which one which one?!??!

[almond]

I'd been offered a position working in a med school research lab. My supervisor will be a professor at the med school, and since I know him fairly well, he can get me "connections" in terms of meeting other professors there and getting an inside look on what med school is like. Problem with it is that it involves relocating to a place where I know no one. If I choose to relocate, I also plan to take science classes part-time (my undergrad GPA is horrible).

If I choose not to relocate, I will only take classes full-time at a local university. This is a hard decision for me because I want to do what will be most effective in terms of my application. My undergrad GPA is under 3.0, so I know I need to take a LOT of science classes to redeem myself. I can't do this if I decide to take the lab position. But, I can do this if I do not take the position and go back to school full-time.

Please help. I've been going back and forth on this for over a month and have gotten nowhere.

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[C U in MD school]

almond for the past year I have been in the same situation. I had the same thoguth when I first started my job... med school profe, get to meet people at med school, yada yada but is not as good as it seems. its been very hard, they know what u want out of them. u have to kiss ass for a year. at the end, u might jsut get a letter. dont do it! go to school. raise that GPA but just keep in contact with that prof by telling him a really good reason why u wont be doing this, like a family thing. maybe, when the time comes he will help you again. BUT DONT DO THIS JUST BC U THING THAT HE WILL GET YOU IN.

 

[bluegill]

In my opinion, you have to think "first things first." That research job sounds appealing, but if you want to go to medical school, there are two baseline things that you must have: a decent GPA and a decent MCAT.

I advise you to go to school full time and work to get all A's so your GPA will rise. I know a guy who had poor grades in college, then after he graduated he decided he wanted to go to med school. He re-enrolled at a university, worked his ass off, and finally got his GPA up enough to apply. He barely got in. Now he is in the top 10% of his class.

Go get 'em.

 

[star23]

Think of it this way...without a better GPA you won't get in, but you could still get in without this job. IMPROVE YOUR GPA.

 

[imtiaz]

I got offered an Research Assistantship position too. It's completely not worth it. Work on improving your credentials. You can make connections while you're in school there. Ask them if they will let you do voluntary research. This way you can make connections as well as take care of your academics.

If you are married or have other responsibilities, I would recommend just pursuing coursework. Forget the connections, you probably won't make any that will allow you to slide in with a sub-3 gpa.

Good luck!

 

[coop]

if you think the work in the lab is really interesting and you are actually gonna participate in it actively (doing experiments, not washing glassware), and you want to do the research then go for it. if you are not excited about the work then improve your gpa like the above responses say. good luck