Hello all,
I'll preface my post with my basic stats:
Age: 31
cGPA: 2.823
sGPA: 2.441
MCAT: yet to be taken (no prereqs completed yet)
I was academically dismissed in 2010 in my original college attempt. I returned to the university after a lot of work at a community college. I ended up graduating with a BS in mechanical engineering. Although I studied long and hard during my second attempt at school, my study methods were inadequate and inefficient. I also took courses out of order and overloaded my courses to finish on time. This yielded more C's than I wanted.
Since revisiting my study, learning, and retention methods (and testing them on a couple courses) I'm confident I can do much better. I want to pursue a full post-bacc in biochemistry (to fulfill the prereqs, and because I have a genuine interest) that will take about 3 years. My challenge is that it will take a minimum of 50 credits to raise my cGPA to 3.00 and sGPA to 3.15. This still isn't anywhere near competitive enough. I'm working against almost 300 semester credit hours. Even 50 credits of A produces a very small increase in GPA. Completing the post-bacc would add an additional 90 - 100 credit hours, raising the cGPA to 3.128, sGPA to 3.418.
My questions are as follows:
1. Should I pursue the post-bacc, considering a complete calculation of my GPA would still both be under 3.5?
2. Will admissions place a higher weight on the more recent coursework?
3. Will going to school part time (3 courses per semester so I can still work) look bad/impact my chances?
4. Please add in any advice you may have considering my situation.
I know this topic has been touched on before, but typical SMPs or post-bacc posts I've read don't really address someone who has a substantially higher credit hours. I really do appreciate the feedback and any help I can get.
Thank you!!
