Advice/Guidance

[HopefulDave]

Hello everyone I just had general questions and was looking for a path that would be advisable for me. I currently live in NC and graduated from UNC Chapel Hill late 2019 with a degree in Biology and Psychology. Unfortunately like many others here, I had less than stellar grades.

Now my question is that what route would be best given my situation. I read up on Goro's guide to reinvention and was curious as to the best route I should take personally. I am currently working as a medical scribe and taking EMT courses currently to also start working as an EMT in an attempt to build up clinical hours. I am debating whether or not I should attempt a DIY post bacc or seek a program somewhere out there. I would like to attempt an SMP but my GPA was sadly around a 2.5 so I wouldn't even be eligible for many of those. So my current plan is to rack up on clinical hours and take courses concurrently however I am not sure if this is the best route I should take or if I should try and pursue some other method.

I also wanted to ask for those doing the DIY post bacc the courses I should take. Given that I was a Bio major, I already took many of the pre reqs required (although with no As among them). So in the post bacc, should I be focused on retaking those courses I didn't do well in and then move on to extra upper level courses until my GPA is around a 3.0? If there is anything else I should/can do I am open to anything. Thank you.

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[Cornfed101]

Any upward trend? Have you figured out what you did wrong in your classes?

 

[HopefulDave]

I have yet to start my courses after graduating. I know what was wrong. It was largely my own fault. Laziness, procrastinating and just having no aim. Just kind of mindlessly going through the motions. I dug myself into a hole and felt no motivation to dig myself out. But I have found that motivation hopefully now after a lot of talking to professors and the doctors I'm scribing for. Right now my current goal is to maintain the medical scribe position and EMT while taking courses again. If I can manage to do all these things concurrently I can use that to further motivate myself that I am capable enough to do it. So my first step is just picking out the courses I need.

 

[GreenDuck12]

I also wanted to ask for those doing the DIY post bacc the courses I should take. Given that I was a Bio major, I already took many of the pre reqs required (although with no As among them). So in the post bacc, should I be focused on retaking those courses I didn't do well in and then move on to extra upper level courses until my GPA is around a 3.0? If there is anything else I should/can do I am open to anything. Thank you.

I think the prevailing wisdom is not to repeat classes that you earned a C or higher in but in your case, because you have taken a lot of biology courses, it may be necessary to do so depending on how many new upper level biology courses you can take for the first time. Which classes did you earn a C+ or lower in? You could try retaking those classes, as well as new upper level biology/chemistry/math classes to try to increase your sGPA. As for cGPA, any class would help in this area.

Additionally, I would be cautious about trying to do too much concurrently. The goal is to do well in the things you are doing - not just survive.

 

[HopefulDave]

If my sGPA were to get past 3.0 then my cGPA would as well so I'm not too worried about the cGPA for now. My focus is on my sGPA. I guess I'm just concerned about the classes which I earned a C in which was about half of the pre reqs for med school. So should I retake those + upper level courses while balancing maybe 48 hours of work a week?

 

[GreenDuck12]

If my sGPA were to get past 3.0 then my cGPA would as well so I'm not too worried about the cGPA for now. My focus is on my sGPA. I guess I'm just concerned about the classes which I earned a C in which was about half of the pre reqs for med school. So should I retake those + upper level courses while balancing maybe 48 hours of work a week?

I think you are going to need to spend some time with an XL spreadsheet to try to figure out what combination of new biology classes and retakes of old pre-requisite courses you will need to do in order to get your GPA above a 3.0. I don’t know that repeating all of your prerequisite courses would be worthwhile but given the high number of classes with a C grade it may be necessary. It entirely depends on what classes your school is offering. But I would start with making a plan because if you go and complete a whole bunch of upper division biology classes and then go back and retake first year prerequisite courses that isn’t gonna look very good.

so if I were in your shoes what I would do is first I would figure out how many classes I need to take in order to get my GPA above a 3.0. Next I would figure out how many upper division biology classes I can take for the first time. Then I would figure out how many additional classes I need to take to get my GPA to that goal number and strategically retake first and second-year prerequisite courses.

 

[Cornfed101]

Here’s a good spreadsheet. Get to it

Click here to view the improved GPA Calculator.

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Instructions are on the first tab.
Improvements:

• It's completely online using Google Sheets -- No need for an Excel Software!
• Everything's simplified! It's cleaner and leaner!
• You can now include "Post-bacc" designation for grades!

EDIT: If you want to receive continued updates, subscribe to this discussion thread.

Hope ya'll Enjoy. As always, PM me for any errors, bugs, and suggestions you have.

 

[HopefulDave]

Thank you guys!