have no personal experience with SMPs so will let others chime in as far as recommendations on that route. Best of luck to you!

 

[curbsideconsult]

she thinks I should apply

This is terrible advice. She wants you to apply with an sGPA of 2.5? You'd be wasting your money.

It sounds like you need to take some time off school, save up some money, and then go back to take more upper level classes after you've quit your job and you can devote more time to your classes.

 

[curbsideconsult]

You're right I was thinking of doing that. I'm exhausted.

What courses should I take?

It looks like you still need to take the orgo 1 lab. I would finish the anatomy series and really all of those recommended courses if you think you can As in all of them. At this point, you can't afford anything less than that. If I were you, I would also hold off on taking the MCAT until I could devote at least (absolute bare minimum) an uninterrupted 4 weeks of studying for it.

 

[SM25]

Your bio, cell bio, and micro are C averages for undergrad work. That is a huge red light right there.

My honest advice is to try something else.

 

[SM25]

Like what?

nursing

 

[curbsideconsult]

My adviser wants me to apply next cycle, if I take developmental bio and histology til then and get As, take MCAT and score high, do you think its manageable?

I took orgo 1 Lab (B)

I think your chances will still be very, very low. You're asking if 2 classes of As are going to offset an sGPA of 2.5.

Are you planning on quitting your job any time soon to devote time to your classes? If not, I don't see how you doing the same thing is going to ensure that you get As in these classes.

 

[LUCPM]

Based on your grades and overall trends, it appears that you are still struggling with basic science courses. My advice is you need to step back and somehow figure out how to study effectively with better time management. E.g. If you are not doing so well in classes, you need to cut back down your work/volunteer hours.

Don't apply for med school assuming that things will get better - things will only get much worse with all kinds of stress. You need average intelligence to do well in med school but medical training in general requires dedication and endurance. It's important to figure things out before you embark on such a long journey that will come at a roller coaster speed (at times).

 

[SM25]

Nah, I'm dedicated to MD/ or MD/phD route when time comes.

Trust me when I tell you this. There are BSN nursing students that start their programs with higher grades than you have now.

MD/PhD? lol

 

[emergencydancing]

Trust me when I tell you this. There are BSN nursing students that start their programs with higher grades than you have now.

MD/PhD? lol

As crass as this sounds, I would second some introspection into your career decisions. You seem to have many excuses, but at the end of the day it's up to you to handle the classes. If you feel overworked, it's bad judgement to bite more than you can chew. Instead of doing classes, working FT, and volunteering, you should've spread it out more like working FT (since you have to), take fewer classes, volunteer less or skip now and when you're done with classes resume. You know going in that doing well in classes is an absolute must. MD-PHD might be a little bit out of reach.

I think the expectation you should have is that even if you get a 515+ MCAT (which might be hard given coursework), you'd be looking at DOs realistically and *maybe* some MDs but probably not MD-PHD. Even then it's not easy. Nursing or other careers might not be a bad idea.

However, if you come back with a 520+ MCAT, that'll a lot of doubt.

 

[Goro]

The fact that you have done poorly in your post-bac forces me to recommend a different career path.

 

[SM25]

Thank you for replying.Thats alot to think about and accept right away. But, I think I did better in post then before. No Fs or Ds, it just takes more time for someone like myself to get to where I need to be. I'm willing to go the long way instead of changing career paths. If you have advice on that, it would be most helpful. I find it is easy for people to be unsympathetic if they haven't been in your shoes.

I think you need to understand that you are aiming for a field where you are going up against competition that never needed more time to figure out how to get better grades. I think that's what you're missing. It's not that you can't EVENTUALLY become a good student but it's kinda hard to prove your case as a good student when you have taken the same course three times.

 

[emergencydancing]

Ill
I'll be sure to follow your advice! What did you mean about MCAT?

I meant the MCAT is another way to prove to adcoms you can handle the rigor, but I would not recommend taking it unless you're sure you understand the material. And even then, it's a risk and you'll have to aim very high. MD-PHD might not be in the cards.

Thank you for replying.Thats alot to think about and accept right away. But, I think I did better in post then before. No Fs or Ds, it just takes more time for someone like myself to get to where I need to be. I'm willing to go the long way instead of changing career paths. If you have advice on that, it would be most helpful. I find it is easy for people to be unsympathetic if they haven't been in your shoes.

I admire your optimism and determination, but like others have mentioned it's super competitive. If you were in the admissions' shoes, would you take yourself over students with 3.6 GPA and 510 MCAT (these are higher for MSTP).

But also, are you URM by chance? That changes a lot of things.

 

[Goro]

NOT getting F and Ds isn't the point. Getting C;s is, and looking at your pb coursework,
1

the ones in red aren't convincing; the As above them are.

But ones in purples should have been more As than Bs, not a multitude of Bs and Cs. And upon retaking Bio 1, you should have aced that.

Hence, it's time for Plan B.

 

[SM25]

Ok, you might be right. I spoke to an mdphd, she is involved in admissions process and she told me her program doesn't care so much about gpa, but research quality.

I am URM. Does it really?

That MD/PhD must have been drinking at lunch time.

 

[Goro]

I'll just keep continuing my education and focus on acing MCAT. I'm obviously not ready yet. But I will be.

Good luck

 

[deleted935885]

Ehh I know I don’t have any status to make an input but if your retaking courses .. you should have ace the next time you take them.

If you do an smp, you need to destroy it.


Most people near your shoes (Including myself) either say fck it and jump right into an smp ; mainly cuz their undergrad gpa was not fixable at all due to too many credits taken. (Also me)

Or they do very well at an Post bac and retake the Mcat , with of course scoring well enough to get the heat off their low undergrad gpa .


However, you’ve already done the post bac route and didn’t do as well as you wanted to do. Which only hurts your only chance at a reinvention even more.

I would make a back up plan if I was in your shoes. But then again , you seem too determined already for any kind advice so idk.

 

[hamiltonnyc]

Md-phd admissions probably meant gpa difference between 3.7 and 3.8, unless you cure cancer or something.

And yes URM changes a lot of things. Md-phd will still be hard, but DO and Lower MD are possible.

 

[Stellaartwa]

I find it is easy for people to be unsympathetic if they haven't been in your shoes.

The thing is that a lot of us HAVE been in your shoes. I started this process with a 2.3 sGPA and a 2.8uGPA. I went back to post bacc and did two full time years of 4.0 work and then killed the MCAT. Those of us who have been around the block have seen countless non-trads in real life or here on SDN who don’t take advice well, don’t learn from their mistakes and then *Surprise!* don’t get in.

You cannot be making excuses at this point in your academic career. Your life doesn’t sound easy at all but you need years of academic success to prove that you could actually graduate from medical school. Have you considered taking a couple years off to work and save up money, sort out your academic deficiencies and then do an SMP full time? That seems like your best plan of attack at this point.

In closing, if you do apply and get in — awesome! Come back and rub it in our faces. We ARE rooting for you. Best of luck!

 

[Sleepingdoc]

Yeah.. that looks like a tough road ahead of you.. C's for sophomore level courses... med school wants students who can pass boards and get into residency. They look at these grades and see that you likely have trouble with undergrad level material and will likely have trouble when you go to med school when all others around you are "A" students.... Its up to you to prove them that you can handle the load.