hockeyguy5181
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This is my first post on here but I have been viewing this forum for the last couple of months. I would like opinions and advice from anyone willing to give it, on my steps going forward from here. Here is some background information… Last May, I got a job as a sterile processing tech at a hospital close to me, working 36 hours a week. This made me fall in love with medicine again as I completely wrote it off as a possibility and it never came to mind for some reason. One thing that I realized pretty quickly into this experience was I was missing the patient aspect that really made me enjoy medicine. When I was in high school I was a field medic for a search and rescue team and I loved all the different interactions I came across. I am currently 24 and working full time while completing my undergrad, and I know how hard it is to get into medical school, so I feel like the cards are starting to stack up against me.
My current uGPA is 2.9 and I am sitting in between soph-junior status (I just got my A.S but at the 4 year university I am attending I am still considered soph). This is due to 2 rough semesters, one when I first graduated High School in 2018. Another when I started going back to school again in 2020 during COVID (online classes were had to adjust to at first) and just coming off 4 surgeries so It was just awful timing to start school. In the semesters since I have had 2 4.0’s and the other few were in the 3.6-3.8 range. I used the resource on Mappd to put in my remaining courses before I graduate and assuming I get a 4.0 the rest of the way (I feel I can do it), I will be at a uGPA 3.35 and sGPA 3.66. Would this be considered an upward curve even if I say get 3.9's the rest of the way? After I graduate I plan to take a year off to take my mind off school and work to complete a life goal of mine. I know this is going to be a main area of concern but to me this is very important to me. After that I would like to do a post-bac to complete some pre-reqs I am missing. Also during this time I plan to take the MCAT After 12 credits of a post-bac my uGPA would be a 3.38 and sGPA 3.7. After that I would like to get a master degree preferably at a SMP. I feel an SMP would benefit me as my GPA isn’t the greatest, in addition I would just like to get the degree for my own knowledge and as a preparation for medical school. Also since I would not be working during that time I would have more opportunities to volunteer and get more experiences. I have not taken out any loans for school so far, so during this time I am ok with taking out loans to pay for this and not have to work at all during.
I hope to be competitive to apply to M.D schools but would be just as happy if not even happier at a D.O school. My extracurriculars at the moment are very subpar as my current job does not constitute clinical experience at all. Between going to school full time and working full time while getting my bachelors I need to try and accomplish this experience via paid work. I plan on keeping this job for a while longer as I decide what to do next. There is the possibility of getting to watch some operations in the OR through this job and I would like to make sure I take advantage of that before leaving. I am thinking about doing an EMT class (I only ever held EMR in high school) over the summer to become an ER tech. Another possibility I am considering is doing an MA program that somehow doesn’t take forever. Lastly I was thinking about doing an EKG tech? I would very much like your thoughts on this. Unfortunately my degree is in Biomedical Science so the job most people get after that would be MLS, not usually much if any patient contact. A friend of mine applied this last cycle with no other experiences (I believe this was his downfall personally) and I don't want to be in the same boat. I am also too far into my major to change at this point or I would change to a BSN.
For SMP programs the list I plan on applying to, in no particular order:
Georgetown
George Washington
Tufts
Brown
Boston University
Touro-COM
MSU-COM
PNWU-COM
NSU-COM
I don’t feel I would be competitive enough to get accepted into some of the more top name SMP that are generally talked about in these forums such as Cincinnati for example. Please let me know if you think there is anything I can be doing differently, if I should just give up, etc. I know I still have a long way to go but I would like to not do anything else that will hurt me down the road.
Edit: To add some more information. The bad semester in 2018 was doing a poli sci major (something completely different than now). Most the grades were makes as an E, would I need to retake these as well as the one I got a D in during my post-bac or since its so far back and not science related it won't be as big of a deal? My only other questionable grades are a C+ in chem 2 (Got an A in Ochem last sem, taking O chem 2 right now). I also took calculus my first semester back and got a U (by less than 1% but still got the U which sucks). Wasn't my best idea after not taking math for 5 years. I since then got an A in college algebra but, I'm already assuming im going to have to retake calculus because of that grade.
My current uGPA is 2.9 and I am sitting in between soph-junior status (I just got my A.S but at the 4 year university I am attending I am still considered soph). This is due to 2 rough semesters, one when I first graduated High School in 2018. Another when I started going back to school again in 2020 during COVID (online classes were had to adjust to at first) and just coming off 4 surgeries so It was just awful timing to start school. In the semesters since I have had 2 4.0’s and the other few were in the 3.6-3.8 range. I used the resource on Mappd to put in my remaining courses before I graduate and assuming I get a 4.0 the rest of the way (I feel I can do it), I will be at a uGPA 3.35 and sGPA 3.66. Would this be considered an upward curve even if I say get 3.9's the rest of the way? After I graduate I plan to take a year off to take my mind off school and work to complete a life goal of mine. I know this is going to be a main area of concern but to me this is very important to me. After that I would like to do a post-bac to complete some pre-reqs I am missing. Also during this time I plan to take the MCAT After 12 credits of a post-bac my uGPA would be a 3.38 and sGPA 3.7. After that I would like to get a master degree preferably at a SMP. I feel an SMP would benefit me as my GPA isn’t the greatest, in addition I would just like to get the degree for my own knowledge and as a preparation for medical school. Also since I would not be working during that time I would have more opportunities to volunteer and get more experiences. I have not taken out any loans for school so far, so during this time I am ok with taking out loans to pay for this and not have to work at all during.
I hope to be competitive to apply to M.D schools but would be just as happy if not even happier at a D.O school. My extracurriculars at the moment are very subpar as my current job does not constitute clinical experience at all. Between going to school full time and working full time while getting my bachelors I need to try and accomplish this experience via paid work. I plan on keeping this job for a while longer as I decide what to do next. There is the possibility of getting to watch some operations in the OR through this job and I would like to make sure I take advantage of that before leaving. I am thinking about doing an EMT class (I only ever held EMR in high school) over the summer to become an ER tech. Another possibility I am considering is doing an MA program that somehow doesn’t take forever. Lastly I was thinking about doing an EKG tech? I would very much like your thoughts on this. Unfortunately my degree is in Biomedical Science so the job most people get after that would be MLS, not usually much if any patient contact. A friend of mine applied this last cycle with no other experiences (I believe this was his downfall personally) and I don't want to be in the same boat. I am also too far into my major to change at this point or I would change to a BSN.
For SMP programs the list I plan on applying to, in no particular order:
Georgetown
George Washington
Tufts
Brown
Boston University
Touro-COM
MSU-COM
PNWU-COM
NSU-COM
I don’t feel I would be competitive enough to get accepted into some of the more top name SMP that are generally talked about in these forums such as Cincinnati for example. Please let me know if you think there is anything I can be doing differently, if I should just give up, etc. I know I still have a long way to go but I would like to not do anything else that will hurt me down the road.
Edit: To add some more information. The bad semester in 2018 was doing a poli sci major (something completely different than now). Most the grades were makes as an E, would I need to retake these as well as the one I got a D in during my post-bac or since its so far back and not science related it won't be as big of a deal? My only other questionable grades are a C+ in chem 2 (Got an A in Ochem last sem, taking O chem 2 right now). I also took calculus my first semester back and got a U (by less than 1% but still got the U which sucks). Wasn't my best idea after not taking math for 5 years. I since then got an A in college algebra but, I'm already assuming im going to have to retake calculus because of that grade.
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