Hello everyone!
I apologize in advance for the long post. It took me a long time to work up the courage to even ask if I have a chance to get into med school, so now that I'm doing it, I want to cover all my bases.
Long story short, my freshman and sophomore year were a bit rough for various reasons, but by the time I got to junior year, I was focused and ready to give my all in my academics. At the end of my junior year, I had a meeting with my pre-med advisor, who told me that even though I had shown improvement that year, there was really no way I could make it to med school after getting 5 total C's in science courses as a freshman and sophomore. Discouraged, I gave up on my dream of medicine and started looking for something else to do.
Since graduating, I have worked for 3 years in a healthcare setting, explored all of my options by shadowing several different types of healthcare providers, and have realized that being a physician is the one profession that I am truly passionate about pursuing. I decided that I needed to follow this passion and if I was going to do it, I needed to do some repair.
I took 20 credits of DIY post-bacc upper level science courses over summer, fall, and spring (was working full time so couldn't do any more than 6-8 credits per term) and got a 4.0 in these classes, which raised my science GPA what I would consider to be a significant amount.
My plan was initially to only apply DO, as I was under the impression that my stats would be too low for any MD schools, but after looking at some of the other posts on here, I wanted to get some advice about this and see if MD seems like something that would be remotely possible for me. I also wanted to see if it seems like a good idea to apply this year or if anyone thinks that I should take another year to do more post-bacc courses, volunteering/shadowing, etc. Thank you so much for any and every piece of advice!
GPA
MCAT
Demographics
Undergraduate Institution
Clinical Experience
Research Experience and Productivity
Shadowing Experience
Non-Clinical Volunteering
Other Work Experiences
Other Extracurricular Activities
Letters of Recommendation
School List
*Please feel free to critique this if I am reaching too far or if there are schools on here that do not take out of state students. I threw this together very fast.
The below list would be narrowed down to my top choices - please let me know if any of these seem reasonable
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU from a formerly very sad and discouraged pre-med student
I apologize in advance for the long post. It took me a long time to work up the courage to even ask if I have a chance to get into med school, so now that I'm doing it, I want to cover all my bases.
Long story short, my freshman and sophomore year were a bit rough for various reasons, but by the time I got to junior year, I was focused and ready to give my all in my academics. At the end of my junior year, I had a meeting with my pre-med advisor, who told me that even though I had shown improvement that year, there was really no way I could make it to med school after getting 5 total C's in science courses as a freshman and sophomore. Discouraged, I gave up on my dream of medicine and started looking for something else to do.
Since graduating, I have worked for 3 years in a healthcare setting, explored all of my options by shadowing several different types of healthcare providers, and have realized that being a physician is the one profession that I am truly passionate about pursuing. I decided that I needed to follow this passion and if I was going to do it, I needed to do some repair.
I took 20 credits of DIY post-bacc upper level science courses over summer, fall, and spring (was working full time so couldn't do any more than 6-8 credits per term) and got a 4.0 in these classes, which raised my science GPA what I would consider to be a significant amount.
My plan was initially to only apply DO, as I was under the impression that my stats would be too low for any MD schools, but after looking at some of the other posts on here, I wanted to get some advice about this and see if MD seems like something that would be remotely possible for me. I also wanted to see if it seems like a good idea to apply this year or if anyone thinks that I should take another year to do more post-bacc courses, volunteering/shadowing, etc. Thank you so much for any and every piece of advice!
GPA
- Overall Cumulative GPA: 3.70
- Overall AMCAS Science GPA: 3.51
- Overall AACOMAS Science GPA: 3.43
- GPA Breakdown (if it matters)
- Undergrad Cumulative GPA: 3.64
- Undergrad AMCAS Science GPA: 3.35
- Undergrad AACOMAS Science GPA: 3.20
- DIY Post-Bacc GPA (20 Credits of Upper-Level Science Courses): 4.0
- GPA Trend: J-Shaped - My freshman year was okay, my sophomore year was just bad due to extenuating circumstances (4 C's in science classes), Junior and Senior year I had all As, but my senior year I did not take any science classes because I had decided to pursue clinical psychology instead (have since changed my mind on that, as you can see). I did 3 semesters of DIY post-bacc classes and have gotten all As.
MCAT
- 511 (128/127/128/128)
Demographics
- White, Female, 25-years-old, Illinois Resident
Undergraduate Institution
- Saint Louis Universiy - B.S. Neuroscience
Clinical Experience
- Volunteer: ~60 hours volunteering at a hospital while in college, ~12 hours (so far) volunteering at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in an underserved area of Chicago
- Non-Volunteer: ~4600 hours (3 years - 2 years full time, 1 year part time) as a clinical research coordinator at a teaching hospital, running clinical trials involving gene therapy for children with neurogenetic disorders
Research Experience and Productivity
- 3 semesters as a research assistant in a psychology lab at my university - helped run one study on the relationship between health behaviors and executive functioning in college students and another study on stress response in individuals with gambling addictions and/or substance use disorders. Presented 2 posters at Association for Behavioral Cognitive Therapies 52nd and 53rd Annual Conference and received the 2019 Undergraduate Research Award from division 28 of the American Psychological Association
- 3 years working in clinical research at a teaching hospital - so far have 1 abstract, 1 presentation at child neurology society meeting. Paper is in the works but not sure that it will be published before I apply
- 1 semester of psychological research for my capstone project. presented a poster at our symposium but the results of our study were not very exciting so did not do much with this.
Shadowing Experience
- As I mentioned earlier, by my senior year I wasn't convinced that I wanted to pursue medicine. Therefore, I am also going to list my shadowing hours outside of physician shadowing because I feel they are important in showing that I explored my options but found that I ultimately want to become a physician.
- ~100 hours shadowing physicians - Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Cardiovascular Surgery, Urology
- ~10 hours shadowing physical therapist, ~10 hours shadowing speech therapist, ~10 hours shadowing optometrist, ~40 hours shadowing neuropsychologists
Non-Clinical Volunteering
- ~15 hours volunteering to help start / help run a monthly club for teens with and without disabilities to get together and work on social skills
- ~40 hours volunteering at various fundraising events for Best Buddies, an organization dedicated to creating social opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities
Other Work Experiences
- 1 semester (~60 hours) working as a TA for a physics lab course
- 3 summers (~1200 hours) working at a summer camp for kids and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities
- ~200 hours babysitting for medically complex children (epilepsy, autism, feeding tubes, etc).
Other Extracurricular Activities
- Co-Founder, Vice President, President of Best Buddies at my school, an organization dedicated to providing social opportunities and support for individuals with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. Was sent to Best Buddies Leadership Conference 2 summers at IU and won chapter president of the year.
- Student Leadership Honoraria - From my work with Best Buddies, I was 1 of 20 students selected to be inducted into my school's student leadership honoraria. I gave a presentation on how to be an impactful leader at our school's leadership and service awards.
- Member of Psi Chi Psychology Honors Society, Nu Rho Psi Neuroscience Honor Society, and AED Pre-Health Club.
Letters of Recommendation
- 2 very strong MD letters from PIs who I have worked with and become very close with over the last 3 years
- 1 pretty good letter from DO - shadowed for a week
- 1 strong letter from a non-science professor who taught my abnormal psych class and was a PI for my research lab in undergrad
- 1 letter from a science professor from my DIY post-bacc. I don't really know what to expect from this letter and it is one of the things that I am most concerned about. I was a good student but have only known this professor for 1 semester so I'm not sure how strong it will be. I am debating asking another science professor from undergrad to get 2 letters, but I was not particularly close with any of them so am worried about asking.
- 1 strong letter from the state director of the organization I was greatly involved in in undergrad
School List
*Please feel free to critique this if I am reaching too far or if there are schools on here that do not take out of state students. I threw this together very fast.
- DO
- CCOM
- LECOM - Bradenton
- ATSU-KCOM
- ATSU - SOMA
- MSUCOM
- Touro - California
- Touro - Nevada
- Nova Southeastern DO
- Rocky Vista University
- KCU-COM
- CUSOM
- ACOM
- WVSOM
- UNECOM
- PCOM
- MD (Maybe? If I have any bit of a chance?)
- Nova MD
- Wake Forest
- George Washington
- Rush
- Carle Illinois College of Medicine
- New York Medical College
- Georgetown
- Virginia Commonwealth
- Rosalind Franklin
- Drexel
- Wayne State
- Tulane
- Loyola
- UIC
- Louisiana State
- Wright State
- University of Louisville
- Western Michigan
The below list would be narrowed down to my top choices - please let me know if any of these seem reasonable
- AZCOM
- KCU-COM
- ATSU-SOMA
- Rush
- Rosalind Franklin
- Loyola
- Georgetown
- SLU
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU from a formerly very sad and discouraged pre-med student
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