5th Year Undergrad or Post-Baccalaureatte...?

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raych123

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I am currently in my fourth year of undergrad. I transferred after my freshman year to my current school and thats when I decided to do pre med. I am currently a general science major and my grades from sophomore year and in gen chem really bring down my GPA. I have an overall GPA of 3.25 and a 3.05 science GPA. I am on track to graduate this year but will have to pile on 4 upper level science classes at once for the next two quarters which I am doing now and it is killing me. I have been thinking about taking another year and switching my major from General Science to Biology, which gives me about a total of 10 more science classes to take over 5 quarters. I am confident I could get good grades in those classes especially because I would not be overloading. A 5th year would also give me a chance to hopefully do research with a professor at my school, shadow a physician, and continue my volunteer work at the hospital. However, after talking to my pre med advisor today, she presented the option of doing a 2 year post bacc masters program at a medical school for 2 years. I haven't looked into it much, but there is one post bacc program like that in my state and it is a private school, not affiliated with the state medical school. I am leaning towards taking a 5th year and switching to Bio major (chem minor since i only need one more class), but want to hear some other opinions.

Thanks everyone. I know have posted something similar to this before, but now I have the post bacc option as well.

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I'd do the 5th year. Are you going DO? It sounds like your best bet. Look into the grade replacement option.
 
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I am currently in my fourth year of undergrad. I transferred after my freshman year to my current school and thats when I decided to do pre med. I am currently a general science major and my grades from sophomore year and in gen chem really bring down my GPA. I have an overall GPA of 3.25 and a 3.05 science GPA. I am on track to graduate this year but will have to pile on 4 upper level science classes at once for the next two quarters which I am doing now and it is killing me. I have been thinking about taking another year and switching my major from General Science to Biology, which gives me about a total of 10 more science classes to take over 5 quarters. I am confident I could get good grades in those classes especially because I would not be overloading. A 5th year would also give me a chance to hopefully do research with a professor at my school, shadow a physician, and continue my volunteer work at the hospital. However, after talking to my pre med advisor today, she presented the option of doing a 2 year post bacc masters program at a medical school for 2 years. I haven't looked into it much, but there is one post bacc program like that in my state and it is a private school, not affiliated with the state medical school. I am leaning towards taking a 5th year and switching to Bio major (chem minor since i only need one more class), but want to hear some other opinions.

Thanks everyone. I know have posted something similar to this before, but now I have the post bacc option as well.

Well, you mentioned postbacc and you mentioned a masters program. I would say definitely eliminate a masters, that will not count towards your undergrad cGPA and sGPA, which need boosting right now. Sounds like your best option would be switching majors and doing the 5th year just like Doug said. Also agree with Doug about aiming for DO and taking advantage of grade replacement on the classes you had the worst marks in.
I'd do the 5th year. Are you going DO? It sounds like your best bet. Look into the grade replacement option.
 
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Yeah I agree with the above posts. 5th year to bring up your science GPA is probably your best bet. Make sure you have lots of ECs and get a good MCAT score obviously. DO is your best bet. GPA, even after a 5th year, will be a little low for MD.
 
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Sorry if I don't type too much, it's a mouthful, but I was a person who took a 5th year in a similar position, and if I had an option to redo it, I would skip the fifth and go for a SMP instead. I had a similar GPA to yours (a bit higher) and wanted it higher and thought that once I graduated the uGPA couldn't be improved upon and so stayed another year. But when you're at that point of a GPA already, odds are not in your favor of getting into an Allo school. I raised it that 5th year, but tbh when you're hovering around that GPA, unless your senior and your fifth year are like 3.7+'s I really doubt it makes that large a blip.

The reason I was hesitant back then was because of the cost of an SMP (huge factor), and that I was scared of going through a whole new application process.

At the end of the day it's whatever you feel like doing however, so if you're leaning towards a 5th, I don't think some stranger on the internet will convince you otherwise, cause I know I was the same hah. It was comfortable to just stay a fifth and that's why I did it. But yeah, going through what I went through, I really think an SMP would have been better for me.
 
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Thanks everyone for your input. Change4med it was really interesting to hear from someone who was in a similar position. I calculated it considering i have 5 quarters left, the most I could potentially raise my GPA would be to a 3.55 considering i get all A/A-s (more realistically a 3.45 - 3.5) which is obviously much better than a 3.25. Does it seem worth it? I think I would still take the mcat this summer so the subjects are fresh in my mind and I have the opportunity to retake it if needed, then apply at the end of next year assuming I took another year so my 5th year grades count. In the meantime get research experience, shadow a physician (how many hours recommended?) and continue volunteering at the hospital. I was a D1 student athlete for two years don't know how/if that boosts my application? Maybe not since my grades weren't at their best in those two years. But I was planning to take this extra year in school to work on ECs as well since I haven't even begun shadowing a physician yet. Does anyone have more insight on post bacc programs? My advisor said to only look at programs at medical schools and to take two years of classes, then take the mcat after those two years and hopefully get involved in research in the meantime. Like change4med said it is obviously more comfortable to stay another year, but am wondering if anyone went with the post bacc option and how they felt about that? Thanks again everyone!
 
Also I would like to apply to atleast some allo schools, but am considering DO as well.
 
I think aim for atleast 5o hours...that's my goal. Make sure to shadow atleast 1 DO that could give you a LOR to be eligible for DO programs.
 
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Thanks everyone for your input. Change4med it was really interesting to hear from someone who was in a similar position. I calculated it considering i have 5 quarters left, the most I could potentially raise my GPA would be to a 3.55 considering i get all A/A-s (more realistically a 3.45 - 3.5) which is obviously much better than a 3.25. Does it seem worth it? I think I would still take the mcat this summer so the subjects are fresh in my mind and I have the opportunity to retake it if needed, then apply at the end of next year assuming I took another year so my 5th year grades count. In the meantime get research experience, shadow a physician (how many hours recommended?) and continue volunteering at the hospital. I was a D1 student athlete for two years don't know how/if that boosts my application? Maybe not since my grades weren't at their best in those two years. But I was planning to take this extra year in school to work on ECs as well since I haven't even begun shadowing a physician yet. Does anyone have more insight on post bacc programs? My advisor said to only look at programs at medical schools and to take two years of classes, then take the mcat after those two years and hopefully get involved in research in the meantime. Like change4med said it is obviously more comfortable to stay another year, but am wondering if anyone went with the post bacc option and how they felt about that? Thanks again everyone!


When you calculate it, it's not with any retakes right? If it's possible to raise it that much then to me, yes, it would be more worth it. It also depends on what your grades for this year are I think. My situation was different in that I had a ton of units already, so at most my GPA would go up ~.15 that whole year.

Make sure the way you're calculating involves averaging retakes if you're doing any, and not replacing (that's only for DO).

Your plan sounds good, I'd urge you to probably get involved in research and shadowing as soon as you can. A rule of thumb I heard was to always stay in something for at least a year once you've found out you liked it. Also for some kind of volunteering outside of a clinical environment if you haven't done so (Just something you're passionate about). I think being a D1 athlete will help your application so I'd mention it, but don't expect it to make a huge difference.

If you look at SDN there's a postbacc forum, those people are all people who are looking to apply, or who have applied/finished a postbacc and I'm sure they'll be very helpful if that's the direction you might go.

Your situation is different in mine that you can potentially raise it .3 when you graduate so... I'm not really sure haha, hopefully someone who went the PB route can throw in their two cents.
 
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When you calculate it, it's not with any retakes right? If it's possible to raise it that much then to me, yes, it would be more worth it. It also depends on what your grades for this year are I think. My situation was different in that I had a ton of units already, so at most my GPA would go up ~.15 that whole year.

Make sure the way you're calculating involves averaging retakes if you're doing any, and not replacing (that's only for DO).

Your plan sounds good, I'd urge you to probably get involved in research and shadowing as soon as you can. A rule of thumb I heard was to always stay in something for at least a year once you've found out you liked it. Also for some kind of volunteering outside of a clinical environment if you haven't done so (Just something you're passionate about). I think being a D1 athlete will help your application so I'd mention it, but don't expect it to make a huge difference.

If you look at SDN there's a postbacc forum, those people are all people who are looking to apply, or who have applied/finished a postbacc and I'm sure they'll be very helpful if that's the direction you might go.

Your situation is different in mine that you can potentially raise it .3 when you graduate so... I'm not really sure haha, hopefully someone who went the PB route can throw in their two cents.

That would be without any retakes. I do have a lot of credits already but I guess because I would take 5 more quarters of 15-12 credits I could potentially raise it that much assuming I get perfect grades. Because im still taking hard classes more realistically I could raise it to 3.45 id think.
Okay thanks I will go look at the post bacc discussions too!
 
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