How much can a post-bacc really help?

[chowchilla]

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I screwed up really bad in my first year (GPA~2.1) but I redeemed myself in my second and third year (somewhat) with a GPA of around 3.5~3.6.

The problem is this: the first year still kills my cGPA (comes to around 3.06) and as a result, I know that I don't stand a shot at getting into any med school. Even more unfortunately, I did all of the required science pre-reqs in first year which kills my science GPA as well.

Which brings me to my ultimate question: how can doing a post-bacc help? Even if I did do well in, let's say, UPenn's special sciences post-bacc, or Boston's MA, or even GTown's Special M, how would it help improve my chances of getting into medical school when my first year GPA's completely and hopelessly shot?

One final question (almost an aside): are there any med schools that look at your best two or three years? Or are they all unforgiving and focus only on your cGPA?

Thank you for your help.

 

[bioteacher]

I screwed up my first two years. I ended with a 3.04 (3.6 senior year). I became a teacher for seven years. I'm 31.

I applied to 47 medical schools (beat that) and only one interview. I had a 32 MCAT. I am waitlisted at Albany.

I got into two post bacs; UPenn and EVMS. I think I am going with EVMS since it is a medical school and probably provides a stronger linkage agreement.

I think a post-bacc with definately help me matriculate into medical schools, but like most post-bac graduates I will need a year of grades to be competative, so I will be 33 when I start medical school (beat that).

I'd rather be 41 and a doctor than be 41 and still a high school biology teacher.

 

[Phil Anthropist]

The problem is this: the first year still kills my cGPA (comes to around 3.06) and as a result, I know that I don't stand a shot at getting into any med school.

Keep your head up 😎

Which brings me to my ultimate question: how can doing a post-bacc help? Even if I did do well in, let's say, UPenn's special sciences post-bacc, or Boston's MA, or even GTown's Special M, how would it help improve my chances of getting into medical school when my first year GPA's completely and hopelessly shot?

There are some awesome success stories on here of low GPA applicants getting into some excellent med schools (see the low GPA thread).

BU and G-town allow you to take medical school courses. This is an opportunity to prove that you're med school material. On the AMCAS application, Graduate GPA is separate from your undergrad cumulative GPA. It's like you have a blank slate to show the adcoms a different GPA.

Alternatively, if you take undergraduate courses after graduating (e.g., I believe UPenn Special Science consists of upper-division undergraduate courses) this would actually go into a different, separate section as well (Postbaccalaureate) and it would also contribute to your undergraduate cumulative GPA. You might be wondering, "Well then why would anyone do a graduate program like Georgetown's over UPenn if G-town's program doesn't even help your undergrad cumulative GPA?" Well even though Georgetown doesn't help your undergrad GPA much, it allows you to make up for your questionable academic past. The major advantage with Georgetown over a formal undergraduate postbac with upper-division courses is that you're taking multiple medical school courses.

Some schools put a lot of weight on undergrad GPA. For example, I'd bet the farm that Wash U would reject a 36 MCAT, 2.8 undergrad, 4.0 SMP without giving it any thought. However, other schools (thank goodness) are much more forgiving of low undergrad GPAs. It really varies from one school to another. An excellent showing in an SMP will get you consideration from some good US med schools.

One final question (almost an aside): are there any med schools that look at your best two or three years? Or are they all unforgiving and focus only on your cGPA?

Thank you for your help.

Trends are very important and many schools can be forgiving. For example, the University of Cincinnati even mentions in the MSAR that it considers postbaccalaureate and graduate coursework (at least in my old edition). If you look at some of the comeback success stories here on the postbac forum, major positive trends can get even sub-3.0 applicants into US MD schools. It IS possible.

Also, check out MDApplicants for some inspiration. 🙂

 

[calbear15]

"Well then why would anyone do a graduate program like Georgetown's over UPenn if G-town's program doesn't even help your undergrad cumulative GPA?"

Although I applied to UPenn (last week), those kinds of post-bacc programs don't really help people like me who have super low science GPA's and have accumulted lots of credits already. If I attened those kinds of programs with the intention of raising my undergrad GPA, I'd have to have something like a million credit hours of "A's" to raise my GPA to a respectable level. Therefore this option is not really practical.

Anytime you have a low-GPA issue and can't decide whether to do a masters or a post-bacc, you should whip out the calculator and do some math. Find out exactly how much the post-bacc program can raise your GPA (assuming you do well). Beyond that, you need to honestly ask yourself if you're ready to be immersed in a medical school environment, or if you want to ease into it by taking upper division undergrad courses first.

 

[Law2Doc]

I screwed up really bad in my first year (GPA~2.1) but I redeemed myself in my second and third year (somewhat) with a GPA of around 3.5~3.6.

The problem is this: the first year still kills my cGPA (comes to around 3.06) and as a result, I know that I don't stand a shot at getting into any med school. Even more unfortunately, I did all of the required science pre-reqs in first year which kills my science GPA as well.

Which brings me to my ultimate question: how can doing a post-bacc help? Even if I did do well in, let's say, UPenn's special sciences post-bacc, or Boston's MA, or even GTown's Special M, how would it help improve my chances of getting into medical school when my first year GPA's completely and hopelessly shot?

One final question (almost an aside): are there any med schools that look at your best two or three years? Or are they all unforgiving and focus only on your cGPA?

Thank you for your help.

I agree with the other posters who indicated that you can still rehabilitate your credentials and eventually get into med school - if you had to do badly, freshman year is actually the best year to have had a screw up. However prepare yourself for the fact that it might be a several year process. First, if you still have a senior year to go in school, I would lay off whatever type of courses are causing you trouble (even if they are prereqs), and take whatever type of courses you do well in and get the GPA up as much as possible. Next, look into a wider range of postbacs -- I'm not sure how high you can get your GPA up, but if you are unable to move it significantly, you may have trouble getting into one of the SMP programs you described or one of the more formal postbacs, but there are those that have more open or flexible admissions. You will want to retake every science class you have done badly in, and take a handful of other health related and upper level sciences. And you will want to get A's (or A-'s) in everything from here on out. You also will need to do some decent ECs -- it might even help your cause to take a break after college and work in something healthcare related for a year or two (and things like Peace Corps always look good to med schools as well, if you are so inclined) before going back and taking science classes. Good luck.