After a lot of trying to convince myself to go just PhD, I’ve realized MD-PhD is really want I want in this life!! So I want to improve my application in every way that I can in the next year. I’ll be a bit of a non-traditional applicant with a low GPA and would appreciate any advice on applying and making a realistic school list (and also honesty on whether I even have a shot)

Stats: uGPA: 3.1 DIY post-bacc (20 units): 4.0 MCAT: 522

Other: ORM, around 500 clinical volunteering hours plus shadowing and plenty of non clinical volunteering

Research: All my research has been bench/basic science and I’ve been working full time in research post-grad, so will be 8000 hours by the time of application, several small posters, likely 1-2 mid author publications in CNS-level journals. (Area of research interest is genetics/stem cell biology)

Undergrad research (2.5 years), full time research at startup (2 years), and full time research at MIT/Harvard