Any advice for my predicament?

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foreverblue28

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Welcome to the forums

If you are planning on retaking pre-requisite courses, I highly recommend you hold off on MCAT prep. Grades below a B- indicate that you may have gaps in your understanding of the material. Take the MCAT after you have finished taking your pre-reqs (for the final time) and give yourself plenty of time to study.

A Masters program will not make up for a low undergraduate GPA and graduate programs tend to inflate GPAs. It would be like comparing apples to onions. The only way to compensate for a low GPA is to have several semesters of sustained high academic achievement and pull your cGPA and sGPA to a higher range. Since you are retaking courses, I'm guessing you understand that osteopathic medical schools with allow you to retake courses and replace low grades with higher ones. This is a way to significantly increase your GPA quickly. Allopathic medical schools take all grades and average them. It is much more difficult to raise your GPA for allopathic medical schools.

Your best bet is to retake any F/D/C courses and below B- pre-req courses in order to raise your sGPA and cGPA to a 3.3+ and apply to osteopathic medical schools. You could also pursue an SMP which mirrors a med school program as an audition for medical schools to show you can handle the rigor of the program. The downside with this is if you do not make it through the SMP with flying colors, it will be difficult for a school to overlook.

Take some time and read the forums. This has all been posted many times before. This process is a marathon and medical schools aren't going anywhere. Best of luck to you.
 
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So the thing is if I want to apply for an SMP like wayne state or loyola, I need to have some sort of test score. I am devoting the entire summer to relearn the basics of biology, and chemistry and I have taken biochem already, so I have spent a lot of time fixing gaps. Instead of retaking my C+ in gen chem, bio 1 & pchem, would it be better if I took upper level courses to demonstrate that I am capable of handling science courses. I obviously need to fix the C-'s but would taking Upper level courses help? People have told me that it is a better route than retaking the classes with C+'s. What do you think?
An SMP has the danger of being the hardest route as they are often centered around doing med school work and some require above a certain GPA like a 3.5 or higher to get you into med school. So it could be a career killer.

If you want to do retakes to boost your GPA and give you the best shot at a DO then no need to go that route. Retake all science classes with F, D or C at whatever 4yr college or university. I agree on waiting for the MCAT as you are potentially digging your hole deeper.

But first you MUST absolutely figure out what the academic problem is and fix it, so seek out the school counseling center or a Psychologist. The first step is stop digging!

Best of luck



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^ agreed. And no, upper level courses won't replace retaking old classes. Those are core material, you need to demonstrate you can be successful in them - IN ADDITION to doing well in upper level.

Also recommend holding off on MCAT until you are getting ready to apply - it's only good for 3 years to start off with - secondly if you do poorly because you aren't ready, you will be in a very bad situation. If you have a low GPA but kill your mcat, it will really help balance out your app
 
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