I'm a Cosby kid, one of my parents is a physician. I've vacillated on whether or not I was going to medical school for years. Like many stories I've read I've been all around the world with figuring our my career and always end back up at medicine. Started undergrad as a chemistry major due to some personal circumstances beyond my control I was academically dismissed, but who cares that was freshmen year. I bounced back and graduated summa cum laude, but I changed my major. Went to law school because that was the bourgeoisie thing to do, I received a scholarship, but it wasn't what I wanted to do. Played in law school and was dismissed for my 2.9. Although as I have aged an matured that was a bad decision I hated it and my lack of effort was the proof in the pudding, but hey telling someone I was in law school at said school was in vogue. I digress about my immaturity. I moved on completed a masters degree in my UG field and have been working in the field but I'm totally unhappy and regretting every dca ion I made in UG not to stick with chemistry pre-med and go to medical school. I'm great at math and science and always have been. After long talks with my mother and some soul searching I've decided to take my last opportunity to make the best decision and go to medical school, FINALLY! Needless to say I will need to attend a post-back program app deadline is March 1. I am just a bit concerned about how they and a medial school will look at my 1st UG setback and the the law school catastrophe.Background - Cosby kid who worked in mom's office from 16- UG, worked in her colleagues offices, volunteered at the HOspital, and even was allowed to scrub in and watch many surgeries; who comes from a family of physicians. Any advice? By the way I'm grown, only use cosbykid as a joke because my friends and I always called ourselves this, not looking for jovial comments.
This CosbyKid needs some advice...
- Thread starter CosbyKid
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Hi CK. I want to make a few comments on 3 aspects of you post.
1 - Academics - This could be a tough one. You've been in 4 programs, and were dismissed from 2 of them. The summa cum laude will definitely help. Hopefully you had a strong GPA in your masters program. From this point on, do your best to get as close A's as possible to all A's. If you feel there were personal reasons for past poor performance, do what you can do remove those barriers. In addition, you probably will need to apply to a large number of medical schools, to hedge against those programs that won't look beyond your past challenges. Most people apply to about 12 programs. You may need to apply to twice that, or even more.
2 - Post-Bacc Work - It sounds like you're looking into formal post-bacc programs. That's fine, especially if the program has a direct link to a medical school. But you might also want to consider taking classes as a non-degree-seeking student as any decent 4-year university. This second option is often cheaper, and will be more flexible.
3 - Extracurricular - The shadowing and volunteering you've done is fine. But I think you have an opportunity here to improve your standing in 2 ways. First, everyone who applies to medical school has volunteer experiences similar to yours. Over-and-above this, what have you done to demonstrate that you are committed to helping others, and to demonstrate your are empathetic and compassionate? This can be in the context of healthcare or in any aspect of your life. Second, what have you done to demonstrate that you have a spirit of excellence? This can be in music, sports, work, research, community leadership, or anything else.
Best of luck.
1 - Academics - This could be a tough one. You've been in 4 programs, and were dismissed from 2 of them. The summa cum laude will definitely help. Hopefully you had a strong GPA in your masters program. From this point on, do your best to get as close A's as possible to all A's. If you feel there were personal reasons for past poor performance, do what you can do remove those barriers. In addition, you probably will need to apply to a large number of medical schools, to hedge against those programs that won't look beyond your past challenges. Most people apply to about 12 programs. You may need to apply to twice that, or even more.
2 - Post-Bacc Work - It sounds like you're looking into formal post-bacc programs. That's fine, especially if the program has a direct link to a medical school. But you might also want to consider taking classes as a non-degree-seeking student as any decent 4-year university. This second option is often cheaper, and will be more flexible.
3 - Extracurricular - The shadowing and volunteering you've done is fine. But I think you have an opportunity here to improve your standing in 2 ways. First, everyone who applies to medical school has volunteer experiences similar to yours. Over-and-above this, what have you done to demonstrate that you are committed to helping others, and to demonstrate your are empathetic and compassionate? This can be in the context of healthcare or in any aspect of your life. Second, what have you done to demonstrate that you have a spirit of excellence? This can be in music, sports, work, research, community leadership, or anything else.
Best of luck.
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Strongly concur. You will need to ace your post-bac and the MCAT to show AdComs that this isn't yet another detour while you figure out what you want to do with your life, or that you like being a professional student.
