Advice on this plan I have to increase my low GPA?

[flamingo1]

Hello All,

I have graduated with a bachelors in cellular and molecular science, with a overall GPA of 2.68, in June of 2015. I have been lurking on this forum for a very long time now. I've gotten more tips from this forum then I have from advisors, so that's why I would like to ask you guys for advice.

I'm taking the MCAT around May of 2016. I have not taken Orgo 2, and did poorly in Orgo one as well as physics. At this point I'm not planning on applying to med school anytime soon, but I do need to set a future plan to go by. Here's what I have come up with after all the information I have gathered:

1. Focus on studying for MCAT. Take it when I feel ready, getting the best score on practice tests that I would like. (most likely may 2016)

2. Retake some classes (physics, organic 1), and take organic 2. During Fall 2016-Spring 2017. Ace them. Can I just take these specific classes as a post-bac, or do I need to apply into a postbac program? Can I take these classes at school that was not the school I graduated from? (little confused about this one)

3. Start applying to SMP programs that take those with 2.7 GPA around december of 2016 (counting on a High MCAT/good LOR/good EC to help me get in). Get my application in the pool, and have all materials submitted by may 2017.

4. SMP program one year (2017-2018). Apply to med schools afterwards.

I already have good EC/LOR ready. Will be building on those more while working to get my GPA up. I do work as a full-time phlebotomist at MH, and will continue to do so while taking post-bacc classes. Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

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[Aggie95]

What was the reason behind your undergrad GPA being so low? It's easy to say that you'll retake classes in a post-bac and do well, but actually improving from your 2.68 to getting all A's won't be easy, especially while working full time.

Also, I wouldn't recommend taking the MCAT until after you've retaken some classes and have a better understanding of the material on it.

 

[flamingo1]

What was the reason behind your undergrad GPA being so low? It's easy to say that you'll retake classes in a post-bac and do well, but actually improving from your 2.68 to getting all A's won't be easy, especially while working full time.

Also, I wouldn't recommend taking the MCAT until after you've retaken some classes and have a better understanding of the material on it.

Yes, that's what has been giving me anxiety. In the perfect world, I could say that I would get all A's, but I don't think that's the case when it comes to reality. Although, I can confidently say who I am now (my mindset) is not the same as who I was then. I was in a different mindset my last 2 years of undergrad (I was already exhausted/frustrated at this point plus having my mom constantly on my back telling me to apply to med school or she'll stop paying for undergrad doesn't help either). I took a bunch of hard courses together, while being in a slump. Especially, my last year my mindset was pretty bad. I did decent in most of the hard courses; but getting a D in Orgo (failing it the second time), failing two other classes, as well getting C on some upper level classes really hurt my GPA. Not to mention this is including my GPA from second semester/summer of freshmen year (from another school) where I royally screwed up.

In terms of MCAT, I was feeling the same way but wasn't really sure if I should take the route you suggested.

Also, I don't plan on re-taking all the classes again, just the ones I did really poorly in that count towards my BCPM GPA, mainly physics and organic. The rest of my upper science courses were decent/good. That's why I was asking can I just takes the classes I need as a post-bacc instead of doing an entire program?

Thank you for your advice!

 

[OGLoc23]

You can take classes at a university (any university) as a post-bacc student without being formally enrolled in a program. Many non-traditional students have done this to complete their prereqs or repair their gpa.

However, a 2.68 gpa would take time to repair. It seems that you've taken a number of upper-level science courses already, which might limit the amount of gpa repair you can do as a post-bacc. Retaking prereqs you didn't do well in would help. While doing well in an SMP can help you, realize that it can also keep you out of med school if you don't do well.

I would imagine that you would need to both take courses as a post-bacc to fix your uGPA and do well in an SMP to get into med school. The journey is difficult, but there are amazing stories on SDN of people who have recovered from a low gpa and eventually got into med school. Be sure that you absolutely want this.

If you're intent on attending medical school, before taking more courses as a post-bacc, it's crucial that you be certain you can ace them because not doing well would put you in a deeper hole for your gpa repair. Whatever the reason may be for your low uGPA, take some time to figure it out.

 

[Cardboard101]

At this point, I think your fastest route to medical school would be retakes > grade replacement > good mcat > DO school. It seems like any path would take multiple years though. Make sure you can handle a full load of college coursework first before jumping into a more rigorous SMP.

 

[skrolls]

Hello All,

I have graduated with a bachelors in cellular and molecular science, with a overall GPA of 2.68, in June of 2015. I have been lurking on this forum for a very long time now. I've gotten more tips from this forum then I have from advisors, so that's why I would like to ask you guys for advice.

I'm taking the MCAT around May of 2016. I have not taken Orgo 2, and did poorly in Orgo one as well as physics. At this point I'm not planning on applying to med school anytime soon, but I do need to set a future plan to go by. Here's what I have come up with after all the information I have gathered:

1. Focus on studying for MCAT. Take it when I feel ready, getting the best score on practice tests that I would like. (most likely may 2016)

2. Retake some classes (physics, organic 1), and take organic 2. During Fall 2016-Spring 2017. Ace them. Can I just take these specific classes as a post-bac, or do I need to apply into a postbac program? Can I take these classes at school that was not the school I graduated from? (little confused about this one)

3. Start applying to SMP programs that take those with 2.7 GPA around december of 2016 (counting on a High MCAT/good LOR/good EC to help me get in). Get my application in the pool, and have all materials submitted by may 2017.

4. SMP program one year (2017-2018). Apply to med schools afterwards.

I already have good EC/LOR ready. Will be building on those more while working to get my GPA up. I do work as a full-time phlebotomist at MH, and will continue to do so while taking post-bacc classes. Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Khan Academy is your friend.

 

[WedgeDawg]

I'm gonna move this to pre-allo proper since it's not really a WAMC thread and will probably get more attention there.

 

[GrapesofRath]

You really should get the GPA above a 3.0 for SMP programs. a) Alot of programs use that as the cut off minimum GPA b) Even if they take you they arent doing you any favors. 2.7 is still low enough to get screened out at many places and an SMP wont touch that. Sure acing an SMP helps alot, but if your GPA is still low enough it gets screened out at many places, what good does that do

And this doesnt even touch the subject of whether someone who has been a 2.7 student should do something as demanding and risky as an SMP. I would say focus on right now dong some post-bacc work to get your GPA to the 3.0 range. After that take the MCAT and see where you stand. If your MCAT is MD level(511+ esque) maybe start thinking about SMPs. If its not, focus on retaking some more classes, doing some more post-bacc work etc and focusing on DO schools.

 

[flamingo1]

You can take classes at a university (any university) as a post-bacc student without being formally enrolled in a program. Many non-traditional students have done this to complete their prereqs or repair their gpa.

However, a 2.68 gpa would take time to repair. It seems that you've taken a number of upper-level science courses already, which might limit the amount of gpa repair you can do as a post-bacc. Retaking prereqs you didn't do well in would help. While doing well in an SMP can help you, realize that it can also keep you out of med school if you don't do well.

I would imagine that you would need to both take courses as a post-bacc to fix your uGPA and do well in an SMP to get into med school. The journey is difficult, but there are amazing stories on SDN of people who have recovered from a low gpa and eventually got into med school. Be sure that you absolutely want this.

If you're intent on attending medical school, before taking more courses as a post-bacc, it's crucial that you be certain you can ace them because not doing well would put you in a deeper hole for your gpa repair. Whatever the reason may be for your low uGPA, take some time to figure it out.

I've taken a number of upper-level science classes. Many science classes at the same time (back to back semesters) that would be seen in medical school like biochemistry (which I aced), cellular and molecular science etc. I do well during the semester (B's on test), but for finals I just do bad on some of them. Dropping what would've been an A/B for several classes to a C. If I got a D/F in any class, it's because I put no effort into them. Honestly, my second and third year I was fine, but it was was my last year taking all tough classes together back to back semesters while having family issues, and having a clouded mindset of whether I wanted to pursue medicine (even though I knew I wanted to) really hurt me.

I know I have to put in more time than most people, since I don't grasp concepts right away, and sometimes they have to be explained in a very certain way for a light bulb to go off. That's really what I've been thinking about. Every time I do bad in a class, I get into that mode of "why am I not sacrificing everything I got if I really want this?", then I would reply to myself "maybe I don't really want this, I'm obviously not putting in the work needed". I was basically like that for two years. Every other option I looked at in medicine I just didn't want to do. I realized that I really want to practice medicine. With that kind of mindset now, I'm ready to do whatever it takes to get there.

Thank you for your advice. I remember reading a lot of threads on SDN back in the day of people with similar GPA, and all the comments used to be "switch careers". It seems like there are chances out there for us low GPA peeps, just gotta go find it.

At this point, I think your fastest route to medical school would be retakes > grade replacement > good mcat > DO school. It seems like any path would take multiple years though. Make sure you can handle a full load of college coursework first before jumping into a more rigorous SMP.

That's a really great plan. Can you explain to me more about grade replacement? I've been talking to many post-bacc that I know that are kinda doing something similar, but I haven't got a clear answer on how that can improve my GPA, or it's advantage to my numbers. Would grade replacement go hand in hand with retakes?

I've researched several SMP programs where many of the classes they have in their curriculum are classes I've already taken and have done decent/well in. Of course, taking all those classes at the same time is the issue for me, since I know that I do have poor time management. I guess it is back to school for me, before I touch SMP.

Thank you for your advice!

Khan Academy is your friend.

Hahah yes it is. I've been using it a lot to help me on some concepts for the MCAT. I think i'll have to re-route and use it for my post-bacc classes.

I'm gonna move this to pre-allo proper since it's not really a WAMC thread and will probably get more attention there.

Thank you.

You really should get the GPA above a 3.0 for SMP programs. a) Alot of programs use that as the cut off minimum GPA b) Even if they take you they arent doing you any favors. 2.7 is still low enough to get screened out at many places and an SMP wont touch that. Sure acing an SMP helps alot, but if your GPA is still low enough it gets screened out at many places, what good does that do

And this doesnt even touch the subject of whether someone who has been a 2.7 student should do something as demanding and risky as an SMP. I would say focus on right now dong some post-bacc work to get your GPA to the 3.0 range. After that take the MCAT and see where you stand. If your MCAT is MD level(511+ esque) maybe start thinking about SMPs. If its not, focus on retaking some more classes, doing some more post-bacc work etc and focusing on DO schools.

Basically, give myself at least two years of pos-bacc work/retakes to replace some low grades before I apply to SMP? I really gotta figure out how to convince my mom that med school won't be for another 4 years. It's been work just trying to convince her that I won't be applying this year.

Yeah a lot of my reasons for applying to SMP programs even with that GPA is on the bet that I get a really high MCAT. I see what you're saying about getting into a program with that GPA may hurt me instead. I'm going to look into applying to my school real quick for post-bacc classes. Thank you for your honest advice!

 

[Cardboard101]

Grade replacement allows you to substitute the grade you had in the class with a new one.
I.e: You take 3 classes get 1 C 1 B and 1A, your gpa is 3.0. Retake the C and get an A, your gpa is now 2 A's and a B or 3.66