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- Mar 6, 2011
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First of all let me say hello to everyone. I have used this forum for research throughout my premed journey and as it draws to a hopeful close this will be my first actual post.
A little background, I am 27, a husband and a father of a 10 month old. I work full time as a paramedic (about 60 hrs a week). I am attending 2 universities (1 to get bachelors and 1 to take premed courses).
I have taken all the courses required for med school except the last physics with lab. I take the MCAT in about 5 weeks. I have been preparing for the MCAT since January and am averaging about mid 30's on the practice tests.
Here is where my problem comes in. I graduated several years ago with an associate degree. At that point, I had graduated high school and cared very little about being in college and essentially wasted my time. When I graduated, my GPA was a 2.76. Since I have "grown up" a bit, I have returned to college to get the premed courses and my bachelors. Since returning I have made mostly A's in everything but science courses. In the science courses I have made straight B's in the lectures and A's in the labs.
This work has brought my overall GPA up to about a 3.37. The problem is that I took some science courses (biology and chemistry) during my first degree and didn't do so hot. This takes my otherwise mid 3 science GPA and turns it into a 3.07.
I have 2 main questions. The first is will the schools I apply to take into consideration the drastic difference between the two "phases" of my life or will they simply look at the overall GPA? I mean I don't need those science courses for my first degree, but they are science courses I have taken and thus will be averaged in with my current ones I assume.
The second question is, if they don't look at my current work and just look at the overall stats, assuming I do pull off a low to mid 30 MCAT score, what are my chances of getting in somewhere? I kind of like the philosophy of DO based on what I have read, but MD will be fine too. I think that I can "explain" myself in an interview, but I could be off there.
Anyway, any help into answers to those two would be fantastic.
A little background, I am 27, a husband and a father of a 10 month old. I work full time as a paramedic (about 60 hrs a week). I am attending 2 universities (1 to get bachelors and 1 to take premed courses).
I have taken all the courses required for med school except the last physics with lab. I take the MCAT in about 5 weeks. I have been preparing for the MCAT since January and am averaging about mid 30's on the practice tests.
Here is where my problem comes in. I graduated several years ago with an associate degree. At that point, I had graduated high school and cared very little about being in college and essentially wasted my time. When I graduated, my GPA was a 2.76. Since I have "grown up" a bit, I have returned to college to get the premed courses and my bachelors. Since returning I have made mostly A's in everything but science courses. In the science courses I have made straight B's in the lectures and A's in the labs.
This work has brought my overall GPA up to about a 3.37. The problem is that I took some science courses (biology and chemistry) during my first degree and didn't do so hot. This takes my otherwise mid 3 science GPA and turns it into a 3.07.
I have 2 main questions. The first is will the schools I apply to take into consideration the drastic difference between the two "phases" of my life or will they simply look at the overall GPA? I mean I don't need those science courses for my first degree, but they are science courses I have taken and thus will be averaged in with my current ones I assume.
The second question is, if they don't look at my current work and just look at the overall stats, assuming I do pull off a low to mid 30 MCAT score, what are my chances of getting in somewhere? I kind of like the philosophy of DO based on what I have read, but MD will be fine too. I think that I can "explain" myself in an interview, but I could be off there.
Anyway, any help into answers to those two would be fantastic.