What's my next move?

[Bloops]

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Hello. I'm an undergrad senior at a public state school graduating with a Biological Sciences and Anthropology degree in May 2019. My cGPA is 3.58 and sGPA is 3.53.
My concern is if I need to do a post bacc because of my low GPA and trends:
Fre: cGPA 3.98, sGPA 3.95
Soph: cGPA 3.61, sGPA 3.34
Jun: cGPA: 3.16, sGPA 3.39
Sen: cGPA: 2.39, sGPA: 2.85

I have not taken the MCAT, and do not plan on applying until the next cycle. My main concern is planning for the next year to increase my competitiveness. Is my GPA low enough for a post bacc to be worth it? I will have over 200 hours graduating and one year of course work will probably not put a dent in my GPAs. Will a high MCAT make up for this downward trend?

My extra curricular include:
- medical assistant (~900 hours)
- patient access representative (~500 hours)
- city government intern- (~100 hours) created reference book for all development projects benefiting underserved communities since 2013
- research assistant (~2 years)- psychiatric institute studying adolescent seclusion and restraint cases, no paper or publications but presented poster at conferences
- science club coordinator- (~4 years) created elementary after school science program and secured grant funding for science outreach through university
- food pantry- (~4 years) initiated the campus community garden partnership
- veterans hospital (~100 hours)- implemented partnerships between hospital and humane society
- student government president
- founding member for campus student organ donation advocates
- shadowing- primary care (~200 hours), ortho surg (~50 hours)

Please look at any gaps in my application and let me know if there is anything I should be focusing on this upcoming gap year in addition to MCAT studying. Thanks!

 

[ciestar]

Your GPA itself isn’t low enough to warrant a post-bac, but that massive downward trend for sure is. An adcom could interpret it like this: this applicant cannot handle upper level coursework.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Your GPA itself isn’t low enough to warrant a post-bac, but that massive downward trend for sure is. An adcom could interpret it like this: this applicant cannot handle upper level coursework.

This. You need to figure out what in the **** happened, and take a post bacc. The trend will put your application in as much of a bad shape as a sub 3.0 GPA would. You need to seriously evaluate what happened, maybe take a year off, and do a post bacc.

 

[lalalallala]

Is there a reason that your GPA declined? That pattern is definitely concerning and something you would need to be able to explain. What kind of medical school would you like to go to? Your state school? A research powerhouse? What are your career goals?

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Your consistent decline in grades is bad and will not be made up by good MCAT. Frankly I am not even sure it will be made up by postbacc. You need an excellent SMP performance for reasonable chance at MD

I think going to an SMP after a sub 3.0 senior year would set OP even further back. I don't see them doing well at an SMP after such a performance.

 

[Bloops]

Your consistent decline in grades is bad and will not be made up by good MCAT. Frankly I am not even sure it will be made up by postbacc. You need an excellent SMP performance for reasonable chance at MD

Thanks for responding. Follow up question, what would my benefit in doing an SMP over a postbac? I may not be understanding the differences between the two.

 

[Bloops]

Is there a reason that your GPA declined? That pattern is definitely concerning and something you would need to be able to explain. What kind of medical school would you like to go to? Your state school? A research powerhouse? What are your career goals?

Thanks for responding. I had some personal events happen and took a little too long to finally address their affect on my mental health and seek treatment. I’m not sure how to address those kind of topics on applications so I didn’t mention it here.

I would prefer to go MD, but I understand if it’s not possible. I hope to work in family or community health, ideally with a governmental organization. I’m passionate about mental health advocacy and treatment.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Thanks for responding. I had some personal events happen and took a little too long to finally address their affect on my mental health and seek treatment. I’m not sure how to address those kind of topics on applications so I didn’t mention it here.

I would prefer to go MD, but I understand if it’s not possible. I hope to work in family or community health, ideally with a governmental organization. I’m passionate about mental health advocacy and treatment.

You aren't in a position even for DO school at this point IMO. I think your best bet is to take high level science courses as part of a post bacc, and simply see if you are capable of doing well. I think after that SDN could advise further. SMP might in my opinion be too intense given the workload these usually involve.

 

[Simba0930]

Agree with above posts about the concern about your very noticeable decline in GPA. However, I do not agree with some who think that a postbacc or SMP won’t help. While I agree that your declining grades a red flag for med schools, you may want to consider a postbacc or SMP that has a strong linkage to its own medical school. I’m in such a program that allows us to apply to the medical school during the same academic year and not wait for another year’s application cycle.

My understanding is that a postbacc is to help raise your college GPA- in your case, it probably won’t help a whole lot. An SMP will not have any effect on your college GPA but can be used to show the medical school (assuming that there is a strong linkage) that you can handle the rigor. Our program is what last year’s M1 students took alongside the masters students, but they now have a different, systems based, curriculum. If you’re interested in knowing more about the program I’m in, feel free to PM me.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Agree with above posts about the concern about your very noticeable decline in GPA. However, I do not agree with some who think that a postbacc or SMP won’t help. While I agree that your declining grades a red flag for med schools, you may want to consider a postbacc or SMP that has a strong linkage to its own medical school. I’m in such a program that allows us to apply to the medical school during the same academic year and not wait for another year’s application cycle.

My understanding is that a postbacc is to help raise your college GPA- in your case, it probably won’t help a whole lot. An SMP will not have any effect on your college GPA but can be used to show the medical school (assuming that there is a strong linkage) that you can handle the rigor. Our program is what last year’s M1 students took alongside the masters students, but they now have a different, systems based, curriculum. If you’re interested in knowing more about the program I’m in, feel free to PM me.

My reservation against advising for an SMP is OP's low performance during his very recent senior year. This doesn't make a good candidate for a highly intense program, that is a huge amount of pressure.

 

[Simba0930]

Agree in general unless the OP has a real good reason for the decline in grades (which I don’t think OP addressed). But it is possible to reinvent oneself in an SMP, especially if you see it as your “last chance” at redemption. But I also agree that such a decline may doom the OP unless some real introspection is done. I think the real concern is how those declining grades will affect the MCAT score because if that score is extremely low, then no post college program will likely help.

 

[Bloops]

Agree in general unless the OP has a real good reason for the decline in grades (which I don’t think OP addressed). But it is possible to reinvent oneself in an SMP, especially if you see it as your “last chance” at redemption. But I also agree that such a decline may doom the OP unless some real introspection is done. I think the real concern is how those declining grades will affect the MCAT score because if that score is extremely low, then no post college program will likely help.

Another factor to share is that I took majority of my science classes and all of my pre reqs my freshman and sophomore year... my senior year was only one science class which I got a B- in (where the 2.85 is based on) Hence why I was able to keep my 3.5 cum. I received a C and D in anthro related courses my junior and senior year that tanked me.

Not justifying, just want to shed light on the whole situation.

 

[lalalallala]

Thanks for responding. I had some personal events happen and took a little too long to finally address their affect on my mental health and seek treatment. I’m not sure how to address those kind of topics on applications so I didn’t mention it here.

I would prefer to go MD, but I understand if it’s not possible. I hope to work in family or community health, ideally with a governmental organization. I’m passionate about mental health advocacy and treatment.

The good news is that if DO is the route you have to go then family or community health are very much in reach of DO grads!

 

[Walter Raleigh]

Your consistent decline in grades is bad and will not be made up by good MCAT. Frankly I am not even sure it will be made up by postbacc. You need an excellent SMP performance for reasonable chance at MD

Why don't you think a 30-credit DIY postbacc with a 3.7 or better would make up for the downward trend?

 

[907914]

I think the biggest concern is not that a Post-Bacc wouldn’t help OP, but that OP would not be successful in a Post-Bacc.

Why don't you think a 30-credit DIY postbacc with a 3.7 or better would make up for the downward trend?

Why don't you think a 30-credit DIY postbacc with a 3.7 or better would make up for the downward trend?

 

[Walter Raleigh]

If OP is going to be unsuccessful, a postbacc is a better place to fail than an SMP; it's expensive and poor performance will be a millstone around their neck.

 

[907914]

If OP is going to be unsuccessful, a postbacc is a better place to fail than an SMP; it's expensive and poor performance will be a millstone around their neck.

To use your analogy, the noose is already around OPs neck and they are dangling. Gonnif’s advise will probably be the best shot at getting OP a stool to stand on, but the noose will always be their, MD or DO.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

Agreed; a DIY postbacc might be a good way to test the waters. The downward trend is worrisome, but depending on MCAT 30 credits' worth of upper level science classes might be enough for redemption. If it's not, yes, an SMP might be necessary...but better to do the DIY postbacc first, and go on to Plan B if not successful.