2nd Bachelor's for career switch into medicine?

[confusedchicken]

I hold a B.S. in electrical engineering. Currently working as a software engineer and I've been saving up money so that I can go back to school to pursue medicine. In a couple years I'll have enough to pay for a 2nd Bachelor's and medical school without having to work.

My undergrad GPA is atrocious (2.63). My freshman and sophomore grades were quite decent (3.8+) but then I fell into severe depression after sexual assault and my junior and senior grades fell down the cliff with multiple 0.0s and several academic probations. I basically never went to classes and stayed in my apartment during this time. Technically I should have been expelled after the first academic probation but my department head knew my situation so I was given several passes. It also took me six(!) years to graduate because I was retaking failed classes again and again to meet the graduation requirement. I just checked online and my cGPA sits at 2.63 with 190 credits.

If I pursue a second bachelor's in science (assuming 120 credits) and get a perfect 4.0 (which does not seem realistic) my cGPA will still sit at 3.1. This seems to be far below the average GPA required for med school admissions.

Is it futile trying to go into medicine given my circumstances? I know that getting a 2nd bachelor's does not erase the grades from the 1st one but realistically does it weigh just as heavily? I want to hear from others who are familiar with this. Thanks in advance.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[BritainKittenMittens]

I think the risk/effort to reward ratio of doing another full bachelor's degree just to get into medical school is too high. Unless you would take those closes even if you didn't want to go to medical school (I guess for the love of the game?), I would highly advise you consider other approaches.

If your primary reason is to lift your GPA, as others have recommended in other posts, I advise that you look into the Texas Academic Fresh Start program Software engineering in FAANG to medicine This would require that you move to TX and target TX schools. I know TX isn't for everyone, but I personally think it's less of a sacrifice than to do a whole 120 unit program. The juice is just not worth the squeeze. Say you get into med school from it, do you know how much school you will have done. First B.S. that took 6 years where you burnt out with EECs, then years saving up to do another BS that'll take 3-4 years, then 4 years of medical school, then 3 years of residency. Save yourself the trouble, just move to TX and find out if you stand a chance in a shorter amount of time.

 

[confusedchicken]

I think the risk/effort to reward ratio of doing another full bachelor's degree just to get into medical school is too high. Unless you would take those closes even if you didn't want to go to medical school (I guess for the love of the game?), I would highly advise you consider other approaches.

If your primary reason is to lift your GPA, as others have recommended in other posts, I advise that you look into the Texas Academic Fresh Start program Software engineering in FAANG to medicine This would require that you move to TX and target TX schools. I know TX isn't for everyone, but I personally think it's less of a sacrifice than to do a whole 120 unit program. The juice is just not worth the squeeze. Say you get into med school from it, do you know how much school you will have done. First B.S. that took 6 years where you burnt out with EECs, then years saving up to do another BS that'll take 3-4 years, then 4 years of medical school, then 3 years of residency. Save yourself the trouble, just move to TX and find out if you stand a chance in a shorter amount of time.

This is the best piece of advice that I've ever been given about this issue. I understand that the opportunity cost is extremely high but just knowing that I actually have an option gives me hope. Frankly relocating is nothing in the grand scheme of things, given how much time and money I would be putting into it.

I'm reading that thread and it seems that AFS is part of the TX state law, meaning it only requires the public schools in Texas to omit the grades from 10+ years ago? This means that I would only be applying for the public medical schools in Texas. Is my understanding correct?