I am a premed and rising sophomore at a very good institution in New York and I am not very sure about how things are going right now. I took General Chem I and II, Biology I and II, Calculus I and II, English and philosophy and I scored in the C+/B+ range giving me a GPA of 2.8, which is totally horrible and unthinkable for a future applicant to any medical school. However, my ECs are very good and I don’t think I know anybody who has stronger ECs than me yet: I shadowed doctors in Dakar in Senegal during a surgical campaign in ophthalmology where doctors operated for free; I went to Morocco and shadowed a group of ENT doctors for a month in a private clinic; right after, I went on a road trip in Morocco still with a team of volunteers with whom we stopped at small villages to give donations (mostly school materials); I shadowed a plastic surgeon in New York for two weeks… Soon, I will have an internship with one of the greatest oncologist in the planet (I am not advertising, that doctor is worldly known for that) for two weeks in New York, and I had a validation to work at the UNICEF for six weeks next summer. I just landed a position in research with a biochemistry teacher starting in September that should normally last until the end of my undergraduate career. My plan for the next two years would be to add an internship in a biotech company (a startup preferably where I could be more of help) and to get an internship at the ministry of health of an African country (which I could most likely get). When it comes to ECs I think I am fine.
My whole freshman year I spent it doing bad stuff, and being immature when it came to studying. I focused too much on my social life because I had really bad experiences socially in highschool and was afraid I would live the same again in college. I went out often, to see bands or play myself with mine at different bars in the city and had a lot of fun, and I payed the price of it. I also dreamt a lot, started an online company with two friends that took a lot of my time to build and code and at this point I don’t think we’ll be able to get any profit from it and we think we’ll just abandon it.
I just calculated that if I get straight As until the end of my junior year I will get a 3.6 GPA which is just OK but not bright… and it’s obviously impossible to not get less that an A for the rest of my undergraduate career, especially when I have to take Orgo I and II, Physics I and II next year. I need an average of 3.8 in the next two years to bring my GPA up to a 3.4 which is bad, and still difficult to get in my situation, but doable (I have the small advantage of being African American but don’t really know the weight of positive discrimination for medical schools really).Would a good MCAT score make admission reviewer forget about my bad GPA? I feel like I won’t cut it and going to a D.O school for me is just out of the question. I really want to be a doctor, but I don’t feel I could be capable of doing extra stuff to get in med school such as post-bac programs or something like that.
Please I need advice on my stats right here, if I could do it, if it could pass. What kind of med schools can I expect to reach at best? If it’s already too late, If I do have already burnt all my cards to get into an OK Allopathic Med school (forget about the lowest tier, I am not interested in that either), I would rather start an eco major, and start trying to get into internships that will be more valuable for my future career. Being a doctor has always been a dream for me, but there are times in life where people should be realistic. Please be frank, honest, and raw if you need to. I have a 2.8 GPA for now; tell me the truth.
Anyone can stand around shadowing a physician. That’s not important. The reason you need to have good grades for medical school is that medical school is rigorous.
Frankly, a 2.8 would put you in a group in which passing your classes would be questionable. I understand that you have identified the reasons why this happened, and you believe you can do better in the next few years. That may be the case, but it leads me to question your judgment. You must have known that a clean academic record was going to be Job One in college, yet you chose to do other things. Without that, all those other activities aren’t going to help you.
If you turned your academic performance around, you may still have a shot at admission. You need to show you can master those classes, though. And, you are in no position to be thumbing your nose at what “tier” you think the schools are on. All the accredited medical schools will get you an MD.
You’re not completely out of the game, but you need to perform at a much higher level in the future. Next year will be crucial. If you don’t start acing science classes, your dream is going to vanish. Be sure you utilize all the resources available to you: tutoring, study groups, office hours.
A higher than average MCAT will not trump a 3.2 or lower GPA. but it will help somewhat mitigate a slightly low GPA/sGPA.
If you do not to show some substantial improvement in GPA, your only option would be to start retaking any science/math classes where you earned a C or lower and apply to osteopathic medical schools. I know you said you won’t consider them, but the difference between a MD and DO is minimal in terms of actual clinical practice and it may be your only chance to achieve your dream.
With your international service work, you should consider the HBCU med schools (Howard, Meharry, and Morehouse) along with your state medical schools. Those will be your best chance for an acceptance.
The HBCU schools could be considered “low tier” but USNWR rankings are artificial and the the HBCU are top ranked in other measures of medical school success. Please read this:http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=745836
If you want frank, I would hardly call your EC profile that great. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, but as justonedad said, shadowing, no matter how impressive the person is, is just shadowing. I just don’t think I agree with this:
I mean sure, maybe you don’t know anyone with stronger ECs but there are definitely kids out there with stronger ECs than what you’ve described.
iwannabe_Brown, I am sorry I didn’t want to come out as arrogant. I surely didn’t find a cure to AIDS during my time off, but I believe an internship at the UNICEF and in a ministry of health of any country is somewhat, placing me in the category of people who shouldn’t worry about not having done enough for medical school and those ECs, I believe, truely prove my passion for a path in healthcare. Of course there will always be somebody who did it better than me, but as a freshman at a big college with 700 kids per class, (without pretending to know everybody of course), I met enough people to know that this is the greatest side of my application. Please, if you have any suggestion on how I can improve that part of my application, I would definitely follow your advice. Thank you for answering this thread though.
Thank you WayOutWestMom for this chart, it is really helpful, and thank you for the good read; I didn’t such medical schools existed.
Thank you JustOneDad as well for sharing your frank opinion, I am determined to be more rigorous in the future, and I am confident in my capabilities to improve.
Just thought of another question: As I clarified in the thread description, a 3.8 in the next four semesters would bring me up to a 3.4 GPA overall. Would that be seen as better that somebody who got 3.4/3.5 GPA consistently from freshman year to junior year?
As the other posters have pointed out, your ECs are not as impressive as you seem to think they are. (And you can’t consider anticipated ECs since you haven’t started them yet and may never actually do them.)
The UNICEF internship will not involve you going out into the field and assisting people on a one-on-one basis; your two-week long oncology "internship’ (whatever that may be–does it even involve any patient contact?) is very short term.
The kinds of ECS that medical school adcomms are looking for hands-on, direct personal involvement in long-term commitments to community service and clinical volunteering. Community service helps those who are less fortunate than you in your local community/u. Clinical volunteering involves direct patient contact/u. Clinical volunteering needs to be done in US health care settings and not overseas since medical practice varies widely in different countries. Clinical volunteering can be done at a public clinic (like a country health clinic or a free clinic for the indigent), a nursing home, a group home for disabled or mentally ill, a rehabilitation center, a hospice, a therapeutic camp for ill or disabled children or adults, or a hospital.
No. Medical school are very risk adverse. While a improving GPA is a good thing, especially if you can get all As in tough upper level sciences, admission officers prefer students who achieved at high level from Day One.
Let alone that an anticipated EC might not come to fruition, since they are anticipated I have no idea if these things will be meaningful. If all you do at UNICEF or the ministry of health in a foreign country is fetch coffee and organize files (a very real chance) then it doesn’t matter how prestigious the organization is the experience simply isn’t valuable for admissions.
For example I volunteered at a free health clinic for uninsured Americans that literally no one had ever heard of but because it was small time enough I, directly alongside the doctor, was the one who developed the entire patient flow as well as all the forms and paperwork used by the clinic. On top of that I served as a nurse taking people’s vitals and histories and sat in on the exams with the doctor. I can assure you that that experience was more impressive than a lackluster internship at a prestigious institution.
ECs never trump GPA.
IMHO, if you get all As next semester, you probably can survive in the premed, otherwise, if you still getting all Bs, you will be out. If you fall in between, then you should make a decision after that semester. Do the math, it is simple.
You want an opinion ““on my stats right here.” You’ve dug yourself into a very deep hole. Instead of endlessly torturing yourself speculating about what if I get this GPA or that GPA, I’d follow advice in posts #9, 10. If things don’t work out, go to your Plan B eco major…
“If I do have already burnt all my cards to get into an OK Allopathic Med school (forget about the lowest tier, I am not interested in that either)”
Let me be blunt, with a current GPA of 2.8 you are far from the “MD school hopeful” level, The lowest average GPA for a MD school is around 3.6 that is including the HBC schools. As said before below the average acceptance rate is basically kiss of death, nevermind 2.8. If you can do better, do it then report back to us at the end of the new semester.
However, if you are fluent in Spanish to the medical school level, you might have a chance at the PR 4 with a 3.4, not 2.8.
OP, it sounds like you are confusing “hanging around with doctors” with “being a doctor.” What is it about being a doctor that appeals to you? Are your parents doctors and you are trying to follow in their path? Or are you planning on being a doctor so that you can make a lot of money? I’m not sensing a deep dedication to the goal.
It takes a lot of dedication to become a physician, but your actions so far in college do not reflect a true and deep drive to pursue that goal.
College is the time to think through your options. Perhaps exploring other aspects of the healthcare industry (biotech, as you mentioned, or NGOs, or international relief/development) or other industries altogether might be what you are looking for.
Sounds like you might want to check out a career in public health or international heath. Look at computational biology, epidemiology and biomedical engineering too. And of course there are the usual other allied health professions. There are lots of interesting options out there for people who care about good healthcare that doesn’t involve being a doctor - and the GPA cut-off is less stringent.