- Joined
- May 31, 2011
- Messages
- 26
- Reaction score
- 6
First and foremost, congratulations on your sobriety, my friend. Best to you.
You have something going for you that not all low-GPA comebacks do, and that's time. That there's ten years between you-then and you-now, with massive improvement in between, will greatly help you. Adcoms do understand that paths change, believe me, and what they will be looking for is that the you-now can handle the rigor of medical school without crumbling. I had a similar situation in which I basically failed half of junior and most of senior year back in 2001-2002. After an associate's degree and ten years in the workforce (I was also in Americorps VISTA for a year in '05 and after that was a registered nurse) when I made the decision to look into medical school, I remember the night that I calculated my GPA as well (I was literally sitting there with shaking hands, so I know exactly what you mean). Seeing what looked hopeless, I marched back to university in 2012 and did another bachelor's degree with a 3.9, same as you. My overall cumulative ended up a 3.2, sGPA of 3.85. but when I finally got to medical school interviews few people cared at all. At my very first interview I even started to explain my failures all that time ago and my interviewer stopped me and said, "That was fourteen years ago. We don't even need to talk about that."
So point being, with such a significant amount of time since a poor performance and such a stellar, sustained recent effort, a few doors here and there will close but there are places willing to give a reinventor a chance (both DO and MD). Some schools like Wayne State even have policies to only look at the past 25 or so hours of sGPA, precisely because people do change. My suggestion would be to look at those kind of schools that place significant emphasis on factors other than sheer numbers -- Wayne State as mentioned, Tulane, Miami, Boston, almost all DO schools to name a few (I can PM you a more complete list if you like). When you do write your application, your handling of your story and how you present yourself as a matured adult is going to be absolutely critical.
Generally, GPA "cutoff" is 3.0, which is considered the minimum to escape auto-screening. Assuming your calculations are correct you've at very least broken that, and it sounds like you have this semester's classes left to go which is good. It's also good (I mean not good but you know what I mean) that your failed courses from the Stone Age weren't science courses, so you have an sGPA that's alive on its own and fairly competitive -- last year's MD matriculants had a mean sGPA of 3.64. The C's in micro and algebra and that D in History aren't helping but they shouldn't kill you (nothing you can do about them, of course). There's no way to absolutely guarantee that your cycle would be successful, given that 60% of applicants including even perfect golden children do not get in each year, but from what I see I do believe you'd have a shot if you apply broadly and wisely.
You say you're taking the MCAT this May, but then say you're looking at joining AC VISTA for 2017-2018. Are you trying to apply to medical school this year or applying in '18? VISTA is rewarding but can be very hard on the finances, I can tell you as an alum. I'm sure you already know that, but you're not going to be saving any money during a VISTA year, and just advance warning an application cycle can be very expensive. Do you have any other significant volunteering (which you do need to have for an application)? If so, I would throw out there that it might be of benefit to consider continuing to take courses instead, particularly upper-level biology courses like immunology. You want to keep on putting as much academic distance between old you and new you, and with those more recent Cs and that D it might be to your benefit to keep mitigating those on paper as much as possible. Continuing to take classes will continue to buff your sGPA and give you something to update schools with when you receive new grades in the winter. As a graduated student they'll count as 'post-bacc' grades, which is fine. While taking those courses I would continue working, continue your research, and focus on establishing some sustained volunteering with a local organization (preferably volunteering that puts you face to face with other humans)
Also, have you shadowed doctors? This is another thing they'll be looking for in an application, and you need to have it. Multiple specialties, recommended 50-100 hours among them. If you're planning on applying DO (which I definitely would be if I were you) you must also have a LOR from a DO.
Thank you! I really appreciate your reply. That is so funny that you experienced "the shaking incident" as well (yet also, not so funny haha). But yes, I agree with what you stated about my application/personal statement. I plan for it to be honest and from the heart. As you can probably imagine, I have done nothing but learn over the past 6 years or so, both inside and outside of college. I do plan on applying to about 25 schools (yikes as far as cost goes, I know). But even BEFORE finding all of this out today about my F's from 10 years ago, I knew that I had to be realistic with my application choices. I think the hardest part about all of this for me is the surprise and initial shock of it. I don't know what exactly I was thinking; whether I thought I had W's in those courses or that perhaps they didn't count because of how old they were, I am not sure. But this is a hard pill to swallow right now. I went from thinking of myself as a competitive applicant all of this time with an assumed cGPA of like, 3.70, to realizing that I actually have a 3.09, and am on the edge of being thrown out before adcoms ever even get the chance to look at what I have to say. To clarify, I am taking the MCAT in May, applying to schools starting in June, hopefully leaving for the AmeriCorps in July, and THOUGHT I'd be matriculating into medical school in the fall of 2018. As far as finances during my service year - honestly, I was thinking public assistance. I live at home currently with my mom, and we receive it now, and I was hoping I would qualify for it as well in either MN or LA (the two states with agencies that I have heard back from). I really am looking forward to it. I'm very excited about both agencies' missions; I'd be grateful to assist either. Other than this and the aforementioned volunteering as a patient advocate (perhaps a little less than 2 years) I do not have much other volunteering experience. I've spent a lot of my time doing clinical research. With that as an EC and working part-time up until the spring of 2015, I haven't had much time to incorporate more volunteer work. However, I am more than willing to do more this entire semester if I seem to be lacking in that area. Same goes for shadowing. I have only shadowed a rheumatologist (about 24 hours) thus far. I have an email out to an emergency medicine physician (who happens to be a DO), and also a primary care physician. Hopefully I can put in a solid amount of shadowing hours with both of them. But I have intended on doing as much shadowing this semester as possible (because I know I am lacking in that area). As far as DO schools, I did plan on applying to some prior to today. Now, however, I think it would be in my best interest to apply to many more. Therefore I definitely need to develop some sort of relationship with a DO fast if I plan on getting a LOR. Also, I just read that mathematics are not included in the sGPA calculation for DO schools, so that F that I received in the elementary algebra class that I subsequently retook and received an A, won't matter anyway which is great. That should raise my sGPA there. As far as what I am going to do now... I am not sure. I mean, I could graduate and go back for more science courses, but I feel like I have shown for the past couple of years that I am able to do well in them. But again, I will do really whatever adcoms want me to at this point. I'm thinking possibly continue on as planned and cross my fingers with applications. If the odds do not end up in my favor, I will have completed a year of VISTA and I can then consider going back for a SMP or something of the sort.