Do I have a shot at being admitted into any medical school?

eatanapple · October 7, 2010, 12:03am

I started off at a community college, and then transferred to a small public state school. I never had the “dream” or the “desire” to become a doctor my whole life like some do. However, recently, within the past couple of years, I’ve felt from within a strong conviction, and I know this is what I would like to do with the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I don’t know if I have the resume to “get it done” so to speak. So, without giving you my life story, I’ll try and only write what I think are the most pertinent details of what would be my application.

Community College GPA (90 credits): 3.75

State college GPA (60 credits): 3.35

Major: Psychology. I do not have a minor

I will now list the science courses I’ve completed along with the grade. (I will make the distinction whether the course was taken at community college or state college, but keep in mind that all the courses I’ve taken at community college did transfer over into the “real school”.)

General Geology 1 (community college) A

Introductory Biology (state college) B

Introductory Biology II (state college) B

General Chemistry I (community college) B-

General Chemistry II (state college) A-

Organic Chemistry I (state college) B

Organic Chemistry II (state college) B-

General Physics I (community college) A-

General Physics II (community college) B

The following are the math course I’ve completed:

Mathematics for Liberal Arts Students (community college) B+

Algebra (community college) B

Trigonometry (state college) B+

Pre Calculus (community college) B+

Calculus (state college) B

Some of my worries is that, (1) a good portion of my grades have been completed at a community college (which is looked at as a joke), and (2) some of my science and math grades are not that high.

Some other things I would probably throw onto my resume are the fact that I’ve been volunteering as a mentor in a program for over a year now (once per week). I’ve also been volunteering as a youth basketball coach for a year. For the first twelve years of my life I grew up in extreme poverty (hey maybe some sympathy points, right?) Back in high school I also played four years of basketball (which is probably irrelevant since I am 25 now!)

I’m just looking for some honest feedback. I don’t care about getting accepted into a “top school” or even a good one. I’ll be happy getting into any one, as long as I get accepted. So please feel free to discuss my chances, what I could have done better, what I could do to bolster my resume, where I should apply, how great should my MCAT score be given my underwhelming resume, and anything else you deem fit to chime in on. I don’t care. I’m all ears.

pkuforlife · October 7, 2010, 1:28am

Get an above average MCAT score and get the GPA upto 3.5 and you should be good. Be sure to mention any hardships along the way in essays (poverty,etc).

mikemac · October 7, 2010, 12:04pm

take a look at the Amherst premed guide at <a href=“https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/careers/students/gradstudy/health/guide/part1[/url]”>https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/careers/students/gradstudy/health/guide/part1</a> It will answer a lot of your questions about what you need to do in order to be a good candidate for med school.

I’ll say off the top that since you don’t list any experience working or volunteering in a medical setting, that alone is going to keep you out of most med schools since they want applicants who have shown they understand what they’re getting into.

mikemac · October 7, 2010, 3:17pm

Also I want to add that you need to spend some time thinking about why you want to be a doctor, as opposed to some other career within medicine. It takes at least 7 years to become a practicing doctor (even longer if you want a specialty). There are a number of good-paying careers within the medical field that require much fewer years of training, as well as far less debt that the average doctor builds up going thru med school. If you can’t name those other fields, BTW, it may be a signal you haven’t thought this all the way thru yet.

txstudent123 · October 12, 2010, 1:18am

mikemac, could u tell me what are these other careers? I was planning on becoming a pediatrician after wanting to work with kids from my high school volunteering, but my strengths are more the humanities (english and reading were 1600 on SAT, math only 710) and i’m only decent at bio and chem, bad at physics…

i saw my sister’s first year med school txtbooks, and they seemed to be in a foreign language, and I also want a family earlier in life

so, any suggestions would be great!

txstudent123 · October 12, 2010, 3:10am

oh yeah, and would these include health managerial positions? cus my sis took public policy as a major, so she’s struggling in med school right now, and i wonder if i still need to take org chem for those other positions…that was her only c class T_T

amway1 · October 29, 2010, 12:25am

To txstudent123 - nursing is a great alternative. It has become very competitive to get into nursing school - easily 3.75 GPA required for good Nursing schools. It does not require organic chemistry - most require Chemistry I at the most - usually liberal arts chemistry/health science chemistry is required (which is below/easier than chem I). Working with kids in a pediatric office is entirely possible as a nurse. If you later decide to become a Nurse Practitioner (you need at least 1 year of work experience before you can do this, I think most programs are 2 years). Being a nurse practitioner allows you to go into practice on your own in some states (PAs cannot do this, fyi) or at least be in the office on your own if you open a pediatric office with other M.D.s (PAs also can’t be in the office alone). It also means a approx $30,000 
pay increase. Last time I checked, the mean for N.P. is about $80,000.

Nursing will also give you more time for a family. You do not have to go through an 11+ year path to reach your goal. You are also more flexible to take time off from work - take a few years off, even, to raise a family - because you have not invested as much time in school and won’t have the loans. For someone who is not science minded, but wants to get into the health profession and work with kids, I would strongly recommend looking into nursing.

Alternatively, there’s also PA school (still requires those “hard” sciences), speech therapy (not science based) for kids, physical therapy (I think it only requires Orgo I…not sure though) also for kids (i.e. kids with walking disabilities, broke a limb and need rehab, etc.) Med school is not your only option to have a pediatrician-like career :)

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Back to eatanapple, nursing would also be a “backup plan” if you didn’t get into med school. You could also consider PA school, which has the same prereqs (but I think they require anatomy I&II). It is only 2 years instead of 4, but I’m not sure about how competitive it is GPA wise. Chiropractic school is another option; they have a much lower GPA requirement (I’ve spoken to one school in GA… I think their minimum was a 2.75?) It’s also only a 3 year program (for most, I think).

If you are dead set on med school, however, I wouldn’t rule it out, but you will need to start working on those outside things to help your application. Your big problem will be your science GPA - they take out those science courses and calculate them by themselves. It’s not bad though - you’re still above a 3.0 and if you have an “A” in your labs (you didn’t list them, but even if they’re only 1 credit hour) those will add up and help.

Research has almost become a checklist for admission - everyone has it. Basically, try to get involved, asap. If on the off chance you got published (really rare for an undergrad), well then I would say your application is suddenly looking veryy good. I’ve known a few undergrads who have gotten published (again, it’s very rare that it would happen, so don’t count on it) but they’ve actually had schools contact them asking if they will apply. So it would help I would also try getting involved in some sort of medical activity - volunteering at a hospital, but if you could get a more hands on experience that would help. Your extra curriculars are good, but showing your passion for medicine should be a plus on your app. Volunteering (or working?!) at a practice (i.e. pediatric) would probably get you more hands-on experience than volunteering at a hospital (mostly secretary work). A medical missions trip, if you had the opportunity, would also look really good on your application. And, of course, your MCAT score. If you do really well, it could combat your GPA and show that you do know the material.

So let’s see…

Research
Volunteer/show medical passion
Medical missions
MCAT score (/prep)

I would also try to get involved with some pre-health/pre-med clubs if possible - they usually have events related to medicine that you would be able to get involved in. It would also show your active in the college community.

My final advice is to talk to an advisor or someone from a med school you’re interested in. I would count on applying to all the med schools in your state - this is not true of all of them, but many accept a greater percentage in state than out of state. They could specifically tell you your chances and what you could do to improve your application specific to their school. Also (off topic), but you said you have no minor - I would find out what is required to get a chemistry minor. Most schools (as far as I knew, at least) gave minors for a gen chem/orgo chem sequence. It might not help, but it certainly couldn’t hurt if you were only 3 credit hours away from a minor.

Hope this helped!

Do I have a shot at being admitted into any medical school?

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