Advice for retaking classes

[noshie]

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I am currently working on getting my Masters degree in Biomedical Research at UNTHSC. I just got my grades for the first semester and I have a 3.5, but I know that next semester will be easier and I can bring this up. My undergraduate counselor told me last year when I mentioned that I wanted to get my masters that I should retake classes and bring up my undergraduate GPA (3.05) instead of getting a masters with a respectable GPA. Anyways, this summer I will be doing a little medical research and may have time to take a class. Since my school doesn’t really care if I take a class or not, I was thinking about retaking an undergraduate class (Biology 1) at my undergraduate university. I received a C when I took it four years ago and know that now with my higher level of knowledge in the Biological sciences I can make an easy "A" in it. Would this look bad? Should I even consider retaking undergraduate courses at this point in my education?

Also, If I do retake the class, what happens to the grade? I know it gets replaced by AACOMAS, but I mean I already graduated and I have no idea if the university will just start me over, or replace the grade and redo my overall GPA.

Has anyone else tried this?

 

[TexasTriathlete]

I think there are some universities that will just replace the grade, but I don't know where they are.

At any rate, it would be like taking another class and getting an A in it, so it would raise your GPA, unless the course is specified as "can not be repeated for credit" or something, but that is pretty rare.

 

[Jpc984]

I think there are some universities that will just replace the grade, but I don't know where they are.

At any rate, it would be like taking another class and getting an A in it, so it would raise your GPA, unless the course is specified as "can not be repeated for credit" or something, but that is pretty rare.

I am betting your ugrad will average the scores. Are there any courses that you did worse in? A "c" is not horrible and would not help you as much (going from a C to A), especially if you have done well in upper graduate biology. I would retake D's and/or F's/

 

[noshie]

I dont have any D's or F's. My undergraduate GPA will be hard to raise when I average it with my Graduate GPA because I had about 200 credits. Yeah, its not just your eyes, I had tons of credits in undergrad. 🙂 So I am afraid that getting even a 3.7 in graduate school will not matter too much with the solid undergrad GPA I had.

Does AACOMAS average the ugrad and grad GPA's?

 

[Jpc984]

I dont have any D's or F's. My undergraduate GPA will be hard to raise when I average it with my Graduate GPA because I had about 200 credits. Yeah, its not just your eyes, I had tons of credits in undergrad. 🙂 So I am afraid that getting even a 3.7 in graduate school will not matter too much with the solid undergrad GPA I had.

Does AACOMAS average the ugrad and grad GPA's?

They are seperate.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

It seems to be the experience of most people on here that the grad GPA doesn't count for too much to these schools. But your undergrad GPA isn't that bad. If you have a few things to re-take, it could help you significantly. A good MCAT score wouldn't hurt either.

 

[noshie]

It seems to be the experience of most people on here that the grad GPA doesn't count for too much to these schools. But your undergrad GPA isn't that bad. If you have a few things to re-take, it could help you significantly. A good MCAT score wouldn't hurt either.

My undergraduate GPA gives me nightmares 😛 I feel like it is really bad, but your right, a good MCAT may help me alot. I wonder why everyone thinks that a grad GPA is not worth anything. I have heard that from my counselor many times, but I figured it would be easier to start over then spend my life trying to retake classes.

Thanks for the great advice. 🙂

 

[TexasTriathlete]

Do you have an upward trend at all? That is, did you take most of the bad stuff early on before you got it together? If so, that will help a lot. If the trend is strong enough, it might be enough where you don't have to re-take anything. I got in with a 2.68 because my upward trend was strong (and solid MCAT). Of course, TCOM didn't seem to like me, but I am happy with the school I'm going to be attending.

 

[noshie]

No upward trend really. I got mostly B's and A's the last 2 years of undergrad, but then my last semester I took alot of hard classes at once to finish and graduate and I made 2 C's and 3 B's. So that kind of killed my upward trend. May I ask what your MCAT was? How strong was your upward trend? What interviews/acceptances did you get? I really want to go to TCOM, but I am sure that I probably will not get in with the grades that I have, unless my next MCAT is stellar. *crossed fingers*

 

[TexasTriathlete]

My upward trend was ridiculous. I graduated from UT with a 2.2 GPA, and then I went back to school and immediately pulled down about a 3.45 in the next 80+ hours of almost all upper-division science classes. Then I got a 33 on the MCAT.

I had interviews at LECOM-Bradenton, GA-PCOM, and KCOM. When I got back from my trip to KCOM, my GA-PCOM acceptance was in the mailbox, and I just decided to close up shop after that. I also had an interview at LECOM-Erie that I canceled.

What is your science/non-science split?

 

[noshie]

My Non science GPA is 3.06 and my science GPA is 2.98.

 

[bigLing2012]

Noshie,
I am not sure I would recommend going that far back and retaking something. Just might look a little questionable. Do you have an upward trend? I wouldn't say that they look any heavier at an undergrad grades than a masters. Your stats are very similar to mine if not a little higher. I also have a masters. I would just do the best you can. I think you will be fine. Just do well on the MCAT. That is important

 

[noshie]

I was thinking that going back to Bio 1 would look bad, but that is really the only undergrad class that I made a C in that will be offered in the summer.

Bigling, have you applied yet, or had any interviews?

 

[RockfordWF]

I am currently working on getting my Masters degree in Biomedical Research at UNTHSC. I just got my grades for the first semester and I have a 3.5, but I know that next semester will be easier and I can bring this up. My undergraduate counselor told me last year when I mentioned that I wanted to get my masters that I should retake classes and bring up my undergraduate GPA (3.05) instead of getting a masters with a respectable GPA. Anyways, this summer I will be doing a little medical research and may have time to take a class. Since my school doesn’t really care if I take a class or not, I was thinking about retaking an undergraduate class (Biology 1) at my undergraduate university. I received a C when I took it four years ago and know that now with my higher level of knowledge in the Biological sciences I can make an easy "A" in it. Would this look bad? Should I even consider retaking undergraduate courses at this point in my education?

Also, If I do retake the class, what happens to the grade? I know it gets replaced by AACOMAS, but I mean I already graduated and I have no idea if the university will just start me over, or replace the grade and redo my overall GPA.

Has anyone else tried this?

Retake any D's or F's. Don't retake a C unless you are applying to MD schools.

 

[JaggerPlate]

retake C- and below ... everything else will just look weird. If you truly want a masters degree, then it is great to get one, and it can't do anything but look good for med schools. How good??? Who knows, but if it's something you want anyway ... it won't hurt anything. To be completely honest a 3.05/2.98 isn't THAT bad. I mean it's 'low' (I'm not judging you here, just going off averages), but it's not horrid. I think that + masters (showing the upward trend that everyone here is talking about, which fyi I have also heard isn't as important as some would like it to be - facts are facts, it looks good if your gpa is low, but it isn't going to be a savior) + good MCAT = good applicant. Good luck!!! 👍

 

[noshie]

Thanks Jagger, thats really great advice. I think I am going to wait until March 08 to decide since I am really not sure what my research is yet. I may just take a grad school class and ace it. 😛 Thanks for all the replies and support.