Hello,
The pre-health advisers at my school are terrible. I was hoping for some advice (and maybe some encouragement) from people here. I am currently a senior in a Texas university. I will be taking an extra semester. My cGPA is 3.49 currently with sGPA at around 3.3, with a strong upward trend from freshman year (2.6). I am taking upper level courses but I am reaching my 150 hour limit. I have about 1 semester of research experience, 2 years of volunteering at Texas Scottish Rite, and about a year at Baylor. I also have 1 semester of LIFT (teaching English literacy to immigrants) and 1 semester of TA for genetics. I have about 400 hours of volunteering and plane to add more. I plan to TA more for a lab section next semester and do additional volunteering and research. I also plan to take the MCAT in the fall. I know i am below average for a medschool applicant but I has hoping that I could make up for it with ECs, a strong MCAT and an upward trend in GPA.
A little background: I was born in a foreign country, (though technically I'm white) and attended first grade without knowing any English. I was home-schooled for the last 2 years of high-school. the transition to university was not easy, as I was also struggling with depression. I was originally doing a bio-medical engineering degree but switched to psychology and child development dual degree. I have Cs in calculus, statistics, gen chem I and II (but As in the labs), B+ in Bio II, A- in Biochem, Bs in 2 neuroscience classes, D in programming fundamentals (from my time as biomed engineering) and As in every other science course and all psychology courses.
I am a member of a psychology honors association (Psi Chi), though it is not active on my campus so I may be able to start it up again and have some leadership role in that. I was also a recipient of a full ride scholarship.
Sorry for the text wall. I was wondering what my chances are like for Texas schools. My first choice is Baylor but I don't know if that is realistic or even possible. I have friends who have gone to top schools with similar GPAs but great ECs and MCAT. But I don't know how I stack up to my batch of applicants (2017) or if I can compensate for my GPA. Is there any chance? Are the big schools out of reach? What can I do to be more competitive? Any advice would be helpful (certainly more than my school's advisers have been). Thanks!
The pre-health advisers at my school are terrible. I was hoping for some advice (and maybe some encouragement) from people here. I am currently a senior in a Texas university. I will be taking an extra semester. My cGPA is 3.49 currently with sGPA at around 3.3, with a strong upward trend from freshman year (2.6). I am taking upper level courses but I am reaching my 150 hour limit. I have about 1 semester of research experience, 2 years of volunteering at Texas Scottish Rite, and about a year at Baylor. I also have 1 semester of LIFT (teaching English literacy to immigrants) and 1 semester of TA for genetics. I have about 400 hours of volunteering and plane to add more. I plan to TA more for a lab section next semester and do additional volunteering and research. I also plan to take the MCAT in the fall. I know i am below average for a medschool applicant but I has hoping that I could make up for it with ECs, a strong MCAT and an upward trend in GPA.
A little background: I was born in a foreign country, (though technically I'm white) and attended first grade without knowing any English. I was home-schooled for the last 2 years of high-school. the transition to university was not easy, as I was also struggling with depression. I was originally doing a bio-medical engineering degree but switched to psychology and child development dual degree. I have Cs in calculus, statistics, gen chem I and II (but As in the labs), B+ in Bio II, A- in Biochem, Bs in 2 neuroscience classes, D in programming fundamentals (from my time as biomed engineering) and As in every other science course and all psychology courses.
I am a member of a psychology honors association (Psi Chi), though it is not active on my campus so I may be able to start it up again and have some leadership role in that. I was also a recipient of a full ride scholarship.
Sorry for the text wall. I was wondering what my chances are like for Texas schools. My first choice is Baylor but I don't know if that is realistic or even possible. I have friends who have gone to top schools with similar GPAs but great ECs and MCAT. But I don't know how I stack up to my batch of applicants (2017) or if I can compensate for my GPA. Is there any chance? Are the big schools out of reach? What can I do to be more competitive? Any advice would be helpful (certainly more than my school's advisers have been). Thanks!
