Interesting Crossroads...

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CashMcCallister

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  1. Pre-Health (Field Undecided)
Here's a quick background (it's going to be very quick because my first attempt didn't post, and I'm retyping it):

I started college right out of high school, and was stupid, unfocused, and had no idea what I was doing. I took roughly 5 semesters of random classes which were completely irrelevant to my major, i.e. History of Dinosaurs, Table Tennis, etc. I rarely every completed a class, or even bothered withdrawing from it, so as a result, I ended up with a 0.6 GPA before finally making the decision to stop going.

Fast forward 6 years, I'm no a much, much more focused student, and I've gotten 7 A's in the 7 (relevant) classes I've taken since coming back, while working full time and volunteering 3 hours per week. I've brought my GPA up to a 2.7, and still have the majority of my classes to take. If I apply after my junior year, that still doesn't leave me much time to bring up my GPA to a respectable level. Though I know ALL of the classes I've taken will be included in my GPA, how heavily will admissions weigh the fact that the classes I failed were not only 8 years old (by the time I apply), but also ridiculous in content?

I have two basic options:

I can forget about taking the pre-reqs for now, finish my degree, and then do a formal post-bac to make them all up then. This would both allow for my senior year grades to be added to my undergraduate GPA, as well as provide me with a separate post-bac GPA, thereby making me a much more attractive candidate. The problem is, I wouldn't be able to apply until one year after my senior year, and then would have a whole year to wait during the admissions process.

Or, I can fit my pre-reqs into my current schedule, apply as a junior (three years earlier than the other option) and hope and pray that Admissions will realize that I'm clearly not the same person at 27 that I was at 20.

Any advice on this situation would be greatly appreciated. I admit that wasn’t quick like I first promised, sorry!

Thanks in advance!
 
That's a toughie... you can always apply your Junior year and if you don't get in then do a post-bac and take more classes until your GPA goes up... If you hadn't already started over I would have said start fresh at a new school. I have a few friends who did that and it has worked really well for them. Whatever you do I wish you luck! :luck:
 
That is an interesting situation. If you do end up applying after your junior year, make sure you scout out which schools have an automatic GPA cutoff, they likely wouldnt even give you a chance. I think you show an excellent trend according to the info you gave us, and if you packaged it right, you may get lucky enough to get some seriously consideration.

However, the extra three years looks like the safer bet...just sucks to do so much extra schooling and waiting.
 
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