Undergrad Perseverance

Hello all!

A little about myself, I am currently a 23 year old junior at a state school in Wisconsin. I have three full semesters left until graduation. I plan on taking the MCAT this coming summer. I have been with a volunteer fire department for about five years as a Firefighter/EMT/Rescue Diver. I have attained the level of Dive Master, my roles in this include teaching interested people about SCUBA diving. I am also a CPR instructor for the fire department that I work with. In addition to this, I have completed a year of research, hopefully more soon to come. I am also a Army National Guard Veteran who just completed a six year contract with on combat deployment to Afghanistan. Currently, my CGPA sits around a 3.2 and my SGPA is 3.0. All three of my last semesters are all sciences based courses in order to achieve a degree in Molecular Biology.

I know that DO schools are my primary means of acceptance right now. I was looking for some advice on really making my application more concrete and different. I know my grades are not the best and I am just wondering what my path looks like if I were not to get accepted the first time around.

Thank you for your time!

Hi Briancut,

It’s really hard to tell without knowing your MCAT score. You surely have a unique perspective as a dive master, though! That’s super neat! Thank you for your service, as well.

Focus on getting a good score on the MCAT. >505 would be ideal. If you show an upward trend on your final three semesters, I’m sure you’ll be a pretty good standing for DO schools, but don’t forgo applying to MD schools as well. Cast a wide net - it only takes one acceptance, and you have a great story!

Make sure you check in again once you’re finishing up on course work. You got this!

~Jay