<p>Hey you all!!</p>
<p>I really, really, really, really want to go to medical school. I want to help people and I really enjoy anatomy, science , etc. subjects. I am willing to work very hard to get into medical school, and am willing to do whatever it takes. I have retaken 3 science classes, and still did not achieve A's in the retaking. I am in the middle of completing my prerequisites, and hope to make B+ to A on all future classes to bring my overall gpa and science gpa as close to 4.0 as possible. Currently, my overall is 3.409. I volunteer at the hospital, I am trying my sincere hardest to get my gpa up, and I begin job shadowing doctors soon. I was wondering what else there is to for getting into medical school...?</p>
<p>Thank you,</p>
<p>Keemarhil</p>
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<p>The MCAT. Sounds like someone needs to speak with their pre-med advisor.</p>
<p>Research osteopathic medical schools as a possible option. Osteopathic schools will allow retakes of coursework and only count the retaken grade.</p>
<p>If you haven’t gotten involved in any kind of community service besides hospital volunteering, find some projects to get involved with beyond the hospital. (Community service projects need not be medically related.)</p>
<p>Have you sought out or gotten a research (bench or clinical) position? If not, it’s time to do so.</p>
<p>Do you hold any leadership positions? If not, that’s an area that needs strengthening.</p>
<p>Also, do go see the health professions advisor at your college to learn what other things you need to do. And as supersnakess said there’s an MCAT in your future.</p>
<p>Lastly consider why you want to go to med school. Wanting to help people isn’t a good enough reason. Many careers help people and 99.9% are not in medicine. Liking science isn’t a good enough reason. There are many science-related careers that have nothing to do with medicine.</p>
<p>Thank you all! I forgot to mention the MCAT in my post. I am involved in various other organizations than simply just volunteering at the hospital. I am involved in the Alternative Spring Break Leadership Committee at my school, a separate community service organization, the Exercise Science major organization, and an organization to help international students at my university. I have yet to find research opportunities.</p>
<p>I actually think your gpa’s fine (it’s on a lower end, but I think your gpa is still acceptable to many allopathic schools), but you have to do well in your mcat to make up for your gpa. If you take a look at MSAR, allopathic med schools do take students with a very broad range of gpas. Also, I would look into getting clinical opportunities asap (not just shadowing); I would look into volunteer opportunities at local clinics/community health centers as well as global health opportunities (medical missions tend to let undergrads more stuff). Lastly, do get involved in research either in basic sciences or clinical research (ex. clinical trials). Med schools don’t just look at one factor, but they look at multiple things (GPA, MCAT, clinical experiences, essays, recs, research, leadership), so don’t fret too much over GPA and try to balance out your gpa with other things.</p>
<p>I would respectfully disagree that a 3.4 is acceptable to many allopathic schools, and I actually have not found much credible data that med schools take students with a very broad range of GPAs (unless, of course, you consider 3.6-3.9+ to be a very broad range). You have to keep in mind, too, that many of these published averages include all students–non-traditional students, students with incredible hooks, students who are minorities, etc–so just because a school theoretically accepts applicants with a 3.4, that doesn’t mean they’ll accept applicants like this OP with a 3.4. </p>
<p>I think WOWMom’s advice in #4 is sound, and I would take it if I were in your shoes. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/270906/data/table24-mcatgpagridall0911.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/270906/data/table24-mcatgpagridall0911.pdf</a></p>
<p>It has pretty interesting data.</p>
<p>But it is dependent on what state are you from. If you’re from CA, you might not less competitive, but if you come from smaller sized states that accept a fairly large percentage of in state students, you will be fine (assuming your mcat is at least in 32-36 range and you have other stuff down).</p>
<p>I am also telling you from my own personal experience and experiences of my friends who had weaknesses (either very low GPA or very low MCAT) and have been accepted to multiple US allopathic medical schools (none of us were URM btw or had hooks or were geniuses)</p>
<p>I am not saying you won’t have an uphill battle, but it is definitely possible for you to be accepted (although I do suggest as an applicant who just went through the cycle to apply to at least 20 schools with your stat…once again depending on your state of residence).</p>
<p>The concerning information is this:</p>
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<p>Retakes of 3 core science pre-reqs with still below A grades. I suspect the OP’s actual GPA is lower than the 3.4 he/she states unless he/she included original grades as well as the retakes.</p>
<p>Which is way I suggested the OP consider osteopathic programs</p>
<p>And there’s no telling what his/her sGPA looks like.</p>
<p>Quoting WOWMom:
"Lastly consider why you want to go to med school. Wanting to help people isn’t a good enough reason. Many careers help people and 99.9% are not in medicine. Liking science isn’t a good enough reason. There are many science-related careers that have nothing to do with medicine. "</p>
<p>LOL. At least OP is not saying that he/she wants to make a ton of money. Is wanting to help people not a good enough reason? Again, I am just being a little facetious here.</p>
<p>RE:
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<p>As they say in logic class: necessary but not sufficient.</p>
<p>I haven’t read thru all of this, so, forgive me if I am repeating something. It helps if you have published some research papers; also if you have additional interests such as wanting to combine gettingan MD with an MBA, with JD, degree in nutrition or other PhD. Schools these days offer so much more than just the MD.</p>
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<p>Those are some pretty big assumptions! I agree with you, if all those other conditions are met, then an applicant with a low (3.2-3.4) GPA might be accepted. I have a feeling that many applicants with low GPAs also have low MCAT scores–and without having an MCAT score >32 (keep in mind, >32 is >90th%ile of test takers), I can’t imagine an application with a low GPA and a low or average MCAT score would do well at allopathic schools. There’s just too many applicants with fantastic statistics applying–why should they accept low GPA, low MCAT applicants?</p>
<p>@WayOutWestMom
That might be true, but only according to the standards that you have created. I can say “wanting to make a lot of money is a good enough reason to go to med school.” That would my my opinion and standard, not a requirement for going to med school.</p>
<p>Not just according to my standards, PerfectSky, but according to the combined wisdom and experiences of the many successful med school applicants who post here (plus the experiences of both of my kiddos and all of their friends had while applying to med school), and according to the questions asked on med school secondaries and in med school interviews.</p>
<p>Wanting to help is people is important trait for those going to the medical profession, but by itself it’s not enough. There are many, many ways to “help people”–99.9% of them do not involve being a doctor.</p>
<p>I “help people” all day long–it’s a key descriptor for my profession-- but I am not and never have been a doctor. (Nor do I play one on TV…)</p>
<p>Just because successful med students/applicants say that wanting to help people isn’t enough doesn’t make it true. As they say in logic class: thats an appeal to authority (sorry i couldn’t resist). but seriously, i’m guessing that there is a really high chance that there are a lot of people who have had successful careers in medicine, who just want to help people. heck, i bet that there are even a lot of people in medicine who just want to make a lot of money, and end up with successful careers.</p>
<p>If that’s what you were betting, I would certainly take that bet. If “all” you want to do is help people, there are much more efficient and probably much more fulfilling ways to do it than by becoming a doctor (eg I volunteer with an agency that runs programs for pregnant teens and teen parents–their social workers profoundly help their clients each and every day for their entire shift, and have way more interaction with their clients than any doctor I’ve worked with has with his/her patients). If “all” you want to do is make a lot of money, go into i-banking or marry someone with tons of money. Sure, doctors tend to be well-compensated, but the training, sacrifices, and commitment they must endure to achieve that level of compensation is extraordinary. </p>
<p>I interviewed at a few top schools when I applied in 2010. I have hundreds of volunteer hours on my CV and started a service-oriented nonprofit my junior year of college. At one of those schools, I was asked “So, kristin5792, what do you think is the most common reason people say they want to go into medicine?” “To help people?” “Yes, exactly. I can see you have a lot of service work on your CV and you wrote extensively about it in your essay. Clearly, you know there are many ways you can help people. So, why medicine?” </p>
<p>The thing is, helping people is great. Medicine is quite a service-oriented career. I personally think you have to be pretty selfless (and a little crazy…) to go into medicine. WOWMom hit it on the head that helping people is necessary but not sufficient for going to med school. There has to be more to it! And, if there’s not, I doubt you’ll get any further than an application or an interview.</p>