Hi, I am a 3rd year student at Cal, I can graduate at the end of this summer if I cram in some classes. I haven't taken the mcat yet, but my gpa is 3.4. I am planning to take the mcat in august. My question is will I still be able to apply to sgu or ross for enrollment this coming fall?
I'm not sure I understand your timeline exactly, but I can tell you that SGU will require you mcat scores before you'll be accepted. With that in mind taking the August 2004 MCAT would make it impossible to be accepted to the August 2004 class. There's always January 2005.
Why are you in such a hurry? why not graduate in 4 years, 3.4 is a good gpa, still can get you in a LCME school. and in that 4th year take some classes and upgrade your gpa, you come from a CAL univ, thats a plus and see what happens in the MCAT. you have to keep all doors open, unless you have this ultimate desire to study at ross.
I agree with the last post. coming from Cal (which is UC-Berkeley for all those that dont know) is a great school (one of the top on the west coast), and with a 3.4 you can still make it to at least one US med school with a good MCAT score and some luck. What i would do in your situation is simply work real real hard on the classes that you have left, do your best to boost your science GPA, put yourself in the position to receive great letters of rec, push real hard to do well on the MCAT (take Kaplan, they are great), and stop protesting so much and work harder! jk on that last one. you have an excellent opportunity to gain acceptance into a US med school (unless your science and prereq GPAs are crap), so remember that all you need to do is get into one US med school and you will be set. When it comes time to apply, send off apps to as many different schools as possible to maximize your chance into getting into medical school. i would also apply to all top Carib medical schools (St Matthews, St George, AUC, Saba, Ross) at the same time so that if by some chance you do not get into any US med schools you can fall back on Carib schools. you can always delay acceptance if you are waiting to hear from US med schools. Lastly, make sure that you apply to all the UC med schools if you are a California resident (Davis, Irvine, UCSF, UCSD, UCLA - not Drew, Geffen) because they are all great and they prefer Cali residents, for govt funding purposes. Good Luck
unless you have some major deficiencies in your application or are anticipating bombing the mcats or something, don't even think of the caribbean schools yet. many schools will actually increase your 3.4 gpa from berkeley to a 3.7 to adjust for grade deflation.
Although a GPA of 3.4 is considered below avarage for most U.S. allopathic schools, I would still apply to U.S. allopathic schools before going to the Carribean. With your GPA, I would really stress rocking the MCAT (to score greater than, or around thirty). I was in your same boat two years ago. I graduated with a GPA of 3.5 from a "top-10" school, but my MCAT was below the magic number, "30". I applied to 5 allopathic schools, and was regected by all. However, I was accepted at 4 D.O. schools (out of the 5 I applied to). However, I choose to go to Ross (over a D.O. school), a choice which I am currently questioning/regreting. Good Luck.
Leukocyte why are you regretting goign to Ross, I have a couple of friends who are regretting going to a DO school and wish they had just gone to a carrib school. Just wondering since I am going to apply to SGU/ROSS/AUC.
I think DO's have the added advantage that there are residencies specific and exclusive to them. Where MD's can't apply to.
Advantages of going D.O. over Ross/Carib. (IMHO): 1) The freedom to get licensed in ANY state without having to go through barriers. 2) You have the AOA "to fight for your rights/lobby for you". 3) The freedom to apply for allopathic and/or osteopathic residences.
