I'm getting back on the horse. Any advice for the future?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>So, at the ripe old age of 26, I've decided to chase my dream of being a medical doctor.</p>

<p>I spent about 5 years going to a small state school close to my home town. I dropped way more classes than I passed and I received a few D's and F's in the ones that I didn't drop. The last time I attended, I had a GPA of 2.39. Sounds awful, but I brought that up from a 0.0. Nothing to be proud of, but I was after a disgraceful first 2 years. I hopped around from major to major until I decided on mathematics. I decided on this around the same time my best friend passed away. Her death led to me dropping out of school entirely and scrapping my plans. </p>

<p>I met my fiance two years ago and she's helped educate me a great deal. She's received her degree in biology from the University of Chicago and is smart as a whip! She's also been there to help me through hard times and has motivated me to get where I am now. </p>

<p>I will be attending a community college this spring and I will be taking all of my premed requirements there as well as a few math courses. I then plan on transferring to either my old 4 year university or another 4 year university in the area, south Texas, or somewhere in the Minneapolis, MN area. </p>

<p>I believe that my GPA will be in the 3.0-3.3 range when I graduate, so I know that it's a bit low for US medical school acceptance, so I'm curious as to whether or not I should apply to a masters program in mathematics instead of applying to medical schools right out of college. I am majoring in applied mathematics and I plan on having minors in biology, chemistry, and physics by the time I graduate. I am also going to become deeply involved with different organizations on campus and try to get some medical volunteer experience under my belt. </p>

<p>I know I'm working against the odds here, but this is what I want to do and I plan, very fully, on doing it. Any help you all can give me is more than appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>A master’s in math will be of no help in med admissions. Zero. A Master’s in bio would be better than math, but…</p>

<p>…I would think your best bet is to get that gpa over 3.0, earn as many A’s as you can in the premed science courses, rock the mcat and apply to (Special Master’s Programs) SMP’s, where you can demonstrate your academic prowess against read medical school students.</p>

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<p>I agree with blue…</p>

<p>D1 was a non trad with math & physics degree. Her undergrad GPA was 3.44. While med school admissions didn’t hold it against, neither did it help her. No one cared she had A’s in graduate physics classes at all. What the adcomms looked at were her key pre-med pre-req grades–OChem, especially–which she rocked with an A+/highest grade in a class of 220. And her MCAT (which was 36).</p>

<p>(BTW, please don’t take your key pre-reqs at a community college, adcomms will hold that against you.)</p>

<p>Skip the math Master, do outstanding in your bio minor, do well enough in math major to raise your GPA in to 3.0+ range, work hard on having LOTS of medicine-related ECs. (Adcomms really like to see a lot of medicine interest/involvement for non-trads.)</p>

<p>Take the MCAT, then either apply for SMPs or DO schools, depending on what your GPA and MCAT score looks like.</p>