Unimpressive Application?

[Treacherous Fop]

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I have not made many of the moves traditionally recommended for admission into medical school. I double majored in Classical Studies and Philosophy, and graduated with a GPA of 3.94. Following graduation, I did further Latin research with a professor for about six months, and have worked part-time for an environmental consulting company for the past year and a half.

Problematically, I have no significant shadowing or volunteering experience to speak of. Moreover, I have not yet taken any of the prerequisite science classes at school (I will have them complete before beginning the med program), but nevertheless managed to study diligently enough on my own to score a 35 on the MCAT.

I am hoping to get into the UT Health Science Center San Antonio medical school (in large part because I would rather not move).

 

[Mobius1985]

Hi Treacherous Fop (interesting name. What would it be in Latin?),

You really didn't ask any questions, but I welcome you to SDN, and I'll make some comments anyways.

You're in a very good spot for a late-coming aspirant to a medical career, because you're starting with a golden GPA, unlike many others. Keeping that GPA high is important. Your post-baccalaureate prereq classes will be calculated into the cumulative undergrad GPA that schools will use for your application. Besides undergrad GPA, MCAT score is the second major determinant for whether a med school will consider you. If you take the prereqs full time, it will take you 1.5-2.0 years to complete them. This gives you plenty of time to accumulate Letters of Reference and the expected community service and clinical experience (1.5 years at 3-4 hours/week of each is typical and they are often combined into clinical volunteering). A research experience is desirable, but not required. It need not be in the sciences as long as it adds to human knowledge in a scholarly manner. Possibly your Latin research qualifies. Leadership in some form is also good to have, as is teaching/mentoring and teamwork.

Nice MCAT score.

 

[Mobius1985]

Provided you have all the expected elements on your application, with your current stats, your chances at San Antonio are excellent, as your numbers exceed the means of their accepted students by a good bit.

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

Pretty complete points were listed above,

I'd also suggest contacting the school that you want to go to, in order to get their take on prereq classes.

there may be certain classes that will be waived based on the MCAT score - my future school waived the requirement for 1 or 2 extra English classes based on a certain Verbal score + MCAT writing section score.

Definitely I'd review the expiration date for the MCAT closely to avoid having to retake it -- it should be good for a few years, but you've got a few years of classes to take so you may be cutting it short. Some schools will accept an older MCAT, others will only accept a pretty recent (within 1 1/2 or 2 years) test. MSAR lists this, you may want to call the school(s) to confirm their policy.

Note - many of us followed other-than-typical paths - my interests upon graduation were international finance and foreign country risk (like if Chevron were investing in Venezuela, how would they quantify the risk that Hugo Chavez would nationalize the oil industry and expropriate their investment); I'd consulted in these areas and related business areas as part of my past life. No worries about a "non-trad" background.