I NEED HELP GUYS!!!!!!

[apocalypse3678]

hey guys,
i'm learning a great deal from this site and i see every one is eager to help each other and i admire that alot...i even had one girl offer to mail me her catalogue of med schools...that was really nice. anyway the reason i'm posting this is to get your opinion about a certain matter. my career as an undergraduate wasn't very impressive but my last year i made a 3.5 fall semester and a 4.0 on the last semester. i am currently studying for the mcat for august and i will start a masters in biomedical sciences in the spring. that leaves me with one whole semester of academic inactivity. i wanted to enroll for a couple of classes and take sciences classes (endocrinology, molecular genetics, and research topics in endocrinology). i was wondering if it was a good idea to take all science classes or throw in a non-science class? i would really appreciate your opinions on the matter...trying to get into med school,
me

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[The Philosopher]

Yo apocalypse,

Even if ya didn't do too well earlier on, it's not the end of the world (ha ha..get it?).

Anyway, the answer to your question is that it just depends. First, you need to answer these questions:

1)undergrad major?
2)have completed the pre-med pre req's? INCLUDING english?
3)how low is the bcpm gpa?

1)If you are a non-science humanities major, don't worry about another humanities course unless if you are genuinely interested in it.

If you ask me, your focus should be on improving your bcpm gpa (right?). As long as you can adequately do this next semester and next year, take the courses that you're genuinely interested in. You're going to have a chance to improve your GPA with that grad program in biomed engineering, so maybe you might want to just put in a course or 2 that you're interested in....but if you do, make sure your science GPA (whatever endocrinology courses or whatever you do take next semester) don't suffer.

Most people need the english pre-req. So...it wouldn't hurt to take 2-3 of those advanced science courses with 1 english class. It'd be a nice break on your mind.

 

[SolidGold]

Wat up, I would not worry about taking more undergrad classes unless you have a GPA way below a 3.3 or something since you will be getting a masters soon. Kick ass in the graduate program and do well there and you should be fine. The problem is that taking any additional classes (say 15 credits) won't raise your undergradute GPA too much since you already have so many credits that outweight it already. Calculate it for yourself to prove it, the increase, assuming you get A's will be quite modest. Trust me on this, I thought about the same thing.

On the other hand, if you really need to raise your undergrad GPA, think about doing a postbac instead of a masters since you will most likely take upper level science courses (around 30 or so credits worth) that will have a large effect on your science GPA. This will boost your undergrad GPA and help out a lot too. Remember, a gradute GPA is different than a undergrad GPA, and many schools pay more attention to your undergrad GPA than any grad GPA, no matter how you did in grad school.

The point is to assess what you need to improve on, your undergraduate science/cumm GPA or just your application in general by getting a BMS degree and proving to the schools that you can handle med school like courses.

Btw, its nice to see that you have taken a little more serious tone on these boards.

 

[apocalypse3678]

thanks alot solid,
i thought about taking the postbac program but several people have recommended me not to take it (professors as well as students)since it would be retaking all the premed courses and med schools will not be impressed by that. i just wanted to take a couple of courses so i wouldn't be academically inactive next semester since i have to work a little more before i can start my masters program in the spring...i believe that with a good mcat score and a great masters gpa my stats will improve tremendously since i will be able to show that i can handle med school courses...what do you think? therefore i'm opting like philosopher mentioned to take a couple of science courses and one non-science course, call it for the sake of learning...write back with your opinion solid...thanks alot for your time and this site is truly helpful...love you guys,
me

 

[The Philosopher]

Apocalypse,

There are postbac programs which don't feed you those pre-req science courses...

and they give you upper level courses.

UPenn's deadline is July 15th, for example. You can still make it!! They take all sorts of GPA's and they have an 85% acceptance rate into medical schools.

Georgetown and Boston are due June 15th..well within range!!

 

[Bikini Princess]

Be sure not to neglect your medical experiences before application. You should have had quality:

1. Interaction with patients

2. Interaction with doctors

Only with these will med schools believe you when you say, "I want to be a doctor".