Graduate student-What path do I take

[mike26]

Hi Everyone,

 

I've been reading this forum for a while now. My story is that I originally went into science hoping to be involved in scientific research. I recently finished my master degree in Biochemistry and working. During the past year, I've had a change of heart and for many reasons I am now thinking of applying to medical schools. I realize how competitive it is to get accepted. I was wondering with the following profile what are my chances of getting accepted.

 

My overall average is equivalent to 6.2/9.0 scale. My grad school GPA is 4.0/4.0. My main extracurricular activities include:

 

-Two years of volunteering at hospital

-One year of volunteering as board in charity

-One year of volunteering as ESL tutor

 

I have not done the MCAT but from practice exams, I feel I have the ability to succeed.

 

I was wondering if i should enroll in school while working and improve my marks. Does it matter what post-bac program I enroll in? I am still volunteering and improving my non-academic critieria. Will I be able to be competitive in a year or two if I improve my overall GPA and a good MCAT score. Thanks for your help and all the inspiration from non-trad applicans.

[nosuperman]

To improve your GPA you'd have to do full-time in undergrad courses, since grad GPA isn't considered. If your undergrad GPA is 4 years or more, it'd take at least a couple of years worth of high grades to make a dent in it. You may want to consider doing a 2 year undergrad and applying to the 2 year GPA schools.

 

Some this also depends on which province you live in and how well you do on the MCAT of course.

[Genemo]

It really depends on where you are from.

Many schools only take undergraduate GPA into consideration without caring even a bit of your graduate work. Some schools use graduate GPA but only for 1 year I guess. Some schools may allow lower cutoff for students with master degree but you will still need 3.0/4.0 and good productivity during graduate study. I dont know what is a 6.2/9.0 and I don't know how you did in your research, but seems like each part of your application is on average, if not lower, and its not gonna let you shine.

 

I guess you may want to improve your GPA by taking more undergraduate courses, or go work for several years and try to let your EC stand out. To be safe I would say taking more courses is better for MD application, but really useless if you decide to give up MD.

[mike26]

Thanks for the input guys.

 

My undergraduate GPA is a B+ (low B+) at my undergrad university. I have one award my graduate studies. I am currently working. I think the best option is for me to take more courses and overall improve my GPA. Do you guys know if schools prefer Sept-April enrollemt? Or should I take 4-5 courses starting in January (I am not enrolled for september). Thanks again for your input and I would like to hear more input about how to improve my application.