WAMC.. weird GPA

[Bavestry]

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS: My GPA is a bit strange, I completed my associate's degree in high school through a dual credit program and graduated with a 3.1 cumulative gpa. I took a two year break from school to serve a two year mission for my church, and since I've been back my gpa has been completely different, so I've listed a gpa with my associate and without. I know schools will see it all together, but I wonder if you guys think they'll take note of the difference between my grades during and after high school.

• With dual credit grades cGPA 3.62 and sGPA 3.59​
• Without dual credit grades cGPA 3.96 and sGPA 4.0​

2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown:

• 512 (128/128/129/127)

3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US):

• Utah resident

4. Ethnicity and/or race:

• White, USA

5. Undergraduate institution or category:

• I don't know what this means

6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):

• From August 2019-present I have about 100 hours of English-Spanish translating experience at a free clinic in my city that serves the uninsured.

7. Research experience and productivity:

• From August 2019-present I have 120 hours of research through the anthropology department of my school. I'm not sure whether it matters that this is not a laboratory based research experience, but it is something I had an interest in, pursued, and have thoroughly enjoyed.

8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented:

• I have 25 hours of physician shadowing starting in March 2018 and going through October 2019. I had plans to shadow three more physicians this March-May but then COVID-19 hit and they stopped allowing shadowing everywhere. The specialties I shadowed were plastic surgery, a urologist (clinical and surgical hours), and a pathologist.

9. Non-clinical volunteering:

• From 2015-2017 I served a mission for my church in El Salvador. This consisted of going around all day every day teaching people about Jesus Christ and trying to help and serve them in any way, from chopping down trees and firewood to helping them overcome alcohol and drug abuse. Let me know what you think of this experience and whether I should list it. It had a huge impact on my life and who I am now.
• For six months I volunteered as an English as a second language tutor at a school for adult education and this totaled to about 40 hours.
• From 2019-2020 I volunteered as a tutor at a government-subsidized apartment building where the majority of people are refugees. This time was spent either reading to young children to help them with their english, and tutoring some older members of the community in english.
• I've also started working with a youth mentoring program and have been working as a mentor for a young refugee. This has been thoroughly disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak and I don't know if I should list it or not.

Sorry if this post is huge, I wanted to give as much information as I could to get better feedback. I am planning on applying this cycle. All comments and opinions will be accepted. If you think my application will be lacking somewhere, I would really appreciate any tips on how to strengthen that area or make up for it in other areas. Thank you!

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[Faha]

You are fine to apply in June. I suggest these schools:
Utah
Loma Linda
TCU-UNT
NOVA MD
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Seton Hall
Hofstra
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Tufts
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
Your main weakness is your lack of clinical exposure with low shadowing and clinical volunteering hours. Ideally you would accumulate 50 hours of shadowing and 200 hours of clinical volunteering.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Your high school/dual-credit grades won't really matter, I think, so I would screen based on your post-mission GPA IMO. As mentioned before, your clinical experience and community service exposure is really tutoring/teaching heavy, and your description of your clinical exposure does seem to be a little light.

 

[Bavestry]

Your high school/dual-credit grades won't really matter, I think, so I would screen based on your post-mission GPA IMO. As mentioned before, your clinical experience and community service exposure is really tutoring/teaching heavy, and your description of your clinical exposure does seem to be a little light.

Is there anything I can do at this point to fix those problems? How much do you think that will affect my application?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Is there anything I can do at this point to fix those problems? How much do you think that will affect my application?

You can't fix anything. You are required to transcribe what is listed on your transcripts from the schools. I think savvy admissions professionals will take it into context. But your best solution is always transparency and disclosing everything that you are supposed to.

As for your experiences, they are what they are. You can try to get more substantial community service/volunteering, and there should be plenty of those opportunities with food banks and Meals on Wheels (as examples).