NEED ADVICE! Medical school LOW GPA HIGH MCAT

Hello i know there are alot of the same posts out there but wanted to see if anyone has a similar situation to me. i attened CC before university and completly failed i graduated with a 2.08 overal gpa and a 1.45 science gpa. i kicked ass in university and currently have a 3.9 overall gpa. but if you add both gpas it brings me to a 3.3 overall and science gpa. i have a 515 MCAT score. Im geting ready to apply to med schools just not sure if i should do a masters or post bacc and what are my chances of getting in with my stats? everything else on my app is great volunteering cliniclas shadowing etc

any one have any advice> or anyone get in with the same stats? also how do you deicde where to apply im open to anywhere! thanks in advance!

@WayOutWestMom will have some direction for you

https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/factstablea23.pdf has some information. Of course, you need to have all of the other usual pre-med things and apply to those medical schools most likely to admit someone with your credentials (as opposed to those where your GPA falls under the auto-reject bar); you may want to see your college’s pre-med advising.

The pre-med forum section may be more helpful: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/

If you write a convincing explanation of why the difference in your performance at the 2 schools during your undergrad, then you may have a chance at those MD programs that reward re-invention. I think you will have some good luck w/ DO schools, which tend to be a bit more forgiving.

Since you have all your other ducks in a row (ECs, LORs, good MCAT, etc) then I would consider doing 1 round of applications, applying broadly to both re-invention loving MD programs AND DO schools and see if you get any bites.

MD programs to consider—Georgetown, Rosalind Franklin, Wayne State, EVMS, VCU, Creighton, MCW, Albany, NYMC, Nova-MD, SLU, Drexel, Quinnipiac, Tulane, George Washington, Loyola, Rush, Seton Hall. Maybe Wake Forest. Loma Linda, if you are a devout Christian and can abide by their lifestyle restrictions. Your in-state publics.

Any DO program.

If you don’t get any interviews, then you need to take a full year off to improve your GPA/sGPA with additional UL bio coursework or do a SMP. Don’t plan on re-applying until the 2021-22 cycle.

I would take a more conservative approach. I would take the hardest SMP program from a MD school such as the Gw program and further proof that your capability if you do well in that program. Your failure in CC should mostly related the lower level required courses and medical school will not forget or forgive that.

In addition, I am not sure how difficult is your 4 year college you are at. If it is a flagship state university you might have a better chance. A regional none directional school such as a local Cal State U, might not add much to your chances.

@WayOutWestMom is this true?

@WayOutWestMom said, in part, If you write a convincing letter… you ** may** have a chance…

The “If” and “may” by themselves are enormous hurdles, but in combination, probably fatal to your chances at MD school. I think you’d be wasting your money applying to MD schools. If you’re itching to apply, you should limit your attempt to DO schools. You’re not even close to GPAs of recent matriculated MD applicants and will probably get auto rejected before someone looks at your convincing letter.
https://www.aamc.org/download/321494/data/factstablea16.pdf

Most people outside of CA don’t know the difference between and UC and CSU, but if the name of the college is a distinctly regional one AND it’s a school that typically doesn’t send many applicants to medical school, it could hurt–especially given the OP’s dismal track record at community college (which most adcomms view as less academically challenging).

I really don’t know anything about medical school yet (just dappling in it as my son’s girlfriend is starting the process of applying this month) but one generic question…there does seem to be a take here that the chances would be very dim for this student given the earlier GPA (and despite the strong score)…is that because it’s so insanely hard to get into medical school (any medical school) that you pretty much need to be stellar going out the gate?

@SouthernHope

If one is applying directly from undergrad, there is the expectation that one has been a strong student all along with a high GPA. There are some schools and some adcomms that will give a some slack for less than perfect freshman grades or dip in GPA during sophomore ochem. But nothing is guaranteed, and practices vary from school to school and adcomm member to adcomm member.

There are about a dozen or so med schools that I know of that recalculate the AMCAS GPA of applicants to lessen the impact of freshman grades. And there is at least one med school that claims to consider mostly the applicant’s most recent 30 science credits.

The OP’s chance are not dim, but they are a great deal less than ideal because of their dismal grades at the CC. However, they overcame those and demonstrated excellence during their retakes and UL electives at an academically more challenging university. This could be their saving grace (together with an above average MCAT score–which I wouldn’t call high since the average matriculant had a 512 last year…)

It’s insanely hard to get into ANY med school, even with a perfect record. But admission committees consider applicants on a holistic basis. It’s not just about stats. It’s about everything else too. (And adcomms are, like everyone else, suckers for underdog-come from behind stories.)

About 60% of those who apply to medical schools get shut out. About 70% of those who do not get shut out get only one admission. This is after applying to 15-30 medical schools.

@SouthernHope
above stats overlook the very large number of students who start as premed, change their minds and never actually apply.

@thumper1 absolutely true

That being said, the 515 MCAT here helps a lot.

@texaspg I agree, a September MCAT is pretty bad to begin with, for this application I think it spells DOA.

Why is it bad to take the MCAT in September?

@melvin123

There’s nothing inherently bad about taking the MCAT in September–so long as one is not applying to medical school that same year.

Taking the MCAT in September and applying the NEXT year is a perfectly fine strategy.

It takes 4 weeks to get a MCAT score back and med schools close their application windows in mid-to-late October. Plus once the score is back, the applicant still has to get through AMCAS verification (which takes about 2 weeks) and write & return a half dozen essays (secondary applications) for each school. Even if one somehow manages to squeak in under the deadline, there are very, very, very few interview slots left. (Med schools start interviewing in August.)

@SouthernHope besides the very helpful posters here, you can look on Student Doctor Network. That site seems very helpful. My D also recently paid $30 for access to something else…I am not sure what it is but I am sure others will.

If you want to PM me you can. I am not an expert ( others here are) but am now going through the process with my D…she isn’t applying right now.

The $30 thing is the MSAR.

The Application deadline is somewhere between October 15th to 30th for most schools. The process is that one files the AAMCS application, defines which schools to apply to or wait for MCAT score to figure out the choices. The schools need to provide their secondaries to be submitted and one has to write those essays.

So you are essentially playing with one week spare time and pray that all stars are aligned for the perfect timing.

None of that guarantees that any interview slots are left over by the time your applications meets the exact deadline.

To put that into perspective. I got admitted to my program on October 31st and had been to like 75% of my interviews by that point.