Medical Should I just change careers?

[Raryn]

Hello,
I am a non-traditional applicant as a I am 27 with a master's degree but a terrible undergrad GPA. I am a Cuban American female who has the desire to start my own non-profit health clinic for Hispanic immigrants, mainly those who's documentation status may keep them from seeking medical assistance. I feel this would be my way to give back to the community that helped me, supported me, and cheered me on my entire life even when times were tough. I can remember most of my life my parents didn't have health insurance and the only reason I did was because I qualified for Medicaid. My parents came to this country with nothing to our names, as refugees, to live in a stranger's home who gave us asylum and have worked their entire life to put me and my sibling through school. Through most of the life my parents didn't go to the doctor themselves, unless absolutely necessary, because we couldn't afford it and less in the early years of my dad's business. He and my mom are now self employed with a successful, thriving heating and air business. I have been the translator for them my entire life and helped them achieve this dream as well as helped them obtain their citizenship (as well as my own) when I was in high school. When I was home one breaks I was working for the business and helping my siblings with applications to early college, homework, and later university.

But I made some mistakes in undergrad, I was involved in an abusive relationship (I'll spare you the details) that landed me in with a 2.1 undergrad GPA when I left that relationship. I finally decided I had enough my rising junior year and left and steadily worked towards "reinventing" myself because med school has always been my goal. I brought my GPA up to a 2.8 and knew that wouldn't be enough so I decided to do a master's degree. After I graduated undergrad I was accepted to my master's program in Biology where I gained so much experience, made connections, and even given multiple poster talks and even a podium talk at the largest immunology conference hosted by the American Association of Immunologists. I took the MCAT while running my lab, teaching undergraduate students as a TA, writing my thesis, and trying to publish my manuscript. I didn't score as well as I wanted and scored a 497 but I still decided to apply to see what would happen and I got an interview and then ultimately I was waitlisted and not offered a spot. After completing my master's degree I decided to take a gap year and started a position as a Research Tech at Duke Human Vaccine Institute and I decided the best course of action was to retake the MCAT while working to publish my manuscript. Then the pandemic hit and my MCAT was rescheduled multiple times and I finally was able to take it in July 2020. in that time my manuscript was accepted into Malaria Journal with me as the first author. I ended up scoring 6 points higher on the MCAT (503) which still isn't amazing but I felt accomplished in scoring it while working 40 hours a week and trying to publish during a global pandemic. I then decided I wasn't happy at Duke as it was an industry based job and I missed research. Thus, I left and applied to UNC Chapel Hill's Gillings School of Public Health where I work for a recognized coronavirus lab doing dengue chimeric vaccine research. I will soon be co-writing a paper on our potential dengue vaccine for publication in the next couple of months while starting a project mapping antibody interactions with dengue epitopes. I have applied to 17 D.O. schools and 2 M.D. schools and submitted 8 secondary applications. I was feeling pretty hopeful, but it is mid Feb and I haven't gotten a single interview so I am a bit deflated. Should I bother applying again (third time) or should I just pursue a PhD as I love research and I just don't feel I can do much else to impress medical schools? I need someone else's perspective as I am feeling a bit lost. Thank you in advance for reading my condensed life story and for giving me your advice.

At this point, you have an undergrad GPA of 2.8 and an MCAT score of 503. Otherwise, you have reasonably good extracurriculars. I'll be honest - it's not impossible for someone with those statistics to get in a US MD granting institution, but the odds are low. AAMC data for someone with those statistics show that 129 people got in between the 2018 and 2020 cycles, or about 40 people per year. In the country. Total acceptance rate of about 17%.

Could you get in later this cycle? Or with a third application? Maybe. But the odds aren't good - I don't have ready access to similar data for DOs, but that undergrad GPA is well below the average there too. If you really wanted to be a physician there's also the option of Caribbean/Mexican schools - but that's also a huge gamble, given that a huge proportion of those students end up in debt and either don't graduate or don't match.

It's your decision what to do as a potential alternative. PhD is an option if you did well in your masters. Most alternative health careers that require postgraduate training would also be difficult given your GPA.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I agree with above... your ECs are good, so it was worth a shot. But at this point, you've received a clear answer to whether you are competitive to the schools that you applied to this year.

This leaves you two options: improve your stats, or (possibly) lower your school standards. A post-bacc where you show a full year of 4.0 grades would do wonders to show that you're no longer the person who got a 2.8, but it's probably hard to do that while working full time; alternately a stronger MCAT would help, but it's hard to recommend a second re-take when you already raised your score by 6 points and again you're working full time. Not sure if broadening your DO school list would help, but you could try that. If you're not going to change your stats, I struggle to imagine that you will get any love from the schools you applied to this year.

 

[Goro]

Read this:

• Goro's advice for pre-meds who need reinvention

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Personally, I think the best route for you would be to do a year post-bac, and then reapply to DO schools. With that MCAT, the chance of you getting into MD is so low I don’t think it’s worth the cost of the apps.

I think with a good post-bac (3.8+) and your 503, you would get interviews at DO schools if you applied broadly.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

THANK YOU! I work for UNC and am going to give them a call about trying to continue education there and take some of these classes In your opinion, would they look down on me for only taking 1 or 2 classes per semester? I work full time and can't afford not to sadly

Do what you can. The more courses the better but you wanna make sure you get A in them.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I am hoping in all of your interactions that you have identified and maintained a relationship with strong mentors. I also wanted to be sure you had connections with LMSA and the National Hispanic Medical Association.