Will I get in to Med School

[SureValla]

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Hey everyone I'm 25 and currently an aerospace engineer at a big defense company. I'm thinking of switching careers to be a doctor and am worried about getting into med school.

My undergrad GPA (aerospace degree) was a 3.06 from Boston University.

I have a masters degree from RPI with a GPA of 3.7 in mechanical engineering.

I am worried because I got really bad grades in my undergrad for physics and math.

Physics 1: C+
Physics 2: B+
Calc 1:B-
Calc 2:C+

Will these grades even matter because they aren't even close to relevant anymore. I would ace these classes if I were to take them again so I feel they don't reflect how much I know in these subjects.

I am going to start my prereqs in the bio/chem classes and try to get the best grades there possible. Also study like crazy for the MCAT.

I also am going to volunteer for the next couple years while I finish up my pre-reqs at hospitals, clinics, etc.

By the time I apply to med school I will have had 7 years experience as an engineer.

Will this be a strong enough resume to get into med school? I'm worried about my undergrad grades. I know I can probably get into a med school but how good of one should I be expecting?

 

[Woland]

I am as much of a premed as you are, but from my observations from this forum and conversations with admission officers of local med school, most schools will not care about your terrible undergrad GPA if you are showing "an upward trend" in your grades in subsequent classes. In all probability they will pay more attention to your most recent grades (which from your post it seems will be chem/bio).
However, as a quick precaution, it may be wise to contact schools you are currently considering (your in-state) and ask them whether you should re-take calc/gen.physics.

 

[MCAT guy]

Hey everyone I'm 25 and currently an aerospace engineer at a big defense company. I'm thinking of switching careers to be a doctor and am worried about getting into med school.

My undergrad GPA (aerospace degree) was a 3.06 from Boston University.

I have a masters degree from RPI with a GPA of 3.7 in mechanical engineering.

I am worried because I got really bad grades in my undergrad for physics and math.

Physics 1: C+
Physics 2: B+
Calc 1:B-
Calc 2:C+

Will these grades even matter because they aren't even close to relevant anymore. I would ace these classes if I were to take them again so I feel they don't reflect how much I know in these subjects.

I am going to start my prereqs in the bio/chem classes and try to get the best grades there possible. Also study like crazy for the MCAT.

I also am going to volunteer for the next couple years while I finish up my pre-reqs at hospitals, clinics, etc.

By the time I apply to med school I will have had 7 years experience as an engineer.

Will this be a strong enough resume to get into med school? I'm worried about my undergrad grades. I know I can probably get into a med school but how good of one should I be expecting?

I would retake any type of C or even low B for the pre-reqs, not necessarily calculus. C's in physics are no good though.

 

[TriagePreMed]

7 years experience as an engineer when you're 25 years old that has a masters? Is there some child genius story there or some massive stretching of the word "engineer" and the word "experience"?

 

[SureValla]

7 years experience as an engineer when you're 25 years old that has a masters? Is there some child genius story there or some massive stretching of the word "engineer" and the word "experience"?

Yes I have a masters degree and you must have missed the first part of the sentence where I said "by the time I apply I will have 7 years of experience" I came to this forum for help not to get made fun of.

 

[EdLongshanks]

Yes I have a masters degree and you must have missed the first part of the sentence where I said "by the time I apply I will have 7 years of experience" I came to this forum for help not to get made fun of.

Your master's GPA is not terribly useful. The undergrad GPA is the one that is used. Unfortunately, your 3.06 in Aerospace engineering will be compared on a straight mathematical basis with the 3.9 of the guy who majored in modern film at Podunk University.

Since you have a good education, you should be able to kill the MCAT - which you need to do. Make sure that you already have a really good idea of what you are going to make on it before you take it - and aim for an upper 30's score. If you get a score like this, then you can probably get into the schools that don't put numbers first - unfortunately, that's only about half of the allopathic schools.

Let's use my state school - Oklahoma Univ - as an example. OU is very number's oriented. They rank everyone by a math formula and only allow the letters and interviews to push you up or down a few points. The formula that they use is ( GPA*3.75 + MCAT/3)/2. In order to get a first round interview you need about a 12. This means that you need an MCAT of 38 or more to get the first round. This is very hard.

Some very good schools are not numbers oriented. I have an interview at Mayo Clinic, even though I only made a 33 on the MCAT with a 9 in Biological Sciences. This score knocks me out of the high end schools.

But I think you may be under a misapprehension about getting into medical schools. You say "I know that I can probably get into a medical school, but how good..."

Now, unless you are thinking about DO schools - none of the allopathic schools are easy to get into with a undergrad GPA of 3.06. Let me tell you that after you have put a few applications in, and you see the other people who are applying, you may not be so confident. Very few students with that GPA get into an MD school at all. You'll be thrilled to score an interview anywhere. I ought to link to my original post on this board and show you how I am singing a much smaller song now. The application process bruises the over-confident ego a bit.

On the other hand, you may be placing too high of a value on a the quality of the medical school. From any school in the nation - even DO schools - you can get into a quality residency - and it is the residency, not the medical school, that determines the status of doctors.

 

[nabeel76]

I am worried because I got really bad grades in my undergrad for physics and math.

Physics 1: C+
Physics 2: B+
Calc 1:B-
Calc 2:C+

Will these grades even matter because they aren't even close to relevant anymore. I would ace these classes if I were to take them again so I feel they don't reflect how much I know in these subjects.

I am going to start my prereqs in the bio/chem classes and try to get the best grades there possible. Also study like crazy for the MCAT.

Your going to have to get that undergraduate GPA up a little by taking some post bacc classes. Maybe you can take a full load of classes during the semesters you to take your bio and chem classes. This will help give you a little upward trend and also raise your gpa a little. The masters GPA won't help you much at all.

Also, since your an engineer, I am assuming that you've taken upper level math beyond Calc I and II and maybe also some upper level physics courses such as Physics III or maybe some mechanics or statics courses since your a mechanical engineer. How did you do in these upper levels? If you did well, then it will redeem the lower grades in the lower level prereqs. If you did not so well well then it will further hinder you.

Either way from here on out if you want MD acceptance then take a year of post bacc courses, crush the MCAT and go for it.

 

[sideways]

One thing I can tell you for sure: upward trend is a load of BS. More recent grades being more important is a load of BS.

Your GPA is what matters. If you have a low GPA, nothing else matters. If you have a competitive GPA, the upward trend is icing on the cake (because only then will they even be looking at your application).

Retake the classes.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Yes I have a masters degree and you must have missed the first part of the sentence where I said "by the time I apply I will have 7 years of experience" I came to this forum for help not to get made fun of.

Wasn't making fun of you. I was genuinely interested and am now disappointed.

 

[SureValla]

One thing I can tell you for sure: upward trend is a load of BS. More recent grades being more important is a load of BS.

Your GPA is what matters. If you have a low GPA, nothing else matters. If you have a competitive GPA, the upward trend is icing on the cake (because only then will they even be looking at your application).

Retake the classes.

So it seems the general trend is my gpa sucks too much.

Question: If I get a really high gpa in a post bacc program, retaking everything, will the med school use that gpa instead of my undergrad?

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Question: If I get a really high gpa in a post bacc program, retaking everything, will the med school use that gpa instead of my undergrad?

No. Everything counts for AMCAS. DO admissions allow for replacement grades.

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

One thing I can tell you for sure: upward trend is a load of BS. More recent grades being more important is a load of BS.

Your GPA is what matters. If you have a low GPA, nothing else matters. If you have a competitive GPA, the upward trend is icing on the cake (because only then will they even be looking at your application).

Retake the classes.

Retaking the courses only makes any difference in DO programs. The MD programs will only average the scores, and it wouldn't matter if you take another science course or the one you had a C in. Also, the comment about upward trends being BS is completely determined by the school. Some schools this is completely true, and you will have the same chance as anyone, some schools are like EdLongshanks posted and you will have no chance. Your best plan is to take many upper-level undergrad science courses and knock them out of the park, this helps with the upward trend, overall GPA, and shows that you can "handle the academic rigors of medical school"... Sideways, if you aren't on an ADCOM, don't make blanket statements. We ALL know these procedures vary from school to school and they can accept who they want for whatever reason they want... They owe none of us justification for their actions... OP, good luck, you have a rocky road ahead, but as many of these people have told me, work hard, apply broadly, and don't give up... I think some people would say you should quit now so it's less competition for them later 😛

Best of luck

 

[CookDeRosa]

Yes I have a masters degree and you must have missed the first part of the sentence where I said "by the time I apply I will have 7 years of experience" I came to this forum for help not to get made fun of.

>>

Welcome to SDN 🙂 Be ready for 80% of the people to read 60% of the words. Just overlook and ignore.

 

[augeremt]

Also, the comment about upward trends being BS is completely determined by the school. Some schools this is completely true, and you will have the same chance as anyone, some schools are like EdLongshanks posted and you will have no chance.

How do you determine which schools have these kinds of policies/trends? Or any other kind of trend, such as looking more favorably at non-trads, or the mentioned one of upward trends in GPA?

I've heard people mention MSAR as a general guide for comparing med schools, but does that have this kind of info?

 

[familyaerospace]

7 years experience as an engineer when you're 25 years old that has a masters? Is there some child genius story there or some massive stretching of the word "engineer" and the word "experience"?

My father had about that many years of experience as an engineer by the time he was that age (he would have had 9 years), but times were different back then.

Also a lot of masters programs will allow you to work in your field when taking courses. One of my friends also had an aerospace engineering undergrad and worked about 20 hours per week as an aerospace engineer when she was going through graduate school with me. Actually many of my classmates were working full time at Boeing while earning their MS.

 

[EdLongshanks]

How do you determine which schools have these kinds of policies/trends? Or any other kind of trend, such as looking more favorably at non-trads, or the mentioned one of upward trends in GPA?

I've heard people mention MSAR as a general guide for comparing med schools, but does that have this kind of info?

MSAR won't tell you specifically "School X is a numbers *****". It takes considerable research on a particular school to find this out. One quick way to get an idea is to look in the MSAR and see what their stats are. It's pretty easy to see that Hopkins, Yale, Harvard, Duke, etc are only choosing among high scorers.

But if a school's reputation and its average scores don't match, then that means they are picking from a wider pool of people. Mayo and Case are notable examples. Mayo's number cutoff is GPA*10 + MCAT must exceed 60. This is pretty easy. Both Case and Mayo have average MCAT of 34 - which is far lower than it would be if they cared to raise it.

The school specific threads are the way to know for sure. If a school uses a formula, it will be posted in the first 4 or 5 pages of each year's thread.

 

[dragonfly99]

Agree with Edlongshanks.
I don't think we know much about the OP's chances of getting into med school yet, nor does he. We don't know if he's going to persist with medical volunteer work, and still want to be a doc. We don't know how he's going to do on the MCAT (though would think w/the engineering background he should kick butt on the physical sciences part). We don't know how he's going to do in his biology classes. The 3.0 undergrad GPA is going to hurt, but he has time to improve on it.

As far as med school prestige, that is something to worry about far down the line, if at all. Getting a spot/getting in is the important thing. There aren't that many med schools, and there isn't that much difference among most of them, since they pretty much teach the same standardized stuff. I went to one of those longshanks would call a "numbers *****" and I doubt my education was much different from students who went to lesser known schools...and sometimes the "famous" med schools just charge more tuition for the same education, or just grade even harder than other schools and torture you more...LOL.