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- Jul 18, 2017
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Thanks for the supportful comments guys. I'm just worried because I keep looking at the AAMC website stats and my GPA is at the 10th percentile for most of the top colleges and 25th for others, which is really bad. I'm worried because they are so many people applying to medical school, why would anyone want a pathetic and sickly person like me.
Obviously, I can't get into a good medical school with this, and I will likely take a few years off. Any advice about what I should try to do during my years off to become a more competitive applicant.
Most of the stuff I'm looking into requires 3 strong letters of recommendation which unfortunately I can't get.
since my academic profile is worse than most of my friends, would it make more sense to do medically related volunteer work to strengthen my application.
i'm sensing some major troll vibes
Hi guys, thanks for the supportful comments.
Hkhan: I did an winter break shadowing program at my school for 2 years with a group of 11 other undergrads, probably net ~50 hours a week for 4 weeks, but I lost contact with the MDs I shadowed and I wasn't memorable in any way unfortunately as a shadower...
I'm definitely not prepared to apply to medical school, so I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about what would be the best thing to do during my gap years. Should I work as a medical scribe? Should I try to get another research position at my school? Should I work in healthcare consulting? I used to be an overachiever before college and now I feel like I've pretty much ruined my life since I couldn't cope with balancing school and my illnesses, and I'm not sure how to fix it/ if it can be fixed. I feel like I tried a lot and I really tried my best to prioritize school over health but I have nothing much to show for it.
@Goro your cat is very cute.
Also quick question: for service to others, I realize this question is incredibly lazy, but any advice about where to start looking for such positions involving service to others that a medical school committee would look favorably upon.
At my school, teach for america seems to be pretty popular, but I've heard mixed reviews depending on where one gets matched, and I honestly don't think I have the capacity to handle and motivate a 40 person class of adolescents. There are lots of programs at my school involving doing service fellowships abroad, but they're super competitive and again I'm not comfortable going to a third world country with my health issues.
Tl;dr: Any advice about where to start when looking for such a position, or examples of what other applicants did that worked.
Hi everyone. I'm kind of new here, so I don't know how this works. I'm king of unconventional because my gpa is low and my mcat is high. I keep looking at med school stats and getting increasingly depressed. I feel cheated because I messed up college due to serious health issues. I hate my life. I need some help.
- Undergrad: Top 10 University. Not for long though lolol
- State of residence: VA
- GPA: 3.77. MCAT 527: Biomedical Engineering and Math double major
- Special circumstance: Had endometrial cancer during college. As a result, I had to take a health leave of absence from college to receive treatment for a year. I also was in a really bad accident my junior year, resulting in a severe traumatic brain injury. Unfortunately my health issues reflected in grades, and I had to quite research after 2 years because of the side effects of my treatment. I feel cheated because I used to be on the right trajectory before my health issues ruined my life and my hopes and dreams.
- Ethnicity: Mixed: Asian and White lolol the worst of both worlds.
- Very worried about recommendations: To put it softly, I underwent significant physical changes after I began treatment for my cancer. Many of the professors I had relationships with expressed concern over my sudden physical weakness and sickly appearance. I had never been severely ill before, and their comments were hurtful to me, so I started ignoring everyone and withdrawing from my professors/ classmates. People reached out to me through email expressing concern, and I ignored everyone who used to care about me...
- Unpaid lab research, which I had to quite after 2 years because I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. The treatment made me really weak and I physically was unable to continue doing research. Summer internships in medtech and consulting firms.
- No publications, poster presentations, business plan competition awards
- Shadowing: 80 totals hours
- Volunteering: ~300 hours
- President of 2 pre-medical related clubs at school, eboard positions in other groups