Had a good freshman year, bad sophomore year, should I retake in junior year or just do well on higher level courses

[5gumchewer]

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[chilly_md]

Don’t retake courses you got a C in. I’m not sure if you already factored it in, but both the old grade and retake are counted. There is no grade replacement. So it would be best to take new upper division sciences and do well there.

You’ve got extensive research experience but you will need to increase your clinical experience and non-clinical volunteering (especially to the underserved). It sounds like you’re on the right track with 200 more hours of non-clinical that you’ve planned out, but make sure it’s with those less fortunate like at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, working with foster youth etc as opposed to fundraising or tutoring. Carver interviews most of its IS applicants if they meet a certain threshold, so look into the requirements for that. They seem to have a very holistic approach for IS, with a lot of the high stat matriculants being from OOS from what I have seen.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I really don't want to take a gap year

Assuming that I get all A+s in 30 credits of courses

cGPA: 3.9? possibly higher? I have a lot of non science courses I did well on

I'm ready to do whatever to make it happen

There's a lot to sift through here but I want to highlight these three statements as they stand out to me.

Two things are straight definitions:
1) There is no such thing as an A+ for AMCAS purposes. Even if your school gives you more than a 4.0 for an A+, it's going to be re-calculated as an A (4.0). So you need to project what your GPA will be with that in mind.
2) cGPA includes all of your courses, including science courses. So I find it difficult to believe you have a 3.5 sGPA and a 3.9+ cGPA, because they intersect.

With that out of the way, let's tackle the rest:

First of all, your main goal shouldn't be to "not take a gap year," it needs to be "put myself in the best position to succeed in my application the first time." Students who try to scramble and get everything together to fit an artificial and self-imposed timeline almost always wind up making a mistake. From that perspective, your idea to take 30+science courses coming off a year of straight C's is horrible. You are in this position because you tried to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, push through with a hard course load despite external factors, and you wound up not performing at the level you needed to. Doubling down on your strategy of trying to do everything all at once seems like a recipe to permanently put your chances of attaining medical school on life support. I strongly advise you to take a step back in the coming semester, minimize your research/ECs, and take a reasonable 12-15 hour course load with ~2 science courses. This is will let you examine your studying methods and figure out where things are going wrong and how you can do better going forward. Having attained that first measure of success, you can then take stock in January of whether it makes sense to apply next year vs. after senior year.

To answer your question, if you attained the goals that you have set for yourself, then yes it would theoretically be possible for you to be a successful applicant. However, you are objectively not going to get a 4.0 on 30 science hours, study for and attain a 525 MCAT, and accrue 100+ clinical and nonclinical volunteering hours all in the same calendar year. If you try to do that, you are setting yourself up for failure.

 

[5gumchewer]

Thanks both for the responses, I appreciate the insight.

but make sure it’s with those less fortunate like at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, working with foster youth etc as opposed to fundraising or tutoring

Yup, this is the plan, the club I'm with does a lot of volunteering with these organizations. Thanks for the tip on Carver admissions, I'll be sure to look into that.

First of all, your main goal shouldn't be to "not take a gap year," it needs to be "put myself in the best position to succeed in my application the first time."

I have my reasons for not wanting a gap year; I think I'd seriously consider just going into research/academia instead since I'm somewhat well positioned for that route. Gap year certainly isn't off the table but since I do still have a good amount of time before application season, I'd like to see if it is hypothetically possible to recover from this year without gap year.

Doubling down on your strategy of trying to do everything all at once seems like a recipe to permanently put your chances of attaining medical school on life support. I strongly advise you to take a step back in the coming semester, minimize your research/ECs, and take a reasonable 12-15 hour course load with ~2 science courses. This is will let you examine your studying methods and figure out where things are going wrong and how you can do better going forward. Having attained that first measure of success, you can then take stock in January of whether it makes sense to apply next year vs. after senior year.

This is a good point. I'm going to rearrange my schedule to take two of the hardest premed courses this summer while also working in the lab to make sure that my academic abilities are actually good enough for my goals next year to be feasible. If not, I'll have to consider other options.


I really appreciate the advice from both - even at a well known premed institution like the one I'm at, the advisors haven't been particularly helpful and this is for sure the best advising I've got in all of my years of education.

 

[Bwesternn]

I think I'd seriously consider just going into research/academia instead since I'm somewhat well positioned for that route.

Ok. Good luck.

 

[eigen]

This is a good point. I'm going to rearrange my schedule to take two of the hardest premed courses this summer while also working in the lab to make sure that my academic abilities are actually good enough for my goals next year to be feasible. If not, I'll have to consider other options.

This seems like a really, really bad idea. Summer courses are immensely challenging relative to the same course during the semester. I wouldn't recommend my best students take two challenging courses over the summer, much less someone who has had difficulties.

And I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it while working in a lab.

 

[GoSpursGo]

This seems like a really, really bad idea. Summer courses are immensely challenging relative to the same course during the semester. I wouldn't recommend my best students take two challenging courses over the summer, much less someone who has had difficulties.

And I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it while working in a lab.

I agree, OP. Ultimately you are going to make your own decision, but multiple people are telling you that this is a bad idea.

Nobody wants to take a gap year if they don't have to, but if you proceed with your plan I really think you will set yourself back by more than one gap year.