Non-Traditional Medical School Hopeful

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.

With that GPA (especially the science GPA), don’t be surprised if you don’t make it. Obviously, the MCAT plays a huge role in the application process as well, but even with a near perfect score, I don’t see you being admitted. I think the average GPA for admitted medical students is closer to 3.7 so I would definitely retake classes and try your best to get closer to that number. Good luck!

Sorry, grade replacement is not allowed in med school application.
You should ask this question in the pre-med section on cc and the answer is a long one.

My son graduated summa cum laude with a BS (pre-med) from a top tier urban university in 2016, scored in the 96 percentile on his MCAT, works as a technician in a prestigious university hospital, is an EMT, had 7 interviews at MD schools, got wait listed at 3, and did not get in. He applied to east coast schools only. This year he decided to give it another go and included DO schools, and all over the country. He’s already been accepted to 2 DO schools and is interviewing so far at 2 MD schools. My advice is to open up your school search and apply to as many in areas that you can stand to live in for four-eight years, include DO schools which will be blending their residencies in 2018 with MD schools. We do not understand why he didn’t get in the first time, other than as soon as he sent in his FASFA, he was rejected. Sadly, med school seem to want wealthy students who can pay their own way, or are only interested in undergrads who graduate from IVY schools only. Not to be discouraged this time around.

You don’t mention the undergraduate school, so I assume it is not a top one. It doesn’t seem close to med school level. You might consider DO, dental school, PA or something like that.