Back to school for pre-reqs.

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skjelstrom

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I apologize if this has been covered extensively, but I did a search and feel I have a unique situation. I recently graduated with a dual-degree in Public Health and Psychology and have decided I want to pursue a DO degree. I need to both boost my science GPA and take a few pre-reqs. To give you an idea I have an overall 3.43 GPA. Here is where everything starts to get complicated because I don't know how to classify my classes.

I'm not sure how to classify my public health classes because I think they are drawing a fine line between behavioral science and "other science". According to AACOMAS: public health, health, health science, health services are all considered an "other science" which gets included in science GPA, but if you look at some of the classes in my public health degree (health policy, environmental health, social determinants of health, perspectives in global health) I feel they could potentially fall into behavioral or other non-science. To go along with that I took a PSYC 3254 Animal Behavior class. This was "technically" a psych credit but AACOMAS classifies animal behavior as an "other science" as well..... So first quesion, where would you classify these classes? (reference for classification: http://help.unicas.com:8888/aacomas...-history-2/aacomas-course-subjects/index.html)
With those classes included I have a 3.13 sGPA; without those classes it's a 2.81 sGPA, so either way I think I could still use a boost.

On to the next question.
During my time getting a degree I completed these pre-reqs: Bio 1&2 (C+/B), Chem 1&2 (B-/C+), Physics 1&2 (A-/A), O-chem 1 (C)
So in order to have all the pre-reqs I would need O-chem 2 and possibly Biochem. Not to mention I would likely want to straighten up some of those grades and my anatomy and physiology grades as well... F and C respectively.
What do you recommend? Can I return to school for a year or so and just take a few classes so AACOM drops the low scores? Should I attend a structured postbac or SMP? I can't seem to find a post-bac or SMP that will allow me to take prereqs, make up grades, and potentially take advanced courses/mcat prep. (Or are structured post-bac/SMP not worth the money anyways?)

I should also specify that because I wasn't planning on doing MD or DO before I have no medical experience either..... If I only have a year of experience will that look bad and what can I do about that?

Sorry this is a lot of questions and information. Thanks ahead of time!

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Still having the same dilemma, anyone have any insight? Or even how I could get counselling since I am no longer enrolled in school?
 
If you're really unsure if a class qualifies for science or non-science you could call AACOMAS and ask them.
 
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Can I return to school for a year or so and just take a few classes so AACOM drops the low scores?

Yes. This should be your first step if this is what you have decided to do. You can do this at any CC as long as the credits and the name of the class are the same. If you are going to be going to school full time pick 5/6 of your lowest (below a B) science credits and retake them. I would suggest not retaking orgo 1 right now and taking orgo 2 in place of it to get those credits out of the way, possibly retaking orgo 1 over the summer if you think you can handle getting an A in the shortened time frame.

If you don't have 5 or 6 science courses to retake, cherry pick your lowest grade outside of those and retake it alongside. You have a year and a half to worry about course classification so right now to next year (or whenever your timeframe) retake every class you can and pull A's in all of them. Get involved in service or shadowing immediately, specific medical experience is not necessarily a requirement other than shadowing but make sure you are doing something that you can talk about.

I would not do a specific programs post-bacc and I'd plan this out to keep costs down (CC).
 
Can I return to school for a year or so and just take a few classes so AACOM drops the low scores?

Yes, this is exactly what I did. You need to take all those C's over. Take them all at the same time if you can and do well. Go where it is cheapest.
 
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