Will my Cumulative Degree bar my chances of being accepted into 1 of the 9 schools?

[Goku the Gentleman]

I felt this question was so long it deserved it's own post because it's quite lengthy, but here goes.
I'm new to the community here and still learning my way around but I think this is the appropriate place to post my long-winded story, and subsequently to ask you all my honest chances. Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a doctor; I have a passion for helping people. I knew at age 12 when I visited China with my grandparents in a super poor region when we visited the adoption center to adopt my younger brother.

Here's the bulk of it summed up: I had no idea what I was doing at University and had a horribly rough start. I was scared of the sciences and I was just an overall immature 18 year old kid who cared more about "the university life" than my academics. My biggest fear was to obtain a chemistry or biology (hard science) degree and not be able to make it into Med school, and I would have wasted 4 years doing pre med reqs for nothing (employment). I chickened out and didn't believe in myself. I fell into a super deep depression. It deeply affected my grades. The depression hit me from my younger sister getting Hodgkin's Lymphoma cancer, my grandpa who raised me dying, my step sister was murdered, and my dog died. All within 10 months. I couldn't make this up if I tried. None of these are excuses, just attributors to my depression I fell into. Needless to say, halfway through school credit wise, I decided to transfer having knocked out all my basic electives with a 2.1 GPA feeling pretty defeated.

I transferred into another University where I was accepted into the business school, and finished out the rest of my undergrad averaging a 3.1 GPA post-transfer and earned a bachelor of science in Accounting with a cumulative GPA of 2.71. This way I knew my college wouldn't be a waste and I had a back up career where I could sit for the CPA exam and have a decent middle class life style. I grew up in poverty and never wanted to experience it again in adulthood or my children if I were to ever have any. The good news is, my science GPA is basically a clean slate because I didn't take any of the 4 required pre-reqs (chem, bio, physic, org chem)..

My plan was to take a post baccalaureate over 2 years (bio and chem the first year, physics and org chem the 2nd). Believe me when I say my undergrad GPA is not reflective of who I am, nor my intelligence. I was salutatorian in HS and accepted into a good university pre transfer. I just was unmotivated, clinically depressed, immature, and just had no general direction. Once my grandpa passed, I had no real "adult figures" to seek guidance from. Both my parents were killed by a drunk driver when I was 2, so I don't really have any memory with them, and my grandpa was the last remaining figure who raised me. My confidence of becoming a doctor waned and I essentially gave up on my life long goal and played it safe with the accounting degree.

Given that I am able to ace my pre reqs, and do well on the MCAT from essentially studying the sciences for 2 years, do I have a reasonably shot at getting accepted to at least 1 of the 9 Podiatric Medical schools? Thanks everyone for reading the long winded post, but this place is full of great information and people. It's all or nothing at this point. I don't want to waste the time, money, and effort of studying these subjects for 2 years to ultimately have too low of a cumulative GPA to begin with. I'm on medicine that keeps the depression away and I have felt great the past year. I am 26 now and have learned immensely from my past struggles. I'm set on becoming a Podiatrist because I absolutely love working with ankles and feet. I love the ability to perform surgery. It's been my life goal but I want to remain honest with myself and expectations. Thanks again everyone. All replies are greatly appreciated!

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[HarmonicConvergence]

Basically most GPA wounds can be healed with a really solid MCAT. If you can finish with a 3.4 science GPA and a 500 or above MCAT and apply early I'm sure you'd get into at least one of the schools. But I would caution you to financially plan out if this investment is worth it. CPA's make good money and you could always invest in other things as well in the 2+4+3=9 years it would take you to be a practicing podiatric physician. That is 9 years of income you could be missing out on and you could realistically end up making the same amount a good cpa would make as a pod (120k). And with your academic history you take the gamble of being apart of attrition bc pod medical school is no easier than any other type of medical school.

So I say if you want to be a doctor then with time and work pod med school is in your future. But I'd consider all your options before diving head first. Good luck.

 

[Weirdy]

Hey Goku.

If you can get your pre-req GPAs up and a high MCAT (500+), I see no reason why you would not be able to succeed in a medical school curriculum. There are 2 issues you really need to ask yourself before you start.

1) @JKGarv Nailed it when he mentioned the debt load. If you do not have financial support from family, you will be looking at anywhere from 150-350k+ in debt after graduating. This is assuming you got out of your MS in Accounting debt free. Financially, it is not a good decision if you are looking to make money. You will see faster returns on investment going the accounting route and with less debt.

2) You need to have completely overcome your depression. I won't say I completely understand what you went through, but I am no stranger to poverty or severe depression. Compared to what you went through, medical school might be a cakewalk mentally- as long as you have found ways to heal yourself and push even harder than you ever have before. If you are confident that you have overcome your depression and are mentally tough because of the things you experienced, medical school psychologically will be a cake walk, because you have been dragged through far worse.

If the 2 things mentioned above are taken care of, I see no idea why a school would not accept you, given you have proven to them you can handle a medical school curriculum and standardized testing- as shown through acing your post-bac and getting a decent MCAT score.

Your personal story itself - if you choose to write about it in your personal statement- would be very very special and make you stand out. But only if the school reading can say with confidence- "Goku has what it takes to succeed academically, he has overcome his weaknesses and will do fine in our curriculum."