I realize that this was posted several months ago, but I thought a few points might be helpful. I should mention at the outset that I'm an attorney in the process of applying to post-bacc programs; but with a very low uGPA from many years ago, I've done a lot of research into medical school admissions before embarking on my course. So, with that caveat...
First, your question is framed wrong. This isn't about "surrendering." This is about deciding on a course of action that will add to a sense of happiness and meaning in your life. Your question assumes at the outset that to discover you should pursue a non MD/DO path would be, in some sense, catastrophic. The assumption is faulty.
I've broken this down into three sections:
-Re-assess your thinking about careers.
-UNDERSTAND why you have not achieved your goals academically. Is this something that can be remedied?
-Evaluate the suggestions offered in these postings.
Re-Assessment
Before anything else, you need to take stock. Why do you want to be a doctor? Have you fallen into the "either I'm a doctor or I'm nothing" way of thinking? It's not true. Come up with a list of careers that you think can be fulfilling. Flesh it out. For each item, write WHY you think it would be fulfilling. Ask yourself 1) what will be enjoyable about it, 2) what will be meaningful about it, and 3) in what way will it utilize your strengths?
There are some books on positive psychology (not the pop self-help books we see so many of; positive psychology is an evolving, respected branch of psychology, one of the chief proponents of which is a former President of the APA, which relies on scientific evidence for its theories and prescriptions) that you should look into. Martin Seligman is a good author to start with. You should find the research highly useful in formulating a list of options, and in escaping the "doctor or nothing" thinking that I suspect you've fallen into.
Understanding
Why didn't you perform better in the SMP? Was it a lack of available time? Was the material simply too difficult? What were your study habits? How many hours per week did you devote to study? HOW did you study? Did you use flashcards, paste sticky-notes around the house, recite certain facts and theories daily back to yourself?
Approach this scientifically. Observation: you scored x, y, z... in your SMP, leading to a 2.88. What explains this?
This is important. If you don't understand why, then your performance will not improve. Your understanding here will lead to improvement in any future academic/learning endeavor, whether in the medical field or elsewhere.
Once you understand, ask yourself whether adjustments can be made that will result in improved performance. Test your conclusions. For instance, take some non-credit courses at a local college, applying your adjustments. Has your performance improved? If so, by how much?
Evaluation
Okay, now about the simple chances of admission to med school and the advice offered in this thread:
1. The MCAT option. Adcoms are using your grades and MCATs to determine your likely range of success both within the medical school curriculum and on the Steps. The MCAT is actually the better predictor of performance on the Steps than your uGPA, all else being equal. Bringing up your MCAT will indicate to the adcoms that you are capable of making improvements, and are capable of scoring well on the Steps.
But their concern will be that you will not be able to perform satisfactorily in the medical school, and a higher MCAT will not by itself alleviate that concern, especially given a now lengthy academic record with recent performance stats for med-specific courses.
So the MCAT option is not the answer. It will help, certainly, and improving it should be part of any plan for re-application.
2. The uGPA Option. Improving this will take a very long time. How long depends on the numbers. Crunch them. Do the math. You should understand that more recent grades will be probably be weighted more heavily than less recent grades, so a simple averaging will likely result in an over-estimation of the time to correct the uGPA. A substantial number of recent uGPA credits in classes of reasonable difficulty and with high grades will help you beyond the effect on the simple, non-weighted, average uGPA.
Doing this would show that you can change your work/study habits, and improve. It indicates increased likelihood of success in medical school. But there remains the SMP. Since the SMP closely, if not exactly, replicates the med-school curriculum, this is likely a very strong indicator of your future academic performance in med-school (I have not seen any studies on this). Adcoms will weigh this very heavily, in my view.
A possible option to address the SMP might be to get a masters in a closely related science, performing well in the courses.
If you managed to do all those things: 1) improve your uGPA, 2) obtain a masters in a related science with a strong GPA, 3) improve your MCATS, and finally
4) use all three as evidence to persuasively explain why your previous record is misleading as to your chances of success in medical school, e.g. "Before I was doing x,y,z wrong, due to a,b,c. I figured out what was wrong, and fixed them. As a result I have now been able to do 1, 2, and 3."
Conclusion
So, you're going to need to do some real introspection about your reasons for being attracted to the MD/DO route (is it a healthy attraction, or a fling with a dubious stranger that has gotten out of hand), using the research produced by positive psychology to guide yourself; you're going to need to understand why your academic record stands as it does, and what adjustments would be necessary to change the performance (and HOW and AT WHAT COST will those adjustments be attained); you're going to need to crunch the numbers and see how much time it would take to persuade adcoms that your old record is no longer a good indicator of future performance.
And after all that, you can decide what to do.
The good news is that there is never just one career option that is "best" for anyone. You're going to come out of this well, and with options, regardless of the verdict you give to the MD/DO route.
with your decision!
