Seeking Guidance: Non-traditional with 8 W's

[Parallax]

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I am hoping for some insight on my situation: I feel comfortable with the breadth/depth of my resume and experience but need to make up for a period of poor academics. I spoke to several advisers and multiple medical schools without a consensus on how to proceed (after obsessively reading these forums); recommendations ranged from just taking 2-3 undergrad upper level sciences, to repeating all the prereqs, or doing an SMP, or taking 2 full time years undergrad upper level science coursework. State residency sadly does not help me.

Total AMCAS GPA/BCPM: 3.5/3.6 at 170 credits:

• 2006-2010: Community college 8 W's, some C/D/F's, and retakes for A/B grades again at community college (mostly BCPM prereqs); 4 partial semesters and 1 full semester of withdrawals/W's.
  • Causes: New chronic illness diagnosis and related learning curve (extended diagnosis/treatment trials, now well controlled), family issues, and immaturity/stubbornness
  • Result: Learned, took responsibility, became interested in healthcare and health disparities
• 2010-2012: 4.0 after university transfer (flagship public university, not much science, no prereqs), program valedictorian
  • 6 years total to acquire BS degree in public health
• 2012-present:
  • 3 years strong clinical research/work history at NIH (10+ conference presentations, 15+ research posters) demonstrating excellence with sustained 80-100 hour work weeks
  • 1-2 years additional outpatient clinical exposure (medical scribe/assistant, volunteer), teaching/tutoring, etc.
• To the best of my ability, I intentionally sought a broad range of experiences and thoroughly tested my interests and potential to confirm I could be entrusted with a physician's responsibility for patients.
  • Public/private/clinic/outpatient clinical settings, bench/data/population/clinical research, customer service experience, etc.

Questions:

1. How do I mitigate the risks that my transcript represents and alleviate adcoms' concerns that the broad distribution of W's may represent grade protection, inability to handle coursework load/content, or raises medical concerns?
   1. Broadly speaking, do I have a "reasonable" explanation for my grades?
   2. Would it be suspect if I did not specifically name my diagnosis in a personal statement (i.e. just say "autoimmune condition", etc.) when discussing grades?
2. Could you give your impression of my situation and (if willing) your experience of how others in similar situations have succeeded?
   1. Are there extra precautions I should take to make it through the application screening process?
   2. Would 1 year of full time postbac science coursework be sufficient to reassure adcoms? Does it matter whether it is undergrad prereqs/upper level science or graduate level science coursework?
   3. Is it okay to do a postbac at a lower ranked school (local non-flagship university, liberal arts college, etc.), so long as the courses are undergraduate level?
      
   4. How critical is a high MCAT score in this context?

My sincere thanks in advance for your time and counsel! Tagging in
@gyngyn , @DrMidlife , @gonnif , @Catalystik on this post.

 

[gyngyn]

1. The best remedy for an uneven performance is a recent sustained period of academic excellence. That will demonstrate that whatever was wrong before is right now. You never have to give a diagnosis although you certainly may if it is an important part of your story.

2. As long as your MCAT is in the target range for the schools to which you apply (and you apply to a sufficient number), you should make it through the screening process. Is 3.5 your current AMCAS gpa including the community college grades?

 

[Parallax]

1. The best remedy for an uneven performance is a recent sustained period of academic excellence. That will demonstrate that whatever was wrong before is right now. You never have to give a diagnosis although you certainly may if it is an important part of your story.

2. As long as your MCAT is in the target range for the schools to which you apply (and you apply to a sufficient number), you should make it through the screening process. Is 3.5 your current AMCAS gpa including the community college grades?

1. Could you elaborate on how you would define sustained academic excellence? Assuming that I averaged a 3.7+ from here on out, would you say 3 undergrad science classes and 2 non-science classes per semester for 2 consecutive semesters provide sufficient/appropriate evidence to reassure adcoms? Is sustaning a courseload (# consecutive semesters) more important than intensity (# credits/semester)?

My science prereqs/repeats are from 5-10 years ago and my memory of course content is limited. Would repeating the prereqs at a university be acceptable given the elapsed time or would repeats be viewed as less convincing evidence of academic ability versus new upper level science coursework?

2. The 3.5/3.6 AMCAS cGPA/BCPM covers all classes including the community college coursework. I did take statistics, epidemiology, exercise physiology, and a pathophysiology class at university for A grades with a full courseload although my understanding is that these don't really "count" when discussing upper level sciences intended for grade repair.

 

[gyngyn]

1. A year of A's, more or less would do it. Repeating old (esp bad scores) courses is acceptable.
2. That gpa is good enough for many public schools (depending on the state) and all DO schools.

 

[Parallax]

1. A year of A's, more or less would do it. Repeating old (esp bad scores) courses is acceptable.
2. That gpa is good enough for many public schools (depending on the state) and all DO schools.

Thank you so much for your responses, this is very helpful!

Would you question the rigor of the coursework if it was taken at a small local liberal arts college versus returning to my large flagship state university? I'd prefer smaller classes and more 1:1 time with professors if possible but not if it would detract from the academic redemption message I'm trying to project. I'm guessing this is where the MCAT score might come into play as an equalizer?

 

[gyngyn]

Thank you so much for your responses, this is very helpful!

Would you question the rigor of the coursework if it was taken at a small local liberal arts college versus returning to my large flagship state university? I'd prefer smaller classes and more 1:1 time with professors if possible but not if it would detract from the academic redemption message I'm trying to project. I'm guessing this is where the MCAT score might come into play as an equalizer?

Not at all.

 

[Parallax]

Not at all.

Fantastic, thank you so much!

Do you have any thoughts on science masters/graduate programs attached to a medical school for the purposes of networking and maybe taking a medical school course to prove competency? I know that this wouldn't help my GPA per se but seems to be an option that advisors like to suggest for individuals in my GPA range.

 

[gyngyn]

Fantastic, thank you so much!

Do you have any thoughts on science masters/graduate programs attached to a medical school for the purposes of networking and maybe taking a medical school course to prove competency? I know that this wouldn't help my GPA per se but seems to be an option that advisors like to suggest for individuals in my GPA range.

I don't have much experience with these programs, sorry.

 

[Parallax]

I don't have much experience with these programs, sorry.

I appreciate you taking the time to respond to all my questions--thank you so much for your help! 😀