Chance a Pre-Med for Top Schools and BS/MD with Low GPA?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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GPA: 3.95 UW (just guessing with a lone B+ I got this year), and 4.4W
SAT: 1520 (taking again in the fall), 8/8/7 on Essay (out of 8/8/8)
SAT IIs: Bio II was 790, Math II was 800
Class Rank: 12/639, Will Drop to ~20/639

State (if domestic applicant): Virginia
School Type: Large, Competitive-ish Public (639 in my class)
Additional School: Attend a Year Round Academic Governors School (STEM Magnet)
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 200k+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Women in STEM? Eh…Walking Anti-Hook Right Here

Major: Pre-Med/Biology with a Minor in Public Health or Bioethics
Essays: Strong and self aware writer, I’ll polish them up over summer
Recs: My Governors School teachers will have had me every day for 2 years so they should be good, Counselor should be OK, making efforts to know her better

Advanced Placement Courses: AP World, AP Lang, APUSH, AP Bio (Dual Enrollment Equivalent)
Senior Course Load):
+AP Calc BC (Dual Enrollment)
+Biology III (Dual Enrollment)
+Biology III Lab (Dual Enrollment)
+Biology Mentorship (Research) (Dual Enrollment)
+Bioengineering
+Innovations (Dual Enrollment Entrepreneurship Class: Design, Create, Present, Sell Technology Projects)
+AP Gov (Online)
+AP Lit
Self Study AP Physics 1
Pre-AP French 4 (Half Weighted)

Leadership:
-County Leadership Conference Delegate (9, 10, 11, 12)
-Youth Salute
-Science Fair Team Leader (Medical Research at a University, Presented at 3 Symposiums, Placed at Regional Science Fair and won 3 “Grand Prize” Science Fair Awards, Published Online) (11)

Awards:
-Girl Scout Bronze/Silver/Gold Award (All Medical Based)
-Girl Scout Silver Trefoil (100+ Volunteer Hours)
-FRC Robotics Chairmans Team Award (9, 10, 11)
-Robotics Team Dean’s List Nominee
-CIW Internet Business Associate Certification and CIW Site Development Associate Certification
-IT Certificate

ECs/Work:
-FIRST Robotics (9, 10, 11, 12)
-Programming/Sponsorship/Robot Strategy Student Leader, Summer Camp Counselor, Volunteering at Seasons and Off-Season Events, FIRST Student Ambassador, Keynote Speaker at World Championships Conference on Student Leadership, Directed Community STEM Expo
-Girl Scout (12 Years)
-Base School Medical Club (9, 10, 11, 12)
-Governors School Medical Club (11, 12, Outreach Director)
-SEAP Medical Internship + US Patent, (11, Project will also be published, probably online)
-National Honor Society (10, 11, 12)
-National Science Honor Society (11, 12, Council Chair)
-Governors School Math Club (12, Vice President)
-National Math Honor Society (11, 12)
-3D Printed Hand Prosthetics for a Nonprofit + Attended Handathons (11, 12)
-Technology integration into a campaign for STEAM modules to raise standardized test scores in elementary/middle school (11)
-Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholar (11, NASA Program where I focused on Biology Elements)
-Inspire US Student Leader (11, 12, Medical/STEM Focused Campaign with Civic Engagement)
-Personal Website, Advanced Coding (I’m talking pre-processors galore!)

Working On: Shadowing at a Hospital and working with the Red Cross

Minor/Might Not Mention:
-FBLA (9, 12)
-DECA (9)
-Key Club (9, 12)
-Assorted Hackathons
-Congressional App Challenge/Verizon App Challenge Participation
-3D Printing Competitions (Semifinalist/Finalist in a few)
-Tutored special needs students at local elementary school (10)
-Church Group (11, 12)

Schools Applying To:

Yale
Duke University
MIT
Johns Hopkins University

University of Pennsylvania

Brown PLME
University of Oklahoma BA/MD
University of Boston SMED
VCU BS/MD
Northwestern HPME
Penn State BS/MD
University of Rochester REMS
University of Pittsburgh GAP

University of Connecticut SPiM

UVA
Virginia Tech

What other schools would I consider? I’m applying to many college but that is what applying for BS/MD entails.

Overall: I’ve been careful to make my high school career focus on integration of medicine into all sorts of disciplines (NASA, community service, published research, 3D printing, robotics, coding, entrepreneurship). I’m taking bio “3” my senior year so that’s different I guess. I’d appreciate any feedback, please be brutally honest. Thanks! What are your guys’ favorite color?

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Oh, and the typical Honor Roll/Academic Letter/National Merit Commended Awards

Will not having shadowing hours hurt me? My mom works at a hospital (not as a doctor) so I’ve been going with her for graveyard shifts for as long as I can remember. I say this because from what I understand, shadowing is to make sure students understand and like their commitment to medicine. I want to pursue a physician-scientist career and research so I’ve been focusing on HS research.

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Not sure about the GAP’s and BS/MD programs, or anything of the like. UVA and VT are such safeties it isn’t funny.
As for other schools, I’ll rank them in oder from easiest-to-hardest for you, specifically (1 easiest, 5 hardest).
Yale-5
Duke University-2
MIT-4
Johns Hopkins University-1
University of Pennsylvania-3
Obviously, all are reaches for people generally speaking.
My two cents.

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Thank You so much! I really appreciate it

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For additional suggestions for your pre-med ambitions, this online list can be helpful: “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges with Great Pre-med Programs.”

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Just wondering, how do u fit all ur ec’s on there? I’m just a sophomore, but isn’t there a cap of 10?

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There is but some schools, especially top ones or specialty programs, allow you to submit resumes or portfolios. Plus I have my own website so I can fit a lot more stuff in. But yes, on the common app there is a cap of 10 so I’ll choose my top 10 or start combining things

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Should I even try to add in shadowing hours if I already have so much stuff?

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For BS/MD schools, I’m pretty sure shadowing matters. Don’t leave it out, but don’t over-emphasize it.

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Does shadowing include medical research internships in the lab? Or is it purely following a doctor in a clinical environment?

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A 3.95 unweighted is a low GPA - how novel. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Way too much stuff listed. Its difficult to read and paints an unfavorable picture. Based upon what you write above, it seems like you are a resume stuffer. Suggest to carefully pare down your EC list and present only the most relevant information.

If you are interested in medicine, why would Robotics and NASA be important? This is confusing to a reader.

You also need to show that you have some understanding what a physician does (volunteering, shadow, etc).

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My justification for VASTS was that I focused my projects and reports on medical innovations related to space. Robotics…is difficult to explain but public speaking, networking, scholarships, soft skills, project management, spreadsheets, programming, etc are still skills that I believe I’ll use in the future (Heck, I’ve used Python for my research project this year). Robotics also got me into 3D printing. The interdisciplinary thing is what I was going for but it’s too big of a commitment (20+ hours per week) to leave off at this point. I do get your point though. At the beginning of high school, I was sure my major was going to be BME, hence the medical club + robotics combo.

But I’m anxious to know how my list gives off “resume-stuffer” vibes. That is not what I was going for…leaving out the might not mention section (which are hobbies mostly) and aside from honor societies, there isn’t anything on this list I’m not passionate about :confused:

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Those IT certifications and skills are from one IT class alone. I’ll drop them if they distract from my medical focus. I think I see your point more clearly, thank you so much for your perspective! Is there anything I can do to make robotics not muddy my medical focus? Its a second family to me but is focusing on soft skills/general technical skills and scientific literacy a bad approach?

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I take that back, not too passionate about Math Club but that’s an iffy position to begin with because at the time of writing we are just finalizing the founding paperwork (not a club yet) and I might drop my position if my medical club commitments get bigger

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Look at it from the point of the reviewer. If you are truly that interested in all of these fields, it must mean you don’t have as much interest (or understanding) of medicine.

Most kids who get into BS/MD programs have a very good understanding of what its like to be a doctor. You seem to have a wide variety of interests, and may not be a good choice for a BS/MD program. It sounds like you should explore other options and go to a traditional 4 year college. Then after 4 years if you still are interested in med school then apply.

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@SATurdays Your stats look extremely solid. There is no guarantee for the top schools you mentioned, but chance are, if you apply for all of them, you will get into some. However there is one thing I would like to point out from my experience. Recently there has been a surge in competitiveness of medical school acceptance. If I were you, I would not major in Biology/Premed. Although people think that majoring in Bio will prepare them for the MCAT and increase their chances for medical school, I would major in something else. For example, my older brother majored in
Bio-medical Engineering at Harvard because he had many ECs relating to engineering (so do you). He told me that majoring in Biomedical Engineering set him apart from so many applicants. Now he has been accepted to med school at UChicago (close to 2% acceptance rate) Another thing to consider is what if you somehow don’t get into medical school, or end up not wanting to go to med school? A biology major is not very helpful in today’s job market. I am planning to major in computer science and hopefully go on to med school. But, anyways, whatever you end up doing you still have a good chance at top colleges.

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@java23 @sgopal2 You guys are spot on about your input I think, thank you! I never gave much thought about robotics because the business/programming skills I learned are skills I believe everyone should be experienced in.

I’m afraid people will misjudge robotics as an EC that tarnishes my interest in medicine but I can’t stress enough that my technical experience has been overshadowed by STEM outreach, public speaking, writing skills, etc… I want to go into infectious diseases which is why I even bothered with the math and robot strategy but I understand that there are better (read: med-related ) ways to go about it.

I think I have a strong background for BME but one of the reasons I dismissed it was because I’m not a fan of the engineering side (keep in mind I did business and programming, never electronics or build) and a BME degree alone won’t get you anywhere. I am definitely keeping the idea of alt. degrees for med school close though. Is there any way to integrate that into BS/MD or are these programs generally looking for pure biomed?

I think after the input I’ve gotten, I will cut down the BS/MD list but don’t think I’ll drop them all for now.

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@yikesyikesyikes In all reality, I was partially referring to my weighted gpa and meant to connect the concern to my mediocre class rank.

I think I will cut down on “embellishing” and “resume-stuffing” behaviours and save a few ECs for essay topics as the general idea is to talk about things listed nowhere else on your app.

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@SATurdays it’s important to have regular safety colleges and you may want to think about applying to a few lesser known BS/MD programs such as the ones paired with AMC. I cast a wide net like you did and got into Brown PLME and Case Western PPSP but ended up choosing Union/AMC because it gave me the opportunity to get a MBA along with my MD. So just make sure you explore all the options.