Take more classes or focus on volunteering; Non-trad

[uphillBattle]

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Background:

23 yr old ORM engineering and business major from a top public university. Upward grade trend starting second semester junior year. Taking classes while I work right now. Decided on med school VERY late i.e. after graduating and doing damage control right now.

3.39 cGPA 3.34 sGPA.
34S (13 PS 11 VR 10 BS)

NonMed Activities:
- Full time work in a global firm (multi million dollar client project, blah blah)
- Film making: A short film that I made earlier won two awards at my campus
- Part of two committees at my workplace.

Leadership:
- President of an engineering club for 1 year - college
- Vice President of a cultural club for 1 year - college

Volunteering
- 1.5 years volunteering at a homeless shelter my sophomore/junior year of college. I did this for fun without really considering it for med school.
- ER volunteering - present
- Shadowing - starting soon
- Homeless shelter - starting soon

Research
- 1.5 years in a biotech lab and coauthor on an abstract which will be presented at a conference this January.

LORs
- 1 english professor who I'm close with i.e. still get lunch every few months
- Upper division Immunology professor whose class I took while working over the summer. Drop by her office every few months.
- Research lab. I still grab lunch with the PhDs and stay in touch with the lab members.
- Upper Division Microbiology professor whose class I took this sem. Expressed enthusiasm at writing a letter for me.
- 2 other professors from my classes agreed to write one but I personally feel I didn't interact with them enough. They're very friendly and nice though so considering simply asking them.

Addendum: Excluding the upper div bio classes and the current volunteering, this was my background as of June 2012.

I added on the volunteering recently and I took classes the last couple months:

Summer:
Immunology - 3 units upper division

Fall Semester:
Microbiology - 3 units upper division
Pharmacology - 2 units upper division
Infections Diseases - 2 units upper division

My plan for the spring was to focus solely on beefing up my hospital work, get shadowing experience and start volunteering at this other homeless shelter.

Question: I know those aren't many courses but at this point, taking courses won't raise my GPA by very much; maybe .02. Instead I wanted to focus on my ECs. Thoughts?

Appreciate the advice.

 

[ShenanigansMD]

Engineer in application cycle, similar mcat/GPA (yeah engineering sucks for GPA unfortunately), hear me out:

Get going on that volunteering you're starting in the ER and other things, it will add a lot to your app b/c engineers generally don't have a lot of time for that kind of thing, and its really hard to squeeze it in unless you got a good schedule going. Also, if you don't have any volunteer experiences (especially clinical stuff) to discuss during interviews, you'll get a couple awkward moments.

By all means try to improve your science GPA, but ec's are really important.

 

[Josh7]

Engineer in application cycle, similar mcat/GPA (yeah engineering sucks for GPA unfortunately), hear me out:

Get going on that volunteering you're starting in the ER and other things, it well add a lot to your app b/c engineers generally don't have a lot of time for that kind of thing, and its really hard to squeeze it in unless you got a good schedule going. Also, if you don't have any volunteer experiences (especially clinical stuff) to discuss during interviews, you'll get a couple awkward moments.

By all means try to improve your science GPA, but ec's are really important.

Agreed. At least engineering experiences could be an interesting point to touch in during interviews.

 

[uphillBattle]

Engineer in application cycle, similar mcat/GPA (yeah engineering sucks for GPA unfortunately)

It was mainly because of me being extraordinarily lazy and not having a long term vision but yes, engineering unfortunately doesn't allow for such lapses in judgement. Lower division courses were mind numbingly boring as well. Maybe that had something to do with it.

Agreed. At least engineering experiences could be an interesting point to touch in during interviews.

Yes. At this point, I've maintained an upward grade trend for about 2 yrs. No masters classes, just straight upper div major courses. I just talked with someone at women/children homeless shelter and I am eager to get that started. I really enjoy working with kids so I feel like just racking up those hours would be my best bet at this point.

 

[FSU2013]

Try not to be intimidated by the people on here. Your GPA is a little on the low side (although still probably in the middle 50% of a lot of schools), but your mcat is excellent, you had a tough major at a presumably strong school with lots of good other stuff in your app. It sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. Do what you want to do - if you want to take more classes, do that; if you want to volunteer more, do that. You'll do better in the things you enjoy more. Just don't sit on your hands and miss an opportunity to improve your app.

Apply broadly and to schools at which you'll be competitive. Good luck.

 

[uphillBattle]

Try not to be intimidated by the people on here. Your GPA is a little on the low side (although still probably in the middle 50% of a lot of schools), but your mcat is excellent, you had a tough major at a presumably strong school with lots of good other stuff in your app. It sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. Do what you want to do - if you want to take more classes, do that; if you want to volunteer more, do that. You'll do better in the things you enjoy more. Just don't sit on your hands and miss an opportunity to improve your app.

Apply broadly and to schools at which you'll be competitive. Good luck.

Definitely. Thanks for the advice. As you mentioned my GPA is pretty sad and taking classes won't fix it that much. I feel like in order to differentiate myself I should probably beef up my application.

I really enjoy working and interacting with children so I'm thinking about working at a women/children's shelter in addition to ER.

It's tough but I'll tackle it bit by bit.

 

[uphillBattle]

Figured I should post a little extra information here so people know where I stand:

cGPA:

Semester by semester:
1 (3 classes - 12 units): 3.9
2 (5 classes - 17 units): 3.029
Summer (3 classes - 12 units): 2.67
3 (5 classes - 17 units): 2.72
4 (4 classes - 15 units): 3.22
5 (4 classes - 15 units): 3.33 - upper division heavy
6 (4 classes -14 units): 3.43 - upper division heavy
7 (5 classes - 18 units): 3.78 - upper division heavy
8 (4 classes - 16 units): 3.68 - upper division heavy
9 (4 classes - 15 units): 3.9 - upper division heavy


sGPA - BCPM
1 (3 classes - 12 units): 3.9
2 (4 classes - 13 units): 2.946
Summer (2 classes - 8 units): 2.350
3 (4 classes - 13 units): 2.638
4 (3 classes - 11 units): 3.19
5 (3 classes - 12 units): 3.33
6 (4 classes -14 units): 3.43 - upper division heavy
7 (4 classes - 14 units): 3.714 - upper division heavy
8 (3 classes - 12 units): 3.566 - upper division heavy
9 (3 classes - 11 units): 3.9 - upper division heavy
Graduation
Summer 2012 (1 class - 3 units): 4.0 - upper division heavy
Fall 2012 (3 classes - 7 units): Estimated ~ 4.0 - upper division heavy

I included a couple Economics upper division courses which were math heavy.