First time posting anything, might be a long one, hoping to get some insight on my current situation.
Academic Background: A bit of a non-traditional applicant, moved to Ukraine for a 2-year church mission after high school. Fluent in Russian. Started college the week after coming home in Jan. 2018. Bad first semester (2.06 cGPA), strong upward trend since then making Deans List the last 4 semesters, all A's in Gen chem 1 and 2, Physics 1 and 2 and labs while taking 18+ credits and working/volunteering. Spring 2021 semester ended with all A's, but W in Ochem 1. I am in the National Guard in my state and was deployed for 3.5 weeks mid semester. I tried working with my Ochem professor but ended up withdrawing, per his recommendation. The other courses I was in I worked with my professors and finished with all A's. Retook Ochem summer block one in 6 weeks and got a C+. Only retook because I thought for sure I could get an A, or worse case B+, but that obviously didn't work out. It all came down to the final and I underperformed. I'm scheduled for the MCAT mid July, scored 507 on most recent altius exam but my motivation has been absolutely wrecked with the poor OChem grade.
Extracurriculars: Like I mentioned, I was in Kyiv for 2 years, a lot of religious-related service but also 500 hours of communtiy service as well teaching english, a lot of leadership positions
Army National Guard- a couple thousand hours, lot of leadership, non-medical MOS but have volunteered for lots of medical combat training (TCC-CLS)
- Activated in May of 2020 as part of my state's COVID response and acquired 500 hours or so of direct clinical experience, traveling around the state providing mobile testing services
-Biology/Chemistry tutor at my college (paid)- 3 years (600 hours)
- 150 hours over 2.5 years tutoring ESL students at my community library
-135 hours on Crisis Text line
-Helped found last year and am currently an officer in a club at my university focused on helping immigrants and refugees (65 hours)
-Molecular Biology Research- 1 poster presented, currently working on paper with P.I. and will submit it at the end of the summer (1st author) (300 hours)
-Medical Scribe (40 hours, with 40 more in Fall 2021 and 40 more in Spring 2022)- volunteer scribe for sports med doc at university
-Shadowing( 60 hours) mostly critical care, family med, sports med
I've already pre-written PS, activity descriptions and some secondaries, and have acquired all necessary LOR, but getting the C+ was crushing, especially after the W. It took me completely by surprise because the professor is super old school and didn't post any grades online the entire semester and I was scoring well above the mean on exams. I also heard that in the past he applied heavy curves but since going online he pretty much doesn't curve at all.
I'm a Utah resident, aiming for either state MD, service oriented schools like Creighton, Loyola, etc.
Also would love CCOM, MSUCOM, PCOM, or any other solid DO's.
Advice? @Faha, @Goro, and anyone else?
EDIT: With the C+ and rough start my cGPA is 3.58, sGPA is 3.44. Strong upward trend this is first C in over 100 credit hours.
Academic Background: A bit of a non-traditional applicant, moved to Ukraine for a 2-year church mission after high school. Fluent in Russian. Started college the week after coming home in Jan. 2018. Bad first semester (2.06 cGPA), strong upward trend since then making Deans List the last 4 semesters, all A's in Gen chem 1 and 2, Physics 1 and 2 and labs while taking 18+ credits and working/volunteering. Spring 2021 semester ended with all A's, but W in Ochem 1. I am in the National Guard in my state and was deployed for 3.5 weeks mid semester. I tried working with my Ochem professor but ended up withdrawing, per his recommendation. The other courses I was in I worked with my professors and finished with all A's. Retook Ochem summer block one in 6 weeks and got a C+. Only retook because I thought for sure I could get an A, or worse case B+, but that obviously didn't work out. It all came down to the final and I underperformed. I'm scheduled for the MCAT mid July, scored 507 on most recent altius exam but my motivation has been absolutely wrecked with the poor OChem grade.
Extracurriculars: Like I mentioned, I was in Kyiv for 2 years, a lot of religious-related service but also 500 hours of communtiy service as well teaching english, a lot of leadership positions
Army National Guard- a couple thousand hours, lot of leadership, non-medical MOS but have volunteered for lots of medical combat training (TCC-CLS)
- Activated in May of 2020 as part of my state's COVID response and acquired 500 hours or so of direct clinical experience, traveling around the state providing mobile testing services
-Biology/Chemistry tutor at my college (paid)- 3 years (600 hours)
- 150 hours over 2.5 years tutoring ESL students at my community library
-135 hours on Crisis Text line
-Helped found last year and am currently an officer in a club at my university focused on helping immigrants and refugees (65 hours)
-Molecular Biology Research- 1 poster presented, currently working on paper with P.I. and will submit it at the end of the summer (1st author) (300 hours)
-Medical Scribe (40 hours, with 40 more in Fall 2021 and 40 more in Spring 2022)- volunteer scribe for sports med doc at university
-Shadowing( 60 hours) mostly critical care, family med, sports med
I've already pre-written PS, activity descriptions and some secondaries, and have acquired all necessary LOR, but getting the C+ was crushing, especially after the W. It took me completely by surprise because the professor is super old school and didn't post any grades online the entire semester and I was scoring well above the mean on exams. I also heard that in the past he applied heavy curves but since going online he pretty much doesn't curve at all.
I'm a Utah resident, aiming for either state MD, service oriented schools like Creighton, Loyola, etc.
Also would love CCOM, MSUCOM, PCOM, or any other solid DO's.
Advice? @Faha, @Goro, and anyone else?
EDIT: With the C+ and rough start my cGPA is 3.58, sGPA is 3.44. Strong upward trend this is first C in over 100 credit hours.
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