I want to focus on Bio and General Chem (someone recommended taking Gen Chem with Physics instead of Bio but idk) but that's only 8 credits, and I think that would be frowned upon.
I'm thinking of adding Stats first semester, but that is only 3 credits and brings me to a total of 11.
So I wonder what else I should take? Should I add Physics? Or would that be too much? If I knocked out Chem, Bio and Physics the next year I would be left with Orgo and Biochem, and then I'm not sure what else I would add.
I don't need any psych or English or humanities classes. I took enough of those in college to cover any and all requirements in that regard. But I've never taken a sociology course so maybe something like Intro to Soc would be a good filler.
I wonder if it's best to try to just take only my science classes and knock them all out in 2 years or space them out and take an extra year or two. But I'm looking for fulfilling requirements/GPA repair, not repeating undergrad.
What is your GPA right now? If you had a good undergrad GPA when you weren't pre-med doing well in your pre-reqs will probably suffice. In that case do as many as you can handle in a semester but err on the side of caution. It's all well and good to say "med school is 25 credits so I have to be able to do as much as possible in undergrad" but that's not how this works. IF you take lighter amount of credits in a DIY post-bacc(particularly if you are also working significantly) and do well in them by and large you'll be fine if you were a good student prior to being pre-med. No one will look at someone who had as good MCAT and good GPA prior to their pre-reqs and say "they did well in their pre-reqs but I would have liked to have seen them take one or two more classes per semester and since they didn't that makes everything else invalid". What will sink you is if you overload and don't do well; don't expect any sympathy for adjusting to pre-med classes or having to work full time on top of it.
Now, if you didn't have a good undergrad GPA before pre-med and want to boost your GPA in addition to pre-reqs things get trickier. The biggest thing here is you need to make a very solid
plan.
Here is what you need to consider when making that plan
1) Set a target GPA you want to achieve by the time you apply to med school. It's hard to give you a number in your situation because if you didn't take science classes in undergrad your total GPA and science GPA could end up being significantly different. Ideally you want each to be above a 3.5 by the time you apply. 3.4 could be an informal and extremely rough guide for a cut off although if you have an upward trend and did well in your pre-reqs you can be a little bit less rigid in that cumulative GPA target. The bottom line is just to accumulate A's. Really try and aim for a 3.7+ pre-req GPA specifically as a rough guide.
2) Once you set a target GPA calculate how many credits of strong work it will take to achieve it(lets call strong work 3.75+ work). You will see how many semesters it will take to get to your GPA target numbers and that will shed a lot more light for you.
3) What are your other commitments outside of classes? Kids? Working significant hours? Anything else counts here and only you can answer how much time those will take out of your schedule and what you are capable of academically. IF you were a poor student in college there will probably be more attention given to how many credits you take in addition to your pre-reqs. Keep in mind the average college student takes 15 credits a term. But you are a post-bac so there is alot more unknown and alot more variables to account for. IF you were a poor student in college but now only taking 6 credits a term for your pre-reqs and do well that won't look quite the same as the many pre-meds who take 15 credits a term in addition to their 6 credits of pre-reqs and also do well in them, particularly since when you did take a full courseload in college even with non pre med classes you didn't do well. Note the thing you missed out in classes to use in raising your GPA are upper level science classes. Classes like microbio, immunology, genetics, cell bio, neuroanatomy, physiology etc. Doing well in these will help you tremendously, particularly if after your pre-reqs your GPA is still not where you want it. Of course you can use filler classes such as Intro to Psych Intro to Sociology and other classes in those areas as well.
4) Above all else you need to do well. Start out perhaps conservatively in how many credits you take to see adjust and see what it takes to do well in pre-med classes and get A's. If you need a year or two longer to boost your GPA where you want it that you initially thought that's more than fine. This is a marathon not a sprint. You just really need to have a plan; a specific and well thought out one and stick with it.
