Session 98 If you needed an extra 4-5 years to get above a 3.0 GPA, what would you do? That’s what our nontrad premed student is asking on today’s podcast episode. Check out our newest podcast Ask Dr. Gray Premed Q&A. This is actually taken from our Facebook Live and converted into podcast episodes. Of course,take a listen to all our other shows on MedEd Media. [02:30] OldPreMeds Question of the Week: “I graduated college with a 2.25 cumulative GPA - a 1.76  science GPA. This is an accumulation of both university and college of ten years together. I stayed way too long and failed way too often at community college. I was immature, directionless, and depressed throughout my 20’s. I came back to do a do-it-yourself postbac with clear, clean conscience two years later. And I was motivated to do very well. After taking 90 quarter units, I was able to sustain a 4.0 GPA after four years of taking both lower and upper level division science and math courses. I have already fulfilled the prereqs for medical school. I took some upper level division biology and many more. I was able to do very well. I have research experience with a PI work. I have 900 volunteer clinical hours. I worked as an ER tech at a hospital and have experience working in administration in healthcare. I have completed my shadowing with a physician and even got a letter of recommendation from them. I took the MCAT and was able to score 514. After calculating my GPA with my postbac, I could only get up to a 2.5 cumulative GPA and a 2.24 science GPA. That was very depressing. After further calculation, I would need to sustain an additional 330 semester hours or units to get to a 3.0 GPA, of both categories; which would need to take another 4-5 years. I thought about applying to an SMP and talk to a couple schools. But they said they’re afraid the computer is going to screen me out and wouldn’t look at my upper trend for consideration. I feel this is so hopeless sometimes because of that stupid GPA hindering my passion to be a physician. What else can I do from here?” [04:38] It’s Not Too Late This is a very question that comes up in the premed world. How do I improve my premed mess-up. It’s the worst thing possible when you have this terrible GPA. And now all of a sudden, you’ve found your passion of becoming a physician. You look and do a research and realize you need good grades to become a doctor. But the journey is not over. [05:23] Advocate for Yourself There are several things to do here and they all involve a little bit of time. It would be silly to go back for those extra four to five years taking more classes. You’ve already proven yourself with 90 units of classes with a 4.0 GPA after four years. You’ve proven that you could handle it. Now, you need to go and talk to medical schools. Talk to them. Reach out to them. Talk to the Dean of Admissions. Say this is who you are. This is how you screwed up. This is what you’ve done over the past four years and this is your GPA. Ask them to look at you and whether they would consider you. Yes, the computer is going to screen you out. But that’s why there are humans there to reach back into the digital shredder, pull your application out, and review manually. They’re all reviewed manually. But the digital filter is going to filter out the low GPA in this case. So tell them that you need them to look at your application. They need to pull it out because their computer is not going to pull it because your GPA is not good enough. But tell them to look at what you’ve done over the past four years. Look at your MCAT score. Let them look at what you’ve done to prove that this is what you want to do. [06:55] Find the Right Schools Find the right schools. Find the schools that fit who you are, what your mission is. Do lots of research. Just tackle four or five schools a day. I’ve talked with the Dean of Admissions of University of Central Florida. He said they screen students by looking at the student’s last 20 hours of scie