International Student Retake

[Dosen't Matter]

Hello Everyone!

I am an international student in the US and prior to my arrival, I had no familiarity with neither the pre-requisites needed to get admission to Medical School nor had any remote idea regarding the 'Major and course selection system in US colleges. Major system doesn't exist in my country. When I arrived, I made a grave mistake of consulting a 'Freshman Seminar Mentor,' who misguided when asked if the grades achieved in only science courses are relevant to medical school. I was assured that only my BCPM GPA would be taken into consideration. Knowing that my core GPA's were irrelevant I did not put any effort for College Reading and Expository Writing and I ended up getting C- and D in these classes, respectively. Call me naive or gullible or even stupid, I am ready to own it for trusting somebody irresponsible. It was only during the end of my freshman semester that I first got a chance to sit with my Pre-Med advisor, who told me that I was doing it wrong! I insisted on retaking the classes, if that would prevent me from getting total rejection from Medical Schools, with the overall GPA being around 2.9-3.0 after my Freshman semester.

My Pre-med advisor instead advised me to take upper level classes and do better in them. He stressed upon talking about this discrepancy of grades in my essays and so did the some other Professors.

I took upper level Expository and Research Writing and scored As in them. He also enrolled me into an Honors level course and insisted I do extremely well to to cover up my grave mistakes and reflect that I am competent enough to do well in English courses. I got A- in it and also a similar grade for another Literature class. My biggest concern is should I retake the classes with poor grades to pull my current 3.58 to 3.65 AFTER averaging the old grades with new grades, if I were to retake and get As in them? I am currently a Senior in Biochem Major with BCPM GPA: 3.6.

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[Dosen't Matter]

do not retake: it will not be impressive or impactful to an adcom. You would be better off taking additional upper level coursework, particularly your BCPM.

Thank you for responding! Do you recommend an SMP or graduate program to up that BCPM GPA?

 

[Dosen't Matter]

Hmmm why spend money and take classes if you're not planning to do well on them? It's not his fault you didn't do well in them. Science GPA is very important but anywhere else the cGPA is too so it's not something you should be told.

Your BCPM is also low especially for an international student so I would advise taking more classes and not retake freshmen level classes.

Again, remember that you're an international student which means you're expected to do better than the average US citizen and green card holder to get an acceptance somewhere so focus on ECs and the MCAT, you better score really well in that.

Apply broadly to internationals friendly and hopefully you'll receive an acceptance somewhere


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Thank you for reaffirming that I did not need to retake. I agree that it was my fault and I do not blame the mentor, again it was largely due to being unaware of the functionings of college.

 

[Dosen't Matter]

I'm an international so I understand being lost. You should think the way I did: you're new to a system? Research about it until you know more than the ones who created it lol that's how I ended up on SDN freshmen year


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Everyday since my Advisor told me that the Core GPA also matter, I have been wishing to go back to time and correct it. Have you applied yet? If so, then how was your experience especially being an international applicant?