Chance me at medical school- do I have a chance? my prospects?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>cumulative Gpa 3.29
only had 2 jobs working retail</p>

<p>I'm in my third year undergraduate still working to complete his associate degree for liberal arts and science. Afterwards, I'll have to declare a major, and I'm undecided. Thinking about going into business, but I can also see myself as a potential doctor.</p>

<p>At this stage, do I have a chance going to medical school? Does my major have to affiliate with that of science?</p>

<p>So far I've taken the following pre-med requirements</p>

<p>chem 1- B+
Biology 1- B
Biology 2- B-
English 1- B
calculus 1-B+
Calculus 2- B</p>

<p>I may need to go into my 5th year, does it look bad?</p>

<p>I plan to transfer to a larger school in the spring of 13'' (still a junior), is it too late to look for research? shadowing? volunteer work?</p>

<p>What should I do right now to prepare? I realize GPA and MCAT are imperative to admission.</p>

2

<p>are you transferring to a bachelor’s program? I don’t think you can apply to medical school with just an associate’s degree.</p>

3

<p>Yes, I am scheduled to transfer in the spring of 13 to a larger school to finish my bachelor. Major is still up in the air as of now.</p>

4

<p>bump 10 char</p>

5

<p>Without a OChem grades and a MCAT score, it’s really impossible to say. But you are off to a very rocky start grade-wise.</p>

<p>You should read this thread:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1331981-new-pre-med-students.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1331981-new-pre-med-students.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Your major does not have to be in science, anything is fine as long as it’s an academic subject.</p>

7

<p>That’s very accommodating to hear, entomom. Thank you.</p>

<p>Do I still have a shot? I know my science grades & overall GPA is less than stellar. I’m willing to work extra hard my last 2 or so years while a undergrad.</p>

<p>What do I need to do right now to be competitive? shadowing? volunteer? I’m planning to do research when I transfer to a different school, is it too late? </p>

<p>Be blunt and harsh if needed be.</p>

<p>Best,</p>

8

<p>You can do all the shadowing and volunteering in the world but if you don’t get that GPA up you may never get past the filter many schools have in place to weed out applicants. That and rocking the MCAT should be your biggest priorities right now.</p>

9

<p>This is my general response to these questions:</p>

<p>To be considered for a spot in medical school, you have to hit a set of minimum academic stats–probably to the tune of >3.6 and >30 on the MCAT (or whatever the equivalent is on the new 2015 scoring). To raise your GPA, you need to take a bunch of classes and you need to do really well (>A) in them. You should aim for no grade lower than B+. This will be very resource (time, money, energy) intensive.</p>

<p>You need to do great on the MCAT. You will need to study extensively (for at least a few months) and dedicate a nice portion of your academic energy to MCAT and MCAT prep. This will also be very resource intensive, but probably not as much as raising your GPA.</p>

<p>You need to cultivate a wide range of high quality extra curricular activities. You should shoot for covering a range of the following: research (bench and/or clinical), shadowing (both a broad range of specialties and a lot of time spent with one doc to really get to know him/her), clinical experience (although you can get a lot of this while shadowing an doing clinical research), volunteer work (something you’re passionate about), and hobbies (to show that you’re more than just a drone who does school). Leadership experience and employment would be great too, if possible.</p>

<p>You’ll need to form deep and meaningful relationships with professors and mentors who can attest to your character and your dedication to a career in medicine so they can write stellar recommendation letters for you.</p>

<p>Ideally, there will be an underlying theme to the work that you do, which not only resonates with you personally but also sets you up for professional success as a physician. You should be able to communicate this passion and drive–both written and verbally–superbly.</p>

<p>Once you’ve accomplished the majority of the above, then you’ll need to dedicate about another year to actually applying–researching schools, crafting a list, applying, completing secondaries, attending interviews, etc. Another huge investment of your resources.</p>

<p>Take home point: applying to medical school is a huge investment of your resources, which include time, energy, and money. It is a commendable goal, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right path for everyone. While you’re exploring whether medicine is for you (which you should be able to do by completing the above), you should also have a critical eye toward medicine and seriously consider alternative careers (if, for no other reason, than it will give you peace of mind that you chose the right thing).</p>

<p>I wholeheartedly believe that if you can accomplish most of what I just wrote, you’ll have an MD behind your name at some point in the future. Good luck!</p>

<p>(and Re: the GPA question. I go to a state med school in the midwest which is only known for family medicine. My class’s avg GPA was 3.8, which happened to also be my GPA. I had 6 B+s and the rest As on my AMCAS transcript, and 2 of those were from high school.)</p>

10

<p>I took some time to evaluate my grades and prospects of getting into medical school. Given I strive A’s the rest of my years of undergrad, I’ll be at a 3.6. I’m fully committed to study MCATS. However, I’ll let this semester unfold and see what other paths is available before immersing myself into a career that will require a lot of time, money & energy. Thank you.</p>

<p>Do you think being a 2nd semester junior will give me enough time to prepare for Mcats, shadowing, volunteer work, etc?</p>

11

<p>there’re also lots of other health related careers out there with less stringent admission requirement and potentially better life satisfaction, depending on what you’re looking for. nursing, physician assistant, occupational therapist, nutritionist, social worker, optometrist, etc. I think sometimes it’s worth not getting too caught up on one career idea, instead broadening one’s outlook a little bit. Once you do that, the GPA is less of a handicap and possibilities become endless.</p>

<p>Do you think being a 2nd semester junior will give me enough time to prepare for Mcats, shadowing, volunteer work, etc?</p>

<p>Not an expert here, but I think that’s a lot to cram into even one year. you can get started on all of them, but to accumulate enough of these experiences takes time.</p>

12

<p>It depends on when you’re planning to apply. Personally, I got my feet wet with each of those areas freshman year, got substantially more involved during the winter of my sophomore year, and became steadily more involved during my junior and senior years. I applied during the summer between junior and senior years (having taken the MCAT that same spring), was accepted during my senior year, and began med school a few months after graduation. </p>

<p>There’s really no such thing as a typical path, and I certainly wouldn’t claim that mine was typical. Perhaps it is representative of students who go straight from undergrad to med school and have very few hiccups along the way (ie, I had good grades, a decent MCAT score, a nice mix of classes, a great support system, no health or mental health problems, etc).</p>

<p>I think it will take you at least two years to build up sufficient experiences, assuming you hit very few hiccups along the way. So, if you’re starting these experiences spring '13, I think you’ll be working on them well into '15, and probably applying '15/'16 at the earliest.</p>

<p>Just my opinion though. Have you tried talking to people at the school you’re transferring to?</p>

13

<p>OP–since you’ll likely be applying for 15/16 as kristin suggests, please be aware that the content of the MCAT is changing in spring 2015. More science content, more math content plus a whole new subsection on human behavior that will include topics from psychology, sociology, and possibly medical ethics and medical anthropology. </p>

<p>It’s also possible the med school admission requirements may be changing to better match the new new MCAT.</p>

<p>Please consult with the pre-med advisor at your college for more information.</p>