The pre-med years sent me here! Feeling kind of discouraged.

So this is my first time actually posting in a forum like this and I was led here by the Premed Years podcast, so thanks Dr. Gray! Your podcast is seriously inspiring.



To anyone who’s reading: I am in my last quarter of post-bacc and applying this cycle to MD and DO schools, but I am getting a little nervous. I did some serious GPA damage in undergrad that left me with an AMCAS GPA of 2.22. The past two years I have completed 91 quarter units of DIY and formal post-bacc with a 3.96 GPA- would’ve been a 4.0 if it weren’t for that B+ in Nutrition; yes, I am still salty. This puts me at a 2.7 cGPA and a 2.84 sGPA. I have good experience volunteering in underserved areas, hospitals, and free clinics. I also worked two jobs as a server and tutor all through undergrad and through postbacc. I also was able to get a 516 on the MCAT (132/123/131/130). Some other things I have highlighted on my application is that I am a Latino URM and I am claiming disadvantage status (for economic and serious family related reasons) for the MD application.



I am nervous for a few reasons. For starters GPA replacement is gone, which is upsetting because I would have benefitted IMMENSELY from that. I could have had a 3.3/3.4 cumulative… Plus, I am a little bogged down from looking at MSAR, CIB, and first year class profiles on school websites. Lastly, my unbalanced MCAT. So, is there still hope for me? Or did I waste the last 2 years :confused:

I would stay positive! I’m in the same boat as you. I’m doing a DIY post-bacc (not a formal program) for my pre-reqs after about a ten-year gap. My first trip through college was inauspicious to say the last, as I finished with about a 2.8 GPA. Now I have a 3.9 – I can only hope that a ten-year gap stands out as plenty of time for me to grow up and mature, especially with my grades being what they are now. If our current grades don’t demonstrate that people can turn things around given sufficient motivation, what will?

I think it would be a good idea to call at least one school that you really want to attend and see how they would view your application with your story. Some places want consistency, some places value maturation and a drastic academic turn-around. It really depends, much like everything else in the crapshoot of med school applications.



I think you’d be okay with that MCAT score despite the discrepancy. Someone may ask you about it, but your other scores show that you have a good foundation of knowledge and know how to apply it in those weird presentations on the test. If you do call a school, you should definitely ask them about your MCAT too though.

I really don’t think you have anything to worry about with a MCAT score above 95%. I think you are fine as long as the schools you have applied to are not all IV league medical schools.