Who is all getting ready for the next cycle to open? Anyone taking the MCAT in late August or early September?
Who is all getting ready for the next cycle to open? Anyone taking the MCAT in late August or early September?
I'll be applying once it opens.... in turns of getting apps ready..... not so much. I guess I have gotten my LoRs lined up. My personal statement and all my other documents are not quite as ready as they are non-existent at this point...
Just finished the final interview I will be attending.
Good luck to you guys, you're definitely getting a jump on the cycle.
I have my LORs lined up, and my resume written.
I'm taking the MCAT August 10th. I still have yet to write my personal statement much to the dismay of my pre-health advisor. My school has an intense revision process for their students that normally runs for the first half of the summer. The deadline to submit to this was like a week ago, but I never got around to it because I've been so busy.
So I'll be writing it cold turkey....
My advisor couldn't stress enough how important it was to apply early so I'll at least have my transcript submitted on August 1st.
I think podiatry school is more of a numbers game than most other schools. If your stats are above average the PS and applying in september probably isn't a big deal.
i've been wondering about this. whether there a significant advantage of applying in august rather than september. cause i am retaking a g-chem class and i want the grade to be on my official transcript before i send it and that class ends mid-september.
Probably not a difference between the two. But I dunno if there is a difference with your gen chem class grade though either. Never once on these forums have I seen someone who didn't get I into a pod school (the numbers say that I'm wrong, but I've never heard of it), but if you're shooting for a specific school, you'll want he best app... I'd say apply in August then if you don't get any bites, update the schools on your new GPA
Edit: New thought, why are you retaking a general chemistry course? Have you taken orgo? (unless your school does that weird gen chem 1, orgo, gen chem 2 course progression). Unless you got a D+ or lower in gen chem, I wouldn't bother retaking it. Take an upper level chem course like biochem.
AACPMAS does not count retakes as anything other than another class you took, it does not hide your previous grade (I know this for a fact, I got asked about a Philosophy Logic class I got an F in, I answered, well flip to the next semester and you will see I retook it and got an A, that seemed to work).
Probably not a difference between the two. But I dunno if there is a difference with your gen chem class grade though either. Never once on these forums have I seen someone who didn't get I into a pod school (the numbers say that I'm wrong, but I've never heard of it), but if you're shooting for a specific school, you'll want he best app... I'd say apply in August then if you don't get any bites, update the schools on your new GPA
Edit: New thought, why are you retaking a general chemistry course? Have you taken orgo? (unless your school does that weird gen chem 1, orgo, gen chem 2 course progression). Unless you got a D+ or lower in gen chem, I wouldn't bother retaking it. Take an upper level chem course like biochem.
honestly if you cum gpa isn't crap and your other science grade are generally Bs and As then you will do fine, they wont hold 1 C- against you but do what you feel you need to.
sorry for posting so much but i was wondering if i could get advice. throughout my college career i have had 3 really bad grades. writing i got a c- but i retook that and got a b+. and there one g-chem class and one calc class. i got a c- in the g chem and a d in calc. I am planning to retake them both this summer to show the schools that i can do better and i just got bad grades through undeveloped and stupid habits during freshman year. do you guys think i should retake the calc class?
If this were medical school my advice would be: Don't retake calc, take calc II and get an A- or better in it. That being said, this is pod school so.......... you could probably retake calc, but seriously make sure you at LEAST get a B+.
I would only retake classes that I failed or did not meet the competency requirement. Don't worry too much. Although I will probably get flamed for saying this, pod school is not very competitive. Sure I don't have any solid evidence to back that up, but my advisor was quite frank in saying that virtually everyone who applies with at least a 2.75 and 20+ on their MCAT will get into at least one school. My school keeps a database of everyone who applies to grad school and there's not one applicant who got rejections across the board from a pod school in there (submission to the database is required). Some kids had some pretty uninpressive stats. He specifically named two schools that will literally take anyone with a pulse. Now, I'm sure that's a huge exaggeration but you get the idea.
do you think it'd be better to take an upper div bio course and get an a- or a instead of retaking the calc class and getting at least a b+. this is in reference to summer school. i'm only going to do one or the other cause i want to have time to study for my mcat still
Why are you thinking of taking of taking an upper division bio course to cover up a math grade? Am I missing something here?
i'm probably just going to retake it i already signed up and paid for it and i figure it'll be good review before i take my mcat
Western does care about the C- and will make you retake before you can matriculate. I know because they told me the same thing.
i was just wondering what the schools would have preferred. whether to retake the calc class to get a better grade. or a take a upper div bio and get a good grade. because calc isn't even a pre req.
I see what you're saying now. I guess it depends on what you're trying to do. Do all of your other bio classes have good grades? If so, I wouldn't take another.
The idea of taking Calc II or Calc I over is to show the adcoms that your D was a fluke and you are capable of understanding the information - in this instance that information is calculus
My sophomore year, I got a C in bio, physics and inorganic chem parts 1, A C in bio part 2 with Bs in the other part 2s.
They take into account a lot of things when looking at a GPA.
Those were the lowest grades I had in my tenure, and I had a pretty good health-related reason. After those, I didn't make below an A in a science again, and I had a lot of math my first year to boost those up as well.
It will always look better to take a new hard (ideally harder) class instead of retaking the old one. Well....yeah....you'd better be able to get an A when you're on your second helping.
Doing well in a new class shows the ability to perform academically, and the motivation to work (it doesn't take nearly as much work to grab an A in a second time around class...).
If you want to boost your GPA, do it with upper level sciences. Take note, though...be sure you actually boost it.