How many class repeats is too many?

[Canadakid]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hello all

So, I graduated with 0 of the science pre-reqs, and am now going back to take the prereqs. One semester down, and straight A's....

Heres the problem though: I was a dumb dumb dumb kid before, and did not take my courses seriously, and got a 69% avg overall.

I've done some calculations, and I am prob looking at retaking a good chunk of my old courses and upgrading, as well as continuing my A streak with these prereqs - I've smartened up, and I've been killing all my new courses, and will continue to at any cost.

I know the osteopathic application services counts your repeated grades rather than the old one, but I know the Adcoms still see the repeats. Given a strong turn around with good pre-req grades, and clear dedication to upgrade all those courses, lets assume a decent MCAT when the time comes, will my past history kill me? Or will it be overshadowed by my recent shaping up?

Just looking for opinions

 

[Slack3r]

Hello all

So, I graduated with 0 of the science pre-reqs, and am now going back to take the prereqs. One semester down, and straight A's....

Heres the problem though: I was a dumb dumb dumb kid before, and did not take my courses seriously, and got a 69% avg overall.

I've done some calculations, and I am prob looking at retaking a good chunk of my old courses and upgrading, as well as continuing my A streak with these prereqs - I've smartened up, and I've been killing all my new courses, and will continue to at any cost.

I know the osteopathic application services counts your repeated grades rather than the old one, but I know the Adcoms still see the repeats. Given a strong turn around with good pre-req grades, and clear dedication to upgrade all those courses, lets assume a decent MCAT when the time comes, will my past history kill me? Or will it be overshadowed by my recent shaping up?

Just looking for opinions

I don't believe that postbac coursework will count towards a retake. Since your new courses will have the designation of "postbac" rather than undergrad coursework, you might as well just continue taking the courses you need and not worry about your previous grades. If you explain it well and upfront, most oesteopathic programs are pretty forgiving of turn-around stories like yours.

Side note: I had 3 course retakes and was accepted to all the DO programs I applied to.

 

[Canadakid]

I don't believe that postbac coursework will count towards a retake. Since your new courses will have the designation of "postbac" rather than undergrad coursework, you might as well just continue taking the courses you need and not worry about your previous grades. If you explain it well and upfront, most oesteopathic programs are pretty forgiving of turn-around stories like yours.

Side note: I had 3 course retakes and was accepted to all the DO programs I applied to.

Thank you for the response...Would you mind if I asked what your GPA and MCAT scores were?

Also, anymore feedback would be greatly appreciated

 

[tehdude]

I don't believe that postbac coursework will count towards a retake. Since your new courses will have the designation of "postbac" rather than undergrad coursework, you might as well just continue taking the courses you need and not worry about your previous grades. If you explain it well and upfront, most oesteopathic programs are pretty forgiving of turn-around stories like yours.

Side note: I had 3 course retakes and was accepted to all the DO programs I applied to.

Post-baccalaureate coursework can be counted as a retake. A friend of mine "unofficially" dropped out freshman year of college, tested out of most of his degree, and ended up with something like a 2.0 on 30 credit hours of graded coursework. Dude worked and retook most of the failed classes at a cc and applied with a 4.0 GPA.

 

[Canadakid]

Post-baccalaureate coursework can be counted as a retake. A friend of mine "unofficially" dropped out freshman year of college, tested out of most of his degree, and ended up with something like a 2.0 on 30 credit hours of graded coursework. Dude worked and retook most of the failed classes at a cc and applied with a 4.0 GPA.

Why would they be considered retakes and not just a regular, additional class taken? I dont really understand how that works

 

[Slack3r]

Post-baccalaureate coursework can be counted as a retake. A friend of mine "unofficially" dropped out freshman year of college, tested out of most of his degree, and ended up with something like a 2.0 on 30 credit hours of graded coursework. Dude worked and retook most of the failed classes at a cc and applied with a 4.0 GPA.

Did he take those classes after receiving a degree? And I was under the impression that post-bacc classes were calculated as a separate GPA from undergrad?

I had a 3.55 cum and a 3.56 sci GPA, 32R because I retook 3 classes while still in undergrad. Some universities allow you to "replace" the old grade with a the retaken course thus eliminating it from your record. AACOMAS honors these policies but AMCAS doesn't.

 

[Just Joshin]

Post-bacc retakes are still retakes and that's how they'll be listed on your application.

OP, what's your undergrad GPA without any of your post-bacc classes? What happens on the application is they do one column for your undergrad GPA, one column for your science GPA, one column for your post-bacc GPA, and one column for a cumulative GPA (excluding any graduate school classes, but including your post-bacc GPA). How long ago were you in undergrad? The most important thing in your situation is to ace your post-bacc. DO schools are a lot more forgiving of youthful academic transgressions. I wouldn't retake a ton of classes; only the ones relevant to med school, unless your GPA is well below 2.9 or something.

 

[DrMom]

moving to pre-osteo

 

[tehdude]

Did he take those classes after receiving a degree? And I was under the impression that post-bacc classes were calculated as a separate GPA from undergrad?

I had a 3.55 cum and a 3.56 sci GPA, 32R because I retook 3 classes while still in undergrad. Some universities allow you to "replace" the old grade with a the retaken course thus eliminating it from your record. AACOMAS honors these policies but AMCAS doesn't.

They were taken post-degree. Like Just Joshin said, it counts as a retake and is used in place of your original course grade.

 

[tehdude]

Why would they be considered retakes and not just a regular, additional class taken? I dont really understand how that works

If you retake a failed class, MD schools will see it as an additional class and use both grades. DO schools, on the other hand, will replace your failed grade with your most recent one.

Take this for example:
Spring 2010
Eng 100 F
Math 100 F
Bio 100 F

Fall 2010
Eng 100 A
Math 100 A
Bio 100 A

MD schools would see this as a 2.0 GPA. DO schools would see it as a 4.0 GPA.

 

[Canadakid]

Post-bacc retakes are still retakes and that's how they'll be listed on your application.

OP, what's your undergrad GPA without any of your post-bacc classes? What happens on the application is they do one column for your undergrad GPA, one column for your science GPA, one column for your post-bacc GPA, and one column for a cumulative GPA (excluding any graduate school classes, but including your post-bacc GPA). How long ago were you in undergrad? The most important thing in your situation is to ace your post-bacc. DO schools are a lot more forgiving of youthful academic transgressions. I wouldn't retake a ton of classes; only the ones relevant to med school, unless your GPA is well below 2.9 or something.

My undergrad gpa was 2.75 (about 67-69%). I am back now to take ALL of the required science prereqs because I never took them(graduated from economics). While I am there I am retaking many of my low c's, and d's. With c+ avg, it pretty much says it- lots of c's... So I want to retake them to boost my gpa.

I want to know though, at what point would adcoms look at my application and say " good post bacc gpa and prereqs, but far too many retakes, so no interview". There is no lack of intelligence or dedication on my end *now*... I'm just wondering from how much damage can I bounce back from

 

[Just Joshin]

They were taken post-degree. Like Just Joshin said, it counts as a retake and is used in place of your original course grade.

Not quite. DO schools will see both courses on your transcript since you're required to put submit both grades, but they will only count your latest attempt as part of your GPA.

 

[deleted92121]

I have gone to four different schools and retaken a few courses including taking a few of them three times total. With that being said, the reasons for doing so are actually legitimate. But I doubt many adcoms want to hear excuses regardless of how pertinent they may be to your situation. Stick with the normal lack of maturity or other cookie cutter excuse and you'll be better off.

Retake what you have to as many times as you have to. Show dedication. Take upper level classes to show you can handle it. Score well on the MCAT which seems to be a good equalizer. Apply broadly and you've at least got a chance.

 

[tehdude]

Not quite. DO schools will see both courses on your transcript since you're required to put submit both grades, but they will only count your latest attempt as part of your GPA.

Yeah, duh.

 

[Goro]

Adcoms accept the fact that many people are, well, in no way ready for college at age 18, and will make mistakes. The number of re-takes is irrelevant; what's important is that you do well on those retaken courses. The only qualifier will be if you simply take 1-2 at a time, especially at a CC. This doesn't give us any handle on how you'll handle medical school, which is the rough equivalent of getting a master's degree every semester.

Hello all

So, I graduated with 0 of the science pre-reqs, and am now going back to take the prereqs. One semester down, and straight A's....

Heres the problem though: I was a dumb dumb dumb kid before, and did not take my courses seriously, and got a 69% avg overall.

I've done some calculations, and I am prob looking at retaking a good chunk of my old courses and upgrading, as well as continuing my A streak with these prereqs - I've smartened up, and I've been killing all my new courses, and will continue to at any cost.

I know the osteopathic application services counts your repeated grades rather than the old one, but I know the Adcoms still see the repeats. Given a strong turn around with good pre-req grades, and clear dedication to upgrade all those courses, lets assume a decent MCAT when the time comes, will my past history kill me? Or will it be overshadowed by my recent shaping up?

Just looking for opinions

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

When you start retaking anything B- and higher you've started taking too many retakes.

 

[Canadakid]

When you start retaking anything B- and higher you've started taking too many retakes.

Yeah I can understand that, but i was looking more for what may look bad for adcoms 😛

Anymore feedback, and or personal stories from people that have bounced back, or are on the limit of gpa, I'd love to hear it

 

[FSUchess99]

I am in a similar situation, and called about 6+ DO schools about half a year ago to ask what they thought.

Huge majority said former grades are inconsequential as long as you do very well in retakes. One said sorry, cant make a comprehensive statement on the matter, as it wouldnt be fair to generalize about hypothetical transcripts. One school said they dont even look at the grades, just the GPA reported to them by AACOMAS, because the applicant as a whole is more important than just the GPA.

NOVA and CCOM where in the mix, but I mostly called schools at random and don't remember which response was from which, because my decision after calling was to go for it and retake my Cs and Ds.

On another important note, I didn't write down who I spoke to from these schools, and information is only as good as its source. I encourage you to call the specific schools you're interested in and let us know what they say.