what am I missing?

[familyaerospace]

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Sorry in advance for the huge post.

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you have to take a test or something and you forgot to study one of the subjects? That's me right now. I don't know why since I think I have everything ready. I think my mind is doing this because the post-bacc I was going to be in royally screwed me over and have completely convinced me that I will never get into medical school.

I'm a non-trad (obviously) who if all goes well will start med school at 31. I'm not URM, but do qualify for economically disadvantaged. (I don't expect applying ED will give me much of a boost other than to add some to diversity.)

I have a very interesting back story of how I came to medicine which I tell in my personal statement. The PS has been polished and edited to within an inch of it's life and I've had nothing but positive responses including a former adcomm saying "If you don't get into medical school, it will NOT be because of your personal statement."

I have not yet taken the MCAT.

Resident : Georgia (with strong ties to Florida.) We have 5 schools here.

Degrees : BS from a top 20 school, MS from a third tier school which was the #2 program in the world in it's very unusual major.

undergrad cGPA : 3.45 over 219 credit hours so it isn't going to move much. It does have an upward trend from a 3.0 to eventually a 3.8. Half the prereqs had to be taken at a CC. I still have to take Organic.

undergraduate sGPA :3.4 (I have a few that should count which would bring it to a 3.6 and I'm taking a few more courses.)

grad cGPA : 3.7

grad sGPA : 3.8

Research : total about ~9 years in mostly psychological research. It ends up being almost 7K hours. Yes, I calculated that earlier today. I have 3 journal pubs and 6 presentations.

Teaching : Yes. I have everything from tutoring middle school and high school to being a TA in college to being a coinstructor for a grad level course.

Work Experience : Lots of paid work. Also started two business on my own and was involved with a third start up. Was also a consultant for a while doing tech transfer and that was with biomedical technologies. Still self-employed with the majority of work being editing.

Shadowing : 120 hours so far over like 6 specialties (plastic surgery, neurology, family, obgyn and peds, and nephrology). I have another 30 scheduled for next week which is more family. Then I am supposed to meet with a general internist and do some shadowing with him. Then I'm probably going to be done for a while since I have hit overkill. The one thing I want to shadow but I have had no luck was trying to track down a DO.

Volunteering : thousands of hours non-medical, 180 hours medical. The medical volunteering is ongoing and I should be around 400 at the time of application.

Other ECs not listed above include : performing arts (about a 25 year career mostly in theater starting when I was a little bitty thing), leadership (about 16 positions from elected and appointed in a variety of organizations), and medieval reenactment.

I've seen many of my letters and they all seem to be quite good. I have everything from science letters, volunteer letters, research letters, non-science, work, etc. I have one MD letter for DO schools that will accept MD letters.

What am I missing? Please put my mind at ease so my brain will stop going crazy at what the people at Agnes Scott said.

 

[mspeedwagon]

I for one could NOT think of anything else. Hopefully you have an MCAT score somewhere in the 30s and you should be golden. Good luck!

 

[DrMidlife]

I suggest two possibilities.

1. The advisers at Agnes Scott cannot comprehend what "average" means, mathematically. Thus, their perception is that since the average accepted med student GPA is 3.6+, that this means you have to have better than 3.6 to get into med school. Also, the program wants to advertise a success rate for the program, so it wants to keep you from screwing up that success rate (because they can't comprehend how you'll get in).

2. Based on these parts of your post:

royally screwed me over

I have a very interesting back story

I strongly, strongly suggest that you read this book:

Konner, Melvin J. (1987) Becoming a Doctor: A Journey of Initiation in Medical School. New York: Viking.

In the early 80's, Konner got into med school. These days, he'd be kept out for being a total dick. How this possibly applies to you: the medical field is not going to welcome you with open arms for your prior achievements. The medical field is not looking to change to accommodate your suggested improvements. I don't care whether these allegations apply to you or not, I'm just suggesting that if you see yourself in Konner, that could be what your premed advisers are trying to tell you.

Best of luck to you.

 

[familyaerospace]

Thank you mspeedwagon. I worry about the MCAT, but my diagnostic was a 26 so maybe that is just my paranoia making me worry. Plus one of the DO schools want a committee letter which I cannot do. I am going to ask them what the other options are. I will be applying to at least one DO school.

DrMidlife, actually the Agnes Scott story less to do with my getting into the program (which I was accepted to in advanced standing and originally offered a linkage to Mercer which required a 3.5 post-bacc gpa, 25 MCAT according to the adviser) and more to do with some other issues with financial aid. It's a very long and detailed story which I really do not wish to get into here, although I did give the Cliff Notes version of it to Dianyla. The Cliff Notes version of the Cliff Notes version is that I could either be eligible for the post-bacc or eligible for financial aid as a certificate seeker (5th year undergrad - about 12K in loans), but not both or else it is "defrauding the government" (according to the adviser). They could have just told me that 1.5 years ago instead of telling me what they told me.

My backstory in my personal statement of "why medicine" has nothing to do with the post-bacc. It is my journey of why medicine.

I read Konner's book years ago, long before I knew I wanted to pursue medicine. I was given a copy by one of my LOR writers when I felt going to graduate school with a small child was an impossibility for me. I wasn't all that old, but I think if it weren't for that book, I probably wouldn't have believed students with families could go to medical school or in my case graduate school. I've also met Konner since I used to work a few doors down from his office. He's also a really nice guy so "dick" doesn't really apply.

 

[mspeedwagon]

Well, 26 should be good for quite a few DO schools. Since I doubt that I will be able to get a committee letter either, what DO school is it? I want to be prepared that I likely will not be eligible to apply (really hope it's not one in FL,CA,NV, AZ).

Thank you mspeedwagon. I worry about the MCAT, but my diagnostic was a 26 so maybe that is just my paranoia making me worry. Plus one of the DO schools want a committee letter which I cannot do. I am going to ask them what the other options are. I will be applying to at least one DO school.

 

[sassilysweet]

Thank you mspeedwagon. I worry about the MCAT, but my diagnostic was a 26 so maybe that is just my paranoia making me worry. Plus one of the DO schools want a committee letter which I cannot do. I am going to ask them what the other options are. I will be applying to at least one DO school.

When is your diagnostic from? After you had already put significant time into it, or before? Are you balanced across all areas or is it just one section giving you problems?
I agree if you get 30+ you should be golden, and 25+ for DO.

 

[familyaerospace]

well, 26 should be good for quite a few do schools. Since i doubt that i will be able to get a committee letter either, what do school is it? I want to be prepared that i likely will not be eligible to apply (really hope it's not one in fl,ca,nv, az).

ga-pcom

 

[familyaerospace]

When is your diagnostic from? After you had already put significant time into it, or before? Are you balanced across all areas or is it just one section giving you problems?
I agree if you get 30+ you should be golden, and 25+ for DO.

Thank you.

It was a 8 P, 9 V, 9 B. I was honestly expecting a little better on Verbal and was expecting a lot lower on Biology since I haven't seen the material in several years. I was using the e-mcat website and it told me where I was having issues. Apparently, when I know a subject I really know it and when I don't... well... I don't. Seriously I had several 100% on certain topics and on several others I had around 30%!

I have not started studying for the MCAT yet, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to stress about it. I think gaining 4 points over 6 months is probably reasonable.