Asking for a friend. Her son just got his MCATS scores and got a 499. GPA is just below 3.5 and sGPA is 3.2. He’s not sure where to go from here. He’s a senior. If he decides not to go the med school route, what are his career options with a bio major? I suggested physician assistant. He doesn’t like the idea even though I’m not sure he knows much about the field. I’m not familiar with requirements to go that route either. Is there an exam required? What’s the gpa requirement?
But if he doesn’t do the medical field at all, what jobs are out there for bio major and how does he go about finding one. He says the school doesn’t help out seniors with bio majors.
Any advice will be appreciated. The kid seems to be lost and I know you guys on this forum have a lot of info.
Admission to physician assistant programs is very nearly as competitive as medical school admissions. Additionally PA programs require between 500 and 2000 hours of direct hands on patient care. (EMT, PA, PTA, CNA, etc) Coursework requirements for PA programs are not identical to pre-med requirements and each school’s requirements are unique. So he would need to investigate the requirements at those programs he’s most interested in. PA programs require the GRE, although some will accept a MCAT score instead. Again this is program dependent.
Here’s the PAEA directory of PA programs-- http://directory.paeaonline.org
It’s searchable and you can narrow it by location, GPA, GRE scores, etc.
Jobs for bio majors–teaching (middle & high school); medical devices or pharmaceutical sales; local, state and federal agencies (particularly those with a science or environmental mission); biological laboratory technicians (think quality assurance) ; clinical or laboratory research assistant; health education; public health agencies/non-profits; insurance case management/claim management; patient coordinator at hospitals or large group practices.
What the friend’s son needs to do is identify what skills he has acquired as bio major and develop a resume around those skills: analytical thinking, data analysis, scientific literacy, computer skills (if applicable), ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations, etc. Once he has identified his key skills, he needs to start targeting employers where his skills fit the needs of the company, even if his skills aren’t an exact match. He will need to be persistent and will likely need to accept a non-ideal job initially (aren’t all first jobs by definition non-ideal?) to get a foot in the door.
I also want to recommend this site [Explore Health Careers](https://explorehealthcareers.org). It can suggest some other healtcare-related job he can consider.
BTW, if he’s interested in nursing/nurse practitioner–there are dedicated BS to MSN programs.
Here is a web site that has more specific programs available
He also could try to apply to all DO schools, there might be a chance there. Or he can do a MD or DO SMP, there is a big risk doing that, if he did well, he could be admitted into a med school(DO or MD), if he did not do well, he just wasted at least $50K or more and one year of time.
Since he already took MCAT, he mind as well to try apply to all DO schools first.
Most of the PA programs require a lot of hours in PA related ECs before he can apply. OTOH, med schools have a different EC requirements, they are different, so it is hard to fulfil both EC requirements. If he were prepared for MD or DO schools, the ECs for PA may take another 6 month to fulfil post graduation. In addition the pre-req for PA program is slightly different from med schools. Here is an example of one PA school’s requirements:
"All applicants must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution prior to matriculation.
Applicants are required to complete all prerequisite science and math courses with no more than one grade below a
“B minus”. The prerequisite course list for admission into the physician assistant program is listed below.
Mathematics (Pre-calculus or Statistics) (3 credits)
General Biology + Laboratory (8 credits)
General Chemistry + Laboratory (8 credits)
Microbiology (3 credits)
Organic Chemistry + Laboratory OR Biochemistry + Laboratory (4 credits)
Human Anatomy + Laboratory (4 credits)
Human Physiology (3 credits)
Genetics (3 credits) for the 2018-2019 CASPA cycle
OR Human Anatomy and Physiology I and II with Laboratory (7 credit minimum)"
Thanks for all the info! Aren’t his stats too low for DO schools? He was thinking of retaking mcats in January but with a 499 not sure how much higher he can get. He did study for couple of months for the first test.
I think his stats are on the borderline with DO schools, he still had a chance, but if he can lift the MCAT by retaking, he would have a better chance. Some times the academic rigor of an UG also makes difference, for example, if he is from MIT he would have a better chance with a 3.5 than a local non-directional State U.
Here’s a link to the College Information Book (CIB)–the osteopathic equivalent of the MSAR,
https://www.aacom.org/docs/default-source/cib/aacom-cib-2018-front-schools.pdf?sfvrsn=0
According to ACOMAS, for entering osteopathic students in 2017 –
mean cumulative GPA --3.56
mean science GPA --3.5
mean AO GPA --3.65
mean MCAT --503
So, yes, his stats are low for DO programs. He might have some success at one of the newer schools if he has a good story to tell/has a unique set of circumstances or experiences, is from URM/diversity group, shows a steep upward grade trend, or has a demonstrated track record of working with medically underserved communities (esp rural areas since the newer programs are located in rural areas and have missions to provide doctors for underserved areas).
Osteopathic programs no longer allow grade replacement so a grade enhancing post-bacc or SMP might be his only chance for medical school.
The advice I gave to my kids was that if they didn't get accepted to start working on a Plan B and not to break their heart over med school. Life goes on.
Your friend's S does not sound like a great candidate for medical or PA school. He should look into other medical careers. If he wants to work in the hospital, there are a number of technical jobs that will put him there--operating room technician, cardiac perfusionist, radiation therapist, nuclear medicine technologist, medical dosimetrist, respiratory therapist, cardiac rehabilitation therapist, pathologist assistant, genetic counselor, medical sonographer, Stryker sale representative (these guys are ubiquitious in the ortho surgical suite and often know more about the technical aspects of install screws, plates, replacement joints than the physicians)I do understand the chances for him to be admitted in a DO program is low and a SMP might be the best route right now. And the most damaging stat for the kid is his sGPA is 3.2, yet I think he might still have a chance to try after boost his MCAT in this coming cycle(2018). Plan B will be SMP, if a doctor is still in the priority. Otherwise, he can try PA or other health profession. The caahep website I referred to did open my eyes: the salary of a Perfusionist is equivalent to a PA or NP, and they are definitely in demand. So check out this web site more carefully. Health Care is a huge field to explore other than being a physician.
His low MCAT score seems correlated to his low sGPA. If he thinks he can raise his MCAT to 505+, then he can try one DO app cycle after 2nd MCAT. Otherwise he can apply to some DO’s SMPs that have linkage to its own DO school (e.g Touro in NYC accepts its SMP top 35 students).
He needed to find out why he scored so low in MCAT. What were his scores in practice tests? He would need to consistently score in 505-510 in practice tests before the second test.
Why does he want to be a doctor? It’s hard for me to understand how a senior premed (must have done a bunch of volunteering in medical world by now) does not know what a PA does.
I have never said he doesn’t know what a PA does. What I said was that I didn’t know what the requirements are for the PA program
If he does not want a health career other than doctor then he may want to have a second bachelor degree starting with next semester.
Is this science GPA so low because he didn’t try or did he struggle and try his hardest and still only achieved a 3.2? Did he kill himself to get the 3.2? If it’s the latter I think the SMP is just a waste of time and money and he should consider other paths.
The science GPA matches the MCAT score, which is the problem. Is he coming from a competitive School where a 3.5 Science is really hard to achieve?
Has he done a lot of shadowing, volunteering Etc? If so did any of the other roles he witnessed in the medical field interest him?
Usually for a pre-med kid coming this far is to go thru at least one application cycle. The quick fix is the low MCAT score because GPA is hard to bring up “significantly” when he has this much of credits. He could “delay” his graduation" and ace all the left-over Bio or other easy science classes to see if that could bring his sGPA up to 3.5+.
Why his school has this strange policy of “the school doesn’t help out seniors with bio majors”? What about other majors (Chem, Physics, …)? What does it mean by “not help out”? not giving out Committee Letter (secret way for some school to achieve high med school acceptance rate)?
“ace all the left-over Bio or other easy science classes to see if that could bring his sGPA up to 3.5+.”
I think there are not many easy science classes after sophomore year. Too much uncertainty here. How many times has he taken MCAT? If he has taken more than once then probably there is not much room for improvement.
It depends. If he’s good at math, statistics can be pretty easy A classes and they count as BCPM.
With a weak sGPA (below 3.5), he needs an above-average MCAT score (515+) to have a realistic shot at MD schools, 510+ for DO schools.
“With a weak sGPA (below 3.5), he needs an above-average MCAT score (515+) to have a realistic shot at MD schools, 510+ for DO schools.”
Not really, The average cGPA for ANY MD Schools are above 3.7 and sGPA 3.5, basically even if you get 100% MCAT the second time, the MD schools still will have a problem, there is no superscore in med school application. If he can pay cash for med school without a loan, the for profit CNU MD school could be the solution. Obviously, from 499(50%)Mcat to 528 (100%) Mcat is a long long long way out.
Highly doubt anyone could go from sub-500 to 520+. Did see someone go from 515 to 524 (she must aim for top schools to re-take a 515). Getting a sub-500 in the first shot usually means poor chem background (ochem/biochem), poor preparation, poor judgement (i.e., not consistently scoring 510+ in practice tests and still go for the real test).
I knew someone with sub-3.5 sGPA (bio major from an Ivy, lots of B- in junior yr then all A’s in senior yr) but good MCAT (36) and very strong ECs finally got 3 acceptance (2 privates, 1 state) after long wait-listing at those 3.