Regarding prospective application to top tier medical schools

[Eternal_Star]

Hello everyone,

I'm nearing the end of my undergrad journey as a Computer Science major with a cumulative GPA of 3.81. I'm also a double minor in Cybersecurity and Statistics. After graduation, I plan to continue with a master's in Computer Science, where I'm targeting a 4.0 GPA. Subsequently, I aim to score between 517 and 520 on the MCAT.

Assuming I achieve these goals, I have a few questions about my prospects for applying to top-tier medical schools like Stanford and the Ivies:

1. How might admissions committees view my application given my academic performance in a non-traditional pre-med major coupled with strong MCAT scores and high GPA in graduate school?
2. I have three letters of recommendation and have been the first author on four research papers in my field. How advantageous would this be for my application to these prestigious programs? More like, how competitive of an applicant would I be?

I'm curious to hear from anyone who has taken a similar path or has insights into the med school admissions process from a non-traditional background. Your experiences and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!

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[gyngyn]

Hello everyone,

I'm nearing the end of my undergrad journey as a Computer Science major with a cumulative GPA of 3.81. I'm also a double minor in Cybersecurity and Statistics. After graduation, I plan to continue with a master's in Computer Science, where I'm targeting a 4.0 GPA. Subsequently, I aim to score between 517 and 520 on the MCAT.

Assuming I achieve these goals, I have a few questions about my prospects for applying to top-tier medical schools like Stanford and the Ivies:

1. How might admissions committees view my application given my academic performance in a non-traditional pre-med major coupled with strong MCAT scores and high GPA in graduate school?
2. I have three letters of recommendation and have been the first author on four research papers in my field. How advantageous would this be for my application to these prestigious programs? More like, how competitive of an applicant would I be?

I'm curious to hear from anyone who has taken a similar path or has insights into the med school admissions process from a non-traditional background. Your experiences and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Undergraduate majors have little influence. An exception is an Engineering major for Carle. Minors have no influence at all.
3.8 is a good gpa, but it is at or below the median at many fine schools. Grades in Master's programs are not compelling for an MD application (unless they are poor). DO schools see things differently.

Everyone aims for a high MCAT score!

Without seeing the LoE's, it is not possible to predict their influence.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

OP: that's great!

What shadowing have you done? How about clinical experience and community service/service orientation activities? What do you feel medicine is your purpose, and why are you completing a master's in computer science if your heart really lies in being a physician?

 

[eigen]

Your post has lots of stuff that seems unimportant for medical school, and doesn't mention a lot of stuff that is.

I'm unclear why you're aiming for an MS in CS before medical school? Unless you have a really strong tie in between that and your intended practice, it seems like that time would be better spent working on other parts of your application. As mentioned, an MS in an unrelated field isn't going to help your application really at all.

Without knowing an actual MCAT score, knowing your grades in your pre-req classes, and above all getting a grasp on your clinical, volunteer and shadowing experiences and your narrative/reason for going into medicine, we can't give you much advice.

 

[candbgirl]

Hello everyone,

I'm nearing the end of my undergrad journey as a Computer Science major with a cumulative GPA of 3.81. I'm also a double minor in Cybersecurity and Statistics. After graduation, I plan to continue with a master's in Computer Science, where I'm targeting a 4.0 GPA. Subsequently, I aim to score between 517 and 520 on the MCAT.

Assuming I achieve these goals, I have a few questions about my prospects for applying to top-tier medical schools like Stanford and the Ivies:

1. How might admissions committees view my application given my academic performance in a non-traditional pre-med major coupled with strong MCAT scores and high GPA in graduate school?
2. I have three letters of recommendation and have been the first author on four research papers in my field. How advantageous would this be for my application to these prestigious programs? More like, how competitive of an applicant would I be?

I'm curious to hear from anyone who has taken a similar path or has insights into the med school admissions process from a non-traditional background. Your experiences and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Hi OP. I see this is your first post. I’m glad you found SDN. Spend some time getting used to the various forums. Read the WAMC threads carefully and see what other premed students are doing to build their applications. Spend time reading the school specific forums and find out what applicants to your high interest schools have in the wheel house. There is so much information on here and so much help for you as you move forward. There are several faculty members, attending physicians, actual ADCOM Members and others with years of experience ready to help you. And of course there are loads of people going through the process or those who have successfully applied and are glad to help you out.
So after you graduate spend time reading and getting to know SDN.

 

[sapphire_fire]

As someone who majored in a supposedly “hard” engineering major and has been struggling to be accepted, I don’t believe admission committees “normalize” GPAs based on their perceived difficulties. I got results that were pretty much in line with a Biology/Neuroscience graduate with the same GPA/MCAT/activities. ADCOM members here seem to support my suspicions.
Have you completed the usual pre-med coursework? I might be wrong, but it seems like you might have only started considering medical school recently. In which case, you’d have to catch up on a lot (coursework, clinical+shadowing experience, service…) and could definitely use your next 1/2 years more effectively than in another CS degree.