Where to go from here?

[Paramagnetic]

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Hello folks on SDN! Long time lurker, first time poster.

During my sophomore year of high school, I earned my EMT-B certification. This is where my interest in medicine began. I went to community college for a year after high school with the intent of becoming a paramedic, but decided medical school would be a better fit for me. I transferred to my state university (Rutgers) and have completed 2 semesters thus far. Here are my current stats:

-3.5 years at a busy volunteer ambulance corps (911 only)
-2 years at private ambulance company (IFT only, paid)
-Just beginning to work at my school's ambulance service (911 only, paid)
~3.9 cGPA from community college (26 credits)
-3.68 cGPA from university (not factoring in community college GPA, 31 credits).

1 year bio and chem +respective labs taken with all A's except for a B in bio lab

I am a white male with a single father and 2 younger siblings.

From my high school GPA of 2.6, I have come a long way as far as academics are concerned. I do not have any LOR, legitimate shadowing or research experience. No med school pre-req's were taken at community college. I intend to take the MCAT after I graduate and take a glide year (will not have all the pre-req's taken in time and do not want to rush them).

What should be my priorities from here? Keep in mind I have to work to afford to go to school. Thank you!

 

[FutureDrB]

So, it sounds like you're a Junior now?
Your GPA looks good. Keep your numbers (sGPA and cGPA) above 3.5 for the remainder of your college career.
EMT work is great, but you'll still need to shadow and get LORs.
You'll also need to add some diversity to your volunteer work. (ie. Community involvement stuff -- Habitat for Humanity, Food Bank, etc.)
Nobody cares about your high school GPA.
Kill the MCAT.
Go to med school.

 

[TrueWolverine]

So, it sounds like you're a Junior now?
Your GPA looks good. Keep your numbers (sGPA and cGPA) above 3.5 for the remainder of your college career.
EMT work is great, but you'll still need to shadow and get LORs.
You'll also need to add some diversity to your volunteer work. (ie. Community involvement stuff -- Habitat for Humanity, Food Bank, etc.)
Nobody cares about your high school GPA.
Kill the MCAT.
Go to med school.

+1 to this. I would also recommend getting in the habit of getting to know your professors. You don't have to have an LoR from all of them but it will be easy to tell who you get along with and would write you a good letter. It's easier to ask someone who's pretty much a friend instead of someone who's more of a "crap I forgot to do this sooner but you're the most recent prof I've had so please help."

 

[Cogitate]

Great job so far! What to do now? Simple.

(1) Email a few doctors if they would let you shadow or volunteer.

(2) Find a professor at Rutgers. Read his/her biography. Read one of his papers. Think of a research idea to further what was done in that paper, and send the professor an email of your idea. Then spend the next few months working on that idea and when you are done, BAM!, research experience, publication, and one hell of a good rec letter.

 

[FutureDrB]

(2) Find a professor at Rutgers. Read his/her biography. Read one of his papers. Think of a research idea to further what was done in that paper, and send the professor an email of your idea. Then spend the next few months working on that idea and when you are done, BAM!, research experience, publication, and one hell of a good rec letter.

While this is an excellent idea for getting a LOR, know that research experience is not a required "pre-req" for DO. MD, that's a different story. But, since you're posting in this forum, I assume you are applying DO.

In lieu of doing research, your application will be better served by spending those months shadowing physicians, increasing volunteer hours, and studying for the MCAT.

(Of course if you are interested in doing research, by all means, do so. It certainly won't hurt your application.)

 

[Paramagnetic]

So, it sounds like you're a Junior now?
Your GPA looks good. Keep your numbers (sGPA and cGPA) above 3.5 for the remainder of your college career.
EMT work is great, but you'll still need to shadow and get LORs.
You'll also need to add some diversity to your volunteer work. (ie. Community involvement stuff -- Habitat for Humanity, Food Bank, etc.)
Nobody cares about your high school GPA.
Kill the MCAT.
Go to med school.

I understand that involvement in non clinical volunteer work helps make for a well-rounded individual, but how in depth should my involvement be in terms of hours contributed?

 

[Paramagnetic]

+1 to this. I would also recommend getting in the habit of getting to know your professors. You don't have to have an LoR from all of them but it will be easy to tell who you get along with and would write you a good letter. It's easier to ask someone who's pretty much a friend instead of someone who's more of a "crap I forgot to do this sooner but you're the most recent prof I've had so please help."

I'm not exactly sure how to get good rec letters from science professors considering the classes have hundreds of people in them. I very rarely go to office hours (I've even skipped a lot of lectures) because I learn better by working through practice problems on my own.

 

[Cogitate]

I understand that involvement in non clinical volunteer work helps make for a well-rounded individual, but how in depth should my involvement be in terms of hours contributed?

Around 5 hours per week. Just enough to show you actually were involved. Even better than hours, though, would be to get a leadership position in one of these clubs. You could even ask the president of the club to make a new leadership position for you "VP of Freshman Outreach" and just post a few flyers. Easy as hell but sounds really good.

 

[Paramagnetic]

You could even ask the president of the club to make a new leadership position for you "VP of Freshman Outreach" and just post a few flyers.

Haha that's brilliant. Thanks

 

[TrueWolverine]

I'm not exactly sure how to get good rec letters from science professors considering the classes have hundreds of people in them. I very rarely go to office hours (I've even skipped a lot of lectures) because I learn better by working through practice problems on my own.

Yeah it can be a little weird at first....I'm not typically one to go in for office hours either but you just gotta suck it up and go talk to them. I swear a girl in my spring orgo class was best friends with all her professors because she would go talk to them. She had multiple asking if they could write a letter for her. Professors know you need letters so most of them won't think it's weird for you to go in and shoot the breeze a little. Ask about what to study for an exam, ask them about a concept etc. (even if you're comfortable with it) They may have hundreds of students but very few will actually take the time to get to know them.

 

[samac]

Great job so far! What to do now? Simple.

(1) Email a few doctors if they would let you shadow or volunteer.

(2) Find a professor at Rutgers. Read his/her biography. Read one of his papers. Think of a research idea to further what was done in that paper, and send the professor an email of your idea. Then spend the next few months working on that idea and when you are done, BAM!, research experience, publication, and one hell of a good rec letter.

How long till the troll gets the banhammer?

 

[Cogitate]

How long till the troll gets the banhammer?

Ummmm that was a helpful post right?

 

[samac]

Ummmm that was a helpful post right?

That long!

 

[oOKawaiiOo]

How long till the troll gets the banhammer?

His fate was met yesterday LOL 🤣