Do I need to retake courses with bad grades?

[ANontrad]

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I started undergrad for premed 8 years ago. My second year in I had a lot of personal stuff come up, my grades suffered bad, and I withdrew the beginning of my 3rd year. Now life has moved on and I'm ready to start school again for pre-med. We have since moved 3 states away from the school I was attending. I am trying to decide what would look best for med schools when applying in a few years concerning my grades. Do I go back to my old school for a year to retake the courses I did horribly in and bring those grades up before transferring to a local school or do I just start new at the local school and try to do really well through the rest of my undergrad to show that I have overcome my bad year from when I was younger? I'm wondering what the best course of action would be that would look best for med school.

 

[Optimist Prime]

It depends on what those bad grades were in, and how bad of grades they were. You don't need to go back to your old school to retake any classes you can retake them at your new local school. For example if you took chem 1 and got a D I would definitely retake chem 1 again at your new school before taking chem 2.

 

[ANontrad]

It depends on what those bad grades were in, and how bad of grades they were. You don't need to go back to your old school to retake any classes you can retake them at your new local school. For example if you took chem 1 and got a D I would definitely retake chem 1 again at your new school before taking chem 2.

Thank you! They are Ds in anatomy, genetics, zoology, and another I can't think of at the moment. I plan on retaking them anyway, I just wasn't sure if it mattered which school transcript they are on. If I took them at the old school would my old grades for those classes still be visible on the transcript or only the better grade after retaking it? I guess if the old and new grades are both seen on the transcript then I might as well just take them at the local school.

 

[Optimist Prime]

No it doesn't matter which school transcript they are on especially since its been 8 years. Medical schools do not do grade replacement so they will be able to see both the old and new grades on your transcripts, and they will average them.