Chance and advice? (3.2 junior, one awful semester)

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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This is a long post and I’m truly grateful if you guys could at least skim and help me - I am a psych major at UMD College Park and I’m starting my junior year this semester. My GPA is a disaster zone. Here are my semester GPAs for the four completed semesters I’ve done:

Fall 2013: 3.100
Spring 2014: 3.607 (Semester Academic Honors)
Fall 2014: 2.660
Spring 2015: 3.411

Making my cumulative GPA about a 3.2.

In Fall 2013, I got a C in Calculus I. In Fall 2014, I received a D+ in Orgo I (C+ in Orgo I Lab) and a C+ in one of my psychology courses (I was hoping to add a neuroscience minor - after this class, decided against). I retook Orgo I in Spring 2015 and got a B; UMD will count Orgo I as a 6 credit C for me. I’m pretty sure the entire 1.0 semester GPA drop will look absolutely bizarre to medical school admissions.

I was having an awful semester due to several factors - as a transgender person, I was hoping to begin transitioning but learned that my current health issues made transitioning impossible. I was also untreated for ADHD (and bipolar II - although I’ve been told not to mention the bipolar II to adcoms? Thoughts?). By the next semester, I was medicated and joined several support groups that helped me be at peace with my transgender status.

I have about 60 hours of shadowing right now and have planned direct community service via alternative breaks for this year. I have a good number of leadership experiences in my ECs thankfully:

  • Selected for two different leadership/diversity retreats freshman year
  • Returned sophomore year as student leader for both retreats
  • Leadership Honor Society (not GPA based, rather on leadership shown in LGBTQ+ social justice)
  • Academic Chair of LGBTQ+-based frat
  • Fall 2015-? paid student internship as LGBTQ+ student intern at the multicultural involvement/community advocacy office
  • Created an LGBTQ+ peer mentoring program for UMD
  • Invited to and sat on several committees for improving inclusivity/diversity on UMD campus, representing both the LGBT Equity Office and the Multicultural Office
  • Invited to 400-level leadership course about applications of identity on leadership for social change
  • Also been nominated to President's Student Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion - I am waiting to see if I get officially invited to it!

Pretty much all of these are related to the LGBTQ+ Community. I mention it namely because my goal is to become a psychiatrist that specializes in helping LGBTQ+ youth, and hope to improve the health resources available to the LGBTQ+ community, which are currently insufficient and uninformed. My experience as an LGBTQ+ person/in the LGBTQ+ community is what has driven me towards medicine. Hopefully this will make for a solid personal statement.

I’m doing everything in my power to make sure I have an extremely strong upwards trend from now on. Things I have done to ensure that will happen include improving my time management skills, improving my eating/sleeping/medication schedules to maintain mental health, utilizing bio and chem resources, etc.

The highest GPA I can get at this point is almost a 3.6, but realistically I won’t be getting straight As. Hopefully I land past the 3.5 region in the next two years. My questions are this:

  1. When should I take the MCAT?*

I am currently thinking about taking it in April 2016. I’ll be finishing my pre-med requisites in Spring 2016 though (Biochem and Gen Chem II), so I don’t know if this is a good move.

*I’m FANTASTIC at standardized testing. It’s one of my best skills, I had a 2300 SAT score (two perfect sections).

  1. When should I apply? I know I am not applying at the end of Junior year. A premed advisor told me to apply at the end of Senior year, or after some post-baccs to boost my science GPA if I don't get in applying senior year. I have heard applying a second time hurts your chances a lot. Should I just go straight to doing post-bacc stuff and then apply for the first time?

Sorry that this is so long, and thank you so much if you take the time to help me.

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  1. Take the MCAT after you’ve completed your pre-reqs and you feel you’ve prepped adequately for the test. Scores are good for 3 years at most med schools; also if you decide to pursue a SMP, most of those also require a MCAT score for admission consideration.

BTW, it’s unwise to assume that because you scored well on the SAT, you’ll also score well on the MCAT. The 2 tests aren’t a alike and each requires different skills in order to score well.

  1. Here’s AAMC’s chart of med school applicants & matriculants by ethnicity and race.

https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html

Assuming that you’re white, a 3.5 GPA and a MCAT equivalent to 30-33 on old scale gives you less than a 50-50 chance of gaining an admission. Consider before you decide to apply or not that those 50% accepted includes matriculants accepted into state med schools which have a strong instate bias (not true for MD), true non-trads, matriculants with advanced degrees and matriculants coming out of grade-repairing postbaccs/SMPs. Applicants in the latter 3 categories tend to get some “forgiveness” on their GPAs.

Maryland is bad place to live for med applicants, with only 13% of Maryland applicants accepted to instate public & private med schools. (It’s actually worse in terms of percentage of students matriculating either in-state or OOS than California! Yikes!) )

See: https://www.aamc.org/download/321466/data/factstable5.pdf

Applying a second time does hurt you. Your odds of getting an acceptance go down significantly with each round of applications you submit. Ideally you should apply once and with the strongest possible app you can craft.

If you do decide to apply after graduation/senior year, be sure to apply widely to both allopathic AND osteopathic programs. Your GPA/sGPA is going to hurt you at allopathic med school regardless of how high your MCAT score turns out to be; DO programs will probably offer a better chance at an acceptance.

3

As to GPA: to help you better understand where you’re currently at you should understand that med schools will break down your GPA into 3 parts with sGPA and cGPA being most important.
Science GPA (sGPA) which includes all bio, chem, physics and math college courses you’ve taken
Cumulative GPA (cGPA) which includes all college courses you’ve taken
All other GPA (AO GPA) which includes all non science courses you’ve taken.

Both orgo 1 grades get factored in with med schools calculations. DO schools allow for grade replacement which means they see both orgo 1 grades, but only use your retake grade of B in GPA calculations.

https://www.aamc.org/download/321494/data/factstable17.pdf

Breakdown and recalculate your GPA into especially sGPA and cGPA (include both orgo grades) and then look at say last 5 years of data 2010-2014 (matriculants) to give you a sense of where you’re at.

Also check out DO 2012-2015 admission data below as to GPAs. You can see with grade replacement and a good MCAT, DO pathway might be something to consider.

http://www.aacom.org/reports-programs-initiatives/aacom-reports/applicants

Good luck

4

All kids with your GPA in my D’s UG class have been going through SMP or post bacc for grade repair. Med school do not care when and where you received the grades, except majority of classes to be included in sGPA calculation must from a 4 year college. A. 3.2 CGPA is too low to be admitted by any MD school, DO schools, maybe.