Background: I come from a divorced family with a long history of drug/alcohol abuse and mental illness. I have battled with those issues throughout high school and 2 years afterward leading to not starting college until I was 20. I had a terrible year at a CC college (GPA 1.9). Applied to a private Christian University and was accepted on a probationary basis (take a study strategies class). I just finished my first year there and I am 22 and have a 2.59GPA as of right now due to a serious back injury that required surgery and was physically unable to attend classes a lot of the time. I'm currently taking summer classes and am on track to complete with a 3.9-4.0 for this semester. I was coming to this school to pursue nursing because I had no support for pre-med and no I wish to no longer pursue nursing. I am considering PA school. Here are some questions I have;
1. The neighboring, highly ranked, private Christian university has a pre-med program and are willing to accept me this fall. I'm worried that going to so many different schools is going to look bad on any application. All of my credits will transfer and I would be retaking only 2 classes at this university to show that I am competent enough to successfully pass the class. This would give me an opportunity to truly show that I can maintain a high GPA. Is this a good idea?
2. Should I stay at my current school and attempt to raise my GPA? Calculating it all out, if I maintained a 4.0 GPA going forward, I would have around a 3.5 when I graduate with a B.S
3. With the horrible 2 year start should I cut my loses at getting into any MD/DO school? I'm extremely dedicated and have the drive to do this as caring for people is my passion and I know I'm intelligent enough to get through the program if I get my butt into gear.
Here's some of my background regarding my medical interests and other things I would put on an MD/DO application:
-5 years worked as a PCA (~5000 hours). 6 months has Med Tech at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation (1000 hours). 1 year as an imaging assistant in Radiology. Right now I am being hired for a Med. Scribe position at my hospital. I also have an EMT license.
-Shadow an IR Doc 1-3 times per month. I have shadowing experiences set up with my Neuro Surgeon and Neuro PA. Interested in looking at ED as well.
-About 100 hours~ research this year for a Micro poster. I am a part of a research group for first gen. Christians and their college experiences and this will be published. I have plenty of more research opportunities at my current school and other school I'm accepted to as I have about 1.5 years left of school.
-Involved in Campus outreach. Mission trip to Alaska over spring break this year assisting with homeless and orphans. I have many more opportunities to do these missions trips again. Also involved with tutoring underprivileged kids, mostly somalians, several times per month. Typical FMSC that I've done countless times with my church and resident hall at my current school.
I'm just wondering if I would be able to consider this as an option in the future if I were to improve my GPA, do more research and volunteering opportunities and score well on the MCAT (I would begin studying for this soon). I did extremely well in high school and was always in honors/AP classes but got caught up in drugs and alcohol for several years. I come from a single family home and my mom makes about 38k/year and I'm the first person in our immediate family to even attempt college. I'm looking for extremely honest advice and opinions on this. I'm willing to answer any questions you may have. I know this is asking for advice pending my GPA for the next 3-4 semesters but I would like to know if I even have a chance given my history at this point.
1. The neighboring, highly ranked, private Christian university has a pre-med program and are willing to accept me this fall. I'm worried that going to so many different schools is going to look bad on any application. All of my credits will transfer and I would be retaking only 2 classes at this university to show that I am competent enough to successfully pass the class. This would give me an opportunity to truly show that I can maintain a high GPA. Is this a good idea?
2. Should I stay at my current school and attempt to raise my GPA? Calculating it all out, if I maintained a 4.0 GPA going forward, I would have around a 3.5 when I graduate with a B.S
3. With the horrible 2 year start should I cut my loses at getting into any MD/DO school? I'm extremely dedicated and have the drive to do this as caring for people is my passion and I know I'm intelligent enough to get through the program if I get my butt into gear.
Here's some of my background regarding my medical interests and other things I would put on an MD/DO application:
-5 years worked as a PCA (~5000 hours). 6 months has Med Tech at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation (1000 hours). 1 year as an imaging assistant in Radiology. Right now I am being hired for a Med. Scribe position at my hospital. I also have an EMT license.
-Shadow an IR Doc 1-3 times per month. I have shadowing experiences set up with my Neuro Surgeon and Neuro PA. Interested in looking at ED as well.
-About 100 hours~ research this year for a Micro poster. I am a part of a research group for first gen. Christians and their college experiences and this will be published. I have plenty of more research opportunities at my current school and other school I'm accepted to as I have about 1.5 years left of school.
-Involved in Campus outreach. Mission trip to Alaska over spring break this year assisting with homeless and orphans. I have many more opportunities to do these missions trips again. Also involved with tutoring underprivileged kids, mostly somalians, several times per month. Typical FMSC that I've done countless times with my church and resident hall at my current school.
I'm just wondering if I would be able to consider this as an option in the future if I were to improve my GPA, do more research and volunteering opportunities and score well on the MCAT (I would begin studying for this soon). I did extremely well in high school and was always in honors/AP classes but got caught up in drugs and alcohol for several years. I come from a single family home and my mom makes about 38k/year and I'm the first person in our immediate family to even attempt college. I'm looking for extremely honest advice and opinions on this. I'm willing to answer any questions you may have. I know this is asking for advice pending my GPA for the next 3-4 semesters but I would like to know if I even have a chance given my history at this point.
