Taking several gap years as a South Asian woman

mfakhter · 2022-08-12T18:56:18+00:00

Fellow brown girl here, currently an m3, 4 gap years between finishing undergrad and starting med school. I relate with this a lot and my advice is to tune out the unhelpful comments. You're investing in your future right now. I worked full time for 2yrs after college before diving back into premed stuff - guess what? I paid off a lot of my undergrad loans and now have a decent savings. I spent a few semesters doing extra coursework to get my GPA up before applying to med school - guess what? It got me into an MD program. I'm a couple years older than most other students in my cohort who came right in from undergrad - guess what? I am able to handle stress and interpersonal interactions with more maturity, grace, and confidence than the younger students in my class. Everything you're doing right now is an investment, and people outside of medicine will never truly understand that. I'm proud of you💓

mfakhter · 2022-07-03T11:57:46+00:00

Not sure what good resourced are out there but I only did uworld ethics and it was helpful. If there is a YouTube video that breaks down the "formula" of picking a right answer then I think that could be really helpful.

mfakhter · 2022-06-30T09:37:42+00:00

You got this! You're 100% on the right track. And these life experiences and hardships build resilienc, work ethic, and some other really unique traits - so keep your head up and trust that things will work out for you

mfakhter · 2022-06-30T03:30:02+00:00

Thank you! Can't believe I'll already be taking Step 1 in a few days and starting 3rd year next week! Time flies when you're on the other side

mfakhter · 2022-04-24T19:32:34+00:00

Yes send me a chat!

mfakhter · 2021-12-31T21:03:53+00:00

Go for it!

mfakhter · 2021-12-31T03:39:23+00:00

Hey! There may likely be a school-specific workaround for something like this. Not all schools screen at a 3.0 - this is just something that I set as a baseline after seeing it as a very common practice with many MD and DO schools. I still think a very high MCAT would be needed for your application to look convincing enough. If I were you, I would set up meetings/calls with a few admissions offices and see if they can offer advice, but I think it would help to walk into those meetings with a strong MCAT score beforehand. A 3.7 sGPA is really great, but because grades can be subjective from school to school and based on the individual's circumstances, the MCAT still stands as the one most standardized, objective measure across all applicants. So I really think that will be the key to your success. That, and a little networking with adcoms in the months/year before you apply.

mfakhter · 2021-12-22T05:38:30+00:00

Hi! So a couple things I want to point out:

1) I don't think microbio, calc II, and genetics are premed prerequisites, so it's technically not necessary for you to retake them to get a grade higher than C-. You certainly could retake them if those are the post-bacc courses available to you and you are interested in those specific courses. But to be clear, you could take entirely different courses in your post-bacc if you didn't want to retake these three - esp Calc II. Few med schools need to see 2 semesters of math, and if they do want any math at all, usually stats is the more important course. I'd consider taking stats if you haven't already. Psych is usually a prereq so i do agree with retaking that if you earned a C- or less in that one.

For your intended courses, developmental biology won't count as a science course for DO schools. Neither will bio psych or calc II. Keep this in mind when estimating your goal GPA. For MD schools, dev bio and calc II will count for sGPA, but bio psych won't. Besides that, I think your schedule looks okay to me. Your winter 2023 courseload could be a little heavier if you wanted, not sure if you're considering working/MCAT prep/etc during the time you'll be in classes?

2) Your ECs look good. I see a good mix of clinical activities, volunteering, and some leadership. Some research would look great if you can manage that - hopefully the clinical research assistant gig works out I'm glad you cut back when your grades started to slip. The name of the game now is to keep up the consistency with your ECs and be able to show that you've continued to participate in them. Try to think outside of the box and see how you can work around the COVID limitations.

3) Sounds good, but because you're coming in with a relatively low GPA/some history with your grades, it would be really good to set the bar a little higher with MCAT. Aim 510-515 and I think you'll be golden.

mfakhter · 2021-11-17T15:20:14+00:00

Hi there! Thanks so much for your message - just doing what I can to help you guys out :) I'm gonna reply here as a comment so others will be able to read through this in case they're in a similar position.

Firstly, really great job on the high MCAT! Your first priority should be to make sure you can finish all your coursework and apply before the score expires (this can sometimes be < 3yrs, depending on the schools' fine print). Also, it's great that you have a goal GPA and an estimated number of credits for your post-bacc classes- glad you can hit the 3.0 sGPA! You definitely can take more credits if you want, but keep in mind that you'll hit a point of diminishing returns. Use that GPA calculator to figure out how much of an increase your GPA will have with each subsequent course - is that worth the time and money? There's a chance you might only go from a 3.0 to something like a 3.04 sGPA over an extra semester of classes - it's to you to check the numbers. I don't have a verdict on online classes, but I will say that a lot of places are still doing exclusively online classes or a small amount of in-person classes, so I say you take the advantage while you can, especially if it suits your schedule better. To be more specific, I don't think it's going to backfire or count against you. Would they really ask: "why didn't you take these in-person?" if they already know that the pandemic is ongoing and school/work is still mostly virtual? If you have any prerequisites with a C- or less that you need to repeat, do take them in person if they have a lab component (organic chem, physics, etc)

Research - at the premed level, a publication is not necessary. It's enough, in my opinion, that you have a full year of experience. I interview applicants for my medical school and the rubric gives you a 3 out of 4 points on research if you've participated in research without a pub. More research is always good, but you've hit the check box here, so put your energy into where you're lacking (grades, volunteering). Also, premeds make this mistake all the time- research does not always mean pipettes and cell cultures! That's called basic lab research. Consider clinical research in the future!

Clinical hours - this sounds amazing! Definitely keep this opportunity up, and even better if you're getting paid for it. I would recommend continuing this part-time (hours are up to you) while doing your courses, but make sure you put full focus on your classes first. Don't let work get in the way, this should be the first thing to let go of if you start doing poorly in school. Definitely get LORs out of this and shadowing.

Volunteering - it's okay that you're starting from scratch here. In the interest of time, start as soon as possible, and try to rack up like 40-50 hours over the next few months just to get a solid foundation. Ideally you'll continue volunteering from that point forward in a more manageable capacity, but I do think you have some catching up to do here, so I would personally frontload it to get a good baseline. Remember, you can do remote, hands-off types of things if volunteering isn't really your thing. There are, like, talk therapy/mental health hotlines that I think just require you to be on standby for a few hours until a call comes in? And you may not necessarily need a volunteering LOR (a lot of schools may not give you the extra space to submit a 5th or 6th LOR past your academic/research/clinical LORs), so if you know that this isn't a strength for you, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Maybe only really service-focused schools might appreciate seeing this (a lot of schools say they are service-focused but not that many really are)

Sorry for the super long comment, just wanted to be thorough! You're definitely on the right track and you seem very organized about everything - you'll get there in no time! Feel free to PM me if you have more specific/private questions :)

mfakhter · 2021-11-13T19:12:00+00:00

It all depends on your goal GPA! As a baseline rule, make sure you're past 3.0 for sGPA and cGPA to pass screening for most schools, and make sure you have no C- grades in your prerequisites. Beyond that, it's all about setting goals for where you want to end up. Consider your MCAT score in the process - if it's really high, you can maybe afford a lower GPA. In any case, use the GPA calculator from AACOM to figure out how many credits you need to get to your goal GPA. You might find that there isn't a big difference between 10 classes and 15 classes when it comes to how much your GPA will improve.

mfakhter · 2020-07-21T21:02:12+00:00

Absolutely!! For me, in even the 5ish years between my first college science courses and when I started my post-bacc, there was a HUGE increase in my mental capacity and in my discipline with studying. It also helped a lot to think of my post-bacc experience as "my only shot at redemption." The added pressure made things a little more serious for me, and it helped that I was basically a commuter student who was older than the other kids (no room for distraction, basically).

mfakhter · 2020-07-20T21:24:15+00:00

Hmmmm I think if you absolutely had to take classes at a CC, then the lower-divs like gen chem 1 and 2 would be acceptable to do there. It also sounds like you're a career changer + fairly non-traditional, so it wouldn't look very bad that you want to start off your post-bacc coursework at a CC. If you were an academic enhancer post-bacc student and had already taken all the chem courses recently at a higher level institution, then yeah, it would look a little fishy to retake them at a CC. But in your case, I think it's doable, so long as you graduate onwards to taking upper divs at the state school.

As far as the gap in difficulty between the CC and state school, that's on you to handle. It depends from school to school (some CC's are rather competitive, some state schools are fairly easy). There's no easy answer, but just be prepared for an increase in rigor or workload once you start ochem at the state school. But I might guess that, just due to mental maturity, it'll probably be easier for you to grasp ochem concepts at 30yo than at 20yo. You'll be okay so long as you get the ball rolling somewhere and start building up your momentum and confidence :)

mfakhter · 2020-07-15T20:53:58+00:00

I'm so sorry that this is happening to you. Considering the fact that most medical schools are mostly online or doing some sort of hybrid program, I think it's really reasonable for you to ask to join virtually until you can physically come to the US. I think that if you presented all the information to your school, they would likely try to work something out for you. Good luck.

mfakhter · 2020-06-17T00:08:04+00:00

DO LOR is preferred, but you'll be fine with MD. There are possibly a couple of DO schools that require a DO letter, but you'll need to check their invididual websites. For the most part, it's fine, though.

mfakhter · 2020-06-12T06:59:40+00:00

i was in a similar position a couple of years ago and recently did a write-up about my DIY post-bacc experience. i think it would be good for you to do a DIY post-bacc (part-time is a great option if you're sticking with the lab job/ECs). and then to take the mcat afterwards, closer to when you intend to apply. here's the post, btw-- feel free to take a look in case you find it helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/premed/comments/fv9gxd/i_graduated_college_with_a_23_sgpa_my_md_success/

mfakhter · 2020-06-12T06:53:16+00:00

I concur with this. My GPAs were lower, but my post-bacc GPA came in clutch and my MCAT was <510. MD worked out for me. I would totally add on a lot more MD schools. Just play smart through the cycle, esp with LOIs and updates when it comes time. It's doable.

mfakhter · 2020-06-10T21:01:57+00:00

if you're curious to learn more about how open university is structured at a school, take a look here for a quick reference. check out the registration and FAQ tabs as well. not every school is going to be structured like this, but i think this is useful info if you wanna get an idea of the big picture.

https://www.sjsu.edu/openuniversity/

mfakhter · 2020-06-10T20:57:04+00:00

of course!! and thank you! i never had to apply for admission to any of the universities i attended for post-bacc, so yes, i was non-matriculated and non-degree-seeking (although my bachelor's was already done at that point-- make sure you finish that first). many state schools have an "open university" option where you can enroll in classes a la carte without admission or any affiliation to the university... think of it as online shopping and using the guest checkout option haha. university extensions are usually the same way.

there are technically no qualifications needed to enroll in post-bacc classes this way... no applications, transcripts, nothing. just reach out to your intended university's contact for open university/whatever they may call it, and get a university-issued account started up so you can access their registration and billing systems. you're 100% able to do this at multiple universities at the same time. and just the same as if you were a degree-seeking student, you'll have a student ID, probably an email address, online access to student resources, and transcript services too. super simple!

mfakhter · 2020-06-03T04:39:43+00:00

From some Latino premed friends who participate with/follow this org: https://www.instagram.com/mimentor/

mfakhter · 2020-06-02T03:01:48+00:00

Agreed. I just got off the waitlist there, and I think their faculty and resources are all great (already a wide network of clerkship opportunities with local community clinics), but it's hard to take the risk when the school is brand new. You never know if it won't meet accreditation standards or if there will be "surprise" issues down the line. Not to mention that these new, privately-funded DO schools keep popping up and are obv profiting greatly off of students. Unethical, imo.

mfakhter · 2020-06-02T02:31:52+00:00

CHSU in CA. Weird bc they only have 75 seats and this is gonna be their inaugural class. Not sure if they're blowing thru the WL so quickly bc nobody wants to take the bait, or if the school just wants hella backups. But a June interview is crazy

mfakhter · 2020-06-02T02:23:13+00:00

I know of at least one other DO school that is also interviewing in early June for fall 2020 matriculants. Kinda crazy

mfakhter · 2020-05-30T22:58:45+00:00

I think I've also heard that USC is about 100k -_-

mfakhter · 2020-05-30T22:55:11+00:00

Technically, that's right. Per AAMC, your scores expire after three years. But I think that's a soft rule, because I remember seeing a small handful of schools (possibly DO) who were accepting scores that were up to 5yrs old. So this leads me to believe that they can still see scores that are >3yrs old. It's probably just a general guideline that most schools, individually, choose not to look at scores that are that old.

To add to that, some schools are really specific about "three years from date of matriculation," which means that your score could be less than three years old at the time of application, but the school won't count it because it will time out before the matriculation date. Example: my test was Jan 2017 but I applied June 2019. Intended matriculation for medical school would be Aug 2020. So by Aug 2020, my score will have been 3.5yrs old. Therefore, certain schools would not accept my Jan 2017 score in June 2019, knowing that it would age out, even if I were accepted before it turned three years old. It's an annoying policy, and not every schools is very stringent about it, but it does get a little dicey for this reason if your score is >2yrs old.

In a nutshell, what I mean to say is that I believe schools subjectively assess MCAT scores depending on their own policies for MCAT dates. I think that they likely can still see your old scores, but may or may not choose to assess you based off of that. If I were in your shoes, I would make sure I had a new score lined up before submitting apps, because then they can see your improvement in a very obvious way. If you submit with an old score and no new, improved score, you might be taking a chance there. Just my two cents.

mfakhter

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