What should I do now? Question from my girlfriend.

[sizillyd]

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I'm asking this question for my girlfriend. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology in May 2011

Stats:

Cum Laude
cGPA 3.4,
sGPA 3.09,
AO: 3.75,
MCAT:19
~150 hours shadowing a primary care physician
100+ hour community service

She applied to a SMP in Ft. Worth at the UNT Health Science Center and was rejected today. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Education and has one year left until completion. Her passion is not Education and she really wants to get back into science curriculum. Applied this past cycle and didn't get any interviews.

She wants to know if she should:

1. Continue her Master's in Education, study for the MCAT, and apply again this cycle

2. Take more upper division courses and study for the MCAT

She told me that because she has been doing her Masters in Education, her understanding of the basic sciences is lacking now.

Any advice on what she should do?

 

[235009]

I'm asking this question for my girlfriend. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology in May 2011

Stats:

Cum Laude
cGPA 3.4,
sGPA 3.09,
AO: 3.75,
MCAT:19
~150 hours shadowing a primary care physician
100+ hour community service

She applied to a SMP in Ft. Worth at the UNT Health Science Center and was rejected today. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Education and has one year left until completion. Her passion is not Education and she really wants to get back into science curriculum. Applied this past cycle and didn't get any interviews.

She wants to know if she should:

1. Continue her Master's in Education, study for the MCAT, and apply again this cycle

2. Take more upper division courses and study for the MCAT

She told me that because she has been doing her Masters in Education, her understanding of the basic sciences is lacking now.

Any advice on what she should do?

two options:
1. study hard, retake the MCAT.... hopefully she'll get a 26+ .....retake some of the science classes she did particularly poorly in and apply DO
2. find a career (other than medicine that she's actually interested in)

of note, if she doesn't finish the master's degree that will be look at unfavorably in the med school app process. med schools don't take kindly to people who quit. M.Ed is an unconventional degree to have with an MD but oh well.

keep in mind if she chooses option #1 it's going to be a long road to recovery (though if she rocks the MCAT with a 30+ she might not need to retake many/any classes)

 

[TriagePreMed]

She should be the one posting. MD is out of the question. With a 19 on the MCAT and a low science GPA, it would be best that she retook any science where she got a B- or less. Then after that to do a professional course for the MCAT. She should stop dreaming about a 30.

 

[Temperature101]

She should be the one posting. MD is out of the question. With a 19 on the MCAT and a low science GPA, it would be best that she retook any science where she got a B- or less. Then after that to do a professional course for the MCAT. She should stop dreaming about a 30.

Hey...That's the norm on SDN!

 

[Goro]

Suggest 1, and also think about relocating to get into another SMP. The sGPA is non-competitive for MD, and on the low end of acceptable for DO programs. She'll need to score at least 10 points in MCAT to undo the damage of the 1st take.

I'm asking this question for my girlfriend. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology in May 2011

Stats:

Cum Laude
cGPA 3.4,
sGPA 3.09,
AO: 3.75,
MCAT:19
~150 hours shadowing a primary care physician
100+ hour community service

She applied to a SMP in Ft. Worth at the UNT Health Science Center and was rejected today. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Education and has one year left until completion. Her passion is not Education and she really wants to get back into science curriculum. Applied this past cycle and didn't get any interviews.

She wants to know if she should:

1. Continue her Master's in Education, study for the MCAT, and apply again this cycle

2. Take more upper division courses and study for the MCAT

She told me that because she has been doing her Masters in Education, her understanding of the basic sciences is lacking now.

Any advice on what she should do?

 

[TheFuture_22]

She really needs to focus on raising that MCAT score if she wants to get accepted to a DO program. I would say at least a 26 as others have said, and she needs to apply early. The GPA could use some work as well, but the MCAT should be the priority. She could get about a 22 and go Caribbean, but that is not recommended as it is too risky right now. Best of luck to her though! This whole process has swallowed more than a handful of pre-meds in the past, but with some hard work it can be done.

 

[Alejandro]

Raise that MCAT. Absolutely.

Honestly, its her job to get serious and get her act together. First, applying to only one-SMP seems silly. "I don't wanna move." Well, too bad. Because if she happens to get accepted to a school out in say, Maine, she's gonna take that, regardless. And if she's not willing to move, then I don't know how committed she is in the first place. Second, getting a masters in education when she doesn't even care for it? Not sure what I want to say about that. All I can say is that it sounds kinda lame.

What she really needs to do is honestly get her act together, study the mcat lights out, and kill it. There's no reason to be lazy on it, other than that she just doesn't take this seriously. People say "AHHHH, my life is too hard, you don't know how hard it is!" **whine whine **

Look. two things: One, applying to med school is an elective process. Nobody said for anyone to apply with their stuff not under their belt. Two, while that may be true, there are plenty of non traditional applicants with families, with jobs, with other real-life commitments that are doing the same thing too. While it's personally gratifying to mention that her life is tough and rough, plenty (and i mean PLENTY) are going through what she's going through, and more.

Simple terms: Get serious. Own the MCAT. then DO and MD schools will come into the radar.

This is random, but how do you get Cum Laude with that gpa? No offense (I wasn't cum laud either)...Grade deflation?

 

[sizillyd]

Thank you for your responses. She didn't have an MCAT score at the time of application to the SMP and she needed one, so she took the exam without studying very diligently just so she could have a valid application. The MCAT score isn't indicative of her capabilities, but she does need to dedicate a lot of time and study for it.

She started at a University for 1 year and had a 4.0 at the end of that year, then transferred to a much larger University and had a very bad experience and her grades suffered. She subsequently transferred to her former University and completed her Bio degree. Her University GPA afforded her the Cum Laude distinction. But her poor year at the larger University harmed her GPAs.

Currently, she has a 4.0 in the Masters of Education.

Although they haven't been calculated, her AACOMAS GPAs will be higher.

So the most important thing is to increase that MCAT. Secondly, maybe take some science classes she did poor in.

She is at the halfway point in completing her M. Ed. Will her current status in the Masters in Education harm her chances of being accepted into a medical school? If her medical school matriculation would pre-date her M. Ed completion?

I was accepted into the SMP and she would like to move to Ft. Worth with me and work on these things in Fort Worth. I'll discuss these and other issues that may come up in this thread with her later.

 

[candbgirl]

Did she apply to med school this past cycle? It seems that is what you are saying.(Applied this past cycle and didn't get any interviews. )

Does she really want to be a doctor or does she want to be with you? And how in the world did her adviser let her apply to med school with a 19 MCAT score and such a low sGPA? Is she not going to finish the MEd if she moves to Texas with you? I'm not sure how Med Schools will look at a non completion of the degree but I don't think it will be favorably. Especially with everything else going on. Perhaps she needs to take classes for the next few semester to try and bolster her cGPA and sGPA and study very hard for the MCAT retake, She really needs to raise that 8-10 points.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

For what it's worth, she could apply early next cycle and probably land a spot at one of the larger podiatry schools.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using SDN Mobile

 

[Nissan GTR]

How is she cum laude with that GPA?

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

How is she cum laude with that GPA?

Objection!

Asked and answered, your honor.

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