Since my GPA is not the best, I was thinking about going to a one year masters program at my school before medical school. They have anatomy, immunology and other similar med 101 courses. If I do that, must I still take all the med school pre reqs during under grad or can I just take the grad school pre reqs?
Going to MD after grad school
- Thread starter VicsTown
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2011
- Messages
- 3,499
- Reaction score
- 770
It sounds like you are talking about a Special Masters Program. I believe you need to complete all pre-reqs and take the MCAT before you can do one of those. What is your GPA, your sGPA, and how many BCMP and non-BCMP credits do you have so far? You might be able to improve your stats enough to gain an acceptance without having to do an SMP.
My GPA is a 2.0 because I did horrible my freshmen year, but since my freshmen year (I am on my 4th semester since then) I have had GPA's in the high 3's. I am not really sure about my science GPA yet since I haven't really started my pre-med reqs, it has all been my major (psychology), minor (music) and humanities classes so far. So far I am a sophomore, almost junior, credit-wise.
The SMP program does not require a full year of english or calculus like some medical schools do.
I would be careful about going to grad school immediately. Can you take undergrad classes as a student still? Take some upper level biology and chemistry classes and try to get your GPA up to 3 before signing up for a masters program. (My $0.02 o/c)
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2004
- Messages
- 30,873
- Reaction score
- 10,063
Basically this. There are two methods of grade repair, and both don't work for the same set of people. If your GPA is close (eg a 3.0), then a special masters program might do the trick to prove yourself to med school. Since this program is graduate level, your GPA for med school purposes wont be impacted, but it will allay concerns of adcoms if you ace things. The other alternative is to take more undergrad classes, either in a formal or informal postbac. Since your med school GPA is really calculated as undergrad grades plus undergrad postbac grades, this directly impacts your GPA. For people really deep in the hole, doing a postbac followed by an SMP has been known to be necessary. Additionally for DO a retaken course can replace an original course, so you can generally raise a poor GPA faster for DO purposes. But the short answer, OP is that with a 2.0 starting point, an SMP isn't going to be the right fix for you. You need more undergrad level A's before it's a useful path.
- Joined
- May 22, 2011
- Messages
- 1,699
- Reaction score
- 2,668
How bad was your freshman year? I entered college three years ago as a non-trad with nothing but 21 hours of F's and 12 hours of C's from when I was 18, and I was still able to bring it up to a 3.2 by the time I applied this past year.
Point is, you can get it up to an acceptable range. I think a 2.0 is probably too low to be considered even with an SMP. One year of bad grades shouldn't be impossible to overcome. You probably would want to consider taking more undergraduate classes to get your undergrad gpa up.
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2012
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 0
Summer classes to boost your gpa as well?
Okay well my freshmen year I failed all but two classes, one was a Pass/fail and one was a C! I had a 1.0. got academically dismissed, went to another college, took summer classes back at my original university, got a 3.75 and was allowed to come back. I finally dedicated myself to studying more and I am doing better. It's just a bit hard this semester with 17 credits and pledging for a sorority. I know I am going to be here until at least 2015, so I will be taking a lot of undergrad classes
I am also retaking some classes and I am totally fine with D.O.! Thanks everyone Similar threads
