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Rule #1: Take a deep breath, and stop fussing. The sky is not falling, and you medical careers are not over.
I’m going to go out on a limb and make my advice as follows.
a) IF you have F/D grades in the pre-reqs, retake them. You need to show that you can master this material, and it will help you for MCAT (assuming that you haven’t taken the MCAT). If you got C's, take some upper level science classes and ace them. Never, ever retake a B.
If the material was from a long time ago, and you got a B, but you feel you need a refresher for the MCAT, simply audit the course instead.
b) You are now in the position of someone who is considering MD schools as well as DO, after reinvention. There are MD schools that reward reinvention . The DO path will be a little easier, but still require an investment of 1-2 years of not GPA repair, but of transcript repair.
c) The goal is NOT to raise your cGPA to a sky high level, but rather show that the you of now is not the you of then, and that you can handle a medical school curriculum.
d) Thus, take 1-2 years of a DIY post-bac, or a 1 year SMP, preferably one given at a medical school. Do well in either of these programs. A 3.5+ should suffice for a DO school, while 3.7+ will be needed for an MD school. I have written elsewhere as to the pluses and minuses of post-bac vs SMP.
e) in addition to d), your MCAT score will determine where to aim. I suggest:
513+ MD schools
510+ your state MD school and any DO school
505+ any DO school
500+ the newest DO schools
On top of these, get as much patient contact volunteering time in as possible. A trend I am seeing from SDNers who have received interviews from good schools, and who also reinvented themselves, is that they have lots of clinical volunteering or employment...some even in the 1000s of hours.
EDIT: kudos to darkeon for the addendum!
In addition, the former is less expensive. A formal post-bac program is more geared toward career switchers, and mostly provide the pre-reqs, and probably some MCAT advice/prep as well.
The latter can be a backdoor into med school, and you real advice from med school faculty (if given at a med school). Plus, you're a known quantity to the Adcom members, who will frequently be your SMP faculty. But if you do poorly, your SMP degree is worthless, unless the program has some added-value component, like some research venue.
EDIT: What classes should one take in a DIY post-bac??? Things that mimic a medical school curriculum!
Anatomy
Physiology
Histology
Biostats
Cell Bio
Molecular Bio or Genetics
Biochem
Med Micro
Neuroscience
Immunology
Parasitology (if offered)
Pathology
I’m going to go out on a limb and make my advice as follows.
a) IF you have F/D grades in the pre-reqs, retake them. You need to show that you can master this material, and it will help you for MCAT (assuming that you haven’t taken the MCAT). If you got C's, take some upper level science classes and ace them. Never, ever retake a B.
If the material was from a long time ago, and you got a B, but you feel you need a refresher for the MCAT, simply audit the course instead.
b) You are now in the position of someone who is considering MD schools as well as DO, after reinvention. There are MD schools that reward reinvention . The DO path will be a little easier, but still require an investment of 1-2 years of not GPA repair, but of transcript repair.
c) The goal is NOT to raise your cGPA to a sky high level, but rather show that the you of now is not the you of then, and that you can handle a medical school curriculum.
d) Thus, take 1-2 years of a DIY post-bac, or a 1 year SMP, preferably one given at a medical school. Do well in either of these programs. A 3.5+ should suffice for a DO school, while 3.7+ will be needed for an MD school. I have written elsewhere as to the pluses and minuses of post-bac vs SMP.
e) in addition to d), your MCAT score will determine where to aim. I suggest:
513+ MD schools
510+ your state MD school and any DO school
505+ any DO school
500+ the newest DO schools
On top of these, get as much patient contact volunteering time in as possible. A trend I am seeing from SDNers who have received interviews from good schools, and who also reinvented themselves, is that they have lots of clinical volunteering or employment...some even in the 1000s of hours.
EDIT: kudos to darkeon for the addendum!
In addition, the former is less expensive. A formal post-bac program is more geared toward career switchers, and mostly provide the pre-reqs, and probably some MCAT advice/prep as well.
The latter can be a backdoor into med school, and you real advice from med school faculty (if given at a med school). Plus, you're a known quantity to the Adcom members, who will frequently be your SMP faculty. But if you do poorly, your SMP degree is worthless, unless the program has some added-value component, like some research venue.
EDIT: What classes should one take in a DIY post-bac??? Things that mimic a medical school curriculum!
Anatomy
Physiology
Histology
Biostats
Cell Bio
Molecular Bio or Genetics
Biochem
Med Micro
Neuroscience
Immunology
Parasitology (if offered)
Pathology
DIY (Do It Yourself) post-bac just means you enroll at any school to take more courses. Some schools do offer a more formal post-bac option where you still take courses but have the guidance of a premed advisor and get some other perks that a typical traditional premed student gets.
SMP (special masters program) is a master's degree program (or sometimes certificate) where you take first-year med school courses for a whole year to prove your med-school worth. Typically, you need to apply with all the pre-reqs already done and have a mcat score. Doing well in these programs makes a weak candidate into a stronger one. That said, it's high risk, high reward, for if you do poorly, your chances are practically zero.
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