Brief Profile:
Non-science GPA 3.9. I came into college with a very strong language arts and artistic background. It took me awhile to learn how to become a scientist, and this is reflected in my upward grade trend.
Grade trend: 3.0-3.1 Fresh/Soph 3.5-3.7 Junior/Senior 4.0 Post-bacc (4 hour microbiology) 4.0 Graduate (4 hour advanced cell biology taken in Fall 2010)
MCAT trend: mid 20s in 2008/2009, retook August 2010 for current score
Activities: Lots of work experience. I have been employed continuously at one or more jobs since age 15. Jobs include restaurant server, tutor, office assistant in doctors\' office, intern at large corporation, drugstore clerk, researcher, hospital employee.
Musician since grade school. I can play 4 instruments and was quite accomplished in one.
Volunteer in hospital, clinic, and animal shelter.
Research in clinical study and biomed projects. 2-3 years. No publications.
Member of a few community organizations.
5/2/11 Update/Plan of Action
I am still moderately optimistic that I will get in to either UIC or SIU by summer. However, I have not stopped working to improve my application since I am still without an acceptance in hand.
I graduated in 2009 and have been working full-time since then. Currently, I am working in research. Since my GPA is a huge problem, I have continued to take classes. In the past fall semester I took a graduate course in advanced cell biology. My future AMCAS Graduate GPA is now a 4.0. This spring I enrolled in an A&P and Statistics course because 7 credit hours would raise my bcpm GPA from a 3.14 to a 3.20. I am almost finished with these courses. If I do not get an acceptance before summer, I will take a 4 credit hour science class and my final undergrad GPAs will be 3.45 cumulative 3.23 science. If I do not get accepted at all this year I will enroll in the SMP to which I have been accepted. I will maintain my 4.0 graduate GPA and apply again to many more schools for the 2012/2013 cycle. I will have another gap year, but I do not want to apply until after the SMP so I can get the most benefit from it.
5/10/11 Update
Umm...accepted to Southern. Now everything else that I have been planning and doing is irrelevant. It\'s surreal. I graduated college in 2009, knowing that my application was not good enough for acceptance. I have been working for the past 2 years to improve my application. It worked. I am going to be a physician.
5/11/11 Startswithb\'s wisdom/general words of advice:
I am a huge proponent of slowing down, not rushing this process, and not giving up. When you are 22 and can\'t get into med school yet, it\'s not a big deal when you consider that we will likely be working into our late 70s! It took me two years post-grad to get into med school. Looking back, I have no regrets. I ended up where I wanted to be by not settling and by continuing to push through. During the process, I learned so much about myself and feel very prepared to begin this next phase of life. For some prospective, I started out as a pre-med freshman year of college coming in from HS as a 4.0 valedictorian. I had succeeded all throughout high school so college should\'ve been just the same. It wasn\'t. It took me a looong time to learn how to study effectively. I was one who could just breeze through any humanities class by common sense. Learning science was very different.
I was a chemistry major. I got Cs in both Gen Chem I and II freshman year. Sophomore year I got Bs in both Organic I and II. Finally, by junior year I was getting As in Biochemistry. I started tutoring Gen Chem believe it or not, and most importantly, finally got some confidence back. I believe low confidence in my abilities played a huge part in my performance in early college.
By the end of junior year when my peers were applying to medical school, I only had a 3.35 GPA and a 3.05 science GPA. I took the MCAT without studying because I thought it was like the ACT where you didn\'t have to study! *durr* No one in my HS stressed preparation for standardized exams. I had literally never heard of Kaplan test prep. I got a 23Q, and decided to hold off applying until after senior year.
Well, after senior year I got a full-time job and started preparing for the MCAT retake. My GPA by then had risen to 3.39 and 3.10. I got a 25 and a 24 on the MCAT. I still applied, foolishly, but received one interview at SIU. They gave me some great advice for my reapplication and I believe being rejected post-interview helped me realize that I really needed to work my ass off to get in.
Summer 2010 I retook the MCAT for the FOURTH time and got a 31! I also took classes and raised my GPA to a 3.41 and 3.14. I reapplied and eventually got into SIU in May. I am so unbelievably happy. Taking my time, proving to myself I had what it took, and determined persistence got me here. I\'m ready to unload all my baggage from a difficult undergraduate experience and start fresh at medical school. I hope to always remember how much I wanted this and how privileged I am to be in my position, no matter how hard things become from here on.
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 06/29/2010
Undergraduate Area of study: Physical Sciences
Total MCAT SCORE: 511
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 127,
C/P 127,
CARS 129
Overall GPA: 3.41
Science GPA: 3.14
Summary of Application Experience
Complete everywhere mid-September.
5/27/11 First quartile of UIC\'s waitlist.
5/10/11 ACCEPTED off 2nd quartile of AWPA at Southern.
2/17/11 ACCEPTED to the Loyola University Chicago Masters in Medical Sciences SMP! Classes begin in August, and I get a full tuition reimbursement if I get into medical school before September. Win-win!
Summary of Experience:
1st quartile. PLEASE LET ME IN! :) Rejected in December, sent an update/interest letter, randomly checked status on January 20th and there was an interview date chart! Wow!
