DIY Post Bacc - Advice Choosing Classes

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cali.doc

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Hi everyone,

I need help deciding classes for a DIY post bacc. A little bit of background:

I graduated in May 2018 from a top 40 private university with a degree in economics. I was pre-med and have completed all pre-med requirements (general biology, general chemistry 1 & 2, physics 1 & 2, organic chemistry 1 & 2, cell biology, genetics, physiology, biochemistry, calculus) with As, Bs, and one C. Due to reasons beyond my control in my 3rd and 4th years of college, I was placed in graduate level human physiology and biochemistry. While I did pass those classes, I did not do as well as I had hoped. I feel that this kind of drop in my grades could be seen as a red flag to medical schools. Additionally, I feel that both my science and cumulative GPA could use some work (I don't have any upward or downward trend, so they may be hard to analyze). I decided to take a year off before I apply in 2019 to work on my grades and my extra-curriculars, and take the MCAT. I am doing a DIY post bacc at a 4-year college near my hometown.

Since I am not a "degree seeking" student at this college, I have the lowest priority for picking classes. Basically, I get to choose from any open classes that are left after the actual students add and drop what they need. This has left me in a difficult position to choose medically relevant classes. The only upper division biology classes available to me right now are Virology, Cancer Biology, and Ecological Microbiology. Will it be a problem if any of my classes don't emulate a first year medical school curriculum? My only goal with these classes is to do well, increase my cGPA and sGPA, and prove that I can handle a science-heavy course load. I specifically chose to do a post bacc this year instead of an SMP because I wanted to increase my undergraduate GPA.

I would love any guidance and suggestions. Thank you!

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Hi everyone,

I need help deciding classes for a DIY post bacc. A little bit of background:

I graduated in May 2018 from a top 40 private university with a degree in economics. I was pre-med and have completed all pre-med requirements (general biology, general chemistry 1 & 2, physics 1 & 2, organic chemistry 1 & 2, cell biology, genetics, physiology, biochemistry, calculus) with As, Bs, and one C. Due to reasons beyond my control in my 3rd and 4th years of college, I was placed in graduate level human physiology and biochemistry. While I did pass those classes, I did not do as well as I had hoped. I feel that this kind of drop in my grades could be seen as a red flag to medical schools. Additionally, I feel that both my science and cumulative GPA could use some work (I don't have any upward or downward trend, so they may be hard to analyze). I decided to take a year off before I apply in 2019 to work on my grades and my extra-curriculars, and take the MCAT. I am doing a DIY post bacc at a 4-year college near my hometown.

Since I am not a "degree seeking" student at this college, I have the lowest priority for picking classes. Basically, I get to choose from any open classes that are left after the actual students add and drop what they need. This has left me in a difficult position to choose medically relevant classes. The only upper division biology classes available to me right now are Virology, Cancer Biology, and Ecological Microbiology. Will it be a problem if any of my classes don't emulate a first year medical school curriculum? My only goal with these classes is to do well, increase my cGPA and sGPA, and prove that I can handle a science-heavy course load. I specifically chose to do a post bacc this year instead of an SMP because I wanted to increase my undergraduate GPA.

I would love any guidance and suggestions. Thank you!

If you're taking post-bacc classes to raise your GPA it doesn't matter what you take necessarily, just get As. We have talked about this in another thread here and we all agree that if possible you should declare a major (but no need to finish the degree) in order to get priority for class registration.
 
Hi everyone,

I need help deciding classes for a DIY post bacc. A little bit of background:

I graduated in May 2018 from a top 40 private university with a degree in economics. I was pre-med and have completed all pre-med requirements (general biology, general chemistry 1 & 2, physics 1 & 2, organic chemistry 1 & 2, cell biology, genetics, physiology, biochemistry, calculus) with As, Bs, and one C. Due to reasons beyond my control in my 3rd and 4th years of college, I was placed in graduate level human physiology and biochemistry. While I did pass those classes, I did not do as well as I had hoped. I feel that this kind of drop in my grades could be seen as a red flag to medical schools. Additionally, I feel that both my science and cumulative GPA could use some work (I don't have any upward or downward trend, so they may be hard to analyze). I decided to take a year off before I apply in 2019 to work on my grades and my extra-curriculars, and take the MCAT. I am doing a DIY post bacc at a 4-year college near my hometown.

Since I am not a "degree seeking" student at this college, I have the lowest priority for picking classes. Basically, I get to choose from any open classes that are left after the actual students add and drop what they need. This has left me in a difficult position to choose medically relevant classes. The only upper division biology classes available to me right now are Virology, Cancer Biology, and Ecological Microbiology. Will it be a problem if any of my classes don't emulate a first year medical school curriculum? My only goal with these classes is to do well, increase my cGPA and sGPA, and prove that I can handle a science-heavy course load. I specifically chose to do a post bacc this year instead of an SMP because I wanted to increase my undergraduate GPA.

I would love any guidance and suggestions. Thank you!

You didn't mention what your GPA is- is it actually concerning? That's a shame about your college, have you tried taking to the registrar's office about your unique situation? Is there another college local to you that you could go to instead? The idea of a post-bacc is not just to raise your GPA and/or show improvement, but to be pursuing something worthwhile that can further add to your application and, perhaps, even be a talking point at interviews. You can certainly take those classes to increase your GPA, but if you don't enjoy the material (and are like me), you will likely do worse than if you did enjoy the material. You may be asked at future interviews to explain your choice of hodgepodge post-bacc classes- I think discussing a true interest in something like basketweaving and nematodes would be preferred over, "it was slim pickin's"
 
I will have to talk to the college and see what I can do to get higher priority in classes for next semester. I ended up enrolling in virology, cancer biology, and microbial evolution for this semester (12 credits). Both my sGPA and cGPA at graduation in May were 3.39. I don't think that taking postbacc classes will increase my GPA that much, considering all the credits I earned at my undergraduate institution, but I figured that this is still a good opportunity to create an upward trend.
 
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