Yet Another Personalized Advice Request

[IAmDemosthenes]

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Hey, everyone--thanks for taking the time to read. I'm a 25 year-old former library student (I know, I know...) who decided to become a physician. I'm doing some GPA repair and otherwise trying to prep the best application I can like everyone else. I'd like your feedback! I especially welcome the feedback of those who have been accepted into medical school.

ACADEMICS
Undergrad (Cumulative) GPA: 3.01
Undergrad (Science) GPA: None (CLEPed full year of General Bio and Chem)
DIY Post-Bacc GPA: 4.0 (Physics 111/112, near-by state university)

EXPERIENCE
Leadership: I ran of my city's council, managing my campaign staff and volunteers (2012). On the board of two unrelated, non-medical, non-profits each for two years (2008-2010; 2010-2012).
Service: I have about 100 hours scribing for a Family Medicine Physician (M.D.) at a clinic for the homeless and substance-addicted in my city. I also helped teach a comprehensive sexual education program with an OBGyn for kids 12-14. Lastly, I am working with my health district's Medical Reserve Corps under post my CPhT and EMT licenses to prepare for disaster response in the region.
Shadowing: In addition to the 100+ hours at the clinic for the homeless, I spent just 8 hours with an ENT (we didn't click), and just started a job scribing in my region's emergency departments.
Clinical: I realize that this isn't really clinical but I worked at a Pharmacy Tech for 6 months (CPhT) which I could argue (probably unconvincingly to adcoms, I know) that this was valuable experiencing understanding the wider financial, social, logistical, etc. factors involved in healthcare. Also, I have an EMT license (NREMT) but won't likely have time to volunteer though it has been very useful as an ED scribe.
Other: I worked in a medical library assisting M.D.s, D.O.s, Nurses, etc. navigate the literature for Evidence-Based decision-making. PubMed, Cochrane, Dynamed, First Consult, Clinic Key, TRIP, UpToDate...you name it, I've logged hours and hours rummaging around the bowels of its databases looking for answers to clinical questions.

PLAN
DIY Post-Bacc:
-OChem I (Fall 2014)/OChem II (Spring 2015)
-MCAT May 2015
Leadership/Service: Either start a formal scribe program at the clinic for the homeless, recruiting and training pre-meds from the local health sciences college, or run exercises for the Medical Serve Corps in mass casualty triage or something similar.
Shadowing: Continue to work 20-24 hours/week in the ED as a scribe. Probably attempt to do a small number of hours shadowing physicians in diverse specialties and settings (internal, psych, OB, rural, urban, MD, DO, ambulatory clinic, hospital, etc.).

QUESTIONS
1) I've only taken one class at a time during my DIY Post-Bacc--that's obviously not very rigorous. Should I add more classes at my current institution or just do a formal Post-Bacc program?
2) I thought I'd be getting direct patient care with EMT volunteering but my scribe job requires scheduling flexibility while volunteer agencies require commitment to overnight team schedules. Any ideas for alternatives? Is a lack of direct patient care really the end of the world?
3) I have zero research. I've been thinking of networking with the residents in my hospital network since they are required to publish during their residency. Any other suggestions?
4) Any other glaring deficits or strategies?

 

[DrMidlife]

There's only one problem here: 3.01. That dominates everything, and it'll keep you out of med school.

2 classes at 4.0 is awesome. Of course you're a rock star for those A's in physics, but unfortunately they don't get the job done. Unfortunately you need a boatload of classes (as close to 4.0 as you can stay). I've answered "how much is in a boatload" and "how do I get that boatload" roughly 4.7 trillion times on SDN just this week, as have others, so look for the posts that address low GPA and say things like "2nd bachelors" and "SMP" and "get a job at a university" and "you can't fix 4 years of bad with 5 minutes of good" and "have some respect for the 20,000 overqualified applicants who get rejected every year".

From a 3.01 you need to completely let go of your CLEP credits. You have too much to prove. Take those prereqs again and keep getting A's. People with competitive GPAs can use CLEP to save time. You can't. Also, the content in the med school prereqs needs to be fresh and perky in your mind going into the MCAT. Let your CLEPs go. They don't help you. At all. What will help you is a pristine juicy robust loaded science GPA, which you could have on the other side of taking those prereqs at a university.

Don't worry about your clinical exposure. Scribing is fine. Take some EMT hours when you can get them, and look for ad hoc experiences to give you some more breadth. Free clinics etc.

Don't worry about research. Focus on GPA and then focus on MCAT. Research will do nothing if you don't bring GPA/MCAT. Take the MCAT only once. It's not a punch card for a free burrito, as some seem to think.

Don't worry about taking a while (years) to get yourself in shape to apply to med school. You can keep taking classes 1-2 at a time if that's what you need to do, as long as you have a good reason (kids, military, etc). Just plan things out so that you're in school full time with a heavy load for at least a year before you apply. One schedule that might work is to get your 2+ years of undergrad done, then take the MCAT, then do an SMP, then apply. Or you can look at a path to DO school through one of the 2 year masters programs hosted at DO schools.

If you're in California or another ridiculously competitive state, all the doom&gloom above is 10x worse.

Don't like it? Others will chime in shortly. Probably best to wait for L2D & Q et al before you react.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Goro]

You'll need a year of Bio and probably Biochem. It will depend upon the school. A number of DO schools want you to have math too. A DIY program, if well thought out, can be just as good as a regular program. Ideally, an SMP would be better.

1) I've only taken one class at a time during my DIY Post-Bacc--that's obviously not very rigorous. Should I add more classes at my current institution or just do a formal Post-Bacc program?

You need to show Adcoms that you know what you're getting into, and that you really want to be around sick people for the next 30-40 years. so yes, patient contact is required. Your scribing experience is good.

2) I thought I'd be getting direct patient care with EMT volunteering but my scribe job requires scheduling flexibility while volunteer agencies require commitment to overnight team schedules. Any ideas for alternatives? Is a lack of direct patient care really the end of the world?


Check out your local universities.
3) I have zero research. I've been thinking of networking with the residents in my hospital network since they are required to publish during their residency.

 

[IAmDemosthenes]

Thank you for your extensive reply, Dr.MidLife! I was thinking of off-setting the CLEPs by taking more advanced classes in each discipline but I get the feeling, more and more, that I just need to do a formal SMP. I am thinking of the program at VCOM but am not attracted to the idea of going to a DO school (with respect, I just don't click with the culture). They say that their SMP GPA doesn't get calculated in the DO application but everything I have read seems to indicate that AAMC calculate that GPA. Does anyone have insight into that?

The overview of VCOM's SMP: http://www.vcom.edu/post-baccalaureate/files/program profile and curriculum.pdf

 

[DrMidlife]

So you haven't done the prereqs and you haven't got an MCAT score and you're sure an SMP will solve a 3.01 and you don't want to go DO but you think one year at a DO program will get you MD love and you're giving us a reading assignment.

Check.

 

[IAmDemosthenes]

Well, sorry--I just don't know what is relevant for the assessment of an SMP. The class load (from Histology, Immunology, etc. to Health Policy and Research) and its set-up as a graduate certificate which, the PDF says, means that the DO application will not calculate into the cumulative GPA. So I'm wondering:

1) Will doing an SMP at a DO school make admission into MD school difficult (I'm gathering from your tone that this is the case). Its my assumption is that the different philosophies and education styles between DOs/MDs will not be significant enough to effect the study of basic sciences in an SMP.

2) Will graduate certifications be calculated into the cumulative GPA for the AAMC application? I've read AAMC's FAQ on GPAs and other similar literature but haven't found an explicit confirmation.

 

[Cawolf]

It doesn't seem to make any sense to do graduate work at a DO school if you are set on a MD school.

Why not work to get into a program at a MD school if that is what you really want to do?

 

[Apollo1]

Forget about classes you've CLEP'd; that boat has sailed. Your cgpa needs to be raised, so taking Bio/Gen Chem will help raise it (provided you get the grades). It'll also give you prep for the new MCAT and add to your argument of being a changed person.

 

[kraskadva]

@IAmDemosthenes What is making you think that and SMP is the way to go? To answer at least one of your questions- no, grad gpas are not rolled into cumulative gpas. They are listed on AMCAS, but since the majority of applicants do not have a grad gpa, and grad gpas are typically high, they are not a good point of comparison between applicants or necessarily indicative of ability/competency.
So a SMP does nothing to raise your numbers and is wicked expensive. Do you have money to burn? Also, typically the point if an SMP is a last ditch effort to get accepted through linkages, and since you're down on DO, doing a SMP at a DO school seems especially pointless. Doesn't really matter if the classes are essentially the same (which they probably are, but I'm not going to look that up for you) since you're intending to ignore to the only major point of an SMP from the get go.

On the other hand, a DIY postbacc with good grades does raise your numbers, is accepted everywhere, and is far cheaper. What you've done so far is good. However, you need to be doing more; as in full-time, science-only class load more. For a couple of years. As others have said, forget about CLEP and retake Bio and Chem, plus as many other science classes as you can stuff into a semester while maintaining A's. The only benefit you can get from CLEP here is to talk your way into doing gen bio/chem AND an upper level that has that as a pre-req at the same time.

 

[IAmDemosthenes]

Summary of Advice, as I read it, thus far:

ACADEMICS
Take Gen Bio and Gen Chem despite the CLEP as part of a full time, upper-level, science course load for 1-2 years.
Dump the SMP in favor of my current DIY approach since its cheaper, doesn't improve cGPA, and because gradGPAs are more competitive.
A DO SMP is a definite no-go for an MD hopeful, regardless of its curriculum, simply because it is at a DO school.

EXPERIENCE
Scribing is adequate to constitute patient contact even if I am not acting in a clinical capacity.
Research is not a priority in my particular set of circumstances.

Thanks to all of you for taking them time to chime-in. I will be acting on all of the above advice.

Replies:
What was my reasoning for applying to a DO SMP? Its near-by and I have limited resources. I've got a good job in a competitive position, a room mate I can trust in an affordable apartment, and family within driving distance that helps me out since I'm working towards this goal. You're correct that the classes appear to be almost the same as those offered by MD SMPs but have answered that MD Adcoms still have some fundamental prejudice towards a DO SMP--thanks for that answer.