Advice on Post-Bacc Decision

[1o1011]

I am a college graduate from a 2nd tier school.
I graduated with a 2.7 GPA and a lot of extra circulars. I just wasn't ready for college at the age of 18 but managed to pull great grades my junior and senior year of college.

I am now interested in pursuing medicine however I can. I did not get into Post-Bacc programs that I applied to.

I am considering getting a second Bachelor's Degree at this point and excelling in it. Will the two overall GPA's average out if I do that? Will I be completely overlooked by MD schools with my first undergrad GPA? Should I go to a top tier college for my second undergrad or just go to one where I can easily make good grades?

Any other advice for me?

Thank you.

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[WedgeDawg]

You can do a do-it-yourself postbacc, but that might not be the most efficient use of your energy. I would recommend either 1) if you are now as good of a student as you say, doing a SMP and destroying it (3.8+ GPA), which might be challenging. I'm also not sure if you would be accepted to one. The easiest option is doing grade replacement --> DO. You would only have to retake classes that you did poorly in and your GPA will shoot up. I do not know how useful or efficient doing a second bachelor's degree would be.

tl;dr - grade replacement --> DO

 

[GrapesofRath]

Where you go at this point doesn't matter. You need the grades, that's what does. And no, even if you spend 4 more years on a degree and pull off a 3.9, you sitll will only have a 3.3. You are going to need to do more than that if your goal is an MD, ie an SMP.

The odds of a worthwhile SMP program with any kind of decent track record accepting someone with a 2.7 is small. Furthermore, even on top of that, MD schools could still easily have reservations about taking a chance on someone with a 2.7 even with a good SMP showing. And like the Dawg said above, the odds of a 2.7 student acing an SMP aren't that favorable and if you don't do well in an SMP, your medical career is done.

The path you are on is fine right now. You really want to get your GPA up to a 3.0 or as close as possible to it before taking the next step. And after that you will need to take the MCAT and get an MD matriculant caliber score(510+). Then, with all that, you can start thinking about applying to SMP programs. And of course, like Dawg said, there's really no need to do any SMP if you are open to the DO route. Grade replacement and if you can get your GPA in the 3.0-3.2 range and with a solid MCAT then you can be a competitive DO candidate.

 

[Glandzburg]

With a full degree's worth of credits and a 2.7 to show for it, your best shot by far would be to retake classes you did poorly in and shoot for DO.

MD would incredibly difficult/nearly impossible at this stage in the game.