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Hello everyone. This is a long post, sorry in advance, but I welcome and appreciate all opinions. Recent grad in BS Health Sciences with Public Health Minor. I plan on applying DO entering class 2014, and am scheduled for the MCAT in March studying ~4-8/day. I just want to have other eyes to look at my stats and would like your objective opinions on my chances and how I can improve my application before June. Key concern is low GPA, working on MCAT... Thank you for taking the time to review my post.
Background: I took the majority of my pre-req's at CC and transferred to UC. I graduated with 180 credits including retakes (16 credits). I took several unneeded, but related Science courses due to misinformation by CC counselor regarding med school pre-req's, but that was more my fault for not researching them thoroughly. Currently my AACOMAS cGPA is 3.11 and 3.15 sGPA but retaking 1 science class while studying for MCAT would raise them to 3.19 cGPA and 3.33 sGPA. Dx MCAT at 26 shooting for 30+. Bad grades at 1st CC due to non-focus as I was primary caretaker of sick parent while other parent works to pay bills. After taking a 3 year break from school and working full-time to re-orient myself, I went back to college at 2nd CC. I've worked 20-30 hours/week, and actively involved in numerous ECs while going to school since restarting. I've maintained 3.0+ averages since coming back except for 2 consecutive semesters when I was seriously ill and receiving treatment (couple profs wrote LORs for not doing medical withdrawal and passing courses).
EC & Work Hx:
Nursing Home volunteer: 3 years; various roles and established geriatric health education program ~160 hours
Hospital volunteer: 2 years; Infection control assistant ~80 hours, established after-school wellness education in 3 school districts ~60 hours; featured in newsletter article
CAP agency: 0.5 years; food shelf/ SNAP outreach ~30 hours
Blood drives, fundraisers, 1 summer UG research in level 1 ED, co-founded pre-med org at 2nd CC (president 2 semesters), county public health, etc.
Hospital employee: 4.5 years; Materials 3600+ hours, Pt transporter 650+ hours, ED tech ~160 hours
Shadow Exp: Family Practice (DO) 32 hours; Hospitalist-IM (MD) 20 hours; I watched a lot of procedures and surgeries as a hospital employee, but never as official observer because we don't allow student observations at our hospital after a student supposedly fainted in OR 5+ years ago (weird policy) so those probably don't count???
LORs: 3 science, 1 non-science, 1 DO, 3 MD, 1 community engagement mgr, 1 pt care mgr, 1 RN sup, 1 county h&hs dir, & 2 RN
GPA hx:
1st CC (Overall GPA 1.30):
Year 1: 1.50/2.35
Year 2: 0.00 -Dropped out due to family death- quit everything, stupid I know...
2nd CC (Overall GPA 3.19):
Year 3: 4.00/ 4.00 (summer)/ 3.00
Year 4: 3.42/ 4.00 (summer)/ 2.37
Year 5: 2.46/ 3.55
Year 6: 3.61/ 3.60 (summer)
UC (Overall GPA 3.75):
Year 6: 3.86
Year 7: 3.77/ 3.58 (summer)/ 3.61
Science courses and grades (85% taken at CC with no +/- system):
Env Bio/ Env Sci: B/F (F from 1st CC; retaking now)
Intro Chem/ Chem I/ Chem II: C/B/C
Intro Orgo & Biochem/ Orgo I/ Orgo II/ Biochem: A/A/B/A-
Lower-div Genetics/ Upper-div Genetics: B/A
Human Biology/ Anatomy/ Physiology/ Pathology: A/B/B/A
Gen Bio I/ Gen Bio II/ Microbiology: B/A/B
Physics I/ II: B/B
Lower- div Nutrition/ Upper-div Nutrition: A/A
Background: I took the majority of my pre-req's at CC and transferred to UC. I graduated with 180 credits including retakes (16 credits). I took several unneeded, but related Science courses due to misinformation by CC counselor regarding med school pre-req's, but that was more my fault for not researching them thoroughly. Currently my AACOMAS cGPA is 3.11 and 3.15 sGPA but retaking 1 science class while studying for MCAT would raise them to 3.19 cGPA and 3.33 sGPA. Dx MCAT at 26 shooting for 30+. Bad grades at 1st CC due to non-focus as I was primary caretaker of sick parent while other parent works to pay bills. After taking a 3 year break from school and working full-time to re-orient myself, I went back to college at 2nd CC. I've worked 20-30 hours/week, and actively involved in numerous ECs while going to school since restarting. I've maintained 3.0+ averages since coming back except for 2 consecutive semesters when I was seriously ill and receiving treatment (couple profs wrote LORs for not doing medical withdrawal and passing courses).
EC & Work Hx:
Nursing Home volunteer: 3 years; various roles and established geriatric health education program ~160 hours
Hospital volunteer: 2 years; Infection control assistant ~80 hours, established after-school wellness education in 3 school districts ~60 hours; featured in newsletter article
CAP agency: 0.5 years; food shelf/ SNAP outreach ~30 hours
Blood drives, fundraisers, 1 summer UG research in level 1 ED, co-founded pre-med org at 2nd CC (president 2 semesters), county public health, etc.
Hospital employee: 4.5 years; Materials 3600+ hours, Pt transporter 650+ hours, ED tech ~160 hours
Shadow Exp: Family Practice (DO) 32 hours; Hospitalist-IM (MD) 20 hours; I watched a lot of procedures and surgeries as a hospital employee, but never as official observer because we don't allow student observations at our hospital after a student supposedly fainted in OR 5+ years ago (weird policy) so those probably don't count???
LORs: 3 science, 1 non-science, 1 DO, 3 MD, 1 community engagement mgr, 1 pt care mgr, 1 RN sup, 1 county h&hs dir, & 2 RN
GPA hx:
1st CC (Overall GPA 1.30):
Year 1: 1.50/2.35
Year 2: 0.00 -Dropped out due to family death- quit everything, stupid I know...
2nd CC (Overall GPA 3.19):
Year 3: 4.00/ 4.00 (summer)/ 3.00
Year 4: 3.42/ 4.00 (summer)/ 2.37
Year 5: 2.46/ 3.55
Year 6: 3.61/ 3.60 (summer)
UC (Overall GPA 3.75):
Year 6: 3.86
Year 7: 3.77/ 3.58 (summer)/ 3.61
Science courses and grades (85% taken at CC with no +/- system):
Env Bio/ Env Sci: B/F (F from 1st CC; retaking now)
Intro Chem/ Chem I/ Chem II: C/B/C
Intro Orgo & Biochem/ Orgo I/ Orgo II/ Biochem: A/A/B/A-
Lower-div Genetics/ Upper-div Genetics: B/A
Human Biology/ Anatomy/ Physiology/ Pathology: A/B/B/A
Gen Bio I/ Gen Bio II/ Microbiology: B/A/B
Physics I/ II: B/B
Lower- div Nutrition/ Upper-div Nutrition: A/A