3.0 uGPA Biochemistry (Bad freshman year around 2.0) Great upward trend.
3.8 Masters GPA Health Administration in one year
28 Old MCAT: Been studying for a year and will get 510+ on the new one in May
3+ years research experience as a Lab Technician for a medical school (This school has 3.25 uGPA cutoff)
2 Shadowing Experiences
Clinical Volunteering (3 week international trip) (25 hours in ER)
non-clinical volunteering (1 volunteering trip for health promotions, another 50 hours at various places)
Taking post-bac courses this upcoming semester (Advanced Biochem, Advanced Genetics) maybe O-chem retake
How could I best utilize my time to improve my application? As I work full-time, I was considering more post-bac courses to demonstrate my academic potential while studying for the MCAT? I will be applying this upcoming cycle.
Thank you all for answering
More shadowing - minimal work on your part but gives you more experience in what you’re trying to get yourself into (how many hours is 2 experiences?)
Listing any publications from your 3 years of research.
Not much you can do about your GPA at this point. It helps if a) there has been a decent about of time since you finished undergrad and b) if you show success with academic recency (ie crush the classes you’re taking this coming semester). A better-than-average MCAT always looks great, but it really is the whole package. Aside from your uGPA, which isn’t really terrible, it doesn’t look bad to me at all.
Instead of taking undergrad level courses to prep for the MCAT, consider doing a commercial prep course. They’ll help you focus your efforts more, teach you some tips and tricks, and will probably have a better outcome than trying to learn the large list of testable topics by AAMC on your own. Depending on how many classes you were planning on taking, it might be cheaper.
Before you go killing yourself with “advanced” sciences, keep in mind that med school is actually a pretty mid-level depth into the sciences. Med school genetics is as much about memorizing what gene on what chromosome gives you what disease as it is actually understanding the science behind genetics. I want to say that taking Bio II as a post-bacc student taught me 85% of the genetics sciency stuff that we covered in med school. Same for biochem – basic principles with more specific application. Granted, doing well in those classes will strengthen your academic resume.
I answered this on tomorrow’s (12/28/2016) podcast! Subscribe at http://www.oldpremeds.org/subscribe