I think I’m going to flunk my SAT. After failing the writing section of a practice exam, I flung my book across the room.
Community college is my best option now. Will this hurt me? How can I still conduct research? What courses should I be taking? What courses should I not take? (in terms of prerequisites)
Well, you may have a bigger issue…
It appears from your previous posts, that you didn’t finish high school, so your science foundation may be very weak.
And, it sounds like you’re not a very good test-taker.
Are your writing skills weak as well?
MD/PhD students generally have very high MCAT scores, along with an excellent GPA. I’m guessing that the PhD portion of their program requires or expects good writing skills (but I’m just guessing).
To answer your Q… you will have a tougher time if you start at a CC. You won’t likely be doing research at the CC and when you transfer to your univ, the students who’ve been there will likely get the plum spots.
It is extremely unlikely that you could be a successful MD/PhD applicant if you are a traditional applicant who applies the summer before senior year begins. But maybe it is typical these days for MD/PhD to apply after gap years, etc.
Why do you want to go the MD/PhD route?
I don’t think CC is a kiss of death for MD/PhD, but you will have to transfer and graduate from a 4 year institution, and my guess is you will need at least 1-2 gap years in order to be competitive enough. If you get enough research experience and good grades and a good MCAT, I think the CC start won’t matter.
My understanding of what resources CCs typically have means you will not be able to get involved with research through the CC - and I wouldn’t bank on being able to get any sort of position outside of the CC either. Any university is going to preferentially take its own students. You would probably have to target PIs who take high school students into their labs since you will probably be considered to be at that level until you transfer to a 4 year school. Since you’ll have to take significant upper level sciences unlike a straight pre-med, you could probably get away with taking intro bio at CC. Normally it’s best to focus on GEs in CC and save as many of the prereqs as possible (which are more important for admissions) for the 4 year school.
Now, as mom2 correctly points out, the fact that you are doing so poorly on the SAT and may not be able to get into a 4 year college is the worrying part. MD/PhD admissions is more competitive than MD - which is already incredibly competitive, and it’s only getting more competitive. According to my MSTP director, it’s gotten to the point where anything below a perfect score from interviewers probably means waitlist at best. The test scores and GPAs are certainly higher than MD only, the expectations for the transcript are higher than MD only, and the EC expectations are also generally higher too (different programs have different opinions on how much of the typical MD stuff they want to see in MD/PhD applicants in addition to the extensive research experience they want to see). That doesn’t mean you can’t turn things around, but you need to be realistic about where you currently stand, and where you need to eventually be. When you get to CC and eventually your 4 year school, you’re going to have to make use of any and all available resources to catch up with the kids you’ll be competing against for MD/PhD spots.
Having just gone through the process of writing my 180 page dissertation - yes, writing is critical in science. It’s one of the biggest misconceptions among kids (not saying you have this misconception) that science and humanities exist in this dichotomy where one involves lots of reading and writing and the other doesn’t. I’m not super familiar with the new SAT, and when I took it, there was no writing section. I remember the SAT2 writing was mostly a grammar test and that the essay was its own distinct style of writing that isn’t really reflective of real world writing. I say that because I don’t think being able to write a perfect scoring essay on the SAT means one is actually a superior writer to someone with a good score, but the differences between a good score and a bad score are based on important elements in writing.
I concur with previous posters that it is going to be an uphill battle for you to attain the MD/PHD level. However, it is not entirely impossible for a CC student to catch up and be successful. I think what you should do first of all is trying to take learning seriously and get the highest grade possible while you are in CC, perhaps all As. From there, you should try to get all As in the 4 years school afterwards.
Its going to be hard to get any research opportunity while you are in CC, but when you get into a 4 year college, hopefully with an University with med school and hospitals, you should try to get all research opportunities, during and after the semester. In addition, you may need gap years to keep up the research efforts to be selected as MD/PHD candidate.
In a different profession, I know some one personally who came from a humble CC background and became a top scientist in NASA and was a director in major space missions.
Good luck.
@artloversplus @iwannabe_Brown @mom2collegekids Thank you guys; maybe it is possible. My writing skills are actually not that bad. I just need to improve my test-taking skills.
I should have mentioned that one of my MD classmates started at a CC and transferred to Cornell before ending up in the same medical school class as me. He’s about to finish the 2nd year of his general surgery residency at a USNWR top 20 hospital.
@iwannabe_Brown An inspirational, exemplary story always gives hope. Perhaps I am overreacting and won’t have to attend a CC; I believe I did well enough on the SAT. I panicked to be honest. My score should be somewhere from 1250-1350. This combined with the chemistry and Biology E/M subject tests should make me competitive for university admissions. Also, could you take a look at my latest thread? I’d like to have your opinion.
I don’t do chances so I’m not going to comment on the specific schools, but I can’t imagine a 3.6 GPA in high school with a 1250/1600 SAT winds up at community college unless you can’t get any aid anywhere. There’s a website that lists all the schools with auto admit/scholarship. I believe I’ve seen @ucbalumnus post it. I don’t recall the link off hand. Depending on your SAT score, you might be below most of them, but maybe with a retake and better studying you could clear the thresholds at a bunch of the schools.
The most discussed school for automatic scholarship is U Alabama. You should start from there. But with uw 3.6gpa you might not get much scholarships. Nevertheless if you look hard in cc, there is a list of schools that cost less than $20,000 or $25,000 total COA, perhaps they might be cheaper than go to a cc.
Here is the link
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1651944-very-low-cost-oos-coa-universities-less-than-25k-coa-for-everything.html#latest
For Alabama at least, it’s not the GPA you have to worry about. All of the auto OOS scholarships have a 3.5 GPA cutoff. They vary with SAT/ACT score (http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html)
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Perhaps I am overreacting and won’t have to attend a CC; I believe I did well enough on the SAT. I panicked to be honest. My score should be somewhere from 1250-1350. This combined with the chemistry and Biology E/M subject tests should make me competitive for university admissions. Also, could you take a look at my latest thread? I’d like to have your opinion.
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Please let me know what your SAT ends up being.
I have a Facebook group of parents of pre-professional students at UAlabama (mostly premed, but also prelaw, prePA, prePT, etc). Virtually all of these students are on full or 2/3 tuition scholarships…so these are students who had a minimum of an ACT 30 or SAT equivalent.
Started the group late in October (mistake! Wish I had started 12 months ago!). The admissions results were all very good, with the exception of one strong-stats applicant who applied late (Sept/Oct) and therefore received no IIs.
The rest of the applicants all received multiple acceptances. One did apply to MD/PhD programs and also received multiple acceptances. I think he chose UPenn or WashU (don’t remember).
I think Alabama is a great school for strong students who are premed. The sciences are strong, the school does Committee Letters, and the advising is evolving because so many OOS students attend and are applying nationwide. If you are a SERIOUS student, with the interest and academic talents to do well in the premed prereqs, including Orgo and your chosen major, then you’ll likely emerge with a med-school worthy GPA.