Where am I lacking? / Chances?

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Karp316

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I'll be graduating next spring with a 3.6 cGPA, 3.2 sGPA, 3 years of cancer research, 3 years of hospice work, 1 year of EMT work, have shadowed 4 doctors, 1 semester preceptorship, I got a D and 2 C's during the semester me and my fiance split up. 2 degrees (physiology and psychology) and 3 minors (biology, chemistry, business administration). My community service involves going to Boy Scout troops and teaching them first aid and emergency preparedness.

I know the D and 2 C's are killing me, but I don't feel confident I can turn them into A's. I'm taking the MCAT this summer, let's say for argument's sake I get a 30. Any advice what to do or if I even stand a chance if I apply?
 
Karp316 said:
I'll be graduating next spring with a 3.6 cGPA, 3.2 sGPA, 3 years of cancer research, 3 years of hospice work, 1 year of EMT work, have shadowed 4 doctors, 1 semester preceptorship, I got a D and 2 C's during the semester me and my fiance split up. 2 degrees (physiology and psychology) and 3 minors (biology, chemistry, business administration). My community service involves going to Boy Scout troops and teaching them first aid and emergency preparedness.

I know the D and 2 C's are killing me, but I don't feel confident I can turn them into A's. I'm taking the MCAT this summer, let's say for argument's sake I get a 30. Any advice what to do or if I even stand a chance if I apply?
Click to expand...
That is a low sGPA to count on MD. Why don't you think you can turn those grades into A's? Were they in pre-reqs, or other classes?
 
The C's were cellular physiology, the D was in 1st semester physics (I may retake it at community college for an A), those 3 classes are generally why my sGPA is lower than expected, and I don't have a GRO option...
 
The bad semester was fall of Junior year (I'm on a 5 year plan so it's in the middle) and I've gotten 3.8-4.0 since then. I got an A in Physics II at a community college and will probably retake Physics I at a c.c and get an A there while studying for the MCAT.

GRO= Grade Replacement Option, so retaking it wouldn't replace the D, just add as a separate class. With the fifth year science courses included, I can get between a 3.3->3.4 sGPA with a 3.65 cGPA
 
Do you live in a state with a lenient MD med school? If you have three excellent semesters between you and the bad grades it helps at some schools, as they might give more weight to more recent grades. A few might even throw out the bad semester all together. But others will have a hard cutoff for the BCPM that will keep human eyeballs from ever seeing your good ECs.

Just so you know, DO med schools only include the most recent grade when you retake in calculating your application GPA (so long as the credits are the same or greater). And for those colleges that do have a GRO, the original grade still counts in the application GPA after AMCAS is done with it.
 
Thanks for the input, hopefully they'll overlook that semester. I'm attending the University of Arizona and this state is my first choice.

But how do I look as a candidate overall? I'll be doing all I can to pump up the GPA and get a good MCAT but does anything else stand out/look like it's missing?
 
The preceptorship was similar to being a TA for exercise physiology, I held review sessions and tutored students. No posters or publications, not really any artistic endeavors, I will try to shadow office based to add onto my past hospital shadowing. As for peer leadership I should have a position as a Lead-EMT, not sure if that's what you were mentioning...
 
Karp316 said:
The preceptorship was similar to being a TA for exercise physiology, I held review sessions and tutored students. No posters or publications, not really any artistic endeavors, I will try to shadow office based to add onto my past hospital shadowing. As for peer leadership I should have a position as a Lead-EMT, not sure if that's what you were mentioning...
Click to expand...
That would do it.

How long did you do the boyscout gig?
 
The boy scout gig was a series of 2 large events. After calculating my changes in GPA I'll end up with 3.63 cGPA and 3.32 sGPA (without any post bac classes, which I may take if I don't get in first time)

I really want to avoid DO/Carrib if I can. Are my chances reasonable? (I know most people hate that question being asked haha)
 
My information is that Arizona screens out OOSers if their BCPM is < 3.35. I'd guesss that they are more lenient with in-staters, but these policies change from year to year. Your chances will depend on MCAT score and how competitive the rest of the applicants are that you'll compete with. It's intimidating that the acceptee median BCPM is so high. Why not call the schools for more information? Maybe they'll say something reassuring.
 
To my knowledge the info on that post is still correct.

If they have a BIO prefix, those courses should all count. If Exercize Physiology does not, then you could still have it count if the course content is > 50% hard science and the course description supports that (in which case you mark it as BIO for the course type.
 
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