non-trad student, far end of spectrum, advice

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horrendouslyUnderpowered

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Hello. Any advice / comments welcome.

Here's my situation:

I received a bfa from a small liberal arts college about 5 years ago. I've been working in the creative field since then.

I recently decided to go back to school and pursue medicine. Reasons for this are deep, solid, and varied. I've taken some initial steps:
volunteer at a clinic near me - love it
enrolled in pre-req bio/chem/math courses at local state uni - love them as well

I am a good student, I have a's in the recent coursework Ive taken so far, and expect to continue this way through all of them. (please understand - more determination than arrogance in this statement)

Here's where it gets sketchy.
I have no gpa up to this point. My undergrad was completely pass/fail. While the college is nationally/regionally accredited, and I have a "real" bachelors degree, I would not know where to begin to calculate my gpa. It is nonexistent.

Setting aside mcat scores, supporting experiences, and other parts of an application, assuming for the sake of argument that those are great -

how would this be viewed? if the gpa was high, but calculated only from 2 years of science/math post-bacc courses?
1. Am I not even a viable candidate because of this?
2. Are there ways to rectify this, without simply starting over?

thanks for reading

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You are in a super position right now, because pass/fail coursework is not factored into your gpa calculations for AMCAS.
So, while they will see these courses, the only numbers they will get are the ones you make from here on out in the med school pre-reqs. Make them good and you'll be sittin' pretty gpa-wise.

Maybe @QofQuimica can give you some feedback on how this would be viewed and how to handle it in the app process- if I remember correctly, she also had a P/F bachelors.
 
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AMCAS (and you) calculate your GPA on the classes that have grades; the others must still be listed on AMCAS but do not have grades, obviously. That's not a big deal; it is possible to designate grades for classes as "pass" on AMCAS.

I went to a college that not only had no grades, but also no credit hours, and that does not recognize the usual designations like freshman/sophomore/junior/senior (New College of Florida). The school uses semester-long academic contracts and narrative evaluations (NEs) in lieu of grades. However, like you, I had other grades (mostly from grad school in my case) that were listed on AMCAS, so I did end up having a GPA. You will as well; it will simply be entirely based upon your post bac coursework. So make sure that post bac GPA remains stellar.

I also did the following:
1) Killed the MCAT (easier said than done, but a huge help if you can do it)
2) Sent copies of my NEs for all the prereqs to every med school. This won't apply to you since you're taking your prereqs for grades, but I'm putting it out there anyway in case any fellow NC alums run across this thread in the future.
3) Called the schools I was thinking of applying to and explained my situation. All of my state schools are familiar with NC and had no issue with the weird grading system. Some of the OOS schools were less familiar, but because the rest of my app was strong, most were still willing to consider me.

I wound up attending an OOS school on full scholarship. If you want to read my whole story, look up the Nontrad Secrets of Success thread (link in the sticky) and read my post. It's the second one.

Hope this helps, and best of luck.
 
Interesting position. You are by no means on the "far end" of any spectrum though. Assuming you passed all your classes and have completed the prereqs, your MCAT score will go a long way to establishing your academic ability. Make sure the rest of your app is great.
 
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