<p>So I didn’t go into college wanting to have anything to do with medicine so it wasn’t until well into my 4th semester that I discovered that I really want to be a physician. My GPA hasn’t been phenomenal, especially since for the first two years I didn’t care, and my Neuroscience major hasn’t been really easy.</p>
<p>So here’s my stats</p>
<p>*Neuroscience major and University of Wisconsin-Madison
*GPA ~3.3, science GPA is much higher. Not really sure exactly what constitutes a science course so I haven’t calculated it.
MCAT, I get my scores next week, but coming out of the test compared to the many practice tests I took I’m expecting no less than a 34 and wouldn’t be surprised to see it closer to 40.</p>
<p>But here’s the thing, I didn’t get any recommendations. I always thought it was a waste of a professors time to talk to him in person if I could solve the problem through other means. If I had a problem in a course I’d first try to work it out myself, then with classmates, then if all else fails just doing over email. I suppose even then there were a few courses where I should have asked, but its too late now.</p>
<p>Next year however I plan making sure I get several recommendations, join a volunteer club, and will hopefully continue to raise my GPA. So right now my resume isn’t looking very impressive, but barring a complete meltdown it should be much improved next year. </p>
<p>The main question I’m asking is since my application is weak now would it do any harm to next years application if I apply this summer?</p>
<p>I suppose I should add I’m not trying to get into a top tier school. I’m applying to the two schools in Wisconsin, Creighton (my dad and his two brothers all went to medical school there), and a couple of other schools that seem like they weigh high MCAT scores over GPA.</p>
<p>Wait for the MCAT score to come back; one week shouldn’t slow you down too badly. But yes, I think it does harm you to have an application roundly rejected.</p>
<p>Yes. You’ll have lost the money and time you sunk into the first round of applications. Medical schools will also expect to see a significant improvement in your applications the second time around. Better to apply from a position of strength than to have to make up for a weak first time.</p>
<ol>
<li>you don’t have any letters of rec</li>
<li>you admit that your resume is weak </li>
<li>your gpa is weak so you’d benefit from adding another year of classes though even with that your gpa would still be sub par</li>
</ol>
<p>so basically you aren’t ready to apply this round. you might not even be ready to apply next round but at least you’ll have a better shot. you shouldn’t apply just for the hell of it and a general rule of thumb is that you always want to put your best foot forward.</p>
<p>You need recommendations or you will run the risk of your application being filed as incomplete and never making it to a review committee. It happened to my son who had one letter of rec not make it to two schools in time. His file was shown as incomplete and despite the strength of his application (3.7+ GPAs and a higher MCAT than you listed) he never heard anything more from those two schools.</p>
<p>letters of recommendations (usually at least three: two science and one non-science) are absolutely required at every single school. also if your school has a premed committee, not getting a committee letter (unless you are out of college for several years) is a huge red flag</p>