Help with what i should do

[Doggofroggo]

Hi guys, I graduated in May and suffered through alot of personal problems in undergrad. The college I went to was a bad fit for me, I did not really have anyone helping me with career advising , was bullied, and experienced extreme emotional problems due to being miserable at my college. I was originally premed but couldn't get help with advising and ended up getting a D in chem 1 because of personal issues. I retook it and received a C-. I basically gave up then and dropped my intended major as well. I graduated with a 3.098 and a 2.87 science gpa. I dont know if that's my true science gpa as my major classes could possibly not count towards that. I basically crammed in half of my major senior year. I have started doing a diy postbacc with prereqs and have a 3.78 postbacc gpa by itself from taking 14 credits. I'm currently taking 9. I worked as a student medical assistant for 2 mnths and did research my fall semester. I feel hopeless that I will ever catch up and dont know what to do.

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[Bonne Nuit]

Hi guys, I graduated in May and suffered through alot of personal problems in undergrad. The college I went to was a bad fit for me, I did not really have anyone helping me with career advising , was bullied, and experienced extreme emotional problems due to being miserable at my college. I was originally premed but couldn't get help with advising and ended up getting a D in chem 1 because of personal issues. I retook it and received a C-. I basically gave up then and dropped my intended major as well. I graduated with a 3.098 and a 2.87 science gpa. I dont know if that's my true science gpa as my major classes could possibly not count towards that. I basically crammed in half of my major senior year. I have started doing a diy postbacc with prereqs and have a 3.78 postbacc gpa by itself from taking 14 credits. I'm currently taking 9. I worked as a student medical assistant for 2 mnths and did research my fall semester. I feel hopeless that I will ever catch up and dont know what to do.

What you should do is stay the course, at least academically. Your postbac GPA is good. How many more prerequisites do you have left to take?

Your research and clinical experience are both good starting points. More research would be nice to have, but you definitely want to boost your clinical experience as much as possible. You'll also need a few hundred hours of nonclinical community service and 40-80 hours of physician shadowing by the time you apply. Start thinking about ways to boost your ECs, and you can work on getting those hours in alongside your postbac coursework.

Once you've taken all your prerequisites, you'll be ready to prep for the MCAT, and that takes anywhere from 2-6 months depending on your baseline knowledge and everything else you've got going on in your life.

Don't worry about "catching up", because there's nobody to catch up to. Nontraditional premeds can only go at their own pace. And don't give into hopelessness. You're doing just fine, and every day you spend working on your postbac or ECs is a day closer to achieving your goals.

 

[Doggofroggo]

What you should do is stay the course, at least academically. Your postbac GPA is good. How many more prerequisites do you have left to take?

Your research and clinical experience are both good starting points. More research would be nice to have, but you definitely want to boost your clinical experience as much as possible. You'll also need a few hundred hours of nonclinical community service and 40-80 hours of physician shadowing by the time you apply. Start thinking about ways to boost your ECs, and you can work on getting those hours in alongside your postbac coursework.

Once you've taken all your prerequisites, you'll be ready to prep for the MCAT, and that takes anywhere from 2-6 months depending on your baseline knowledge and everything else you've got going on in your life.

Don't worry about "catching up", because there's nobody to catch up to. Nontraditional premeds can only go at their own pace. And don't give into hopelessness. You're doing just fine, and every day you spend working on your postbac or ECs is a day closer to achieving your goals.

I have orgo 2 after this semester and biochem left. I did about 2 internships during college, one online , that were both volunteer positions, idk how much these count though

 

[Bonne Nuit]

I have orgo 2 after this semester and biochem left. I did about 2 internships during college, one online , that were both volunteer positions, idk how much these count though

Try to get 4.0s in everything from here on out. If you can get about 30-40 postbac credits total and end up at a 3.8+ postbac GPA, this will demonstrate great academic reinvention. You're doing really good so far.

Start working on your ECs right now, because it looks like these are the biggest gaps in your application at present.

Whether or not your internships "count" depends on what you did in them. Without knowing anything about these internships, I can't comment on whether they will be beneficial for a medical school application. If they were very short term and/or online, you will probably need to do more.

For your clinical experience, you will be expected to report at least a few hundred hours in a patient-facing clinical position. It can be paid or volunteer, and common clinical activities for premeds are medical assisting, CNA, EMT, scribing, hospital volunteering (e.g., patient transport, patient sitter), and phlebotomy. You will be asked to discuss how your clinical experiences help you better understand the role of the physician, how healthcare works in this country, and what it's like to be a patient. Online volunteer positions are unlikely to have robust enough patient and physician interactions to meet this objective.

Community service options include Habitat for Humanity, food/clothing banks, Meals on Wheels, Ronald McDonald house, and so on. Check around and see what's available in your community. A few hours a week volunteering will build up fast.

 

[Doggofroggo]

Try to get 4.0s in everything from here on out. If you can get about 30-40 postbac credits total and end up at a 3.8+ postbac GPA, this will demonstrate great academic reinvention. You're doing really good so far.

Start working on your ECs right now, because it looks like these are the biggest gaps in your application at present.

Whether or not your internships "count" depends on what you did in them. Without knowing anything about these internships, I can't comment on whether they will be beneficial for a medical school application. If they were very short term and/or online, you will probably need to do more.

For your clinical experience, you will be expected to report at least a few hundred hours in a patient-facing clinical position. It can be paid or volunteer, and common clinical activities for premeds are medical assisting, CNA, EMT, scribing, hospital volunteering (e.g., patient transport, patient sitter), and phlebotomy. You will be asked to discuss how your clinical experiences help you better understand the role of the physician, how healthcare works in this country, and what it's like to be a patient. Online volunteer positions are unlikely to have robust enough patient and physician interactions to meet this objective.

Community service options include Habitat for Humanity, food/clothing banks, Meals on Wheels, Ronald McDonald house, and so on. Check around and see what's available in your community. A few hours a week volunteering will build up fast.

I applied to a postbacc program as well. Thank you for responding. I plan to volunteer some with the research that I did last semester, I do need more ecs/volunteering in the community. Thank you

 

[Goro]

Hi guys, I graduated in May and suffered through alot of personal problems in undergrad. The college I went to was a bad fit for me, I did not really have anyone helping me with career advising , was bullied, and experienced extreme emotional problems due to being miserable at my college. I was originally premed but couldn't get help with advising and ended up getting a D in chem 1 because of personal issues. I retook it and received a C-. I basically gave up then and dropped my intended major as well. I graduated with a 3.098 and a 2.87 science gpa. I dont know if that's my true science gpa as my major classes could possibly not count towards that. I basically crammed in half of my major senior year. I have started doing a diy postbacc with prereqs and have a 3.78 postbacc gpa by itself from taking 14 credits. I'm currently taking 9. I worked as a student medical assistant for 2 mnths and did research my fall semester. I feel hopeless that I will ever catch up and dont know what to do.

Read my post on reinvention for premeds.