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Uchiha Kakashi

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Hello,

I would much appreciate some advice on what I should currently do now in order to prepare for medical school applications - pursue a Postbac program or SMP?

I went to UCLA and my sGPA is 3.3 and my cGPA is 3.5.

I initially had a 3.8 sGPA and cGPA my first 1.5 years of college but some personal family events had caused me to lose my grip on school in tandem with growing EC commitments.

I plan on taking a gap year to (1) prepare for the MCAT in January (2) work as an EMT in my hometown.

I am highly interested in USC's MS in Global Medicine because I want to stay in California, however looking at the UC's programs for Postbac are also appealing. (Aside from my Southeast Asian descent [parents are refugees] I am not sure if i fit the bill as the typical URM that I have read the UC Consortium looks for.)

Any advice / suggestions would be much appreciated, Thanks!

ECs:

Non-Medical:
-full time summer (400 hours) doing clinical research internship at Peking University (will be published)
-part-time UCLA student researcher (200 hours) at UCLA Psychology Lab
-Volunteer summer as STEM/nutrition educator and camp counselor for under-resourced African American children at summer camp (Unicamp, UCLA's official charity) (200 hours)
-2 years in Vietnamese Student Union (Intern -> Logistics Coordinator)
-Working at VITAS (Hospice Care) volunteer (100 hours)

Medical:
-9 month internship at an under-resourced hospital (3 rotations)
-full time summer (300 hours) working as personal care assistant for a quadriplegic patient
-UCLA EMS certification (200 hour class)
-NREMT certification
-CPR/BLS certification (lol)

Members don't see this ad.
 
Have you thought about going to DO route or you set for MD?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Your gpa is low for MD. Take MCAT and go for DO route unless you want to waste your time.
 
I know it's low for MD but I want to either do a post-bac or SMP to fix that and would like advice on which I should do given my current situation
 
Hello,

I would much appreciate some advice on what I should currently do now in order to prepare for medical school applications - pursue a Postbac program or SMP?

I went to UCLA and my sGPA is 3.3 and my cGPA is 3.5.

I initially had a 3.8 sGPA and cGPA my first 1.5 years of college but some personal family events had caused me to lose my grip on school in tandem with growing EC commitments.

I plan on taking a gap year to (1) prepare for the MCAT in January (2) work as an EMT in my hometown.

I am highly interested in USC's MS in Global Medicine because I want to stay in California, however looking at the UC's programs for Postbac are also appealing. (Aside from my Southeast Asian descent [parents are refugees] I am not sure if i fit the bill as the typical URM that I have read the UC Consortium looks for.)

Any advice / suggestions would be much appreciated, Thanks!

ECs:

Non-Medical:
-full time summer (400 hours) doing clinical research internship at Peking University (will be published)
-part-time UCLA student researcher (200 hours) at UCLA Psychology Lab
-Volunteer summer as STEM/nutrition educator and camp counselor for under-resourced African American children at summer camp (Unicamp, UCLA's official charity) (200 hours)
-2 years in Vietnamese Student Union (Intern -> Logistics Coordinator)
-Working at VITAS (Hospice Care) volunteer (100 hours)

Medical:
-9 month internship at an under-resourced hospital (3 rotations)
-full time summer (300 hours) working as personal care assistant for a quadriplegic patient
-UCLA EMS certification (200 hour class)
-NREMT certification
-CPR/BLS certification (lol)

The downward trend + Ca residence indicate that you will probably need a true SMP for MD, unless you absolutely crush the MCAT. But come back after you take the MCAT, and then people will be able to help.
 
The USC program is not really an SMP anymore so I wouldn't recommend it. I'm also a Californian with similar stats looking into SMP's and the only two programs I found that seemed good are UCSD and KGI Keck (maybe Touro or Drexel Sac but eh). Get a 515+ on the MCAT and you should do well after the SMP! My top choices are Loyola and BU for SMP's btw.
 
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