What are my chances????

[Danielle]

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I was just wondering what some of you thought were my chances of being accepted to medical school. I have been working as a research assistant for 2 1/2 years after receiving my bachelor's in biology and anthropology. Through my research I have had the opportunity to publish a few journal articles and present posters as various conferences. I graduated with a 3.5gpa (3.64 science gpa) from Case and an MCAT score of P=10, B=9, V=9. However, the trend in my grades went down from freshman to senior year because I was diagnosed with epilepsy the fall semester of my junior year. The side effects of the medication made it very difficult for me to study and I was still having seizures. Instead, of applying to med school right away I decided to take some time off and work as a research assistant researching cerebral blood flow and metabolism and publishing a few journal articles and abstracts. While I have been doing this I am completing my master's in Anatomy. I decided to apply this year because I have finally been prescribed a medication with no side effects and have not had a seizure in over a year and a half. In addition the cause of my seizures has finally been diagnosed as temporal lobe epilepsy due to scarring on my parahippocampal gyrus caused by a febrile seizure I had when I was about 16 months and was in a coma for awhile. Due to this experience I want to become a neurologist. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks🙂

 

[medschoolorbust]

You GPA is just fine. You sound like you have excellent research experience. Your battle with epilepsy would be something great to describe in your personal statement. On med applications, they provide a place to describe any special circumstances. Here, you could mention how dealing with epilepsy led to a downward trend in your grades. Your MCAT is sub-30, but I think your GPA, research experience, and life experience more than make up for it. If med school is what you want, go for it. Good luck.

 

[ek6]

Your numbers are slightly better than mine - and I've gotten into two schools thus far. When you got the 28, you did not score below a 9, which will simply be a "passing grade" to the adcoms. This I think is good enough because you are backing it up with research experience and publications, which they love. I also did two years of research before applying for this fall and I think it worked out well.
As for your downward trend - yeah, they prefer to see the opposite, but I would write a letter to the adcoms explaining that. Even try to get your premed advisor to explain that on her cover letter. Having epilepsy would absolutely make it tougher to study. Nonetheless, the 3.5 is good enough in my view. Good luck.

 

[Please!]

I agree with the above posts. I'm sure you will be successfull at getting into medical school. HOWEVER, I would stress to the adcoms, the fact that your health has improved. I spoke with a member of an admissions committee at a medical school, and she told me about a student who had some serious health problems...the committee admitted him, but they had a few reservations about doing it. I have also known a girl with health problems being discouraged by a member of the admissions committee.

On the other hand, your experiences have undoubtedly made you more mature and confirmed your interest and drive to pursue medicine. Just be persistant no matter what some may say and I wish you luck on your journey