Admissions office vs. SDN

Started by Donna Moss
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Each school sets their own policy. Most schools will allow biochem to take the place of orgo 2. Some require both biochem and the full sequence of orgo. The AACOMAS school-specific prereq part should answer your question, and of course calling schools will definitely answer.

Example: one school I interviewed at specifically said they require both orgo 1 and 2 plus the lab for each. At my interview, however, they said they would accept biochem in place of orgo2 so long as it had a lab. Just gotta ask.

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Donna Moss said:
My question is that what classes should I be retaking. Admissions offices keep telling me that biochem will count toward my 16 credits of chem, and I have more than 8 credits of biology so I'm wondering if I should scrap my idea of taking 3 retakes and only retake genetics with other upper level bio classes?
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I've read that some schools won't accept anything lower than a C- on your transcript. So if I were you I would really consider retaking science classes that you've got C- or lower in.
 
I'mJustCurious said:
I've read that some schools won't accept anything lower than a C- on your transcript. So if I were you I would really consider retaking science classes that you've got C- or lower in.
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No it's nothing lower than a C- in pre-requisite courses.

OP, no Biochem is not the same as organic chem. With your current sGPA it it is highly advisable you don't apply this year. You need to get your sGPA above at least 3.0 for DO (even that is pushing it these days) and do an SMP if you want to try for MD.
 
First, biochem, orgo Chem and inorganic (gen) Chem are all different. If you go by aamc or aacomas guidelines it counts toward you bpcm which is what the admissions office probably means. Most schools say you need a C or better, as in they will accept a C, or C+ but I would retake C- unless you are only looking to apply to a few select schools. However it your call. The grades will be averaged so at best you may end up with a B- which isn't a significant boost but it's all about how much money u wanna spend and how much time you wanna take. Since you're gonna do a post bacc and masters. I would go ahead and add the extra classes, but again, it depends on where you are applying.

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If you're planning to apply MD and DO, I'd retake those 3 classes, then just continue with your MS/SMP plan. Multiple schools have cutoffs of C or better on pre-reqs.

Some schools will substitute the OChem 2 requirement for Biochem, if you didn't take it, but you already took it. It won't replace the grade or count instead at all, they'll see both and view it the same way they view any relevant extra science courses. They're not going to ignore the C- in OChem 2 if you take Biochem.
 
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Off topic a bit, but what plan did you follow to get your 506 on the MCAT, seeing that your GPA's are a little on the lower side?


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