Ok so I am a senior at UMass Amherst and I am trying to develop some sort of realistic plan for the next few years of my life. I am going to graduate with a degree in kinesiology with a 3.2 GPA and want to do some sort of graduate school. My original plan was Medical School, but having taken organic chemistry and failing it, I started to second guess that. After that, I started thinking about physician assistant school and also physical therapy school. PT school seemed to match up more with the classes I have already taken and enjoyed, so I started shadowing a physical therapist and liked it. However, I am thinking about retaking organic chemistry 2 (the part I failed), and opening Med School as an option again. Is Medical School a realistic expectation if I put in a good amount of work over the next year? Obviously I plan on taking a gap year regardless of what I plan on doing but I want to make sure I am not going to waste the next year or two preparing for something that is completely unrealistic (Med School). I also shadowed a PA and found it interesting, a little bit more stimulating than the PT was, but I did like the PT I shadowed and the work he was doing.
For extracurricular activities I have 2 years of experience in a research lab, I have almost 100 PT shadowing hours, probably about 50 hours of shadowing a PA, and something like 30 hours shadowing an MD. I have 100+ hours of unrelated volunteer work as well. So, as the headline of the post reads, what is realistic in terms of opportunities for my future?
I’m not sure MD schools allow grade replacement but DO schools usually do. Have you considered looking at DO schools? They also have OMM which might suit your interests.
You would probably need to shadow a DO. But that would be possible, right?
Right now your GPA is much too low to be competitive for medical school (MD or DO). You would need to raise your GPA into 3.5+ range plus earn a strong MCAT to put yourself into the running. This will likely take several years since you already have so many credits. I don’t think you can achieve your goal of being ready to apply to med school in just one year, but if you’re willing to to plan long term–I think that in about 3 years you may be able to apply to either a DO program or a SMP.
First things first–you first need to complete all your pre-reqs–including ochem, biochem, stats, physics and whatever else you’re missing. If you aren’t getting As in these classes (especially Ochem since you’ve taken the class before), it’s probably time to given up on your med school dreams.
Once you’ve finished your pre-reqs, then you have 2 possible paths—
osteopathic med school. Because DO programs allow grade replacement, you should start by retaking every C/D/F you received during college–particularly your science classes. Grade replacement will allow you to repair your GPA fairly quickly. Additionally, you would need to take and ace some upper level bio electives (think immunology, embryology, biochem 2, genetics, neuroscience etc) to prove that you are capable of succeeding in the kinds of classes that you will encounter in med school.
SMP (Special Master’s Program)-- if you want a MD, this is your best option. A SMP is like an audition for medical school. These are graduate programs where you will take classes that are similar or identical to the first year of med school, sometimes in the same classroom with current med students. If you are successful in the program (think GPA >3.7), you have a pretty good chance of getting med school interviews/acceptances. If you aren’t among the top students in the class–kiss all hope of a career as a physician good-bye. SMPs are high risk-high reward. Your 3.2 GPA plus and MCAT score >500 might garner you an acceptance to a SMP.
Neither route is fast and SMPs are expensive (think $60K–with no FA except unsub loans)
I wouldn’t say med school is completely out of the question, but you are going to need to make some hard choices going forward. Be honest with yourself–about your academic ability, about your work ethic, about your willingness to indefinitely postpone your future, and about your willingness to take on substantial debt.
Yes I agree with katliamom, look at other options instead of M.D. There are plenty of other ways to get into the health field. Nurse anesthetist, maybe? Many other good suggestions above.
I’m gonna sound like a Debbie Downer, but if you were my advisee, I would be trying to gently steer you out of all three of the fields you listed. Med school with a 3.2 is unrealistic. PA school is nearly as competitive as med school. My students pursuing that path all have the GPA and prerequisites that would make them competitive for med school. The 3.2 is even on the low side for PT school. Best you can do is look at programs you might be interested in attending and check out the stats of the most recent cohort. I’m going to guess you see a cum GPA of 3.5+. PTACS does allow repeated grades, but the initial F is still averaged, making it tougher to raise the GPA. As @WayOutWestMom pointed out, the special master’s programs are options, but it’s an expensive gamble.
As stated above, however, the health field is huge. There are people who work in direct care but also admins, IT support people, social workers, etc. The only thing I wouldn’t do is encourage nursing to someone who does not want to practice as a nurse.
Please don’t suggest the Caribbean option. As path to a medical career, it’s becoming less and less viable all the time.
St George’s match list is misleading because at a minimum it does not specify:
–how many match positions were one year terminal, non-renewable spots (preliminary medicine or preliminary surgery)–state medical licensing boards require IMGs to have 2 or 3 years of residency to qualify for a medical license.
–how many of those matching graduated in previous years
–how many match positions were obtained outside the NRMP match (Outside of Match positions are rapidly disappearing because of the NRMP’s “all in” policy.)
The match list also does not account for the rather large number of entering med students who do not graduate or are not allowed to graduate because they will not score high enough on the USMLE to be competitive in the Match. (SGU is coy about its failure rate, but Ross and AUC–the other 2 of the BIg 3 of Caribbean med schools–report fail-out rates in the 50-60% range for all incoming students.)
Matching for the IMG is further complicated by the on-going ACGME-AOA merger where ALL US residency positions (both MD and DO) will be filled through a single Match system. Given the increase in the number of US medical grads (DOs and MDs) and the cap of the number of US medical residencies, it’s estimated that by 2020, all US residency slots will be filled by US medical grads (Traerso and MCMahon, JAMA. 2012 Dec 5; 308(21); 2193-4.) See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4370780/
Sure, it’s possible for a St George graduate to come back to the US practice, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to do so. It’s a huge risk, and one that will leave the OP with hundreds of thousand of dollars in debt with the very real possibility of never being able to practice medicine in the US.
To the OP…have you considered the bachelors to nursing programs? These are for students who have completed the required courses for nursing mostly, but need the practicals. These are competitive programs as well, but perhaps not as much as the others you have listed.
If you could get a BSN, then you could become a nurse, and after a few years you could pursue a APRN program.
I do believe that retaking that ochem course is a good idea.
Nursing is very competitive these says and though I have no personal investment in the field, it is distressing to see nursing suggested in this thread as a last resort for someone who cannot realistically pursue those other three fields. I have the highest admiration for the skills of nurses, and getting into nursing programs is very tough too.
There was much truth to the saying at Purdue (top ranked nursing program and of course engineering) that getting in and out of nursing there was much harder than engineering…
@compmom
This poster wants to do something in the health care field. I think all options need to be put on the table here.
Yes, nursing is a competitive field.and I put that IN my first post suggesting it. It would not be a slam dunk for this poster, but could be a possibility.
I do not think the OP has the GPA for medical or PT school. I think nursing schools will be very competitive as well however I feel he/she should try. What about something along the lines of respiratory therapy or PT assistant?
^^Ouch. I’ll take that as a swipe at the further suggestions for OP to continue training for a career in medicine, rather than a churlish comment to OP.
There are so many careers in health care that are neither doctors or nurses.
Pharma companies hire financial analysts and marketing people and policy experts. HMO’s hire managers of customer service and PR specialists and folks who understand how to use social media and Facebook and twitter. Hospitals need teams of HR and employee relations specialists and every other function required to keep the lights on and the patients moving in and out. Think tanks hire people who are both narrow subject matter experts (what happens to the frail elderly when you change the billing policies on physical therapy care) and broader health care thinkers (why do children with developmental delays get better interventions in some parts of the country but not in others).
OP- not becoming a doctor doesn’t mean you don’t belong in health care. Find the “thing” you are really good at- blogging, financial analysis, political activism, graphic design, opinion writing, getting people to tell you what is bothering them/what worries them (great for market research, employee relations, recruiting, patient navigator type roles) and then figure out how to do it the sector that interests you.
Don’t spend the next 5 years frustrated that you aren’t in medical school. Spend the next five years developing a great career in the health care field. Your GPA isn’t what’s going to keep you out of health care (although it will be a tough climb for a US med school). Just your ability to think out of the box…