MD & DO Does retaking lower level science courses to boost GPA look bad on transcripts?

[rosyrisu]

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I love science and I find myself understanding the material clearly, but my science GPA in college is pretty bad.

Here's how:
In my 1st semester of freshmen year I took nursing courses (I've always wanted to become a physician, I went into nursing because I got accepted immediately into my Uni's program). I did well in them all and kept my grades up until I had to travel to visit my grandfather who was admitted in the hospital for post-surgery complications. I told all my professors about my situation and they understood except for my [Nursing] Chem teacher. The week that I was gone we had a test and, of course, she failed me so it dropped my grade from an A to a C. After that I could not get it back up (lack of HW, quizzes, e.c.,ect.). So at the end of the year I ended up with an A in Bio and a C in Chem.

2nd Semester: I switched majors from nursing onto the pre-med route. I only took gen ed courses (no science but math and humanities). Got all A's.

Summer Courses: I took gen chem and intro to bio (higher level than my nursing bio class) and did well in them. The last 5 weeks of the course I had to travel to see my grandfather who later died from his health issues. I returned to school for the lectures before I had to attend his funeral 2 weeks later and did awful on the last test and final for both classes. Due to that my grade (in both classes) went from an A/high B to a C/low C.

My science GPA (according to my academic counselor) is 2.7 I don't want to give up my dream of being a physician because of these terrible few semesters. I love science but my grades don't reflect that. I've heard from other pre-med students that retaking lower level courses isn't good and medical admissions won't like to see that you had "do it the second time around" before understanding the material. I'm afraid that if I just relied on the higher level courses (orgo scares me haha) then it still won't help me raise my GPA to the competitive level. I was thinking about retaking the courses I already took and take a higher level science (or prereq) class simultaneously over the summer.

Thoughts?

Edit: For a while I did think about going into dentistry, but after shadowing a dentist for a while and looking at their curriculum I think my heart belongs to medicine.

 

[Cardboard101]

For DO, it definitely isn't. It's kind of the reason why grade replacement exists. I have trouble seeing any DO school frowning upon retakes unless it's a retake of a B or nonsignificant non science course. MD schools don't do grade replacement, they'd rather see you excel at upper level courses rather than go back and retake.

 

[Goro]

Nope.

I love science and I find myself understanding the material clearly, but my science GPA in college is pretty bad.

Here's how:
In my 1st semester of freshmen year I took nursing courses (I've always wanted to become a physician, I went into nursing because I got accepted immediately into my Uni's program). I did well in them all and kept my grades up until I had to travel to visit my grandfather who was admitted in the hospital for post-surgery complications. I told all my professors about my situation and they understood except for my [Nursing] Chem teacher. The week that I was gone we had a test and, of course, she failed me so it dropped my grade from an A to a C. After that I could not get it back up (lack of HW, quizzes, e.c.,ect.). So at the end of the year I ended up with an A in Bio and a C in Chem.

2nd Semester: I switched majors from nursing onto the pre-med route. I only took gen ed courses (no science but math and humanities). Got all A's.

Summer Courses: I took gen chem and intro to bio (higher level than my nursing bio class) and did well in them. The last 5 weeks of the course I had to travel to see my grandfather who later died from his health issues. I returned to school for the lectures before I had to attend his funeral 2 weeks later and did awful on the last test and final for both classes. Due to that my grade (in both classes) went from an A/high B to a C/low C.

My science GPA (according to my academic counselor) is 2.7 I don't want to give up my dream of being a physician because of these terrible few semesters. I love science but my grades don't reflect that. I've heard from other pre-med students that retaking lower level courses isn't good and medical admissions won't like to see that you had "do it the second time around" before understanding the material. I'm afraid that if I just relied on the higher level courses (orgo scares me haha) then it still won't help me raise my GPA to the competitive level. I was thinking about retaking the courses I already took and take a higher level science (or prereq) class simultaneously over the summer.

Thoughts?

Edit: For a while I did think about going into dentistry, but after shadowing a dentist for a while and looking at their curriculum I think my heart belongs to medicine.

 

[rosyrisu]

For DO, it definitely isn't. It's kind of the reason why grade replacement exists. I have trouble seeing any DO school frowning upon retakes unless it's a retake of a B or nonsignificant non science course. MD schools don't do grade replacement, they'd rather see you excel at upper level courses rather than go back and retake.

Do MD schools just do the average of your retaken course grade? Say that I got a C in G.Chem and retook it and received an A, my average would turn into a B. And what if my Cu/sGPA is still not in the "competitive level" because of those first 3 C's?

 

[rosyrisu]

Nope.

I see that you're from the St. Louis area! I'm from there as well

 

[Goro]

I see that you're from the St. Louis area! I'm from there as well

 

[WGSgrad]

I see that you're from the St. Louis area! I'm from there as well

Not to be random and off topic... Could I PM you about St. Louis? Columbia College is on my short list of places to do my DIY post bacc and I had a couple of questions about COL...


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