Those who have been there....ADVICE?

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Ms.DNA

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Hi! I'm trying to decide where I should spend my energy (I have been feeling like I'm spreading myself way too thin and need to regroup!) I'm 25 year old female, currently working in a molecular oncology lab (last 2 1/2 years). A year ago I decided that medicine is what I want and where I belong, and so with my undergraduate degree in Bio and Women's Studies, I revisited my pre-medical department at Boston College and professed my need to be an Osteopathic Physician. They said, up your GPA, get more health care related experience, shadow a DO, and score high on the MCATs. One year later I have taken three graduate level science classes at Harvard (B+, A-, B+), started volunteering at the observation unit in a Boston hospital and have taken the August MCAT's (V 9, P 7, B 9, Q). My undergraduate GPA is overall a 3.3 and just sciences 2.89 (ug). My GPA for my graduate classes are around a 3.35. I have plenty of volunteer work (Battered Women's Shelter advocate) and worked my sophomore summer in the OR as a medical assistant?but I still need to shadow a DO and look for strong reccomendations from science professors who don't know me.
Here is the question. How does my profile look so far? I really want to apply this coming cycle to DO schools but feel I need to up the 7 on the Physical section of the MCATs and get my GPA higher. Where should I spend my energy, which is very limited after a 50 hour week in the lab, class at night on Thursday and volunteering in the hospital on Tuesdays? Has anyone received acceptance to DO schools with these stats? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I wish everyone out there the best of luck. This profession is absolutely wonderful and I'm sure all of you will make fabulous doctors. Don't give up. If your heart and soul are in it?.the world will see your passion.

Ms. DNA

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You did well in your three "graduate-level science classes" at Harvard, but what were they in? I think your MCAT is competitive, but your science GPA and your overall could use some work, and you're on the right track with those science classes.

What you should do is take a course in a physical science and show your stuff. What could qualify? Any higher level physics course, higher level chemistry course, a mathematics course higher than standard premed calculus and multivariate calculus, like ordinary or partial differential equations.

Your profile sounds good, but make it better: find a DO and up your science GPA with a PHYSICAL SCIENCE course. If those three science classes were in disciplines connected with your work in an onco lab (molecular genetics, immunology, etc.), you may benefit A LOT MORE from taking chemistry or physics classes.


Tim of New York City.
 
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