Help... advice... anything?

[CurlsandPearls]

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Hi everyone! I am just feeling a little lost right now.

To make the story really short, I came to college at 18 took some general classes, settled for a business major. Now I'm a senior in college finally starting the pre-med track I wish I would have done originally. I failed a non science course and got a few Cs (non science courses), basically my soph and jr years I messed up, so now my gpa is a 2.9, but by the time I graduate it will probably be in the 3.1-3.3 range.
Also, my science gpa is a 3.0 right now (I've only taken bio 1).

I've already accepted the fact that I'll probably have to do some sort of post bac program after I get my undergrad degree. Will that even help me though? Does post bac make that much of a difference even if your undergrad gpa wasn't so great?

I know I'll have to do really well on the MCAT and have excellent letters of rec., etc.

Is there any hope for me? Does anyone else know anyone who was in a similar situation and got into med school?

 

[Freesia88]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=820171

Thats a good starting point. i am sure if you search you will find more.

You are not alone, and as long as you are willing to put in the necessary work, it is absolutely possible.

Best wishes!

 

[The_Sunny_Doc]

Read that thread and pay special attention to Dr Midlife's post. 🙂

 

[CurlsandPearls]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=820171

Thats a good starting point. i am sure if you search you will find more.

You are not alone, and as long as you are willing to put in the necessary work, it is absolutely possible.

Best wishes!

Read that thread and pay special attention to Dr Midlife's post. 🙂

Thank you both!

sunnymd01, I couldn't find the Dr Midlife's post you wrote about, would you happen to know which page of the thread it would be on?

Also I know of a girl who had a 3.1c and a 2.9s GPA, 26 MCAT and she did a 1 year post bac and improved and got excellent grades and the got accepted to med school Is that pretty standard or is that an unusual occurrence?

 

[dsoz]

Thank you both!

sunnymd01, I couldn't find the Dr Midlife's post you wrote about, would you happen to know which page of the thread it would be on?

Also I know of a girl who had a 3.1c and a 2.9s GPA, 26 MCAT and she did a 1 year post bac and improved and got excellent grades and the got accepted to med school Is that pretty standard or is that an unusual occurrence?

Do a thread search. type in midlife and you should find it.

As for the is it common? It is very common with DO schools. Many DO schools have a 26/27 MCAT average, and there is grade forgiveness so if she retook some of the bad grades and replaced them with A's then her GPA could be in the higher 3 range.

As for MD schools, it is probably not very common. Exceptions would be if she had great ECs or LORs.

Good luck, don't let anything stop you. Just do much better in all your science classes, and maybe re-take some of the classes that you got really low grades in. You could probably do all of that before graduation if you wait another two years to graduate. Paying undergraduate tuition is much better than paying for a post-bac program.

dsoz

 

[CurlsandPearls]

Do a thread search. type in midlife and you should find it.

As for the is it common? It is very common with DO schools. Many DO schools have a 26/27 MCAT average, and there is grade forgiveness so if she retook some of the bad grades and replaced them with A's then her GPA could be in the higher 3 range.

As for MD schools, it is probably not very common. Exceptions would be if she had great ECs or LORs.

Good luck, don't let anything stop you. Just do much better in all your science classes, and maybe re-take some of the classes that you got really low grades in. You could probably do all of that before graduation if you wait another two years to graduate. Paying undergraduate tuition is much better than paying for a post-bac program.

dsoz

Thanks!

I'm definitely not opposed to doing a DO program, from the reading on these forums and other websites that I've been doing, DO seems to be just as legitimate as MD.

I'm also going to finish all of my science pre-reqs while in undergrad (though it will put off my graduation for 1 year). I still have to take: anatomy 2 with lab, chem 1 and 2 with labs, bio 2 and lab, physics 1 and 2, orgo 1 and 2, biochem, and some electives like microbio and genetics. However, even if I maintain good grades in all of these classes it's unlikely that my undergrad cumulative gpa will go above the 3.1-3.3 range. Since I've just started the science classes, I have a fresh chance for a high science gpa. Does having a higher science GPA (3.5+ range) make a difference when you have a lower cumulative gpa?

The only class I failed was a math course and I'm retaking it for an A.
Some of my business major courses (I think it was 3 classes) I got Cs in, should I retake any of those?
And 2 general ed. classes I also got Cs in because I didn't go to class/pay attention. I don't know if I should waste time retaking any of those...?

Thanks again! Especially for "Good luck, don't let anything stop you." - that means a lot because sometimes I read a lot of stuff on these boards and it can occasionally be discouraging.