Would greatly appreciate your input.

[willrocks]

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Hello all,

I am very new to thoughts of med school but am wondering how my stats would stack up. I hold a BA in chemistry from a prestigious university with ~3.5 GPA. I have many upper level science courses and have strong research experiences. My only health care experience is as a pharmacy technician. I worked full time for two years in addition to school, but took a reduced course load for those years. I have yet to take the MCAT. Based on the above, would you consider me a competitive applicant to medical schools?

Best Regards.

 

[deleted248403]

It sounds like you have very limited clinical exposure, no shadowing, and no volunteer/leadership activities.

With a lower than avg GPA, I would't say you were that competitive right now.

However, a good MCAT and some work on the aforementioned issues and you would be a better candidiate

 

[Catalystik]

You aren't competitive now, but you could be eventually.

Since your cGPA is on the lowish side for a med school applicant, a compensatorily higher MCAT score is a good idea. I'd aim for a 32+. If your BCPM GPA isn't good, you'd need more classes in science to show a recent upward trend.

Having the research already is great. The average applicant has about 1.5 years of clinical experience. A year is the least I'd suggest you apply with, though there are occasional reports of folks getting in with less. You'd also want to get about 60-80 hours of physician shadowing. Leadership and teaching are other areas to list that would help you. Hopefully, you already have some nonmedical community service from the college years.

A good first step is to arrange some medical volunteering and start getting direct patient experience since you need the most longevity in this area.

 

[J ROD]

Need much more clinical experience...

GPA is not bad; slightly below average...strong MCAT can cover it.

Need to get on it though....

 

[JJMrK]

Hello all,

I am very new to thoughts of med school but am wondering how my stats would stack up. I hold a BA in chemistry from a prestigious university with ~3.5 GPA. I have many upper level science courses and have strong research experiences. My only health care experience is as a pharmacy technician. I worked full time for two years in addition to school, but took a reduced course load for those years. I have yet to take the MCAT. Based on the above, would you consider me a competitive applicant to medical schools?

Best Regards.

You're certainly getting there. You need to be able to answer the question "why medicine?" when an interviewer/secondary asks.