Hi everybody,
I’d first like to thank everybody in advance for taking the time to read this and providing any thoughts/insights/opinion s.
I am getting close to 30 years old, and I am strongly considering pursuing my dream (again) of practicing medicine. The following is a very brief, high-level overview of my education and experiences that have led me to this point.
Received BS, Kinesiology (Exercise Science) in 2007 from Arizona State University, GPA: 2.92; have taken all pre-med requirements (I have not calculated pre-med course GPA, but my guess is averaging a B-/C+)
Worked as a medical assistant/clinical coordinator for three physicians from junior year of school until almost 2 years post-grad
While studying for MCAT, decided I was interested in health management and policy, so applied to graduate school
Received MS, Health Systems Administration in 2011 from Georgetown University, GPA: 3.7
Since, I have worked as a consultant to the life sciences industry with a couple market access and strategy firms based in Boston. Throughout all of these transitions, I have always tried to stay as close to the science as possible because that is what always interested me. Even more important than the interest in the science is being able to help people (with which I assume most on here would agree).
Given my education, experiences, and time away, I am most interested in figuring out:
Should I re-take the science courses given how long ago they were taken and how mediocre my grades were?
Could I take an intensive MCAT prep course to re-learn the science? (Fortunately, I read scientific publications all day, so though I might need refreshing on some of the principles, I have stayed quite close to scientific advancements, terminology, etc. that will likely be more helpful in medical school as opposed to the MCAT)
How realistic is it to get accepted to a program given my current resume? (I have one friend who started his med program 2 years ago at a school in the Caribbean who has quite a similar background, but I would really strongly prefer to stay within the US for school)
Please feel free to answer any, all, or none of the questions. Again, any thoughts are appreciated.
Matt
My vote would be to retake classes you did poorly in with the main goal being to prove you can handle the sciences in an academic setting, aka the first 2 years of med school. Your masters degree will help set you apart but does nothing to show your ability to do well in the core curriculum. If you don’t want to necessarily redo classes, you should definitely take upper level classes in the science fields you didn’t excel in and do well in them. Keep in mind that AACOMAS offers grade replacement while AMCAS does not. It’ll take much more work to bring your AMCAS GPAs up.
Grad school GPAs are shown on your application but not necessarily used to compare your strengths against other applicants. It seems like undergrad GPAs are used for basic screening. GPAs aren’t everything but are a great equalizer, as is the MCAT.
I took the on demand Kaplan course for MCAT studies. It was a great refresher for the testable subject areas and offered lots of tips on how to take the test. Highly recommend it or something similar if you have the cash for it (~$2k).
Reading publications will help make you more comfortable with reading them, but the MCAT tests more synthesis and analysis of the content and assumes that you can quickly get through the passages and grasp the concepts. I’m not sure how the new MCAT will be with passages.
I think you have some work to do to boost your application. The rest is how well you sell yourself. It’s all about showing how you’ve grown/what you’ve learned through your work and experiences. The challenge is to really show who you are in a limited amount of characters.
You may be consider a formal post-bacc program or SMP with a school linkage. On the AAMC site, there is a place to research post-bacc programs, to include ones used to boost your GPA. I think they’re normally full time programs. I personally did a DIY style program through UNECOM and a local state college, all classes done online (pros and cons can be found elsewhere in these forums).
I guess the question is how committed are you to this pursuit? There are great stories on here about people similar to you. They were successful but had to put in the work to get into a U.S. program. Carib is an option but, like everything, has its pros and cons. I urge you to take some time to research all of your options before coming to a decision. There are many paths you can take, and no one knows what is best for you except you.
Thanks kennymac.
You bring up a great point about a post-bacc. You said you did a “DIY” style program. What classes did you take?
I looked into a few, and they look quite feasible and like a very good option.
I did the post bacc because I didn’t take the courses during undergrad. Organic sequence with lab, bio 2 with lab, and biochem. All the chemistry stuff was through UNECOM