I am a non traditional premed student who is a minority, disabled, and 40 years old. I am doing my post bacc andbecause of a very bad semester, due to personal family problems, I got a very low sgpa of 2.060 and I am currently trying to bring it up by recomping these courses again. I still need to take orgo 1, orgo 2, and recomp physics 2 lecture before I can apply to medical school and take the MCAT. I am just taking the minimum science requirements to get into medical school. I feel because of my unique background I still might have a chance of getting into medical school. Should I continue down this road or should I consider another career in the medical field like dentistry, DO, PA, nursing, or etc. ? Should I just drop this all together and focus on a non medical career path? I really want to become a doctor. What would you guys advice me to do?
I don’t know if you have a chance with that GPA honestly. You mention another career in the medical field and include DO --which IS a physician ( I think sometimes folks think we are chiropractors, or only do musculoskeletal medicine). DO’s are fully licences medical physicians and can practice in any specialty area of medicine or surgery. The advantage for you of considering DO is that in the AACOMAS application, they use grade replacement. They will still see your lower grades, but the most recent grade in a course will be the one used to calculate your gpa. In the AMCAS application for MD med schools, it will be averaged with your previous low grade, so you will not be able to bring your gpa up as much.
Kate
You mentioned just taking the minimum science requirements for admission, but if you are really serious about this you might want to consider taking some of the recommended/advanced courses as well. Adding these courses (and doing well in them) might help to show that you are academically capable despite a previous low GPA.
Everyone I have talked to has told me that GPA and MCAT score is what really matters. I have a 3.8 and I am concerned because there are only about 30 D.O. programs in the U.S. I still have physics and organic chemistry left but the MCAT scares me to death. I took microbiology over because I got a B. Medical school is competitive. I am older than you also (46). I understand the time problem but if you can I would take classes over.
According to the AAMC (M.D. data) - there were several people admitted to medical school with just as low of a GPA as yourself. Check out the data here - AAMC DATA
So - depending on your ability to bump up your grades a little, rock the MCAT and find some ins, there is always a chance…
- DrMom46 Said:
Why are you limiting to only D.O. schools? 3.8 is a great GPA, and depending on your MCAT you'd be comeptitive at M.D. schools as well.
- DrMom46 Said:
Surveys of medical schools admissions by Kaplan over the past several years where about 2/3's of all MD schools responded consistently show MCAT and GPA are cosnidered the top two factors by 75% of the schools. AAMC acceptance data more that supports this.
- DrMom46 Said:
I agree with doc gray on this is why are you only looking at DO? From the limited data I have, I estimate about 50-100 people over 40 start MD school each year in the US. I can certainly list specific examples
- DrMom46 Said:
Rule 6: The MCAT is your friend
Rule 10: Beware of FUD -- Fear Uncertainty and Doubt
The MCAT is the most effective and efficient way for an older student to improve chances in medical school. Repeating a course that you got a B, while I can see why you felt you could do that for DO school, I would suggest that you would have been better served by using the time, effort and money to prep for MCAT. Dont let the premed neurosis take you down paths that are just not going to be that helpful in the end.
- In reply to:
Why are you limiting to only D.O. schools? 3.8 is a great GPA, and depending on your MCAT you'd be comeptitive at M.D. schools as well.
Maybe it's not a limit, but a preference?
To me limiting yourself either way seems off. I understand not apply to X b/c you don’t like the climate or do like that part of the country, but if you have a state MD school and no DO I definately apply to the MD school, this is coming from someone who didn’t really care for either of his MD interviews and got five DO acceptances. I am a big keep your options open guy though.