Hello all,
So I am currently an undergrad who is going to be applying to medical school. I have been talking to some of my friends, family, and coworkers on my chances of getting into medical school. I understand that no matter what anyone says it all depends when I apply to the schools. I was looking here to see if I can get some peoples opinions on what my chances are for applying to medical school in August 2018. I am concerned with my GPA and was looking for feed back on whether I should take more years off to retake some classes.
I currently have a 3.36 GPA, 3.2 science GPA, and a 3.5 non-science GPA. I have not taken my MCAT yet but I understand that will play a massive role in medical school acceptance. When I applied to undergrad I had no idea what I wanted to do and came in Athletic Training, which I absolutely hated, and I switched to Emergency Medicine in my junior year. I did receive A and B grades in all of my athletic training and emergency medicine classes (all medical classes) but they do not count towards my science GPA. My first 2 years I did not want to go to medical school and did not get to interested in the natural sciences, getting Bs and Cs. However in my junior year, I graduated from paramedic school (taken in my emergency medicine program) with a 4.0 where I fell in love with medicine. Where I think I stand out is outside the classroom. I have been volunteering on a local Fire and Rescue department since I was 16 (I’m 22 now). I got my EMT and firefighter certification both at 17 and have been volunteering ever since with approx. 5,500 volunteer hours in 6 years. I also worked as a paid EMT for 3 years, for an additional 2,000 patient care hours. I picked up my paramedic certification in my junior year and have been working as a paramedic ever since (1.5 years with approx. 1750 patient care hours). I picked up my critical care certification along with being a fire medic. I also picked up my tactical paramedic certification and have also been working with my local government doing active shooter, hostage, etc. training with police and SWAT incase we get called out (all volunteer). I belong to multiple medical organizations at my university, I volunteer teaching CPR for the past 4 years, and I am a lab instructor for EMT courses in my area. I also partake in class/presentations that promote “Stop the Bleed” campaign as active shooter survival, and how to react during mass casualty incidents. I have also won multiple awards in my town for actions performed on the job and my volunteer work. All together I have had 9,250 patient care/volunteer hours and will hopefully be around 11,000 when I apply in a year. In those hours I have seen over 2,000+ patients. I also have more extracurricular activities but I just wanted to state my medical ones as those will be most important.
Please let me know if you think I will or will not get in, I will not be offended anyway. I am most interested in knowing whether my extracurriculars will out weigh my lower GPA. I am simply looking for feed back as to whether I should retake some classes to obtained a higher GPA. Thank you for your help.