I’m currently facing a pre-med dilemma. I attend Stony Brook University as an Applied Math and Stats major with a minor in Chemistry. I am going to be a junior this spring, plan to take physics 1 and 2 over the summer, in order to graduate by next year in May 2020. I plan on taking OChem 1 and 2 next year and biochem in the summer after graduating. That is also the time I plan to take my MCAT and apply for medical school. This means I would have graduated undergrad in 3 years and planning to take a gap year before medical school. I have a tremendous amount of community service/volunteering hours along with being employed with ScribeAmerica, but my GPA is the average for medical school applicants. During the gap year I am hoping to continue working at a hospital in the ED to support my family financially and get research experience. Would medical schools look down on me because I graduated early but only to support family in my gap year?
I have also been reconsidering a biochemistry major. I still have the opportunity to graduate in 3 years, but I would need to take ochem 1 and 2 in the summer rather than physics so that I can take biochem 1 and 2 in the following fall and spring (ochem 2 is a pre req for biochem 1). I still plan on taking a gap year to make money and support my family. I enjoy taking math and science classes and really have no preference of graduating with an Applied Math or Biochemistry degree. I enjoy learning both. Should I switch to Biochemistry and take ochem 1 and 2 in the summer or stay an Applied Math major and take physics 1 and 2 over the summer and potentially having a weaker preparaion for the MCAT?
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med school adcomms don’t care what your major is and do not prefer one major over another. (Both my Ds was math majors who went to med school.)
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you will be neither be penalized nor praised for graduating early. Seriously adcomms don’t care and aren’t impressed with 3 year whiz kids grads.
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Do you have a pressing financial reason why you want to graduate early?
Because some of your plan seems high risk to me. Ochem in the summer is highly accelerated and compressed. The schedule leaves little time to recover from one poor quiz grade or less than immediate perfect understanding of the concepts. -
Are you using AP/IB credits for any your med school pre-reqs? Because not all med schools accept AP/IB credits and those that do expect those credits to be supplemented by a equal number of credit hours of upper level coursework in the same department.
Will you have taken psychology and sociology? What about 2 semesters of college writing? Those are med school pre-reqs too.
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You say you have tremendous amount of community service hours. Were those hours accumulated while in college? Because honestly med schools aren’t going consider stuff you did during high school. Was your service with disadvantaged populations? Med schools are looking for selfless service to other who are less fortunate than you.
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You say your GPA is average. What is your current cumulative GPA and your science GPA (only math, bio, chem, physics classes? What pre-reqs have you completed?
If you could answer these questions, we can better advise you.
If you don’t take physics over the summer, when would you take it? Beginning in fall '19?
Due to the heavy emphasis of biochemistry on the MCAT, I’d recommended that you take two semesters of biochemistry in any case.
The AP/IB credits I have acquired were just for general ed requirements with exception of introduction to psychology and calculus I. Though I did take calculus II and statistics during my freshmen year. I have also finished 3 semesters of intensive writing.
Currently, I live with my mother and brother in the US while the rest of my family is out of the country. My brother goes to college and has tuition to pay over there and my mom is in debt, not to mention the tuition we have to cover for my institution as well. By taking a gap year after graduation, I hope to support my family or at least get my mom back up on her feet for her to deal with the rest while I attend medical school.
About community service/volunteering, I am an active member of a service organization that constantly serves communities of all sorts ranging from homeless shelters to trauma centers. I have been a member of this organization since the first week of my freshmen year (About 3 and a half semesters from now) in which I would attend about a service event every once to twice a week.
My cum GPA is 3.6 with science GPA being 3.54. So far, I finished general chemistry with labs, general biology with labs, math, english, and psychology. All I’m missing are orgo 1 and 2, physics 1 and 2, and biochemistry.
You say most of your family lives outside the US. Then the next logical question is: are you a US citizen or permanent resident?
If you are not a citizen or PR, your chances at gaining an admission to US med school are exceedingly poor. (Fewer than 100 internationals matriculated into all US med school combined last year; 85% of those are Canadians.)
Many schools now require 2 semesters of social sciences for admission. Do you have 2 semesters of non-AP social science credits? You’re also missing a semester of sociology (which represents 30-35% of the questions in the Foundations of Behavior section of the MCAT)
Your GPAs are slightly below average for US MD schools. The median GPA for admitted MD applicants last year was 3.7+, with a sGPA of 3.6+. Your GPAs are in-range for osteopathic med schools, if you’re OK with that route. Be aware that DO programs require a letter of recommendation from a DO physician whom you’ve shadowed or worked for as part of your application. If you do apply to med school, I suggest you apply broadly to both MD and DO programs.
Your plan to find research opportunities during your gap year(s) is ill-advised. Very few places will allow a non-affiliated (i.e. non-student) volunteer without any prior research lab experience to work in the lab. You should try to find a research lab while you are still in college.
Med schools expect demonstrated leadership (that’s more important than research, according to an adcomm survey) --have you held any leadership positions in any your activities? If not, that’s an area you need to work on.
Congratulations on your community service, but as a FYI, adcomms strongly prefer to see long-term service with one or two individual organizations/programs instead of the hit-and-run of doing a few hours at one program and few hours next week at another. For your remaining time in school, consider volunteering with ONE program that holds meaning/significance to you. Something that shows where your passions and interests lie.
In order to execute your plan, you will need at least 2 gap years. Since the med school application process takes a full year–you’ll apply in June to matriculate in August of the following year–you need to have your MCAT score back plus sufficient clinical volunteering and physician shadowing completed BEFORE you apply. Without shadowing and clinical experience, your application will be DOA. Once you apply you cannot update your application.
Your plan seems incredibly high risk to me, especially with your current GPA situation. If you must graduate early to save on tuition costs, then don’t bother with the MCAT and probably even cut down on ECs for the next 1.5 years. Then take at least 2 gap years to give you at least 1 year without classes to work on the other parts of the app. 1 gap year is very common for 4 year grads, so I think 2+ gap years for someone with your GPA makes more sense if you’re graduating in 3 years.
Low GPA and graduate early are some of top causes of failure. You should bring your sGPA to 3.7x for MD schools unless you consider DO schools. Stony Brook is a state school so tuition is not that high. Consider take only 1-2 courses as part-time to get A’s in your 4th year. You haven’t even start orgo1, which means 1.5 years from when you can start prep’ing MCAT (heavy on Biochem), you need to stretch your school time (go part-time, commute to SB) to get higher GPA, not shortening. Biochem is a hard major (GPA-wise), go for easier ones (Gen. Chem?).
The 5 courses you mentioned, take it ONLY during regular semester (and not in summer).
Do MCAT ONLY after completing all the 5 courses you mentioned.
Stick to your plan with respect to major and minor, rather than changing now in the middle, especially when you are contemplating about completing UG early.