<p>I recently went and took a tour of University of Texas Medical Branch, it was a bit overwhelming but at the same time I felt comfortable and like I was coming back home. Got a lot of information from an advisor about what to do as far as applying and all that.
However my dilemma lies in my Community College GPA a horrible 2.2. I am at a University now with a 3.0 so far, and I have this semester to finish and next to finish. I will be graduating with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology and my GPA for that school should rise to a 3.3/3.4 which will be possible if I absolutely kick ass in my classes this semester and next. I have yet to take any of the science pre reqs for med school. Well I take that back I took General Chem at the CC and got a D, but this was before I even decided I wanted to become a MD. So I'm basically looking at 2 classes per semester for the next 2 and a half years, and during that time I'm gonna work on getting EC's, volunteering, and shadowing. After a bunch of math I figured that if I get all A's in the science courses that I need my overall GPA will only be a whooping 3.0/3.1. And by the time I take the MCAT it's going to be the new one which, no one really knows how its going to be scored and how the score translates compared to the old one. I'm currently 23 so by the time I would apply in 2016 I'll be 26 meaning the earliest I could start med school I'd be 27. For me that's older than I'd like to be. Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Take a deep breathe and step back.</p>
<p>There is good news and bad news here:</p>
<p>the bad news—that CC GPA is going to hurt you when it comes time to appy because all grades from all college courses get added together to get a final GPA. And that D in gen chem is going to hurt your sGPA. (AMCAS/AACOMAS calculate 2 different GPAs for applicants: one for all classes and one for bio, chem, phys and math only.) You have a lot of hard work ahead of you to fix this.</p>
<p>Med schools often use GPA as a screener to weed out applicants since they get so many. A GPA below 3.2 is likely to get you auto-rejected. Ouch!</p>
<p>the good news–is that osteopathic (DO) medical programs allow grade replacement. That means for any class you’ve taken more than once only the newer (and hopefully better) grade is including in GPA calculations. DO schools are an option you need to seriously consider if you really want to be doctor. There is a DO program at North Texas in Fort Worth. (In state tuition–yay!)</p>
<p>more good news–TX has lots of medical schools and they pretty much serve in-state residents only. If you are willing to work with rural or underserved populations, then you may have a chance at some of the mission-specific schools. </p>
<p>still more good news–if you have a kick-ass personal statement where you explain your epiphany and your call to medicine, where you show people that your old, bad grades were the old you, that PS together with strong recent science grades and strong MCAT score–you may get some serious consideration from med school adcomms. </p>
<p>one last item–TX has grade forgiveness for grades 10 years or older. I know you don’t want to wait that long to apply to med school, but it is an option. </p>
<p>~~~~</p>
<p>the MCAT is scale scored–this means your score reflects how well you do in comparision with your peers who also took the same version of the exam. The new MCAT will still be graded with a 15 max score for each section. (So a 60 would be the top score instead of the current 45.) How the 2 exam will be compared is anyone’s guess. My personal guess is that AMCAS will provide a new vs old MCAT concordance to adcomms, or that applicants will be compared against other individuals who took the same version by adcomms. (IOW, the 2 pile theory)</p>
<p>27 is not too old to be starting med school. Nationally the mean age is 24.8; some schools skew even older. My older D started med school at 26. She is neither the oldest (that would be the 50 year old in the class 2 years above her) or the youngest (that would be the 19 year old in the class behind her) at the med school. Look at it this way–you’re going to turn 27 regardless of whether you go to med school or not. Isn’t it better to go for it now than to live with years of regrets?</p>
<p>~~~~~</p>
<p>If you were my kid, here’s what I’d say to you. You need to some serious soul searching right now and decide if you’re willing to do whatever it takes to become a doctor. This means making sacrifices and setting aside all other goals for the next 3-5 years. If you say, yes, this is something you have to do—then go for it. But go all out with no reservations.</p>
<p>You are going to need to do serious GPA repair. This means you may need to take coursework other than just your science pre-reqs because you need to get that GPA up into 3.4+ range if at all possible. And you need nothing but A’s from here on out, especially in tough pre-reqs like Ochem and physics. If you can’t do that, then maybe it is time to go for Plan B.</p>
<p>And let me throw out one more thing to think about: there are many, many healthcare careers that do not involve medical school and have a shorter training period. D1’s BF is a paramedic. He saves lives before the doctors ever even see the patient. Physician assistants and nurse practioners are the new front line, routine care providers and are becoming increasingly important in deliverying healthcare. There is an increasing demand for therapists of all kinds: physical, occupational, respiratory, radiation, etc. </p>
<p>And since you’re mostly interested in treating mental health issues, have you considered a PsyD? A PsyD is a graduate degree for clinical psychologists. Clinical psychologist work with patients providing testing, diagnosis, counseling and, in some locales, drug therapy.</p>
<p>Good luck on whatever path you decide to travel!</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply wowmom, your reply is pretty much what I expected and feared. However, I didn’t know about possible rural area opportunities that you mentioned, and that’s something I will consider and honestly becoming a doctor for me is something I want more than anything, especially after seeing my mother go through her cancer treatment and coming out of it healthy. That for me was a point in time where I consciously made it my goal to become a doctor. Of course at the time I was leaning towards psychiatry, and after her treatment I thought about possibly becoming an oncologist because of that experience watching her go through that and being aware of her mood, my families mood, and how the doctor reassured her and my sister, father, and me that she was going to be ok and come out through this cancer healthy. Now I am still leaning towards psychiatry but I’m starting to become more aware of other professions within medicine in terms of being a doctor such as orthopedics, ophthalmology, and sports medicine. Also seeing how D.O.s are starting to gain more acceptance and realizing that they aren’t being held back to primary care and pediatrics only and that there are D.O.s in all aspects of medicine also gives me hope and is something I am strongly considering applying for when the time comes. I have also even considered becoming a chiropractor and I don’t really know enough about Psy.Ds to make a decision on that but it does sound interesting as well. Regardless though I am motivated to doing whatever it takes to become a doctor, although I won’t be happy with being older, I believe that regardless of my age when I graduate from med school I’ll be happy that I toughed it out and pursued something that genuinely interests me rather than settling for something that gets the job done.</p>
<p>Word of advice–do NOT get too focus on any one specialty. You’re a long, long way from med school. Once there, most students will change their minds about their eventual specialty several times during med school–even if they’re absolutely positively sure they know what they want going in.</p>
<p>Both your grades in med school and standardized exam scores (USMLE also called STEP exams) will play a huge role in determining what specialty you end up in. So will your personality type. (Certain specialties tend to have certain mindsets.) FYI, orthopedics, sport medicine (unless you’re doing strictly physical rehab) and opthalmology are all extremely competitive with more applicants than training slots. Only top students nationally will be able to enter these fields.</p>
<p>RE: rural schools–these medical school focus on developing primary care docs for underserved areas. They look for applicants who are either from rural areas or who have a demonstrated track record of volunteering with the medically underserved. They also specifically look for applicants who are committed to doing primary care. (And don’t try to fake an interest in PC if you’re not. Interviewers have great BS detectors.)</p>
<p>RE: clinical psychologist vs psychiatrist–clinical psychologists tend to do more week-to-week patient management using various modalities/talk therapies while psychiatrists tend to do primarily drug therapy. (Over-generalization, but reasonably accurate.)</p>
<p>When I toured UTMB thursday, the med student that gave the tour basically told me the same about keeping an open mind when going into med school and to expect to change my mind about what I want to do. Which I understand why I would keep an open mind, I may get in and learn about psychiatry and be excited and then during year 3 I may during rotations change my mind to something else that I find more interesting than psychiatry. </p>
<p>As far as primary care I’m not totally closed off to it, but at the moment I’m pretty sure I don’t want to go into that field, again though I could change my mind and may want pursue primary care over everything else. I would expect though that any interviewer for almost any med school would be great BS detectors, and it’s understandable why they would be. They only want those people who are passionate about that field. </p>
<p>As far as Psy.D. I’ll have to research it more, so I can find out exactly what I need in terms of courses if any more are needed. </p>
<p>Regardless though, my intention is to go ahead and pursue classes for med school and EC’s, shadowing, etc and if things don’t look like they’re going to work out, I’ll make my decision then. Otherwise I’m going to try my hardest and keep a positive attitude and do my best to getting A’s in my science courses.</p>
<p>Primary care = family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, psychiatry and in some places emergency medicine.</p>
<p>I just learned something. I had no idea Psychiatry was under primary care.</p>