Best course of action?

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MedicMD181

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Hello.

I am 29 years old, taking pre-reqs for medical school. I currently have a bachelor's in psychology (GPA 3.1) and a master's in education (GPA 3.9). I am also a paramedic (GPA 4.0) with a good amount of clinical experience. I am currently working full time so I am only taking one course right now - calculus I. I previously took calc I as an undergraduate about 10 years ago and I got an A in the class. I enrolled in the class again because I thought it would be a good review before taking physics. Now I'm thinking I made a mistake. My grades in the class aren't too great and I'm expecting a B as a final grade in the class. I still have the option of withdrawing from the class. My question is...would it look ok on a med school app to withdraw from calc I being that I did get an A in the class previously or would a withdraw on my transcript look bad when I apply to medical school? I anticipate my grades in the remainder of my science classes to be all A's due to a different attitude toward learning than I had during my undergraduate years (hence the 3.1 GPA). Any input would be greatly appreciated.

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Hello.

I am 29 years old, taking pre-reqs for medical school. I currently have a bachelor's in psychology (GPA 3.1) and a master's in education (GPA 3.9). I am also a paramedic (GPA 4.0) with a good amount of clinical experience. I am currently working full time so I am only taking one course right now - calculus I. I previously took calc I as an undergraduate about 10 years ago and I got an A in the class. I enrolled in the class again because I thought it would be a good review before taking physics. Now I'm thinking I made a mistake. My grades in the class aren't too great and I'm expecting a B as a final grade in the class. I still have the option of withdrawing from the class. My question is...would it look ok on a med school app to withdraw from calc I being that I did get an A in the class previously or would a withdraw on my transcript look bad when I apply to medical school? I anticipate my grades in the remainder of my science classes to be all A's due to a different attitude toward learning than I had during my undergraduate years (hence the 3.1 GPA). Any input would be greatly appreciated.

My suggestion is that you take the B and move on. You'll be taking several other classes that you can get "As" in. Learn as much as you can to prepare for physics ... otherwise that will be a "B" also.
 
I really wish you had asked this question before you took the retake in Calc. You really don't need any Calc to do well in the intro year of physics or for the physics on the MCAT. I say take the B and move on. Just make sure you clear your plate so you can get A's from now on.

Don't get discouraged. It's better that this bump happened at the beginning rather than later. Good luck. I'll be rooting for you.
 
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I really wish you had asked this question before you took the retake in Calc. You really don't need any Calc to do well in the intro year of physics or for the physics on the MCAT. I say take the B and move on. Just make sure you clear your plate so you can get A's from now on.

Don't get discouraged. It's better that this bump happened at the beginning rather than later. Good luck. I'll be rooting for you.

Good point NonTradFogie, but his school may be like mine. Here you can either take Calculus-based Physics or Algebra-based Physics. The OP might have been looking at the cal-based physics.

Definetly going to be algebra-based for me! :thumbup:
 
Hello.

I am 29 years old, taking pre-reqs for medical school. I currently have a bachelor's in psychology (GPA 3.1) and a master's in education (GPA 3.9). I am also a paramedic (GPA 4.0) with a good amount of clinical experience. I am currently working full time so I am only taking one course right now - calculus I. I previously took calc I as an undergraduate about 10 years ago and I got an A in the class. I enrolled in the class again because I thought it would be a good review before taking physics. Now I'm thinking I made a mistake. My grades in the class aren't too great and I'm expecting a B as a final grade in the class. I still have the option of withdrawing from the class. My question is...would it look ok on a med school app to withdraw from calc I being that I did get an A in the class previously or would a withdraw on my transcript look bad when I apply to medical school? I anticipate my grades in the remainder of my science classes to be all A's due to a different attitude toward learning than I had during my undergraduate years (hence the 3.1 GPA). Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Don't retake courses that you previously received a grade of B or greater in. If you feel that you need a knowledge update, audit the class but do not take the class for credit.

With that 3.1, you are going to need to do well in your pre-med coursework. Your paramedic courses should help you some but your graduate degree is going to be weighted about the same as an extracurricular activity. That B after an A is not great but a W would look worse in your case (you are only taking one class and you withdraw from that). No more Ws and make sure that anything you retake is an A period.

You are a non-science major and thus, you want your science grades to be top notch in every way. Make sure this happens.
 
Just let it go and move on. Don't withdrawl or retake it; calc can be a pain if you're not a science person. I know for a fact that I never used any of the calc for my physics class and unless you're planning on taking nuclear physics or quantum mechanics, you probably won't ever need it again. Besides that, I know some professors curve their classes differently, so even if you repeat the class you may end up with a C (I had several different calc professors in college, one who curved the class average to an A- and another who curved it to a C+ even though they both taught the same class - you couldn't do much except hope that your schedule doesn't conflict with the class being taught by the A- prof).
 
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I agree with the above posters. Your best bet is to take the B and move on. Someone else mentioned this too but when you decide to take Physics, you should only need Trig-Based physics not Calc-based as far as a pre-req and the MCAT go.

Good luck :thumbup:
 
Thanks so much for the input! I've decided to stay in the calc class, make the best of it, and then work really hard to get As in all the sciences. With 9 As (hopefully) in the sciences, one B won't bring down my GPA too much. Thanks again! :D
 
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