WAMC, Big Split with Big Dreams 521 and a 2.91

[bacon_n_backsquats]

• cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS
  • sGPA:2.91 cGPA:2.88
  • Doctoral GPA:3.67 DPT
  • PostBacc: 3.99 @ 42 hours
• MCAT score(s) and breakdown
  • 521|130|131|129|131
• State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
  • NJ
• Ethnicity and/or race
  • White (Jewish)
• Undergraduate institution or category
  • Private Engineering transferred to State University to do ROTC
  • Post Bacc done at different State University
• Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
  • 3000+ hours as a fully licensed physical therapist
  • Plenty of observation and interactions with physicians through work
• Research experience and productivity
  • Unpublished case report in grad school
  • currently volunteer research assistant 8-10 hours per week
• Shadowing experience and specialties represented
• Non-clinical volunteering
  • Work with several different veterans groups, hand delivered challah and kiddush wine with hand written note to home bound jews in boston every friday last year
• Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
  • 3.5 years infantry officer in US Army with one deployment to afghanistan, honorable discharge
• Relevant honors or awards
  • Army commendation medal
• Anything else not listed you think might be important
  • Grew up in rural and underserved communities
  • 7 strong recommendation letters 2 from undergrad science (Ochem and A&P), 2 from my doctoral program, one from a residency director that I observed, 1 from an Army supervisor, 1 from my current PT supervisor
  • I was working as a Home Health PT in the inner city neighborhoods of boston, served mostly immigrant families and others that relied on safety net services (BMC)
  • Father was the local ER doc but then was blinded and disabled in a motorcycle accident while I was deployed
  • Struggled with mental health as a young man, was food insecure at points and struggled with depression and alcohol abuse. I've been vague on my apps (did not mention alcohol, or get into details about depression, anxiety) other than I made it clear that I eventually sought help and resolved the problems. Went from a 2.5 student to a 4.0 student after the Army. A- in Ochem lab screwed up my record.

• I know I am a candidate that otherwise would have a perfect application if not for the struggles I faced as a young man. Is it a pipe dream that a T20 school will see this and be kind. Is the split too large. I feel like I could market myself as a Jonny Kim Candidate at bargain prices. Any other red flags?

Here is my school list

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

New York Medical College

Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University

SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University College of Medicine

George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine

Yale School of Medicine

The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Georgetown University School of Medicine

Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

NYU Grossman School of Medicine

New York University Long Island School of Medicine

Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

Tufts University School of Medicine

Weill Cornell Medicine

Boston University School of Medicine

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell

Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University

University of Washington School of Medicine MSTP

University of California, San Diego School of Medicine

Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University

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[candbgirl]

Do your sGPA and cGPA include your42 hours of post bacc courses? If not can you redo your S and C GPAs for us?
On a personal note I love your Friday deliveries in Boston. I know your efforts were so appreciated. Good luck.

 

[Faha]

Does your cGPA and sGPA include your post bacc grades ?

 

[bacon_n_backsquats]

Do your sGPA and cGPA include your42 hours of post bacc courses? If not can you redo your S and C GPAs for us?
On a personal note I love your Friday deliveries in Boston. I know your efforts were so appreciated. Good luck.

Hey sorry for the confusion.
The sGPA and the cGPA do include the 42 hours. I mentioned the post bacc separately as well to show improvement. I would say an upward trend but its more like a step function

Attached is the table from my app

 

[bacon_n_backsquats]

Does your cGPA and sGPA include your post bacc grades ?

Yes, I posted the table from my app for your convenience

 

[Faha]

You could include any of these schools from @Goro reinvention list.
You could also include these schools:
Your 3 NJ state public schools
Hackensack
New York Medical College
Einstein
Vermont
East Tennessee
NOVA MD
TCU-UNT
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
PCOM (all schools)
LECOM (all schools)
WVSOM
MU-COM
ACOM
DMU-COM
CCOM
AZCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
TUNCOM
WCU-COM

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for your service! You should be a little more hopeful because you have a lot of really interesting things in your brief description. I hope you noticed which schools on your list have DPT programs and ask how they could be included in say Interprofessional experience at your preferred program. Your veteran and professional experience should be valued at the schools where you want to attend. Any recommendations from the physicians you work with?

You are a diamond coming through a challenging history, and I am hopeful that the school that takes a chance at you will know you have offered and will offer much to your future patients.

 

[bacon_n_backsquats]

Thank you @Mr.Smile12, it's very comforting to hear that from someone who hasn't met me. I believe I will be a good physician and I have come a long ways since my troubled past, although in a ways that's what has led me to have interesting experiences. Also I hadn't thought about what I can contribute in terms of intraprofessional development and collaboration from the rehabilitation side of the house to medicine. I will have to highlight that in interviews.

@Faha Thank you for your input and the list! There were a lot on the list that I already have, so that made me feel good about my selections and that I wasn't off base. The others I will go through and take a closer look at their curriculum and locations. Is it dumb to refuse to apply to schools in states that have restricted healthcare access to women? I know on one hand I'm supposed to want to be a physician no matter what, but I would feel like a sellout to my convictions and doing my partner a disservice to drag her somewhere that she has less rights.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

...
@FahaIs it dumb to refuse to apply to schools in states that have restricted healthcare access to women? I know on one hand I'm supposed to want to be a physician no matter what, but I would feel like a sellout to my convictions and doing my partner a disservice to drag her somewhere that she has less rights.

A few articles on the undergraduate admissions side are suggesting many are taking it into consideration so it's not that crazy.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Is it dumb to refuse to apply to schools in states that have restricted healthcare access to women? I know on one hand I'm supposed to want to be a physician no matter what, but I would feel like a sellout to my convictions and doing my partner a disservice to drag her somewhere that she has less rights.

Only you can answer that question. Do what lets you sleep at night, and good luck. Thank you for your service.

Your sub-3.0 GPA might get you auto-screened at some places, but there are others that have a policy of putting eyeballs on every app from certain categories, like URM and veterans. Your upward trend is stellar and much can be forgiven for your service.

Apply very broadly - top 20s that like reinvention, midtier schools, DO schools. Best of luck, and I'm optimistic about your chances!

 

[srirachamayonnaise]

If you can slightly increase your cGPA above 3, you should have a chance.

 

[bacon_n_backsquats]

@LeaveNoTrace Thank you for your input, again it's nice to hear that there is room for consideration. Even with my struggles I've always felt that I lived a privileged life and it's taken a lot to forgive myself for the mistakes I've made. It's hard for me to imagine an admission committee would forgive me when there are so many excellent candidates I'm competing against. I'll keep you posted on how the cycle goes!

@srirachamayonnaise So I can definitely get my sGPA up to a 3.0. it would take 8 hours at a 4.0. I was considering taking Biochem this fall or spring and I could tack on another BCPM course. It's been awhile since I took physics but that should be an easy A for me, and its technically been over 10 years so some schools might want to see it retaken. Or do you think I should take genetics or some other higher level bio course? Unfortunately my cGPA would take over 24 hours at a 4.0 to be brought above a 3.0. That would take too many resources and I would have to stop seeing patients to accomplish that this cycle.

 

[srirachamayonnaise]

Ideally cGPA over 3. But if you can get sGPA above 3, I think it’s worth the try.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

@LeaveNoTrace Thank you for your input, again it's nice to hear that there is room for consideration. Even with my struggles I've always felt that I lived a privileged life and it's taken a lot to forgive myself for the mistakes I've made. It's hard for me to imagine an admission committee would forgive me when there are so many excellent candidates I'm competing against. I'll keep you posted on how the cycle goes!

@srirachamayonnaise So I can definitely get my sGPA up to a 3.0. it would take 8 hours at a 4.0. I was considering taking Biochem this fall or spring and I could tack on another BCPM course. It's been awhile since I took physics but that should be an easy A for me, and its technically been over 10 years so some schools might want to see it retaken. Or do you think I should take genetics or some other higher level bio course? Unfortunately my cGPA would take over 24 hours at a 4.0 to be brought above a 3.0. That would take too many resources and I would have to stop seeing patients to accomplish that this cycle.

You might want to take Biochem or Physics or something, get the sGPA up to 3.0. As far as forgiveness from adcoms: you're a classic example of a reinventor. Sure, your GPAs are low, but you crushed everything in the DIY postbacc. That plus the high MCAT means nobody's worried if you can hack it academically.