Heading back to school and need advise.

[Rowden17]

I'm 26 now, when I was 17-20 in college I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. College was just a nuisance to me. My parents pushed me into it, my true dream was to be a Navy seal, but I was too afraid to stand up to my parents at the time. I had a terrible GPA, never went to class or studied, basically just showed up for the exams, sometimes not even those. I ended up getting kicked out of the university for not attending any of my classes one quarter. After that I trained to be a navy seal for a couple of years, but my legs were constantly getting injured. The last 2 years I have been kicking myself for not trying in college. When I was about 23 I started seriously considering being a doctor; I wanted to go back to college but didn't have the money for it. I finally have the money now.

So basically starting from scratch, what do I need to do to get into a med school? I was going for a BS in Economics, my GPA is somewhere around a 2.0 (I know ) I'm defiantly capable of much better. Any classes that I ever actually tried in, I'd get A's. I used to literally sign up for classes and not even go just to keep my health insurance. Or I'd sign up for a few classes, then get too busy with work and just stop going. I didn't realize the size of the impact this would have on my future if I decided to go back to college.

As I see it, my options are:

A, Finish out my degree with the highest grades possible. I may be able to get around a 3.0 cumulative, to be honest, probably a little under that.

B, Start over from scratch at a new university.

C, Finish out my degree and possibly retake some of the classes I did poorly in? Not sure if that's an option. The problem is I started college at 17 and had absolutely no desire to be there. So I now have grades from 9 years ago that are still haunting me.

Am I missing any options? What's the best one?

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[askamsky51]

Your GPA repair options really are based upon how many credits you have towards that degree. If you were only sophomore status, then you still have a bit of time. Senior status? Yeah, it's not going above 3.0 no matter how you swing it. The one thing you have in your favor is that as an economics major I'm assuming you have relatively low amounts of credits in the sciences. If you can stick it out and get straight A's in a heavy science load, then your sGPA will help your low cGPA.

A: Probably the most reasonable option, your undergrad GPA is your undergrad GPA. Finish your degree, then work on prereq's (and ace em all).

B. Won't help you, really. I mean that one school's transcript will be pretty (assuming you don't try to transfer credits). Though once you submit through AMCAS your entire under-grad GPA will be cumulative. School doesn't matter.

C. See where you are after A, GPA repair may be an option afterwards--though tbh med schools wont care if you retake a humanities.

 

[Catalystik]

First off, thank you for your service.

I'm 26 now, when I was 17-20 in college I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. College was just a nuisance to me. My parents pushed me into it, my true dream was to be a Navy seal, but I was too afraid to stand up to my parents at the time. I had a terrible GPA, never went to class or studied, basically just showed up for the exams, sometimes not even those. I ended up getting kicked out of the university for not attending any of my classes one quarter. After that I trained to be a navy seal for a couple of years, but my legs were constantly getting injured. The last 2 years I have been kicking myself for not trying in college. When I was about 23 I started seriously considering being a doctor; I wanted to go back to college but didn't have the money for it. I finally have the money now.

So basically starting from scratch, what do I need to do to get into a med school? I was going for a BS in Economics, my GPA is somewhere around a 2.0 (I know ) I'm defiantly capable of much better. Any classes that I ever actually tried in, I'd get A's. I used to literally sign up for classes and not even go just to keep my health insurance. Or I'd sign up for a few classes, then get too busy with work and just stop going. I didn't realize the size of the impact this would have on my future if I decided to go back to college.

As I see it, my options are:

A, Finish out my degree with the highest grades possible. I may be able to get around a 3.0 cumulative, to be honest, probably a little under that.

B, Start over from scratch at a new university.

C, Finish out my degree and possibly retake some of the classes I did poorly in? Not sure if that's an option. The problem is I started college at 17 and had absolutely no desire to be there. So I now have grades from 9 years ago that are still haunting me.

Am I missing any options? What's the best one?

Starting over elsewhere won't make a difference, as you are obliged to submit an original transcript from every school attended, no matter where you apply.

Other Options:

1) Texas has a fresh start program where you can reset grades from 10 years ago.

2) AACOMAS (DO) schools, which is all but one of them, has a grade forgiveness policy if you retake classes for the same credits or better. Need not be at the same school. Course title needn't be identical, so long as course content is demonstrably similar per the course description.

3) Get your GPA over 3.0 with a high BCPM GPA and get a high MCAT score, and you may have some luck with AMCAS (MD) schools.

 

[Rowden17]

Yes, luckily I haven't taken any real science classes and my grades in math are good. It seems like they should be able to overlook the past and see that I clearly had no direction, didn't try, and that has changed. I hope that if I take heavy course loads, with lots of sciences, and kill the MCAT, they'll be able to see that I was capable of much better. It seems unlikely that they'd ever accept someone with under or around a 3.0 GPA though. Is this unheard of?

Once I even signed up for some classes at a community college and never even went, just needed to keep my health insurance. I'm pretty sure by the time they factor in all the grades like that into my GPA I'll be way below a 3.0. I had transferred from a community college to a 4 year institution and my GPA reset at that point. I always assumed I could transfer again and just reset it.

What about just starting over with another degree? So I'd have 4 years to pull my GPA up. It seems like it should really be about proving your ability to learn and dedication, not your GPA. Taking/doing well in challenging classes for 3-4 years ought to be enough to demonstrate this, right?

 

[Catalystik]

It seems unlikely that they'd ever accept someone with under or around a 3.0 GPA though. Is this unheard of?

Examples of MD acceptances: One of our mods got accepted with a cGPA of 3.0X and an MCAT score of 35. A general member got an acceptance with a 2.96 cGPA and an MCAT of 43. Superb ECs and a steep upward grade trend were part of the equation. Note well: these are rare events.

Taking/doing well in challenging classes for 3-4 years ought to be enough to demonstrate this, right?

I agree with you, but one can't argue with a computer. For many MD schools, a 3.0 is a common absolute GPA cutpoint below which computer generated guidelines will screen one out, without recourse, as human eyes never see the application. Your goal is to get a cGPA higher than that.

For DO schools, which tend to be more lenient with past academic mediocrity, there are some schools that consider GPAs as low as 2.5-2.75. There are a few that don't publish a minimum. I expect that strong recent coursework and a good MCAT score help those schools overlook a challenged GPA.


Have you considered appealing to your old schools for a retroactive withdrawal? It might not help, but it won't hurt to try.

What is your state of residency? Are there geographic restrictions on where you'd be willing to relocate?

 

[Rowden17]

Have you considered appealing to your old schools for a retroactive withdrawal? It might not help, but it won't hurt to try.

What is your state of residency? Are there geographic restrictions on where you'd be willing to relocate?

Thank you, you've inspired some hope. Sounds like I still have a chance at some DO schools at least. That's all I was hoping for.

Ohio. I'm willing to relocate anywhere.

 

[theseeker4]

Thank you, you've inspired some hope. Sounds like I still have a chance at some DO schools at least. That's all I was hoping for.

Ohio. I'm willing to relocate anywhere.

First things first, start getting As. It doesn't matter what school, though a university would be better than a CC. Once getting As is a habit, look into ECs to get involved in. Retake poor grades for an A. Get your bachelors degree, in whatever you want, and get As in all the med school pre reqs. When that is all done, look at your GPA, both the MD GPA (count everything ever taken that you got a grade for) and the DO GPA (count only the most recent attempt of each course) and plan what you need to do from there.

If it is possible, going to Texas to establish residency, waiting until your poor grades are ten years old, and starting from scratch would open pretty much any med school in Texas to you, provided you do well this time. Picking up and moving to a new state, and waiting a few years, may not be acceptable of course, but it is an option. The fresh start also applies only to Texas med schools, so you would be stuck there for at least 8 years if you went that way.

 

[Catalystik]

Thank you, you've inspired some hope. Sounds like I still have a chance at some DO schools at least. That's all I was hoping for.

Ohio. I'm willing to relocate anywhere.

Resources: http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/Admissions/questions.htm

List of all DO schools and their requirements: http://www.aacom.org/resources/bookstore/cib/Documents/2013cib/2013CIB_whole_web.pdf

DO GPA calculation spreadsheet: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=450050


You are lucky to have a good in-state DO program with reasonable tuition as well as a few fairly forgiving MD schools.

If I were you, I'd call and make an appointment to have a phone consultation with an admissions advisor at OUHCOM and lay your entire story out, including your veteran status. Ask what it would take to become a viable candidate there.

 

[Rowden17]

Would going to a DO school greatly reduce my chances of getting a residency for internal medicine or surgery? I've been reading a bit and there seem to be mixed reviews, but overall it sounds like it decreases your chances. It'd be frustrating to go through school then not be accepted to residency for anything interesting. I'm sure this happens a lot, but it seems like it may be more likely to happen coming from a DO school.

 

[Catalystik]

You would be reassured to see a copy of oucom's match list. Check the school specific thread and the website to see if you can find it.