Drexel/Gtown vs. Do It Myself

[twoandtwo]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm trying to weigh this decision. I graduated in biology several years ago with a 3.00 science GPA, 3.06 overall, 33Q. Recently, I've taken some ud science classes at my local U.C. school, now I'm wondering.....do I move across the country and do the Drexel IMS (or Gtown SMP) program to prove I can hack those med school classes? Or, do I stay at my local U.C. and keep taking upper division science classes to raise the GPA?

I know lots of people have gone the post-bac route with success, but has anyone gone the do-it-yourself route with success? I've so far managed 16 units of 4.0 in the last couple of quarters, but am I just spinning my wheels here, does anyone have an idea if another year of this might actually make a difference? I have to imagine that some weight must be put on taking actual med school classes by admissions committees, but I'm not sure whether its enough to justify the moving and expense.

Any help is so greatly appreciated!

 

[Instatewaiter]

There is no question that you are helping yourself out by improving your undergrad grades. To me, it seems like the admissions committees will realize that you are intelligent by good MCATs but will doubt your drive and determination from the not-so-awesome grades.

Personally, I think a grad level program will do more for you than continuing to take upper level classes. It will not only allow you to separate yourself from the Undergrad but will show that you are capable of performing well at the level med school will be taught. Look at it this way: lets say you you took 120 credits in college and got a 3.0. Even with the 16 hours of 4.0's since then, you've raised the GPA to 3.1. It would take you 60 credits of undergraduate work after you graduated to raise you average to a 3.33 (B+). That means you have 44 more credits to take, the equivalent of a year and a half and you have to get all A's. Even worse, a 3.3 is not that competitive. The average at most schools is a 3.5 or above.

So I would recommend doing a graduate-level program. Here is a decent list of them http://services.aamc.org/postbac/ but I am sure that there are more. I know that the georgetown program has a lot of success. I have heard almost 50% of the class gets into med school but it is expensive and far away from you. I did the VCU program.

To put these programs in perspective, I had a 2.8 undergrad, did a post-bac graduate level program this year and got into medschool this year.

 

[braluk]

There is no question that you are helping yourself out by improving your undergrad grades. To me, it seems like the admissions committees will realize that you are intelligent by good MCATs but will doubt your drive and determination from the not-so-awesome grades.

Personally, I think a grad level program will do more for you than continuing to take upper level classes. It will not only allow you to separate yourself from the Undergrad but will show that you are capable of performing well at the level med school will be taught. Look at it this way: lets say you you took 120 credits in college and got a 3.0. Even with the 16 hours of 4.0's since then, you've raised the GPA to 3.1. It would take you 60 credits of undergraduate work after you graduated to raise you average to a 3.33 (B+). That means you have 44 more credits to take, the equivalent of a year and a half and you have to get all A's. Even worse, a 3.3 is not that competitive. The average at most schools is a 3.5 or above.

So I would recommend doing a graduate-level program. Here is a decent list of them http://services.aamc.org/postbac/ but I am sure that there are more. I know that the georgetown program has a lot of success. I have heard almost 50% of the class gets into med school but it is expensive and far away from you. I did the VCU program.

To put these programs in perspective, I had a 2.8 undergrad, did a post-bac graduate level program this year and got into medschool this year.

just curious, which med schools did you apply, and which ones did you get into? how were your MCATs?

 

[iamsoopaman]

what i dont understand is that if you are adding all your grades at once on your AMCAS anyways and it makes no difference whether a class is grad/nongrad , wouldn't your GPA be affected in the same exact way regardless of the type of program or whether or not you are granted a certificate of completion?

 

[twoandtwo]

what i dont understand is that if you are adding all your grades at once on your AMCAS anyways and it makes no difference whether a class is grad/nongrad , wouldn't your GPA be affected in the same exact way regardless of the type of program or whether or not you are granted a certificate of completion?

That's the eternal question, since new classes at any program will be counted towards your GPA with equal weight (although technically grad classes are calculated separately, but the combined GPA would be the same), your GPA will move the same regardless. So which is better? However, logic would dictate that taking actual first year med school classes at a program like Drexel (or G-town), must weigh more heavily on the admissions committee's minds than anything else. How could they deny you if you've proven you can handle first-year med school classes? At least this is what I'd like to believe....

I wish there were concrete stats on people who've spent 1-yr, or 2-yrs taking ud science classes (and doing well) at their local university to raise the GPA, and what % of those were admitted to med school, so there was some comparison between the two avenues. I just can't get a handle on whether the additional expense for the program is worth it.

 

[RaaMD]

That's the eternal question, since new classes at any program will be counted towards your GPA with equal weight (although technically grad classes are calculated separately, but the combined GPA would be the same), your GPA will move the same regardless. So which is better? However, logic would dictate that taking actual first year med school classes at a program like Drexel (or G-town), must weigh more heavily on the admissions committee's minds than anything else. How could they deny you if you've proven you can handle first-year med school classes? At least this is what I'd like to believe....

I wish there were concrete stats on people who've spent 1-yr, or 2-yrs taking ud science classes (and doing well) at their local university to raise the GPA, and what % of those were admitted to med school, so there was some comparison between the two avenues. I just can't get a handle on whether the additional expense for the program is worth it.

I'm a little confused. Are graduate grades separate or included? Thanks.

 

[braluk]

I'm a little confused. Are graduate grades separate or included? Thanks.

they are included on the amcas application, but are not facotred into your UG GPa, which adcoms look at more heavily then graduate courses. if you are taking graduate courses, realize that research seminars and classes will not be looked at in any real favorable way, since they believe that these are easy A classes. if you are not taking SMPs (which is probably in my opinion the best way to go if your UG grades are not up to par), take the hard sciences in graduate school, which includes physiology anatomy, biochem. your application must alleviate their fears of your success in medical school. because SMPs are designed to do exactly that, by putting you in classes with already accepted medical students, they are the best way to gain admission into med school. the next best thing is to go to graduate school, earn a masters in the hard sciences and take as many hard sciecnes as you possibly can and demonstrate you can handle the difficult workload. other then that, due to the increasing competitive nature of med school applications, it is extrmely hard to get into medical school.

 

[hopestobe]

Im confused, I thought that grad classes taking in smps do not factor in at all into your overall since the overall is just ug. Does that mean that there are 3 separate gpas: 1 ug, 1 grad, and one overall or are there separate overall gpas for each ug and grad?

 

[Instatewaiter]

Sorry for the delay, since I am from VA, I applied to UVA (U Virginia) and MCV (VCU) and got into MCV.

MCATs were 33R