So now that I know what not to do...

[lackadaisical14]

Alrighty,
So I'd like to gripe about my current situation for a few paragraphs then have you wonderful people shower me with your knowledge and opinions.

To be perfectly honest here, I f***ed around a good deal in undergrad with the vague notion that I may want to pursue medicine, mostly because I couldn't think of anything else I felt like doing at the time… and now reality has fallen upon me as a hawk would a field mouse.

3.48 overall ~3.3 science

Microbiology major with minors in bioeng and chemistry

34 mcat PS: 10 VR: 10 BS: 14
(I should be able to improve this if need be, I hadn't scored below a 37 in practice tests since completing a review. However, in another stroke of genius, after breaking up with my girlfriend the night before my mcat I lost most of my nerve and proceeded to drink in the parking lot before entering the testing facility)

Little clinical experience to speak of, spare a few days of shadowing, maybe 50 hours of ER volunteering and a week in Haiti on a medical mission trip which I just returned from (an experience I highly recommend).

I took a year off (bad idea) with some inane expectation that I would be lavished with opportunities for research positions, although I did only about a semester and a half of research. Fittingly, I currently work at gym in a country club as a professional sycophant.

I applied for the fall of 2010, only to MD programs, and only sent secondaries to 4 MD programs in Florida… and at that, sent them on January 15th (the due date). So, not holding my breath on this cycle.

To make a long story short, I've woken up within the last month or so and realized that I'm in a horrible situation, and I really do want to pursue a career in medicine, preferably in reconstructive plastic surgery. Is there any chance I could transition from a Caribbean med school (say Saba) to a residency in plastics?

If not, I guess I'll probably return to school to get a masters, though I've got no idea what exactly in what subject. Public Health? I'm pretty open to suggestions at this point.

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[JJMrK]

34 is a very good score; no need to retake that.

A masters will not improve your undergrad GPA, which is what needs to be fixed. It sounds like you also need more clinical volunteering. I'd try to get around 100-150 hours done in the ER.

 

[Catalystik]

You have a sense of humor and a belated sense of perspective and reality, so all is not lost:

I'd suggest you get about another year of clinical experience to be taken seriously at US schools. The abroad medical volunteerism would be frosting on the cake, but there's no solid US-based experience to put the frosting on just yet. I'd get involved in some nonmedical community service, too, and rise through the ranks to a leadership position over the next year. If you could work in teaching/coaching/mentoring (perhaps via nonmedical community service) that would be viewed well. The shadowing could use some augmentation by following two other specialties of which one is in primary care. The research is fine.

The MCAT is great and I wouldn't mess with that score. A traditional masters won't help you at all, as the GPA would not redeem your low undergrad GPA (except perhaps at UCF if it's in a hard science). Rather, I'd take more undergrad classes in an unofficial post bac in upper-level science to raise your BCPM GPA and incidently, your cGPA too, getting straight As so you have a steep upward trend in academics.

Saba is a bad idea considering the high attrition rate and relatively low residency match rate to a US program. We won't even discuss the unlikelihood of getting into an extremely competitive plastics program when you'd be lucky to match into Family Medicine.

You're not in a really bad postion, but you're going to have to work to get where you need to be. I really think you can pull this out of the basket, but not this year, and not without the improvements outlined.