Grade Replacement-- I'm freakin' out, man!

[SempFi007]

Looking at all the grade replacement threads here and in the DO premed forum, all the answers seem to be across the board on everything. I've seen people posting how they've retaken a particular class from a different school than the original grade, I've seen people post that AACOMAS will only replace grades for the same class taken at the same school, I've seen some other weird stipulations on how or when or where courses can be retaken, and now I've just that the course credit amounts must be equal.

So, here's my situation:

15 years ago, I was a ***** who didn't care about school on the west side of Michigan. The particular classes I'm concerned about are English/writing and Intermediate Spanish. At the original university I attended, these classes were 4 credits each.

Fast forward to now, my wife and I are now living in Ohio, and I've taken my year of English/writing with As and I'm looking to retake Spanish, from the ground up again. But the school I'm at offers the classes I need to retake at 3 credits each. I looked around at other local universities and they all offer these classes at 3 credits each.

Am I totally screwed with my plans for grade replacements for these courses? Is there anyone out there that knows the grade replacement rules for sure?

Another question I have is I saw that Environmental Science is not counted towards the main science classes, but when I took it back in the day it was taught under the biology department (BIO ###, I can't remember). Would I have to count that grade towards my science GPA?

Thank you all for your time and inspiration!

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[CalifornianMD]

The focus should be on your sGPA, not the others unless you got a D or F. If the environmental science course was under the
Biology banner that it may count but no one can know for sure

 

[Eccesignum]

Agreed with previous poster that it's probably not something you need to worry about. Did you finish that bachelor's? How's your cGPA and sGPA right now? Have you taken the medical school pre-requisities?

If environmental science was under Bio it likely will be counted in sGPA, yes.

 

[heartsink]

Above posters are right. Worry about your sGPA.

 

[SempFi007]

I forgot to say that those two classes are unfortunately Fs. Out of several Fs that I recieved during the early 2000s, those are the only two that I probably have issues replacing.

No, I did not finish that bachelor's degree. I enlisted in the Marines and got into security work with the State Department after the Marines. I eventually got my paramedic license to be a medic for our security teams, but I met my wife in pararmedic school and she wasn't all to keen about me going back overseas. So I've been working as a pre-hospital paramedic for several years and am now working as a critical care paramedic with a local flight program (but I can't fly as a paramedic only, unfortunately!). Paramedic school clinicals made me fall in love with medicine at first and my current job has really made it into a calling with all our interactions with our medical control physicians, critical care phsyicians, and anesthesiologists. Finally, a co-worker (flight nurse/nurse practioner) eventually convinced me to shoot for medical school, and I finally took the plunge to go back to school.

I'm currently a year into school, although a semester behind because I started out with my sights set on getting into nursing. I will have my year of Biology and Chemistry finished this semester and math up to Calculus I hopefully after this summer. I've gotten As in every class except one B.

I used that AMCAS GPA Excel spreadsheet, and without any grade replacements, my overall GPA right now is a horrendous 2.79 with a sGPA is 3.26. If I can keep these As up, I think I can salvage my overall GPA to a 3.3 with a sGPA fo 3.7. I've got a long road ahead of me.

Why did I squander my GPA and my youth away?!

Thanks for your replies so far!

 

[GreenDuck12]

I wouldn't look at it as "squandered" as your past decisions have led you to where you are now. If anything, it sounds as though you are driven, perhaps even harder, because of your prior decisions. I wouldn't worry too much about the replacing the F's as at the least they will average out to a C. Keep working on taking post-bac classes to up your cGPA and most importantly your sGPA. When you apply, make sure you apply broadly and the pieces will fall where they will. Keep it up.

 

[Gem91]

Grade replacement must use a class that is worth at least the original credit hours, so for 4 hrs, you would need to take a class with basically the same name for 4 hrs. Where classes are taken does not matter. I took Biochemistry first at an Ivy League school, later took it again at a community college, and the grade was replaced. Environmental science is on the huge list of "other science" courses, so it would count towards your sGPA.

 

[Eccesignum]

I forgot to say that those two classes are unfortunately Fs. Out of several Fs that I recieved during the early 2000s, those are the only two that I probably have issues replacing.

No, I did not finish that bachelor's degree. I enlisted in the Marines and got into security work with the State Department after the Marines. I eventually got my paramedic license to be a medic for our security teams, but I met my wife in pararmedic school and she wasn't all to keen about me going back overseas. So I've been working as a pre-hospital paramedic for several years and am now working as a critical care paramedic with a local flight program (but I can't fly as a paramedic only, unfortunately!). Paramedic school clinicals made me fall in love with medicine at first and my current job has really made it into a calling with all our interactions with our medical control physicians, critical care phsyicians, and anesthesiologists. Finally, a co-worker (flight nurse/nurse practioner) eventually convinced me to shoot for medical school, and I finally took the plunge to go back to school.

I'm currently a year into school, although a semester behind because I started out with my sights set on getting into nursing. I will have my year of Biology and Chemistry finished this semester and math up to Calculus I hopefully after this summer. I've gotten As in every class except one B.

I used that AMCAS GPA Excel spreadsheet, and without any grade replacements, my overall GPA right now is a horrendous 2.79 with a sGPA is 3.26. If I can keep these As up, I think I can salvage my overall GPA to a 3.3 with a sGPA fo 3.7. I've got a long road ahead of me.

Why did I squander my GPA and my youth away?!

Thanks for your replies so far!

I understand this so hard it hurts. I also didn't finish a first degree almost 15 years ago (we might be close to the same age) and had a 2.71 when I left with a ton of credits. I got an associate's in nursing years later and am also an EMT-A (working in both fields now). Went back to school for a total reboot with a biology degree and that 2.71 looked insurmountable in the beginning. I ended with a 3.28 cGPA and 3.9 sGPA, and I'm happy to say almost everywhere I've interviewed has mostly focused on the most recent pass through school since it does show how much I've matured (I've gotten a few 'so what the heck happened?' questions about my stupid youth, but I've always told the truth about it and given no excuses).

TL;DR it can be done. Go for the A's as hard as possible (one B won't kill you but don't let it become a habit). When it comes to apply your overall story of growth and development will be very important; make the rest of your application as strong as you possibly can.

Feel free to PM me if you like, I'm happy to answer any specific questions about coming from this kind of situation.

 

[trev5150]

Above posters are right. Worry about your sGPA.

Littering and....

 

[tnedoots]

Make judicious use of the "is there anything else you'd like us to know" boxes in your secondary applications

 

[Major]

.

 

[trev5150]

Make judicious use of the "is there anything else you'd like us to know" boxes in your secondary applications

Care to elaborate?

 

[TallPreMed]

GO BUCKEYES!
Sincerely,
An Ohio Native.

 

[tnedoots]

Care to elaborate?

In regard to the OP having classes 15 years ago and going back to school now, that's the place to talk about why he/she is a different person now than 15 years ago. This points out that the GPA reported may not be a good indicator of his/her scholastic aptitude.
From my experience, this whole medical education process involves fitting neatly into the boxes provided. When you don't fit neatly you need to take advantage of the opportunities presented to say why you don't. The "is there anything else..." sections of secondaries is one of the few places to do this.

 

[trev5150]

In regard to the OP having classes 15 years ago and going back to school now, that's the place to talk about why he/she is a different person now than 15 years ago. This points out that the GPA reported may not be a good indicator of his/her scholastic aptitude.
From my experience, this whole medical education process involves fitting neatly into the boxes provided. When you don't fit neatly you need to take advantage of the opportunities presented to say why you don't. The "is there anything else..." sections of secondaries is one of the few places to do this.

That much is obvious, so I'll revise and extend: Can you be more specific, please? Examples of how one might go about utilizing the "Is there anything else..." sections would be helpful.

 

[tnedoots]

That much is obvious, so I'll revise and extend: Can you be more specific, please? Examples of how one might go about utilizing the "Is there anything else..." sections would be helpful.

It has been a few years so I don't know exactly what I wrote. Obviously it's different for everyone based upon their life story. But for mine, I remember focusing on a few things:
I clearly stated that I was a non-traditional student; I didn't assume they'd figure that out by looking at dates of HS graduation, life experiences, etc.
I also explained my most recent grade performance and how my overall GPA did not reflect my scholastic aptitude. My "senior year GPA" consisted of my most recent ~140 units that I had taken over the 4 years prior. So I just pointed them to that GPA which was much higher than my reported cGPA and did my best to explain that I'm a different person than I was when I took the other classes.
Depending on what the other questions in the secondary asked (some of them allowed me to include this there) I would make sure that I did my best to exploit the things I did prior to med school and how they would help make a contribution to the class and make me a better physician.
Basically, I used this as an opportunity to tell the parts of my story that were not told in the primary or other parts of the secondary app. Obviously some of this was already covered in the personal statement, but I included the highlights again here.