Chances Please? Never received Pre-med advising before.

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>I have never received any pre-med advising before but I was wondering how I was doing so far.</p>

<p>I am an incoming 3rd year in undergrad.
Academic:
-my undergraduate school uses the quarter system (Fall, Winter, Spring)
Overall GPA: 3.490
Science GPA: 3.836 (calculated myself)
-The only B's I received in science classes were just 2 B+'s in the 2nd and 3rd Organic Chemistry quarters. I got an A in the first one.
-The reason why my Overall is so much lower is because of two classes outside my major (C+ in Macroeconomics, and a C- in one of the writing courses.) I did have an upward trend, however since that C- was the 2nd quarter of freshman year and I ended up getting an A- in the 3rd quarter of the last class for that writing series. (does that count as improvement?)
-The rest of my nonscience course grades are A's and B's (mostly A's)
- I've completed General Chemistry (3 quarters A-,A,A) and the inorganic chem lab, A-.
- I've completed Organic Chemistry (3 quarters A, B+, B+)
- I've completed Physics with the lab supplements (3 quarters: AP credit for the first of 3, A in that lab, A/A(in lab), and A+/A(in lab))
-I've completed the English prereq (3 quarters B-,C-,A-)(freshman year)
- I've passed out of the lower division Biology series from AP credit, yet I am a biology major so I am taking quite a bit of upper division Biology courses. I have already taken 2 and received A's in both of them.</p>

<p>EC's:
Not anything too impressive.
-Captain for competitive sports club at my school. Not official school team but its competitive and fun.
-Leader of a nonprofit organization that travels, personally, to developing countries and aiding them with medical needs for about a week at a time.
-Been in leadership roles for a few other minor clubs on campus, that don't really do much besides host social events, and information sessions to help out underclassmen. I am no longer a part of them since I want to expand to better EC's that interest me.
-Worked in a bacteriology lab as a technician.</p>

<p>Other side notes:
-I really want to get into research. I really am into science so I want to definitely get an actual project going with a professor. Do I just email random professors to accomplish this?
-When I break a 3.5 overall GPA (hopefully), I will be admitted into the Honors Program. I'm hoping this will be done after the first quarter of this 3rd year since it has only been increasing since freshman year.
-I have made provost honors a few times from straight A's in a quarter.</p>

<p>I was just wondering if I have a shot at some U.S. allopathic schools?? (maybe a few suggested schools since I am not familiar with this process or Medical schools AT ALL.
Am I on the right track or should I change something up?
Should I explain my C- in my writing course for that one quarter? That literally is the biggest holdup on my GPA and basically my TA refused to give me any Essay scores over 65% for some odd reason, I had to kick into the 70% range from the midterm/final.
SHould I try to pursue research? Is that really something almost required for medical school admissions?
I plan on taking the MCAT end of next spring and summer (not too worried at all about the science sections, only the verbal)</p>

<p>My undergraduate is UC San Diego if that factors at all. It's a relatively difficult school since most classes are on a bell curve grading format.
Minoring in Management... if they will care about that. It is for my own knowledge.</p>

<p>Thank you in advance for reviewing my info. I'm welcome to any advice or criticism.</p>

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<p>Well I would suggest picking up the MSAR and seeing where you are but I think you definitely have a chance. One C is fine, just make sure you write a good admissions essay and do fairly well on the MCAT writing section. Research is not required at all but if you like science and you’re interested in research its to your benefit to give it a try. </p>

<p>One thing about taking the MCAT in the summer before senior year is that you would be slightly behind in the admissions game since schools are rolling admissions but if you take in spring you’ll be ahead. </p>

<p>As for difficulty of school, I’m not sure if medschools really factor that in. Also difficulty of school cannot be judged by a bell curve since almost all colleges are on a bell curve.</p>

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<p>I’ve glanced at a few of the medical school books and pretty much my Science GPA is above the average of most of them as is my Overall GPA is below the average of most of them haha.</p>

<p>Not really sure where that puts me. Am I allowed to go through taking 8+ upper div bio classes when I don’t have the general biology series? Or do med schools ABSOLUTELY require that general biology.</p>

<p>And, yeah I didn’t think difficulty of an undergrad matters much since most colleges are difficult. I just threw it out there to show people that I wasn’t at like a low state university instead.</p>

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<p>They just require 2 years of bio they don’t care what it is. The reason for taking intro bio is that the broad range of topics is good for the MCAT. If you think you’re fine for MCAT bio as is, then don’t worry about it. And if you’re not ready, honestly if you taken upper bio classes you should be able to self study.</p>

<p>I would advise you to ignore your cGPA and just compare your science GPA with the MSAR. I believe the MSAR lists median sGPA separate from median cGPA, if not you can find it at individual schools websites. My premed advisor told me that sGPA is the one that counts but others on this board have heard and advised differently.</p>

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<p>Yes, take MCAT in April - May of Junior year. Most prepare during spring semester, just make sure to have lighter academic schedule (D. has limited herself to 15 hours, but she has semesters, do not know how it translates to quarter system). I do not know how it is applicable to you, but she also worried about Verbal more, and was not able to improve it thru preparation either. She just got lucky to get a decent Verbal score in her actual MCAT, equal to the highest in her practice tests. Usually real scores are a bit below the highest in practice test, which was the case in other 2 sections. Her science sections improved a lot after prep. which is normal. Your goal is to improve your general GPA, though.</p>

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<p>Correction, that would be ONE year of bio required, but yes they don’t much care what it is. (Two years of chem.)</p>

<p>And no, there is no way to explain your C- in Writing that will be effective. Any story will just be perceived as an excuse. Since you received an A- in the last Q, you have demonstrated growth. The other factor to show non-science strength is to ace your other general ed requirements, such as history/poli sci.</p>

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<p>Oh yeah, I meant two semesters.</p>

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<p>

Further “correction” :slight_smile: , depends what country we are talking about. In the “soon to be independent again” nation of Tejas it is TWO years bio. TMDSAS is just a start. We are headed out again.</p>

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<p>But of course, if you don’t go BIG…</p>

<p>And in reality, the Republic will need to start buying US bonds, since no other state has any cash. I expect by next fall, y’all will own your own Big-TX sports cable stations, which will lock every competitor else out. Espn is for those cultural elites. :D</p>

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<p>My DD wanted to improve her GPA so she waited to apply after senior year; she took a gap year and did full time research. This worked well for her with all but one class upper div bio and As for senior year, she also was able to cement her prof relationships for LORs.</p>

<p>The scary part about you being a UC student is that CA has really tough med school admissions and high average MCAT scores. AZ is now accepting OOS.</p>

<p>Don’t explain your C, just prove it was an anomaly with excellent essays in your application.</p>

<p>You won’t know your chances until you get an MCAT score and don’t be smug if your practice scores are excellent, some people do better and some do worse on the real MCAT. Luck of the draw, your mood that day, which questions you get, etc.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the responses!!</p>

<p>What tiers or medical schools should I be applying to, assuming the GPA knocks up a bit more from this next year?</p>

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<p>You can determine yourself:</p>

<p>[Your</a> MCAT scores competitive? Find out - Medical School Finder](<a href=“http://www.studentdoc.com/medfind.html]Your”>Are Your MCAT Scores Competitive? - StudentDoc)</p>

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<p>That school selector thing isn’t that good… the LizzyM score excel file is much better, but I can’t seem to find it.</p>

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<p>^^I have it if anyone wants…</p>

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<p>i know its kind of silly to determine schools through spreadsheet but still can you upload it to [Free</a> File Hosting Made Simple - MediaFire](<a href=“http://www.mediafire.com%5DFree”>http://www.mediafire.com) , and post link?</p>

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<p>[Copy</a> of School_Selector.xls](<a href=“File sharing and storage made simple”>http://www.mediafire.com/?l65xqhvbmxezpke)</p>

<p>Side note: the highlighted schools were done by me, those are the ones that accept international students so you can remove the highlight if you want…</p>

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<p>Thanks so much!</p>

<p>So if we’re making a list of schools to apply to with the school selector in mind, should we pick like 1 or 2 from long shot for fun, 4-5 from hopeful, and like 5-6 from high chance?</p>

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<p>Nice GPA lol.</p>

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<p>University of Hawaii is looking pretty good to me right now :).</p>

<p>It doesn’t really matter what Medical school you do attend right?</p>