So if I don't get into med school, now what?

[calinator]

Hi, I was wondering what people's opinions are about what to do if you don't get into med school the first time around. My cGPA is 3.55, sGPA 3.37 from Northwestern Univ., MCAT is 31p (10b, 10p, 11v). EC's are okay (doing AmeriCorps for a year, some other volunteer experience, some clinical experience, lots of research experience, lots of leadership stuff) and good recs. Oh, and I have residence in MA.

Outside of doing DO, if I don't end up getting into an MD school, what would people suggest I do to help myself for re-applying later? Re-take MCAT? Post-bac? SMP? Clinical research? Another career?

I know some of you like to see, so here are the MD schools I applied to:

Umass
Tufts
BU
SUNY Buffalo (sister goes there)
NYMC
Albany Med Col
Temple
Drexel
Jefferson
GW
VCU
Ros Franklin
Loyola
St. Louis
Tulane

Thanks guys. I appreciate your brute honesty.

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[muhali3]

I'd suggest SMP, but maybe postbacc if you can increase your GPA by 0.1 or more in 30 credits. The only below average part about your app is your GPA. Everything else is good, and it seems like you will get in this cycle if you applied early and don't have a 5hitty PS/Interview.

 

[LXS17]

how about adding a few more schools? My stats were a bit better than yours. Last cycle, i applied-pretty late, Sept-Oct-to like 10 schools. I got 4 interviews, waitlisted at 2.

As to answer your question, I agree with muhali3. You might want to raise your sGPA by a bit?

Good luck!

 

[calinator]

oh ok thanks guys. i appreciate the help

 

[Stratego]

Getting a higher MCAT score would be the quickest fix to balance your slightly low cGPA. Another year of (unofficial postbac) upper-level science classes to raise your GPA and BCPM GPA would be choice #2. A year of AmeriCorps is highly regarded by adcomms, and may be all you really need to do to add a significant modifying factor to your application.

 

[calinator]

haha yes I am actually doing AmeriCorps right now!