post bacc length

[lightblueelephant]

Hi guys,
I am currently in my 2nd year of post bacc. I'm considering adding an extra year to my post to hopefully pull my sGPA to between a 3.67 to 3.7 but I'm running out of courses to take as this would mean my post bacc would be 4 years long of full time science only courses. I posted earlier that my sGPA was currently 3.3 but I calculated wrong and during post bacc I've brought my sGPA from 2.8 to 3.28. I'm reluctantly open to DO. I would absolutely go to a DO school over a Caribbean diploma mill though. Thoughts?

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[WGSgrad]

Hi guys,
I am currently in my 2nd year of post bacc. I'm considering adding an extra year to my post to hopefully pull my sGPA to between a 3.67 to 3.7 but I'm running out of courses to take as this would mean my post bacc would be 4 years long of full time science only courses. I posted earlier that my sGPA was currently 3.3 but I calculated wrong and during post bacc I've brought my sGPA from 2.8 to 3.28. I'm reluctantly open to DO. I would absolutely go to a DO school over a Caribbean diploma mill though. Thoughts?

I don't understand the math.* How many courses currently account for the 3.28 sGPA? As you are reluctantly open to DO, I assume this has just been done through average your post-baccalaureate and undergraduate grades and not through grade replacement. If so, I have two thoughts:

1) It seems like you may have hit the end of the road with post-baccalaureate courses. If you are dead set on MD and still don't think your GPA makes you competitive, but have run out of courses, perhaps it's time to reclunctantly consider a SMP. I say reluctantly because they are expensive and if you do poorly it seems like you greatly demnish your chances of being admitted to medical school.
2) Stop taking classes and spend the time developing an otherwise flawless application. Study and kill the MCAT. Apply to medical school (MD and DO) this spring.

*I am skeptical that you have enough subjects remaining (with the exception of some highly theoretical math courses) that you could take and do well enough if one year to move your GPA from a 3.28 to a 3.67/3.7. Even with an A in every course, as the number of creditss increases, the degree to which your GPA improves is marginal.

 

[Takeda]

Was this post bac geared towards grade replacement or new upper level sciences? If it's the latter, your upward trend over the past two years should be sufficient paired with amazing EC's and a 514+ MCAT for a CHANCE at your state MD school, MD schools that reward reinvention, and obviously all DOs. If this was a DIY post bac with grade replacement, stopping at a 3.3-3.4 sGPA is fine and concentrate on EC's and MCAT 504+. You have a great shot at DO schools and may want to reconsider being "reluctant" because going MD likely will be an expensive and long uphill battle at this point considering an SMP is probably going to be your next move unless you're URM.

 

[lightblueelephant]

Thank your for your posts. I'm not out of classes yet, I've got 1 year left. My PB is mostly upper level bio as during UG I only took gen bio, gen Chem and statistics. I think my reluctance to DO is mostly because I don't know much about those schools so I'm going to do some research. I have one more year left of prereqs and true upper level science so I'm gonna work on that. Thank you for all your advice.

 

[Goro]

Having a final GPA of 3.67 from your post-bac is fine. Quite competitive.

I am currently in my 2nd year of post bacc. I'm considering adding an extra year to my post to hopefully pull my sGPA to between a 3.67 to 3.7 but I'm running out of courses to take as this would mean my post bacc would be 4 years long of full time science only courses.

You'll get screened out by a number of schools, but there are MD schools that reward reinvention when you have aced a post-bac and aced the MCAT (513+)
I posted earlier that my sGPA was currently 3.3 but I calculated wrong and during post bacc I've brought my sGPA from 2.8 to 3.28.

Beggars can't be choosy. DO schools are the ones most open to reinvention.
I'm reluctantly open to DO.

Very smart choice!
I would absolutely go to a DO school over a Caribbean diploma mill though. Thoughts?[/QUOTE]

 

[lightblueelephant]

Thank you!

 

[blue0rchid]

Don't go to Caribbean. Like other ppl said, focus on mcat and score well. Your postbac trend is enough to prove you can do it. Especially if you been getting all a's in the post bac courses. Don't forget to build your app by volunteering and shadowing.

I was a nontrad applicant with relatively low gpa undergrad (didn't think I would go to med school). Didn't do a formal post bac program but just took pre-req courses (didn't have any) at different universities/colleges and got all A's. Applied to only one MD school and got in. So it can happen. DO school is even more forgiving than MD school. Hang in there. Good luck with everything.

 

[GreenDuck12]

Realistically, it isn't practical to take years and years to bring your numbers up to the MD average. It will take too long and cost too much money. The difference between a 3.67 and 3.7 in a post bac is minuscule and I would be surprised if the difference of .03 would factor in at all. The reality is numbers and numbers. If you want to have a successful application cycle you are going to need to apply broadly to schools that have numbers close to yours. This will likely mean that you need to apply to osteopathic schools. The differences between osteopathic and allopathic schools are getting smaller and smaller every year as the competition for medical schools gets even more fierce. I would not recommend applying to one school as the poster above did (I would not recommend doing this is even if you had a 4.0 and a perfect MCAT). Definitely do not apply to carribean medical diploma mills.

 

[microtome]

Just start applying to medical school. Apply broadly to both MD and DO schools, and you will land on your feet somewhere. For now, work on MCAT preparation and garnering solid LORs. You would be surprised at how much a strong LOR can boost a application.

 

[CyrilFiggis]

I'm reluctantly open to DO. I would absolutely go to a DO school over a Caribbean diploma mill though. Thoughts?

If you have a year left, then I would find a DO to shadow. Someone you can get between 50-100 hrs with. DO programs are quick to weed out folks who they feel are only applying for the sake of becoming a physician and really have no understanding of DO or OMT. This will show in your personal statement to them as well.

Also, there is current discussions about eventually weighing the COMLEX (DO) and ACGME (MD) on equal footing for residency consideration. This won't open all specialties wide to DOs, but it prevents having to sit for both. That said, I have DO friends who are surgeons, ENTs and Urology residents right now, so although DOs do tend towards primary care, you can end up in specialties.