Nontrad (pre-vet to D.O.?), advice needed!

[wolfnscale]

Hello there! My undergrad career has been a journey of discovery. All throughout high school, I aspired to one day become a doctor (sounds a bit peculiar, but as my father is an MD, it's not so out of the ballpark). However, once I got into college, I started exploring other science careers and ended up hesitantly taking up the path of a pre-vet before recently realizing I'm not being true to myself. Long story short, my undergrad is a mess of things that I'm not sure are going to help me with applying to medical schools.

Stats-
-B.S. in Environmental Science (GPA=3.54)
-M.S. in Environmental Science (GPA=3.82)
-Had some poor grads in quantitative classes (chem 1, calculus 2/3, physics 1/2), but I've been accepted into a Post-Bacc program to repair them. If all goes well this should fix my low GPAs!
-Internships and volunteer work in a nutshell: ecological research, environmental monitoring/data, wildlife rehab, working dog training/research, zoo animal care, vet shadowing
-Haven't taken GRE or MCATs yet. I'm saving them for this coming year as I complete my pre-reqs (I haven't taken orgo, biochem, or anatomy).

What I'm concerned about is LORs and experience. I don't have any (human) medical research experience or volunteer hours. If I'm being honest, I have technically shadowed my father and his psychiatric practice for years now, but I realize that helping out family members may not be a plus (or even considered as valid on an app?)...I also don't know any pre-health professor that might make a good LOR for me, so I need to build relationships.

I've never had any pre-med advising, so I'm hoping some of you out there in the community can point me in the right direction for building up my resume as much as possible. I have about a year to complete my pre-reqs. What sorts of volunteering can I do to prove my determination to med schools? Also, do you think I might have a better shot at a D.O. or foreign school because of my eclectic work history/nontrad. degrees?

Thanks!

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[Faha]

You need 50 hours of physician shadowing and include a primary care DO. 200 or more hour of clinical volunteering (hospital setting would be good) is also essential. You need to do well on the MCAT but do not take the MCAT until your practice scores are above 505.

 

[cactusman]

What is your sGPA and is there a trend in your grades? Why are you only looking at DO - if you do well on the MCAT, a 3.54 cGPA will still put you in striking distance for MD. Don't go off shore.

 

[Goro]

Stats-
-B.S. in Environmental Science (GPA=3.54)
-M.S. in Environmental Science (GPA=3.82)

Stats are good for DO. MD schools will ignore the MS GPA, UG GPA is low but not lethal.

What I'm concerned about is LORs and experience. I don't have any (human) medical research experience or volunteer hours. If I'm being honest, I have technically shadowed my father and his psychiatric practice for years now, but I realize that helping out family members may not be a plus (or even considered as valid on an app?)...I also don't know any pre-health professor that might make a good LOR for me, so I need to build relationships.

Without clinical experience, your app is DOA. Strongly suggest you shadow doctors other than your dad, and not psychiatry.


I've never had any pre-med advising, so I'm hoping some of you out there in the community can point me in the right direction for building up my resume as much as possible. I have about a year to complete my pre-reqs. What sorts of volunteering can I do to prove my determination to med schools? Also, do you think I might have a better shot at a D.O. or foreign school because of my eclectic work history/nontrad. degrees?

Yes, your chances are better at DO. Foreign schools? Do you like the idea of being unemployed and being deeply in debt. That's the outcome with them.


Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.

Some types of volunteer activities are more appealing than others. Volunteering in a nice suburban hospital is all very well and good and all, but doesn't show that you're willing to dig in and get your hands dirty in the same way that working with the developmentally disabled (or homeless, the dying, or Alzheimers or mentally ill or elderly or ESL or domestic, rural impoverished) does. The uncomfortable situations are the ones that really demonstrate your altruism and get you 'brownie points'. Plus, they frankly teach you more -- they develop your compassion and humanity in ways comfortable situations can't.


Service need not be "unique". If you can alleviate suffering in your community through service to the poor, homeless, illiterate, fatherless, etc, you are meeting an otherwise unmet need and learning more about the lives of the people (or types of people) who will someday be your patients. Check out your local houses of worship for volunteer opportunities. The key thing is service to others less fortunate than you. And get off campus and out of your comfort zone!

Examples include: Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, Humane Society, crisis hotlines, soup kitchen, food pantry, homeless or women’s shelter, after-school tutoring for students or coaching a sport in a poor school district, teaching ESL to adults at a community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, or Meals on Wheels.

 

[wolfnscale]

@Faha Thanks so much for pointing out the number requirements! I didn't realize there were strict hour minimums needed--I need to brush up on my research.

@cactusman Thanks for replying. I've been sort of confused when calculating my science GPA. I realized that even though my entire degree is basically science, a lot of my science classes don't count in the sGPA. I have some random Ds from part of my calc sequence and the beginning of my genchem sequence. And two Cs for the beginning parts of my physics sequence. Besides those, in all other coursework (science including other math and chem classes, and other) I have As and Bs.

Using the AMCAS Course Classification, I've calculated that my BCPM-GPA is ~3.22. My trend is that my quantitative classes aren't too good . During my post-bacc, I should fix though and settle at ~3.43 or above.

@Goro Thank you so much! This was a really fantatic reply. I will definitely take those volunteer recs into consideration. I didn't realize foreign medical schools were so frowned upon.

 

[cactusman]

@Faha Thanks so much for pointing out the number requirements! I didn't realize there were strict hour minimums needed--I need to brush up on my research.

@cactusman Thanks for replying. I've been sort of confused when calculating my science GPA. I realized that even though my entire degree is basically science, a lot of my science classes don't count in the sGPA. I have some random Ds from part of my calc sequence and the beginning of my genchem sequence. And two Cs for the beginning parts of my physics sequence. Besides those, in all other coursework (science including other math and chem classes, and other) I have As and Bs.

Using the AMCAS Course Classification, I've calculated that my BCPM-GPA is ~3.22. My trend is that my quantitative classes aren't too good . During my post-bacc, I should fix though and settle at ~3.43 or above.

@Goro Thank you so much! This was a really fantatic reply. I will definitely take those volunteer recs into consideration. I didn't realize foreign medical schools were so frowned upon.

There are no strict hour minimums (posssibly a few schools are exceptions) but you need around that number of hours to demonstrate to schools that you have sufficient knowledge of and interest in the role of a physician.

 

[jab12]

Hello there! My undergrad career has been a journey of discovery. All throughout high school, I aspired to one day become a doctor (sounds a bit peculiar, but as my father is an MD, it's not so out of the ballpark). However, once I got into college, I started exploring other science careers and ended up hesitantly taking up the path of a pre-vet before recently realizing I'm not being true to myself. Long story short, my undergrad is a mess of things that I'm not sure are going to help me with applying to medical schools.

Stats-
-B.S. in Environmental Science (GPA=3.54)
-M.S. in Environmental Science (GPA=3.82)
-Had some poor grads in quantitative classes (chem 1, calculus 2/3, physics 1/2), but I've been accepted into a Post-Bacc program to repair them. If all goes well this should fix my low GPAs!
-Internships and volunteer work in a nutshell: ecological research, environmental monitoring/data, wildlife rehab, working dog training/research, zoo animal care, vet shadowing
-Haven't taken GRE or MCATs yet. I'm saving them for this coming year as I complete my pre-reqs (I haven't taken orgo, biochem, or anatomy).

What I'm concerned about is LORs and experience. I don't have any (human) medical research experience or volunteer hours. If I'm being honest, I have technically shadowed my father and his psychiatric practice for years now, but I realize that helping out family members may not be a plus (or even considered as valid on an app?)...I also don't know any pre-health professor that might make a good LOR for me, so I need to build relationships.

I've never had any pre-med advising, so I'm hoping some of you out there in the community can point me in the right direction for building up my resume as much as possible. I have about a year to complete my pre-reqs. What sorts of volunteering can I do to prove my determination to med schools? Also, do you think I might have a better shot at a D.O. or foreign school because of my eclectic work history/nontrad. degrees?

Thanks!

Interesting change of heart lol. Your gpa is fine, but you definitely need to work on gaining more clinical experience and shadowing (regarding humans, of course) if you want admission committees to even take a look at you. There's plenty of opportunities you can take up such as hospital volunteering, shawoding drs (preferably not your dad), becoming a medical scribe, EMT, hospice volunteer, etc. Don't get so caught up in the numbers either. I'm an MD/DO applicant this year and have gotten multiple interviews since applying 2 months ago with a 3.63 gpa and 497 MCAT. You'll be fine. Put the work in and you'll get what you deserve.