Hi all-
I graduated from undergrad a couple years ago with a degree in statistics and a very, very low GPA. cGPA- 2.6, sGPA-2.4. There were no extenuating circumstances here, just bad time management skills and some undiagnosed focus issues. I was pre-med for the first couple years of undergrad, so a lot of my lowest grades were in the pre-reqs.
After graduation I got a job at a big financial institution as a data analyst. After feeling so discouraged in undergrad, I figured that med school was out of the question.
However, my passion for healthcare never really died out, and I found myself thinking back on my experiences as an EMT and doing clinical work in undergrad and wondering if being a doctor was truly out of the question. More importantly, the past couple years out of school have been been a time of huge personal growth, and I've successfully overcome the issues with focus and time management that plagued me in high school and undergrad.
So, after reading @Goro's reinvention guide last year, I began re-taking the pre-reqs that I did so badly in in undergrad at a local university. Just one or two at a time, since I work ~50 hrs/week. So far, I've gotten A's in everything so I'm cautiously taking this as a green light to keep taking classes.
By my estimation, if all continues to go well, I can reasonably complete 30-35 credits in two years. By reading around SDN and Goro's guide, this seems to be the suggested number of post-bac credits. At this point, my cGPA and sGPA will both be around 2.8. I would feel much more comfortable applying with both GPAs above a 3.0, but since I have so many credits already getting my GPA to that level would take several additional years. Also, I'm not in a place financially to quit my job to do a full-time post-bac or SMP, so I'll need to stick to the DIY post-bac route.
I'm know I'm jumping the gun a little bit here since I don't even have an MCAT score yet, but I just want to know if it will ever be worth applying to med school with my GPA? A 2.8 is quite low, and I'm afraid that it won't be enough to get past most school's auto-cutoffs. Looking for some advice, encouragement, or (kindly-worded) discouragement!
