Medical School Prospects/Best Schools for my resume

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

Hey all,
Recently a lot of people in my friend group that are premed have been talking about the likelihood of acceptance to medical school. Most of them have great gpa’s compared to mine and have been considering dropping premed because they won’t get in. It’s been my dream as long as I can remember to go to medical school and would really like to know my chances realistically on getting in, what I can do improve chances and which medical schools could possibly be a best fit for me? I understand it’s a long post, but help would be SO appreciated.
Current Sophomore at a UC
GPA: 3.58 ( Had a difficult first few semesters, aka got Bs in math and Chemistry) Upward trend though
Majors: Neurobiology and Gender and Women’s Studies double major
EC’s:
-Leader in campus science club
-Director in Student Government
-Mentor in program to help young wom=n interested in stem fields
-TA for Chemistry (After getting a bad grade on the first exam I tried to pull it together and really understand the material, ended with a B but got offered the student teacher position)
-Ive been an RA since summer of my freshman year and work in a bakery part time (tuition man:()
-Working in a neurobiology lab, will most likely remain in the lab until graduation and complete an honors thesis on the research
-Volunteer at a Wom=ns Cancer Support Center

  • Will be shadowing physicians this summer
    -Taking night Spanish classes including medical span. at comm. college, will be fluent hopefully upon graduation
    -Am hoping to volunteer at a wom=n’s medical clinic in Madrid as part of a global internship the summer after my junior year
    Other info:
    -first generation college student, single parent home
  • After undergrad, I want to take a gap year to prepare my applications and work at a nonprofit focusing on wom=n’s healthcare and policy, the main reason I want to enter the medical field is to act as a physician for underserved populations
2

Its impossible to say without an MCAT, but 34.8% of applicants with GPAs of 3.4-3.59 got accepted to at least one medical school they applied to (national average is 42.3%). (https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/factstablea23.pdf)
If you want it broken down by race, you can look here: https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/factstablea24.html

3

Improve your GPA. No amount of ECs will make up for a weak GPA. You might consider:

  • a single major
  • creating more study time by limiting some of your other activities. (e.g. you will have plenty of time for medical Spanish if and when you are accepted to medical school)

You must do well in the pre-med science classes if you hope to do well on the MCAT.

Good luck.

4

The answer is simple and straightforward: got to pull the GPA higher!!

5

So if I were to bring my overall gpa up to a 3.7/ maybe 3.8, would my chances be relatively okay (assuming I score well on the MCAT)?

6

Get your GPA to a 3.6 and your chances become excellent (as long as your MCAT score is strong).
You may want to do a “glide year” and apply in June after senior year in college, holding a job (in a research lab preferably?) and going on interviews during that year. That gives you more time to bring your GPA up to a 3.6+ and to prepare for the MCAT.
You’re doing everything else right, and the fact you were chosen as a TA for the chem class is very eloquent :slight_smile:

7

As you can see from the chart I linked in post #1, without knowing MCAT score, 49.9% of students with a GPA of 3.6-3.79 were admitted to at least one medical school they applied to (get a 30-32 and it jumps to 60.9%). 67.4% for students with a GPA of 3.8+ (30-32 MCAT and it’s 74%).

8

Random thoughts

Drop one of the majors, med schools are only impressed with double major if you have great GPAs. Unlike hs to college where rigor is of greater importance, rigor of college to med school, not so important.

It’s best to take MCAT one time and do well. Develop a plan to prep and then do well on MCAT

Drop the trip to Madrid, it’s not impressive at all to adcoms, comes across as a vacation. Aren’t there women’s clinics closer to your school?

Although you can’t stay at home and play video games during gap year, you have to do something. However, realize the your post grad idea of working at a nonprofit is fine but not that big of a deal because adcoms will care more about what you’ve done, not what you will be doing in your gap year. The gap year is typically important to give a student the extra time/ courses of a senior year to repair GPA.

As to “after you graduate” you’ll take the gap year to work on apps, understand med school app process is a year long process. So right at time you’re graduating your applications should be completed and submitted. So you’ll be working on them during senior year, not during your gap year. Applying early is extremely important.

IMO less shadowing, more volunteering in clinical situations. Also IMO less trying to do every single EC known to man as opposed to a few with longer term ECs especially clinically.

Become very familiar with MSAR and what different schools expect, school mission statements. MSAR is a must. As to realistically chances of getting in, approx 60% of applicants fail to get in anywhere, worse if you’re a CA resident.

Develop relationships with people who hopefully will be able to write you strong LORs. Although med school would expect LORs that are more currently than one written for say a soph/jr student, if you develop a close relationship with prof, ask him/her to write letter and then as a senior, provide same prof with updated info about what you’ve been doing and ask him/her to refresh LOR. Also keep in mind that med schools commonly want 3 LORS from profs who you have taken a class from with 2 being science profs, 1 non science.

If it offers any hope, S finished first year at a UC with GPAs below 3.2 and is now a resident. Good luck.

9

I would drop the gender studies major to make room in the schedule for more BCMP so as to boost both cum and science GPA.

10

bump…

11

Don’t just bump…respond to what some of us posted.