Your thoughts on my situation(immigrant pre med)?

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MazBrah

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Hello guys, I've been lurking around recently but I needed to get honest feedback from you guys on my situation.

So I am a 5th-year senior studying Biochemistry. cGPA is low (3.29) but sGPA is ok(3.68).
I'm in a sticky situation. I started college funding my own tuition due to no financial aid due to my immigration status (DACA) but failing classes. I worked 50+ hours to pay tuition but managed classes very poorly. My GPA was a 1.5 in Exercise Science (yikes!). I was involved in an accident that I barely survived from and gave me a new outlook and motivation, so I took it upon myself to go for it.

I switched majors and changed my habits. Started shadowing and volunteering and help head my Uni's pre-med club. I have 2 years Research experience as well. I have one more semester left at my Uni

I don't think I have a shot in hell getting accepted because of my early failures in college and my immigration status (DACA). I know the cards are very heavily stacked against me but I'm not willing to give up yet. Currently looking into SMP's and Post-bacc's. I am super worried that my F's that I have retaken will heavily drag my AMCAS GPA down. What should I do to make myself more competitive? Oh and Its ok to be honest and tell me I'm completely ****ed, I've had it told to me many times but I would appreciate a very honest approach on my situation.

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if you're cGPA is ~3.3 and sGPA is 3.68 i wouldn't say you're fu**d at all... early failures you can recover from, how did you on the retakes for the classes you failed in?
you're MCAT will carry a lot of weight, if you can manage an excellent score i think you would have a chance at low tier MD schools and if you're score is 500-505ish you should definitely apply DO. It can't hurt to take a gap year to improve the GPA but an excellent MCAT may reduce the significance of some of those early failures... from what i've heard, adcoms love a comeback story so recovering from the adversities you faced early on would put you in a good place to succeed... idk whose telling you you're completely fu***ed but i'd advise you ignore them completely!

and i'm completely unaware of how you're immigration status factors in to the application cycle, hopefully someone else can give u more info on that
 
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if you're cGPA is ~3.3 and sGPA is 3.68 i wouldn't say you're fu**d at all... early failures you can recover from, how did you on the retakes for the classes you failed in?
you're MCAT will carry a lot of weight, if you can manage an excellent score i think you would have a chance at low tier MD schools and if you're score is 500-505ish you should definitely apply DO. It can't hurt to take a gap year to improve the GPA but an excellent MCAT may reduce the significance of some of those early failures... from what i've heard, adcoms love a comeback story so recovering from the adversities you faced early on would put you in a good place to succeed... idk whose telling you you're completely fu***ed but i'd advise you ignore them completely!

and i'm completely unaware of how you're immigration status factors in to the application cycle, hopefully someone else can give u more info on that


All the classes I retook I made A's to B's. All of my retakes were all gen eds with the exception of Anatomy 1. Currently, I have one more semester to go and have one more class I can retake which is Stats. If I make all A's and retake I'm sitting around a 3.44.

Thats what I have been told and I'm going to heavily rely on it. I am also taking a gap year as I am graduating this May and have applied or started to. My other worry is that I've been told to study for the MCAT this summer and to apply to both Med schools and either Grad/SMP's or Post bacc's. I would hate to take the MCAT in a rush, do decent only to just get accepted to SMP/post bacc. Do you think I should not take the MCAT during GAP year and just do a post bacc?

Thank you so much for your reply! It means a lot!
 
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if you're cGPA is ~3.3 and sGPA is 3.68 i wouldn't say you're fu**d at all... early failures you can recover from, how did you on the retakes for the classes you failed in?
you're MCAT will carry a lot of weight, if you can manage an excellent score i think you would have a chance at low tier MD schools and if you're score is 500-505ish you should definitely apply DO. It can't hurt to take a gap year to improve the GPA but an excellent MCAT may reduce the significance of some of those early failures... from what i've heard, adcoms love a comeback story so recovering from the adversities you faced early on would put you in a good place to succeed... idk whose telling you you're completely fu***ed but i'd advise you ignore them completely!

and i'm completely unaware of how you're immigration status factors in to the application cycle, hopefully someone else can give u more info on that

Ughhh, like nails on a chalkboard. :dead:
 
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The only way to know if you are ready to take the mcat is with a practice exam.....if you aren’t in range DO NOT take the exam

Also shadow a DO, frankly put the requiremetns are lower and you have more odds if you also apply DO
 
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All the classes I retook I made A's to B's. All of my retakes were all gen eds with the exception of Anatomy 1. Currently, I have one more semester to go and have one more class I can retake which is Stats. If I make all A's and retake I'm sitting around a 3.44.

Thats what I have been told and I'm going to heavily rely on it. I am also taking a gap year as I am graduating this May and have applied or started to. My other worry is that I've been told to study for the MCAT this summer and to apply to both Med schools and either Grad/SMP's or Post bacc's. I would hate to take the MCAT in a rush, do decent only to just get accepted to SMP/post bacc. Do you think I should not take the MCAT during GAP year and just do a post bacc?

Thank you so much for your reply! It means a lot!

if you can get a 515+ MCAT and your other ECs are great w/ some strong LORs i don't think improving your GPA is a major concern... especially from what you've said in the rest of your post, about being in a difficult situation early on in undergrad i think you may be able to explain your poor academic performance to adcoms.. also if you retook all the classes and did well on them and have a strong MCAT to support that, it would give adcoms the impression you can handle med school so imo i would take MCAT first and depending on how you do on that, consider post baccs.. if you do manage to get your GPA to 3.44, even w/ a decent MCAT I think you'd be ok applying to DO if you're not set on MD route
 
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Check Loyola out( and maybe the other Jesuit schools). I’m pretty sure Loyola looks kindly at DACA students. Good luck!
 
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if you can get a 515+ MCAT and your other ECs are great w/ some strong LORs i don't think improving your GPA is a major concern... especially from what you've said in the rest of your post, about being in a difficult situation early on in undergrad i think you may be able to explain your poor academic performance to adcoms.. also if you retook all the classes and did well on them and have a strong MCAT to support that, it would give adcoms the impression you can handle med school so imo i would take MCAT first and depending on how you do on that, consider post baccs.. if you do manage to get your GPA to 3.44, even w/ a decent MCAT I think you'd be ok applying to DO if you're not set on MD route

I am definitely not counting DO out as I know realistically I have a better shot. Will definitely take this into account. Now time to look at how to prepare for the MCAT.

Check Loyola out( and maybe the other Jesuit schools). I’m pretty sure Loyola looks kindly at DACA students. Good luck!
And yes Loyola is my number one school! They support us dreamers, thank you for the suggestion.
 
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