Chance me for med school...odd case

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hi folks,</p>

<p>I am entering my last sem. of my Jr. year. I majored in Electrical Engineering in college (UC Berkeley) and got killed in all the EE courses and a couple CS courses. </p>

<p>As such assuming the semester goes as planned my AO GPA will be ~ 2.8 and my BCPM will be just over 3.5. I received characteristically horrible grades in the EE courses which pulls down my AO. Unfortunately at Berkeley that means I received pretty much the mean scores in my EE classes so I wasn't slacking off persay. In fact, due to AP creds all but one of my AO courses are EE, CS, or Engineering. </p>

<p>Also, my overall is ~ a 3.4, which is pretty good for an EECS student. </p>

<p>I also received all my non-A's in the engineering science prereqs (IE: not premed physics, but physics for scientists and engineers, and advanced mathematics for engineers) which pulled down my BCPM. That is to say, for the premed reqs, I aced my lower and upper division chem and bio coursework but got a couple C's in lower div physics and math which I was forced to take a more difficult, grade deflated version of as an engineer. </p>

<p>The bright side here is there was a huge upward trend (did perfect on difficult UpperDiv coursework [no research fluff to pad GPA]), I have a 2nd author medical publication (J.biophys) and 2.5 yrs research exp. in a medical field, the usual clinical work, and a 39R on my MCAT as well as excellent LoR's from my two PIs. I also have a poster presentation at the biophysical society. So IMO, whats anchoring me is my GPA.</p>

<p>I want to get into medical school immediately after graduation, so my GPA will be what it is now assuming all A's this coming semester. With these statistics is there any chance of getting into a decent MD/PhD program (I want a research career). If not, I'd also like my chances on a straight MD (though I probably have less clinical work than other apps since my focus was solely research).</p>

<p>If I don't get in this cycle, I would probably just go for my Masters in EE and start working so this is my only shot.</p>

<p>I would like to emphasize, and I may say this on my app, that doing EECS at Berkeley along with premed requirements was a mistake since I realized later on I wanted to be a doctor. However, it would have taken me an extra year to graduate with a "softer" major.</p>

2

<p>What medical school?</p>

<p>Looks like you have a good shot at most medical schools, just apply around and see what happens if you want to go in the medical field. You probably wont get into Harvard Med, but im sure you will get into something like UC Davis school of medicine.</p>

<p>If you want to do combined phd/md then apply to all of those programs, since those require acceptance into that schools school of medicine.</p>

<p>Although i don't understand why you say either md/phd, or md or masters in EE, i think you need to focus your objective. Those who come from a junior college can still go to a medical school, so anything is possible just focus on what you want</p>

3

<p>what extracurriculars do you have?</p>

4

<p>1st priority: Good Md/PhD program to set myself up for research (needs to be prestigious from what I've heard to have a good research career).</p>

<p>2nd priority: Decent MD program (in-state CA, no Carribean, no DO). I wouldn't mind clinical work, and I feel like I could do well in MD to set up for a good residency with the strong work ethic instilled by my engineering program. </p>

<p>3rd priority: MS in EE (last resort). I realized after doing an internship at a company the summer after frosh that an engineering career was not what I desired. While the pay is nice, you don't feel like you are making a difference plus I had little people contact in my position. Many of my EECS friends reported similar experiences at their interships.</p>

<p>My significant extracurriculars (in plain english...not jazzed up yet):</p>

<p>Research:
1 minor publication that focused on muscle fatigue in J. biophysics. 2nd author.
1 pending publication of similar topic...2nd author
1 poster presentation that had to do with muscle fatigue in vitro.
1 yr rotation in UCSF laboratory, moved to a colleagues laboratory in Berkeley for another 1.5 years.
Computational Biology rotation that unfortunately resulted in absolutely nothing...</p>

<p>Clinical:
Hospital Volunteering. Emphasized direct patient contact. Started out by bringing blankets, food, and water. Moved to installing IV drips. --> 400+ hrs
Shadowed a physician --> 30 hrs.
Played music at a nursing home --> 10 total hrs.
Set up an initiative with a few members from my university to develop and deliver low-cost food preservation initiatives to rural areas of India. While I won't say it on the application, the project only a minor success since we lacked significant funding and used seed capital from our jobs. As I am from India, this project was pretty easy and extremely fun for me. I was in India for 2.5 mo. for this project.--> Did over summer after soph. year.
Certified EMT-B...no real work experience yet though. No time! lol.
Some pre-med clubs in college with lofty goals but limited efficacy. </p>

<p>Work stuff:
Worked in the engineering dept. of a video analytics company. --> 7 months
UCSF IT webmaster for a few labs during a rotation there. --> 4 mo.
Signiciant experience in C, C++, Java, Python, Perl, MySQL and Postgres experience through work and school.</p>

<p>As you can see, my research isn't extremely strong--no Science or Nature pubs like some others I've seen on Sdnet.</p>

5

<p>I think your research is decent although your GPA is pretty low (3.4 is around a std. dev below the mean for matriculants). I think you're looking at a low-end MSTP program or a mid-tier MD program (although a low-end MSTP program would be at a mid-tier med school since only the top 35 or so med schools even have MSTP programs).</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the realistic perspective NCG, but I have a few more questions:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Is there anything I can do between now and when I apply to make myself more competitive for MSTP? I'm trying to get out a publication, but other than that, I'm clueless as to what do.</p></li>
<li><p>What MSTP programs would you recommend?</p></li>
<li><p>Would it be better to take a summer load (easy A's) to boost my GPA and apply in September with a slightly higher GPA? </p></li>
<li><p>Are there any other research-centric activities that are helpful for MSTP that I can do in this short timeframe?</p></li>
</ol>

7

<p>Your application is already decent for MSTP, except for the GPA which you cannot raise appreciably in a short amount of time. I do not suggest applying in September. The cost/benefit of doing so is not worth it.</p>

<p>For you, I suggest applying to all of the lower end MSTP programs (UIC, Tufts, Albert Einstein, etc.). I assume you're going to be applying to all of the CA schools anyway so the MSTP programs at the CA schools will be your reaches. And then throw in some mid-tier schools for which you'll apply via the MD-only program and you have your application list.</p>

8

<p>Have you considered Osteopathic Medicine?</p>

9

<p>^^My goal is an MD/PhD and have a research career so osteopathic medicine makes no sense. I'm even debating whether I should go for a straight MD over a career in engineering. </p>

<p>I am hoping that adcoms will realize that I majored in something very difficult, and that it was classes required for my major that brought down my GPA.</p>

<p>So I am hoping that adcoms will account for my MCAT score (39R), my institution, and my difficult major (EECS @ Cal is supposed to be one of the toughest and grade-deflated) in their decisions. </p>

<p>When I apply, I will try to make the adcoms realize at a glance that my program was very grade deflated. I will do that by promoting my MCAT and my research as well as my success in Upper-Div courses.</p>

<p>I want to be like this guy lol.</p>

<p>MDapplicants.com</a> - View Profile</p>

10

<p>while adcoms say they don't give leeway to people who come from more prestigious schools, they do give some leeway to people of engineering majors. I have heard this a lot from different people. Also, since you are from Berk. (one of the top in the nation in engineering), I would think that they would give you some pity. </p>

<p>Lastly, ur GPA isn't that bad. </p>

<p>Go Bears</p>

11

<p>Berkeley's track record of getting its applicants into top med schools is actually quite poor. It does well with the UC med schools and certain other med schools (like University of Michigan) but not with prestigous east coast med schools. I don't really understand why.</p>

12

<p>Is 3.4 really that bad? I mean, I know 3.6 is the average, but wouldn't that mean that at least 50% of people must have had below a 3.6?</p>

13

<p>The average GPA may not equal the median GPA.</p>

14

<p>
[quote]
Is 3.4 really that bad? I mean, I know 3.6 is the average, but wouldn't that mean that at least 50% of people must have had below a 3.6?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>As I said already, the std dev for matriculants is quite small (~0.2 or so). This means that a 3.4 puts you roughly in the bottom 16-20% of people going to med school. Throw out all the URMs and you don't have very many students who have GPA's that low.</p>

15

<p>oh, ok thanks guys</p>

16

<p>They do have DO/PhD programs</p>