Some advice

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DesiMDHopeful

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Hey guys Im a new poster to this board after spending some time lurking. Anyways...I am in need of some advice. I just recently graduated from a pretty good school with a BS in Molecular Biology. My MCAT was a 26 and my GPA a 3.3. I applied to med school for the Fall 2001 but did not get an interview anywhere :-(. I am now looking at backup plans which primarily consist of masters programs. So far I have gotten into the MSP program at MCP Hahnemahn but this program lasts two years with the first yera being spent taking grad level courses and goign thru intense MCAT review. You then take teh MCAT during the spring of that year and if you get a 27 or higher you move onto the IMS program in whcih you take med school classes. A "B" or better average in IMS guarantees an interview at MCP. The other program I am now looking at is at Chicago Med school...program for an MS in Medical Imaging. The people that get into this program, I am told, are pretty much granted an interview at Chicago Med adn then if they do well in the program are accepted in to the school. In the spring qtr here you also take med school courses which gives you a chance to show you can handle the coursework. My dilemma is that if I do the Chicago program, I dont want to put all my eggs in one basket and I'd like to also apply elsewhere and I woudl also retake the MCAT this summer. That being the case Id be counting on the fact that an improved MCAT and a year in this program will help me get in. If I do the MCP one, I have a full year of hopefully improvement in both coursework and MCAT under my belt before reapplying for Fall 2004 (and during Fall 2003 year Id be taking med school courses). The important thign is I dont want to be in this same situation a year from now if I do the Chicago thing. Any advice?

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just also want to add that since applying last summer, my GPA has risen and also Ive added some honors to my record. So if I were to reapply I woudl do so with those two factors as new things, plus I guess my initial coursework from Chicago...
 
I would just like to state that you could probably very easily increase your MCAT score by a point. The one program requires a 27, no?
 
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DesiMD,

I am currently in the IMS program here. Just so you know, the MSP is usually for those who did not complete their undergrad premed requirements. There is another program called MMS...you do the IMS thing with med school classes for a year and you do research for another year. I have to say the med school admissions process at MCP Hahnemann sucks big time. 22 of the 90 IMS students got Bs or better in all classes and were offered interviews this year. After the guaranteed interview in early Feb they have finally heard from the Adcom this week (June 4th!!). Most were waitlisted, very few accepted (its weird that they only offered acceptances to those they knew would be attending school elsewhere for sure), and half rejected (even the ones who were ranked 1 and 2nd). I am not even kidding. Call the IMS office and ask them for stats before you decide.
 
Oh wow...those numbers are not good at all. Well the thing is I applied for the IMS and they put me into the MSP pool because of my MCAT score. The unfair thing was that they never really stated there was an MCAT cutoff in any of the info I read before applying to IMS. All the info I read on IMS said that they had a really good placement rate but from what yu say that doesn't sound promising. Thanks for the info...anyone have any more to add to that or any info on Chicago?
 
Hey desiMDhopeful, what's your ethnic background? are u asian?
 
Yes Im Asian..well Indian to be exact.
 
I'm not sure how many time you actually took the mcat, but if it's only once or even twice, I would highly reccomend you retake it and reapply. Spend your time off doing research, some in-depth clinical experience and/or more classes. These alternatives are really shady. They tend not to take students into their schools after they've been through the program. I ran into some people when I was interviewing who did the post-bacc pre-med program at UCSF. They said that none of the people in this program were even offered an interview at UCSF. They were interviewing at some good schools so I suspect that their stats were not bad. Surprising, huh? On the other hand, I heard that UCI has a really good post-bacc program and a lot of these students are actually accepted to UCI. (sorry a lot of my advice is about CA, but I really think you should try to strngthen your app and reapply.)
 
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