Hello,
After posting on SDN about my possible route to med school, I was given the advice to get a 2nd Bachelors. My quick stats: 2.995 cGPA, ~2.8-2.9 sGPA. I am currently in socal. I just recently graduated from UCR and taking a gap year. I have been looking at possible 2nd bachelors universities that I can get into with my stats and which are around me, but so far the only school that offers one is CSULB. I was wondering if any of you can point me to any other university that offers a 2nd bachelors. I would prefer it to be a CSU since it is cheaper and more appropriate for my stats.
Additionally, for those who have done a 2nd bachelors, how was the experience? How long did it take for you to complete it? Did you need to take any general requirement classes or was it mostly major related? And also, when applying, did you retake the SAT or do anything else besides just applying?
I did a second bacc.
Basic info: 1st degree in Lib.Arts, ~2.6 cGPA. 2nd in Biochem, took 3 years, 3.93 cGPA. Mixed together this brings the overall GPA to 3.1. Doing a Masters in Bio at the moment, with expectations of a pub in the next year. Didn't get in my first round, due to poor application choices, currently applying again with 1 II so far. I'm 31 years old.
Pretty much any university (esp. state U) will let you do a 2nd bacc if you can pony up the money, either on your own or through loans. They may not advertise it, but if you search their course catalogs for general graduation requirements (x # of hours must be completed in y & z areas to earn a degree) then there should also be a note in there about how many hours 2nd bacc folks must complete to get a degree. This means they offer it, so you can apply. Generally fewer hours and non-major courses are waived. I don't know the CA schools, so if in doubt, call the admissions offices.
As for my experience, it was fine. I have a decent, small-ish department at a SUNY school, so I got to know everybody pretty quickly and got involved in research and other ECs pretty soon. I didn't retake the SAT or anything like that, and I don't even remember what the score was originally. Didn't report it. I did have to call down to my high school and get them to send in a transcript (which felt silly 10 years after the fact, with a college transcript in hand, but they wanted it). The biggest part of getting accepted for me was having an interview with the chair and being very clear about what I wanted to do, and that I was capable of doing it.
I didn't really take anything outside the major classes - I hit the pre-reqs pretty fast and then moved into upper levels to beef up my gpa. However, take a gander at the general classes required for med school besides the obvious science ones - there's often an English, humanities, psych/social science, and/or math requirement as well. So if you don't have those through your first degree, or don't have good grades in them, then you should take some of those as well. Don't depend on your advisor to tell you want to take, you have to be in charge of that. Your end goal isn't finishing another degree which is all they know how to advise you for. It's boning up your gpa and getting into medical school. If another degree happens, fine and dandy, but that's not the point of all this.
Now bear in mind, that averages being what they are it will take
a lot of classes
with straight As to shift your gpa. I started lower than you, but it took me 2 years at >full time to break 3.0. If you put in that level of work, and take advantage of grade replacement at DO schools (wasn't an option for me), yours would end up higher than mine but it will not be quick or easy. Or cheap. I'm currently sitting on ~100K in student loans before I even start med school (20K left from the 1st round, 40K from the 2nd, and 40K from the Masters). SO you need to be d@mn sure that this is the path you want to take before you launch into this.
If you haven't shadowed yet, start doing that now. Before you apply for classes. Make sure you know what you're getting yourself into, in gritty, gory detail, before you spend that money. You're young and have time to figure it out, but you have to really, really want this to make it through. Another year to prepare is not a bad thing, either by working or shadowing or (preferably) both. Taking college classes is the easy part. It only gets harder from there.
Also you've been given good advice from
@DrMidlife and
@QofQuimica in your first thread. They have novels worth of advice that they've given to others in your same situation over the years. Go look it up and read it. I did when I was starting down this road and it was incredibly helpful.
