Is not taking science courses

[magicaldinosaur]

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until after graduation a "thing"?
I need to do serious GPA repair and don't know if I'm better of changing my major and then doing a post-bacc. Isn't that a huge waste of time?

 

[kyamh]

Details? What year are you, do you have an MCAT score, what's your GPA, are you overall getting B's or do you just have a couple C's?

First, look up how much a pot-bac costs - think whether you can afford the loans/whether you will be asking your parents. Next, think hard about whether you will actually do well in a post-bac. Most students can't go from crappy grades to great ones just "because". Doing poorly in a post-bac is not a good idea. Lastly, what is it you want? Do you want to become a physician? If so, and if you have a year or two left, you can retake some classes, kick butt on your ECs and get in DO.

I think that purposefully not taking science classes and doing a major you aren't interested in with the plan to do a post-bac is pretty extreme...it may be a thing but it doesn't sound like a good thing.

 

[theseeker4]

until after graduation a "thing"?
I need to do serious GPA repair and don't know if I'm better of changing my major and then doing a post-bacc. Isn't that a huge waste of time?

More information is needed. What is your major? What have you done already? What is your GPA, and what courses are the poor grades in? What do you hope to accomplish by putting off your pre-reqs until after you graduate that you can't do before?

If grades are your problem, there is no advantage to improving them during a post-bac as opposed to during your major coursework. There is also no advantage that changing majors will grant you toward your pursuit of medical school. The best thing to do is to start getting A's right now, and keep it up until you are done with school. If you can't do that right this second, withdraw from your courses and figure out what is going wrong, and don't start taking courses until you know what is going wrong and you can fix it.

 

[magicaldinosaur]

I'm just worried I'll dig myself into a deeper hole I can't get out of. I'm really confused as to how so many premeds have great GPAs here considering how grading is done.
No, I have not given it my all. But when I have, I still do B level.

2015/2016 MCAT
sGPA: 2.85
HORRIBLE Trend: A, A-, B-, C+, C+, etc
Decent ECs

 

[kyamh]

I'm just worried I'll dig myself into a deeper hole I can't get out of. I'm really confused as to how so many premeds have great GPAs here considering how grading is done.

Typical bell curve grading gives A/A- to the top 10-20% of the class. Most applicants have a few B/C's on their transcripts too. Are you surprised that medical school students are pulled from approximately the top ~15% of the nation's undergraduates? SDN is furthermore a self-selecting group where you see a bimodal distribution of the top students and the marginal students with relatively few in between.

As far as your situation, if working as hard as you can gets you to a B level then there is no reason to think that you will pull out A's in a post-bac. You need to take it slow (try a semester with just 1-2 science classes) and figure out what works for you. I refuse to believe that, utilizing the best study methods for your situation and putting in 110% effort, you cannot get over 85% in a class. Place that bar higher and expect better of yourself. You can do this 🙂

 

[magicaldinosaur]

Typical bell curve grading gives A/A- to the top 10-20% of the class. Most applicants have a few B/C's on their transcripts too. Are you surprised that medical school students are pulled from approximately the top ~15% of the nation's undergraduates? SDN is furthermore a self-selecting group where you see a bimodal distribution of the top students and the marginal students with relatively few in between.

As far as your situation, if working as hard as you can gets you to a B level then there is no reason to think that you will pull out A's in a post-bac. You need to take it slow (try a semester with just 1-2 science classes) and figure out what works for you. I refuse to believe that, utilizing the best study methods for your situation and putting in 110% effort, you cannot get over 85% in a class. Place that bar higher and expect better of yourself. You can do this 🙂

Thank you, no more doubting myself