Worried about my chances....please advise

[AP03]

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Hey guys! I have a few concerns from my past and I'm wondering if they will affect my chances for admittance to either MD or DO schools.

I graduated high school in 2005 and began college that Fall (Pre-Law concentration). During the middle of my first semester my grandmother, someone who I am very close to, suffered a massive stroke which left her partially paralyzed. I started spending most of my time taking care of her and completely forgot about school. I ended up with two C's, a D, and an Incomplete (these were not premed courses). I withdrew from school after that semester and got a full time job working 50+ hours each week. A few months later I re-enrolled into a different school for Nursing. Shortly before the semester began, I became pregnant. I tried juggling work and school full-time but soon realized that I could not push myself any farther to maintain the high GPA needed for the competitive Nursing program that I planned on applying to. Needless to say, I withdrew from that school also. I took a year off after that and decided to go back to school after my daughter was a year old to finally pursue Medicine.

Here are my stats:

Sophomore - Psychology Major
3.6 AO
3.5 BCPM
90+ hours physician shadowing (OB/GYN, Oncologist, Surgeon)
100+ hours ER clinical volunteering
40+ hours clinical volunteering at a local nursing home
6 months research experience (working on publication)

Obviously, I plan to obtain more experience in volunteering, research, and shadowing while raising my GPA as much as possible.

I'm wondering if my past experiences are going to hinder my chances for acceptance. Any advice or in sight on my situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance 🙂

 

[time2go]

athough your grades are not perfect, you have alot of experiences behind you and look like a great applicant. Improve your GPA to your best ability and do your best on the mcat...then you can start worrying....right now you look like a good applicant

 

[Mobius1985]

Assuming your stated GPA includes all the coursework from both colleges, I'd say you did an amazing job of redeeming your GPA despite the challenges you faced. You're on the right track. I don't see a leadership experience, but otherwise you have the rest of the expected package. I think the main way in which your past erratic academic history will hurt you is the fact that you changed your mind about a future career so many times, but the pre-law may not be evident from your transcript, so that's possibly a moot point. The positive about your background is that you should be able to write a compelling Personal Statement about why you want to be a doctor.

BTW, you have more than enough shadowing right now.