I am finishing up a long post-bacc, for which I will receive a biochemistry BS; I have also taken lots of microbiology courses, so I could get a microbiology BS as well. My post-bacc courses were mostly science courses. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time with some upper division courses, and in a number of cases missed A’s and got B’s and even some C’s. As a result my overall GPA is 3.26, but the science GPA is probably lower than that; I have not calculated it. Last semester I got 4 A’s and 1 B. I would have gotten an A instead of that B, but I had an emergency the day before the final, and that emergency consumed my review time for that day so I received a B on the final, and so a B in the course. Very frustrating, but this sort of thing has happened several times before. I was beginning to think that I was not cut out for hard core science. Then, at the advice of a professor, I got tested and found I had a reading disability. I found this hard to believe because for my first undergrad degree in a social science I did very well, getting nearly all A’s. But a retest using different criteria and different methodologies verified the reading disability results.
I know that my dint of science GPA alone I will have a hard time getting into any (MD or DO) U.S.-based medical school, so I am looking at foreign schools and Caribbean schools.
But now I am wondering if I should go for a Special Masters Program. My concern is that I have so many units (> 400 college units) already that the small bump in GPA won’t make much of a difference. And, given that I have so many units, it is obvious that I am not young, but nearing age 50 in a few years. Despite my age, I am not concerned about the time of doing a Masters. I’ve taken this long to get here, a few years won’t make much of a difference to me (although it might to AdComms). I am now studying for the MCAT, which I must obviously do very well one. I plan to take it next April at the earliest, and in time for a June 2012 application.
I have plenty of volunteer healthcare experience, in the tens of thousands of hours, and paid experience in the thousands of hours, and in both cases all with underserved, no-income and low-income populations in the U.S. and abroad. I’ve worked with and alongside doctors for years, now I want to be one of them. I do know what I am getting into. I just have to convince others of that fact.
an SMP may help but three things strike me that you should consider
- while your GPA may be low, it may not be that low for at least getting in the door for DO or even MD IFyou can do very well on the MCAT.
- Combine the above a personal statement and interview with your many hours of volunteering, working with low income, etc, and you may impress
- While I appreciate the hard work that successful individuals do in the off-shore schools and have been happily by many doctors from overseas, the realistic fact is as the number of US-based med school graduates rise without additional residency program slots, it squeezes out the off-shore grads. Should there be more residency slots? Yes. Does the US need the doctors from off-shore? Yes. But spots are getting harder to come by and many of off-shore schools will close in the next decade as the ECFMG starts requiring accreditation for all school by 2023
In sum, I think you are best served in time and money by MCAT prep
I agree completely with what gonnif has said.
MCAT time for you! Most adcoms know that it’s not always the best students who make the best doctors. 
Don’t be afraid of mentioning the discovery of your reading ‘disability’*. You are obviously highly intelligent by already achieving what you have without being aware that you had an additional challenge. Just be prepared to talk about how you are addressing it, now that it is known. (And a high MCAT will additionally demonstrate that it was this hurdle that was dragging down your performance.)
I have no doubt that you are exactly the kind of person Adcoms are looking to admit. They just want to be sure any potential challenges have been addressed before getting to school. Adcoms don’t want to take a chance a student may fail. Identifying this already gives you a step up, because many students don’t have these types of things identified until they get into medical school.
With you saying “This is what was holding me back. I addressed it. Here’s my MCAT as proof.” I think within the next 2 years we will be seeing a post by you on this forum saying “OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE IT I’M IN!”
Oh and, apply outside of California. Too many students, not enough schools in California. Which is why so many of my out of state classmates are from California. 
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- I do have a problem with the word disability. It focuses on what people can’t do, vs. seeing something as a challenge that just needs to be creatively overcome. Yeah, I might be being overly sensitive, but I feel that the language is illustrating a fundamental flaw in our society.
- Yerivf Said:
- Yerivf Said:
Oh and, apply outside of California. Too many students, not enough schools in California. Which is why so many of my out of state classmates are from California.
There are only a few in-state California schools that have the rural health emphasis I am looking for, so I will apply out-of-state to both DO and MD programs, as well as out-of-country programs.
Thanks.
As for the out of country programs, be aware of the trends in growing US medical school output, and the percentage of US citizen IMG’s matching.
(I don’t have the 2011 1st Aid for USMLE Step 1 in front of me, but they did list matching percentages. They were near 43-46% for US Citizen IMG’s.)
Given that there is currently no funding to increase residency spots, I feel it may become increasingly competitive to match in any specialty regardless of where you study.
However, due to some preconceived notions, it is likely that IMG’s will feel the squeeze 1st.
With a trend in increasing enrollment and what appears to be a decrease in applications, I would suggest re-applying to US based MD and DO school before one considers going abroad for their education. But people need to do whatever they feel is best. That is just my personal opinion based on where I see the trends going.
Given you want to practice rural medicine, and can demonstrate this on your applications and in your interviews, I don’t think you will have a problem.
Consider applying to Michigan State DO and MD programs. They are very focused on Rural. Not dissing on other medical schools in Michigan (including my own), but with the partnerships Wayne has, we are far more focused on under-served inner city populations, versus the under-served in the rural areas.
Thanks for the pointers on Michigan State’s programs and their rural emphasis. I also have significant experiences in doing inner-city health work (see my response under Volunteering abroad), and so I will apply to medical schools that have curricula in this area as well.
So why international and rural health? Because there is an dearth of health care providers in many parts of the world (due to lack of training facilities, lack of applicants, and a brain drain where the best and brightest doctors from other nations go to the U.S. to practice). Having more doctors does not mean having better health care. The distribution of doctors within a country or region also needs to be factored in. Just like in the United States, most doctors are concentrated in urban areas because that is where most people live and where the jobs are located, leaving rural areas with few practitioners and few resources. This is true for the “wealthy” nations like the U.S. (2.3 doctors per 1000 people) and Mexico (1.8 doctors per 1000 people), but even more for African nations (0.02 to 0.10 doctors per 1000 people) and the South Pacific islands. At one point the African nation of Sierra Leone had only 4 doctors in the entire country; the rest left due to civil war. But even in countries at peace, the shortage is noticeable, although traditional healers may make up for the lack of practitioners.
- Yerivf Said:
Actually, only the MD program (CHM) has a rural physician program - clerkships are in Marquette, MI (upper peninsula).
The DO program (COM) has more of an urban focus; that's why many of them do their clinicals with you guys at the DMC.
Based on the OPs background and interest, I think the LMUV (Leadership for the Medically Underserved & Vulnerable) Program would be a much better fit for both the OP and the program. This program is exclusive to CHM (MSU's MD program). They do a lot of 4th-year clinical rotations in the US & northern Latin America (Mexico, Central America, Peru) working with mostly migrant/indigent populations.
The OP will have to first apply to and be accepted to MSU-College of Human Medicine (CHM). Once accepted, s/he can then apply for entry into the LMUV Program. LMUV applicants are not given preference in admissions decisions though.
Straying a bit from the topic - the non-resident tuition at MSU’s DO program is a number that makes my head spin!
It’s the same at the MD program.
Yeah that 73k year is a little crazy. One of the reasons why I didn’t submit there. Ofcourse according to the news you can buy a house for 1k so maybe the cost of living would balance out…
I can promise you that you have no desire to live in a $1000 house in the Detroit area. Both for it’s location and it’s condition.
BaileyPup,
The annual OOS tuition is only $55k, not $73k.
Datsa -
I was looking along the same lines. Albert Einstein School of Medicine the Bronx has a Global Health emphasis, and University of Kentucky has a “Primary Care Scholars” program with a rural health planning emphasis. (you have to apply seperately to it). And of course I’m attending WVSOM, a DO school ranked number 1 in the nation in Rural Medicine and in the top 10 in primary care…it’s why I’m here - come visit
Kate
- TicDocDoh Said:
Actually, only the MD program (CHM) has a rural physician program - clerkships are in Marquette, MI (upper peninsula).
The DO program (COM) has more of an urban focus; that's why many of them do their clinicals with you guys at the DMC...
Ah ha ha! I stand corrected! Thanks man!
(I had seen the DO students around and knew some of them did clinicals around here, but I didn't know it was most of them. And now with Oakland U coming online and bringing 125 students eventually, Detroit might begin bursting at the seems with medical students!)
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Datsa - Oh I thought you meant 'international' as in 'I will do my schooling anywhere even if it is the Caribbean' and not 'I want to provide health care internationally'.
A program I considered was:
http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/bgcu-md/
It is focused on international health, and you study in Israel. I personally didn't choose it because 1) I am funding my education mostly on federal loans, and 2) I didn't want to deal with the IMG residency issue.
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As for other people complaining about OOS tuition, I hear Wayne has it some of the worst at 60K per year.
But I feel price shouldn't be a factor in applying, but should be a factor in deciding where to go. You never know what kind of financial aid packages you will get at each school, which may alter the price.
- In reply to:
The annual OOS tuition is only $55k, not $73k.
Sorry the DO school tuition is 73K.
Yev, I agree that it shouldn't be a factor in deciding where to apply. I did look at it as an indicator that they weren't going to take OOS applicatnts. There are some DO schools that have two different secondary fees for OOS. I said no thank you to them. There are plenty of schools to not have to pay extra to apply.
Thanks for all your feedback. I will be applying to all of those programs, now that you have pointed them out. I was not aware of so many programs with rural emphasis; the only ones of which I was aware were ones in my home state and a few in the Midwest.
- Yerivf Said:
It's actually funny you should mention this. It's been a long-running joke among the inner circle of the AAMC (the umbrella agency that represents all US & Canadian MD schools) that California is the # 1 exporter of medical students.