Additional undergrad courses or plan for master's?

[Roger Wilco]

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I've been making great progress with my DIY post-bac, and now I'm reviewing my plan to make sure that I'm building the most competitive application that I can. My biggest shortcoming is my undergrad GPA, but I did go on to do an MS with a strong GPA, and my post-bac so far is a 4.0 through 12 credit hours of science courses. My BS and MS are both in computer science from a state school, and my overall stats right now are as follows:

Cumulative GPA 2.93
Science GPA 2.71(TMDSAS)/3.36 (AACOMAS)
Undergrad GPA 2.60
Post-bac GPA 4.00
Graduate GPA 3.75

What's dragging my overall stats down are C's and D's in math and computer science courses from 10 years ago that were the result of a lack of discipline and spending way too much time playing video games. The rest of my application is really strong:

• senior software engineer building the cloud for a very highly respected software company
• Freemason, member of the Scottish Rite, and editor of my lodge's monthly newsletter
• master's thesis in computer science with conference paper
• 150+ hours of volunteering at the hospital and still going regularly

I'm planning to do only the pre-reqs that I am missing up through biochemistry and genetics, which would tip my cGPA and sGPA just above 3.0 (with the potential to get up to a 3.7 AACOMAS sGPA). At that point, if I couldn't get in anywhere, I was planning to do an MBS program.

I've been avoiding taking any undergraduate courses other than pre-reqs because I can't imagine what would be helpful, but now I'm wondering if that's the right approach. Would taking a few extra undergraduate courses now save me from doing the MBS? If so, what courses would help my application? I have A's and B's in all of my English, physics, and psychology courses (I really love the humanities, so I'm open to taking any extra courses in those areas, but I feel like that already shows on my transcript). Would it help to replace C's in calculus and statistics with A's even though I've already taken up through calculus III? My concern is that it's going to look like I'm padding my grades rather than taking on new challenges.

If you see any weaknesses in my plan or any advice for how to build a better application, please don't hesitate to let me know. Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[Forever Geebs]

First, I commend you on pursuing your passion and desire to become a physician. It's a long road, but you're making progress. Kudos to you.

I'm trying to understand the disparity in sGPA for TMDSAS and AACOMAS. Is it because you took more math classes? If so, makes sense given your engineering background. Just want to make sure you are not doing grade replacement since AACOMAS stopped doing that.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Thank you for your kind words! I've been incredibly happy with my progress, and I'm really enjoying the journey as well.

You are correct, the only difference is that one factors in my math grades and the other doesn't. I'm not doing any grade replacement in my calculations. I have a math minor with an astounding 2.16 gpa through 32 credit hours of math courses.

I'm just curious if anyone thinks that adding some additional undergraduate courses at this point would add enough to my application to warrant doing, and if so which courses they would suggest. I didn't take any biology or chemistry the first time around, so I've been focusing on only taking those courses. I've considered things like re-taking calculus and stats (both C's), or taking Spanish, cultural anthropology, nutrition, anatomy & physiology, etc. I think all of that would just blend in with the rest of my coursework and I can't imagine that a 3.2 GPA would be that much more impressive than a 3.1, but I'm open to being corrected. That's why I was thinking that if good pre-req grades (through biochemistry and genetics) and a good MCAT weren't enough, the only thing that would make me stand out is having good grades in upper-division chemistry and biology, which is why I'm thinking I would try to do a master's in biomedical science at that point if I wasn't accepted.