Futile Endeavour?

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LMAOwais

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Greetings SDN,

I've browsed the forums for some while. I'm not sure if this belongs in the subforum or not. Anyway my story:

I have just completed my sophomore year as a microbiology major at a public state university. I have suffered from depression/anxiety for about 3 years now and just recently started medication and therapy. Before taking measures to heal myself I did a great deal of damage to my academic reputation(caused in great deal by the previously mentioned ailment), enough that I am even embarrassed to admit it online to a bunch of strangers. I am sitting at sub 3.0 gpa overall and science. I haven't made the "decision to consider" medical school lightly. I realize the rigors of the application process and mostly I'm coming here to see if the hopes I have of ever achieving a medical school acceptance are just pipe dreams and I should get onto another bus, or if I can somehow do enough repair to find myself somewhere along this path at some point in the future.

I think its fairly obvious that I won't be getting anywhere as a traditional applicant. I'd like to know if I can apply as non-traditional applicant after significant gpa boosting, and doing the necessary volunteer/clinical legwork and if there are any specific approaches I should take. I'm willing to go to the Caribbeans or similar options but would much prefer to stay close to family. Also I don't mind blunt honesty. I realize where I am and the damage I've done, but if you guys could give me some advice, I would be most genuinely grateful. If you have any questions that might better help your understanding of my situation, please let me know.

Thanks for your time, and good luck with all your trials and tribulations.
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Bring up the GPA, go to the Caribbean Big 4, and don't waste your time on post-baccs and applying 3 cycles.
 
To get into an MD school with a sub 3.0, you will need some combination of several things: a very compelling story, a killer MCAT score, great EC's, and possibly a special masters program or post-bac with a 4.0. If you had all these things, you could get accepted to US schools, but MD will be difficult.

If your goals for residency are modest (internal/family med), you might go overseas just to avoid the extreme hassle. People do go Caribbean for this reason and it works for some. However I don't recommend this since you sound like you could probably do better.

What would I do? Shoot for DO school. Do an informal post-bac and take upper division science courses and get A's to bump your GPA above 3.0 - the higher you can get it the better. Do reasonably well on the MCAT and apply DO. Yes, you do have a chance if you do the right things, and there are a handful of regular SDN'ers who have been down this path and won.
 
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keep in mind the OP said he just finished his sophmore year.

best solution...get as many A's as you possibly can, take a year off to apply, so that you'll have your senior year grades to boost your gpa. You should be able to raise it significantly
 
Ok, let's run a hypothetical here.

Say he's completed exactly half of his coursework. At my school we had 3 quarters a year with about 16 units/quarter, so the full units required (approx) for graduation is something like 192.

So let's hypothesize and say that he has completed 96 units and has a 2.5. Let's say he pulls off a miracle and gets a complete 4.0 for the rest of his college career.

96(2.5)+96(4.0)/192 = 3.25.

Therefore, it's safe to say that he can likely get his GPA above 3.0 by graduation if he really kicks some ***.

A quick MDApps search reveals a ton of people who have been accepted (to either MD or DO) with a GPA between 3.0 and 3.3.

OP: most of what has been said here is good advice. Do some shadowing, get some clinical experience, do some volunteer work, ROCK the MCAT, do some research, and you'll have a respectable shot at MD schools if you have all of your grades before application. Find something good to do in your off year after you graduate while you apply.

If DO is the way to go then you can probably ease off on the research some and your MCAT likely won't matter as much.... and it's a very good way to get to where you want to go with the added bonus that they might be more sympathetic regarding your mental health issue. Also, you might be able to apply DO in your senior year rather than taking a year off.

Don't necessarily consign yourself to the Caribbean yet. There are other routes and you definitely haven't killed your chances for those. Not by a long shot.
 
To the OP,
If you can show a dramatic GPA improvement along with a good MCAT you will be sending a strong positive message to adcoms. If you don't care about the differences between US allopathic, US Osteophatic or Caribbean schools, then you probably don't have to go through so much trouble by choosing the latter.

Still, it will not be an easy road. Make your story an inspirational one! good luck.
 
Can you retake some of the classes during the summers?
 
MaddieMay said:
Can you retake some of the classes during the summers?
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I am in the process of making up for various credit hours that I did poorly in.

Also I had a question regarding mental health issues, i was wondering, would something like this might prove disadvantageous to someone who might even have a more spotless transcript/application? I am worried that I might get discarded altogether in any application process because adcoms would be concerned about my ability to handle the stresses of a medical education.
 
LMAOwais said:
I am in the process of making up for various credit hours that I did poorly in.

Also I had a question regarding mental health issues, i was wondering, would something like this might prove disadvantageous to someone who might even have a more spotless transcript/application? I am worried that I might get discarded altogether in any application process because adcoms would be concerned about my ability to handle the stresses of a medical education.
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You don't have to say what the illness is. Just say a 'serious illness" and then when you apply, make clear that that illness is over. (Make sure this is actually true).
 
I think people here are painting much more of a doomsday scenario for you than they should be. I mean, you're definitely have to pummel the MCAT no matter what, but if you can get yourself to a 3.3+ overall with a comparable BCPM GPA, you're not in that bad of shape. If you can score a 35+, you've set yourself up about as well as you could hope. A 3.3/35 combined with strong essays and LOR's should at least get you in somewhere.
 
one of the reasons i have reservations applying without waiting a while is that the last thing I want to do is squander hundreds/maybe thousands of dollars applying and getting nowhere. I was wondering what advantages/disadvantages would be involved with going into a masters program of some sort.
 
You should wait to see what your GPA is like at the end of it all.

If it is sub-3.4, you'll probably want to hit up an SMP.

However, the 3000 or so dollars of an application season will pale in comparison to what you would spend in an SMP.
 
OP, you have to make sure your situation is handled before you handle the rigors of even the application process itself. You said you have only recently begun medication and therapy. Something like depression and anxiety can take between one to two years to have under control.

Make sure you are taking notes during therapy so you can find out as to what causes your feelings, and how to deal with stress.

I think it would look wonderful in your PS if you could paint a picture of your struggle and triumph with your disorder.
 
LMAOwais said:
I am in the process of making up for various credit hours that I did poorly in.

Also I had a question regarding mental health issues, i was wondering, would something like this might prove disadvantageous to someone who might even have a more spotless transcript/application? I am worried that I might get discarded altogether in any application process because adcoms would be concerned about my ability to handle the stresses of a medical education.
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You should be ok.. there have been quite a few "I suffered from a serious mental illness/physical illness/family problem" threads on SDN and, in my opinion, if you have gone through this situation and everything is ok now (this part is important), you should be alright. Just don't dwell on it in your PS, unless it was a huge factor in influencing you to go to med school

Cegar said:
You should wait to see what your GPA is like at the end of it all.

If it is sub-3.4, you'll probably want to hit up an SMP.

However, the 3000 or so dollars of an application season will pale in comparison to what you would spend in an SMP.
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If you are kind of hovering in the 3.2-3.4 range, you would be alright to go ahead and apply to D.O. schools given you have a decent MCAT score. If you really rock it out, you may have a shot at a couple of third tier M.D. schools.
 
I also recommend trying the DO route.
 
Get your GPA up. If you show strong improvement over the next few years I doubt a SMP will be necessary, though if your GPA is still less than ~3.4, you could do a post-bac with some heavy science coursework. A DO school would be a lot more forgiving (i.e. if you retake the classes you did badly on the AACOMAS does grade replacement while the AMCAS doesnt), and if you dont mind going that route then you are on the right track.

Short of a sub 2.0 GPA or a grievous felony record theres not too much you can do to totally tank your chances by sophomore year. It will take hard work though :)
 
pagemmapants said:
Ok, let's run a hypothetical here.

Say he's completed exactly half of his coursework. At my school we had 3 quarters a year with about 16 units/quarter, so the full units required (approx) for graduation is something like 192.

So let's hypothesize and say that he has completed 96 units and has a 2.5. Let's say he pulls off a miracle and gets a complete 4.0 for the rest of his college career.

96(2.5)+96(4.0)/192 = 3.25.

Therefore, it's safe to say that he can likely get his GPA above 3.0 by graduation if he really kicks some ***.
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That seems to be a really rough calculation. I had a 2.25 at the beginning of my sophomore year (45 credits) and by the graduation it was a 3.35. I def. did not have a 4.0 the entire time.

OP, I wouldn't freak out yet. Just don't apply till senior year, and if your grades still aren't up to snuff then you take an extra year. Osteopathic schools use grade replacement and not grade averaging. So, if you retake a couple of those classes you did very poorly in then you will have a surprising jump in your gpa (if you get an A). With a solid mcat and a 3.0+ gpa you will at least stand a shot at some schools. Believe it or not, admissions committees do notice grade trends. Not everyone is cut out for college at first. I feel and have heard from a couple of people on adcoms that it is much more important to finish strong than begin strong and fade.

I suffer from the same thing you do and understand fully what it can do with your life. The first thing to do is to get a handle on that. I still have struggles with it to the point that I just won't talk to my friends or get out of bed for a week span except to meander to class (if I manage) and stare at the wall. I wouldn't really make a point of noting WHY your grades were crap early on, since there is still a bit of a stigma behind it.
 
LMAOwais said:
Greetings SDN,

I've browsed the forums for some while. I'm not sure if this belongs in the subforum or not. Anyway my story:

I have just completed my sophomore year as a microbiology major at a public state university. I have suffered from depression/anxiety for about 3 years now and just recently started medication and therapy. Before taking measures to heal myself I did a great deal of damage to my academic reputation(caused in great deal by the previously mentioned ailment), enough that I am even embarrassed to admit it online to a bunch of strangers. I am sitting at sub 3.0 gpa overall and science. I haven't made the "decision to consider" medical school lightly. I realize the rigors of the application process and mostly I'm coming here to see if the hopes I have of ever achieving a medical school acceptance are just pipe dreams and I should get onto another bus, or if I can somehow do enough repair to find myself somewhere along this path at some point in the future.

I think its fairly obvious that I won't be getting anywhere as a traditional applicant. I'd like to know if I can apply as non-traditional applicant after significant gpa boosting, and doing the necessary volunteer/clinical legwork and if there are any specific approaches I should take. I'm willing to go to the Caribbeans or similar options but would much prefer to stay close to family. Also I don't mind blunt honesty. I realize where I am and the damage I've done, but if you guys could give me some advice, I would be most genuinely grateful. If you have any questions that might better help your understanding of my situation, please let me know.

Thanks for your time, and good luck with all your trials and tribulations.
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I suggest taking the GMAT, taking a few summer courses to boost up your G.P.A, WHILE working/interning at a company, and then applying to a top 15 business school/top 10 business school. Once you get your MBA, transfer to med school.
 
I really don't think you should make a decision until you have your senior grades in. If you're in the 3.3 range and have a very good MCAT score, you're set. If not, you can always take an alternative route to med school or scrap the plan entirely and go to grad school. Work as hard as you can in the last 2 years and pull that GPA up.
 
Jolie South said:
This is a "what are my chances?" thread. moving to the new WAMC subforum.
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sorry, i wasn't entirely sure if this fit the subforum exactly.

Anyway, in my situation money is a factor, even though in the long run if things were to work out it might not be. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to take a year off to work and beef up my application with more volunteering/clinical exposure
 
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