Is it possible? What should I do?

[peptalk]

Hey everyone, so I am new to this forum as I have recently decided in going for med school.

I am a bit worried based on my previous grades. I got my Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but I graduated with a 2.94 GPA. I am about to receive my Masters degree in Computer Science at the end of this semester with an expected 3.5 GPA.

I did some research on what prerequisites I would need to apply for medical school, and it says that I would need a minimum 1 year of General Bio, Physics with lab, General Chem with lab, Org Chem with lab, Calculus, and English.

At RPI, I took one semester of Bio, two semesters of Physics (1 and 2), one semester of Chem, and three semesters of Calculus (2, Diff Eq, 3). I have received a B in Bio, a B+ in Chem, a C in Physics 1, and an A in Calc 2. I have taken one writing course at a community college about 4 summers ago to complete my Writing requirement in RPI. I am unsure of whether this would fulfill my English prerequisite for medical school. I have not yet taken Organic Chemistry.

Because of my very low undergraduate GPA, should I retake the prerequisite courses that I didn't receive an "A" in at any college? Is it better for me to just leave those courses as is, take Organic Chemistry somewhere, and hope for a really high score on my MCAT?

Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks!

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[dreamweaver1988]

Hey everyone, so I am new to this forum as I have recently decided in going for med school.

I am a bit worried based on my previous grades. I got my Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but I graduated with a 2.94 GPA. I am about to receive my Masters degree in Computer Science at the end of this semester with an expected 3.5 GPA.

I did some research on what prerequisites I would need to apply for medical school, and it says that I would need a minimum 1 year of General Bio, Physics with lab, General Chem with lab, Org Chem with lab, Calculus, and English.

At RPI, I took one semester of Bio, two semesters of Physics (1 and 2), one semester of Chem, and three semesters of Calculus (2, Diff Eq, 3). I have received a B in Bio, a B+ in Chem, a C in Physics 1, and an A in Calc 2. I have taken one writing course at a community college about 4 summers ago to complete my Writing requirement in RPI. I am unsure of whether this would fulfill my English prerequisite for medical school. I have not yet taken Organic Chemistry.

Because of my very low undergraduate GPA, should I retake the prerequisite courses that I didn't receive an "A" in at any college? Is it better for me to just leave those courses as is, take Organic Chemistry somewhere, and hope for a really high score on my MCAT?

Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks!

http://www.valuemd.com/

 

[theseeker4]

Hey everyone, so I am new to this forum as I have recently decided in going for med school.

I am a bit worried based on my previous grades. I got my Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but I graduated with a 2.94 GPA. I am about to receive my Masters degree in Computer Science at the end of this semester with an expected 3.5 GPA.

I did some research on what prerequisites I would need to apply for medical school, and it says that I would need a minimum 1 year of General Bio, Physics with lab, General Chem with lab, Org Chem with lab, Calculus, and English.

At RPI, I took one semester of Bio, two semesters of Physics (1 and 2), one semester of Chem, and three semesters of Calculus (2, Diff Eq, 3). I have received a B in Bio, a B+ in Chem, a C in Physics 1, and an A in Calc 2. I have taken one writing course at a community college about 4 summers ago to complete my Writing requirement in RPI. I am unsure of whether this would fulfill my English prerequisite for medical school. I have not yet taken Organic Chemistry.

Because of my very low undergraduate GPA, should I retake the prerequisite courses that I didn't receive an "A" in at any college? Is it better for me to just leave those courses as is, take Organic Chemistry somewhere, and hope for a really high score on my MCAT?

Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks!

How sure are you that you want to be a doctor? Do you have significant clinical exposure through shadowing and volunteering in a clinical setting? If not, do that first, because it will be a long, uncertain, and expensive road to become a doctor.

It is possible that you can come back from a sub-3.0 GPA, but you will need to get extremely good scores from now on. Is there a particular reason you got sub-A- scores in all of the Bio, Chem and Physics you took? If you know why, make sure the problem is corrected before you take any other classes. If you don't know why, definitely do NOT take any classes until you know why, and what to do to correct it. In your position, a mix of A's and B's may not convince adcoms that they should admit you; you need virtually every class you take from now on to be an A to give yourself the best chance possible.

Take the pre-reqs you don't have already, and maybe retake Physics I, at a university. Don't take them at a community college, because with your current GPA you need to demonstrate that you can get solid A's in university-level science classes.

Get A's in all of your classes and labs. You will then want to take a few more semesters of upper-level courses like biochemistry, cell biology, anatomy and physiology, microbiology, genetics, etc. to further boost your GPA and show you can handle the upper-level university science classes. With a GPA below or only slightly above 3.0, you will need to show some solid work in science courses to be really considered for admission, even with a good MCAT score. A great MCAT can help a ton, but it won't completely make up for a low GPA.

The writing course may or may not count as an English class, depending on its course number. (ENG 101? etc.)

Other than that, be sure you absolutely want to be a doctor, and confirm that with actual experience that exposes you to clinical environments, before you spend any money trying to get yourself ready for medical school.

 

[peptalk]

I am very passionate about becoming a doctor. I have been thinking this through for many years, but was always unsure of what I really wanted. I have not done any volunteer work at hospitals yet, but I have recently signed up for Donor Registry Drives and Writing/Editing opportunities for donor programs in my area.

If I do retake all the prerequisite courses that I need at a different "4-year university" and assuming I receive all A's in those courses, will they take that GPA into consideration over my undergraduate GPA? Will they combine and average the 2 scores together? I'm not exactly sure how the system works.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice!

 

[theseeker4]

I am very passionate about becoming a doctor. I have been thinking this through for many years, but was always unsure of what I really wanted. I have not done any volunteer work at hospitals yet, but I have recently signed up for Donor Registry Drives and Writing/Editing opportunities for donor programs in my area.

You don't have to tell us on here, but you need to be able to answer "why do you want to be a doctor?" and be able to support your answer with actual experience. Shadowing is important, as is volunteering that provides you clinical experience. The volunteering you list is great for general EC's, and by all means continue it if you find it interesting and fulfilling, but you will need clinical exposure to be taken seriously by adcoms. You do have time to get it in, of course, but you will want to be able to describe what working and observing patients and doctors taught you and why it makes you sure you want to be a doctor.

If I do retake all the prerequisite courses that I need at a different "4-year university" and assuming I receive all A's in those courses, will they take that GPA into consideration over my undergraduate GPA? Will they combine and average the 2 scores together? I'm not exactly sure how the system works.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice!

MD schools will look at the average of all your undergraduate courses you took, including classes you re-took later and even classes at the college level you may have taken during high school through dual-enrollment. Every class is averaged into the total. They will, often, give more weight to the science GPA, and more recent GPA, but when given the number from AMCAS (the application service for MD schools) they will get your total, cumulative GPA. They will receive a breakdown by year and post-bac classes, so a upward trend and excellent post-bac work will stand out under closer examination, but the total GPA is the first thing they will see.

DO schools consider the most recent course when re-taking classes, so if you have a few poor grades bringing your entire GPA down, you can become competitive much faster if applying DO. If you have a bunch of C+ / B- grades, the grade replacement policy would be less useful. DO schools do have a somewhat lower GPA average, so you will definitely want to apply to both MD and DO schools if you really want to be a doctor, to give yourself the best chance.