Med. School w/ biz major and mediocre gpa?

Question

i am a finance major with 3.4 gpa. i have not taken any science classes but i plan to for med school. has anyone else been in a similar situation about completely switching fields? also with a mediocre gpa? am i wasting my time?? i feel i will do well on the mcat because i like/do well on standardized tests. thanks in advance.

Answer 1

No medical school will acept you without having completed the full set of prerequisite courses. That means a full year of general chemistry, a full year of organic chemistry, physics, biochemistry, biology and probably calculus.

Your chance of doing well on the MCATs without having taken these courses is nil. MCATs are not a general knowledge or aptitude test, they are based on your knowledge of the specific prerequisite courses and their material.

If you check the website of the Association of American Medical Colleges you will see that each year about 35 - 40,000 well-qualified students apply to med school, and about 17,000 are accepted. You will need a strong GPA in your prerequisite courses to beat the competition and get a seat.

This is not an impossible dream, but it will take very serious dedication and hardwork.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Your GPA is fine. Although, how you do in your science courses will greatly impact your admission status.

Just to give you an idea of difficulty for admission into med school... there are a lot of medical schools. They don't have to be THAT selective. Vet school is a different story. There are so few vet schools, that the avg GPA is 3.8 and it's highly competitive. Check the websites for the medical schools you are interested in. Most likely they will have the admissions statistics from the previous year that will tell you how many people applied, how many were rejected, average GPA, etc

Switching fields is very common. Just have faith and keep doing what you're doing.

I hate the fact that a B average has become mediocre. What happened to the days when C average was mediocre?!

Answer 3

i think of a super style of faculties will look at your artwork journey relatively, as that's what maximum of PhD artwork is approximately. ensure you're making the attempt to talk for my area to the admissions boards on the faculties to which you would be conscious -- that usually enables to place a guy or woman with a checklist. you may even touch specific professors with whom you may choose to do analyze, and tutor them how inspired you're. I had a 2.9 GPA as an undergrad and have to this point been customary into 3 graduate courses (ok, so I had some occupation transformations ;-). That being mentioned, the GPA substitute into from a great college, and that i'm a savant while it comprises standardized tests, so i substitute into interior the 99th percentile for the GREs.

Answer 4

Your GPA is a bit on the low side, but I think you have a good chance if you can do well on your MCAT.

Most people who go to medical school major in biology, chemistry, or biochemistry. However you can major in anything you want to and go to medical school. Statistics show that your major has very little correlation with whether you get in or not:

http://www.knox.edu/statistics.xml

Most medical schools do expect you to complete a certain number of required courses in order to get in. These typically include:

1 year of Biology (with Lab)
1 year of Inorganic Chemistry (with Lab)
1 year of Organic Chemistry (with Lab)
1 year of English
1 year of Calculus or College Level Math
1 semester of Biochemistry (at select schools only)

This information from the below source:
http://gradschool.about.com/od/medicalschool/f/GetinMS.htm

Many schools will have arcane special course requirements, so you must research the schools you are interested in to make sure you have the courses they want.

Other links:
http://gradschool.about.com/od/medicalschool/Medical_School_Resources_for_Applications_and_Students.htm
http://www.mommd.com/admissionreq.shtml
http://www.washington.edu/students/ugrad/advising/gpamcat.pdf

Source:
I am a medical doctor.