Low GPA Post-Bacc or Repeating Undergrad

[WildWanderman]

Hi,
I apologize in advance for lack of information on my part as I’m still doing a ton of research on my end, but I’m looking for some non-trad advice on repeating past academia and rebuilding my pre-med track for a chance at future MD schooling. I’ve seen a ton of posts about post-baccalaureate programs but I wanted some insight into whether or not those would be appropriate versus repeating undergrad through obtaining a new degree.

I'm age 25 now and have graduated a UC in 2019 with a B.S. in Pharmacology but suffered a low GPA of ~2.29 due to struggling with work and development of epilepsy while I was in school. I’ve spent the past four years in the pandemic undergoing treatment for my health and things are finally looking up this year so I’m looking to repeat my pre-health courses. I am wondering if this extensive period out of school will hinder me applying for a post-bacc program? I’ve seen that some of them have extremely low acceptance rates so I was wondering what I should try and get on my record for going into one of those. Like should I try repeating courses at a smaller university and then looking at post-bacc? Is there a timeframe from here on that I should focus to try and get into a post-bacc-program too? Otherwise, I would be more than willing to do a second pre-health undergrad degree to get myself back on track if thats a better move. I’m wondering which path would be the better option and if taking either of these at a lower ranked University than the UC would be a red-flag for me.

Given my better health I'm looking to rebuild my path and fix the low GPA pre-health courses in my undergrad and am wondering what the best course of action for me would be, considering that I've been out of school for four years. If theres any thoughts you guys could give me I would greatly appreciate it!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Rapsidy]

When you say pre health courses, do you mean the prerequisite courses that are required by medical school? Like chemistry/physics/bio etc?

Usually repeating those core premed courses isn’t worth your time as AAMC doesn’t do grade replacement but rather grade averaging. Like if you got an F the first time in Chem and an A the second time your grade would be a C overall.

If you haven’t done those courses yet I would start with those and then add in some advanced science courses like the 300-400 range ones.

If you have done those core required courses with low grades, then looking at formal post bac programs may be more of a benefit to you.

 

[WildWanderman]

When you say pre health courses, do you mean the prerequisite courses that are required by medical school? Like chemistry/physics/bio etc?

Usually repeating those core premed courses isn’t worth your time as AAMC doesn’t do grade replacement but rather grade averaging. Like if you got an F the first time in Chem and an A the second time your grade would be a C overall.

If you haven’t done those courses yet I would start with those and then add in some advanced science courses like the 300-400 range ones.

If you have done those core required courses with low grades, then looking at formal post bac programs may be more of a benefit to you.

Yeah. I've completed all of the pre-med courses incl. general chemistry, general biology, english, mathematics, physics, and organic chemistry. I've also done others such as genetics and biochemistry as well. I struggled with grades in them due to focusing on my health, which is why I have the low GPA.

If I understand then a 1-2yr post-bacc would be better than entirely doing a 2nd bachelor's degree with those courses somewhere else then? Having a second 4-year degree wouldn't even matter because all of the grades would be averaged anyways?

Would you recommend looking for formal post-bacc or DIY post-bacc? I'm kinda assuming that the low GPA wouldn't get me admitted into a lot of formal post-bacc programs and I'm not sure what I should look into for fixing that. But I've seen a bunch of posts where people have done DIY, and If I understand correctly then ADCOMS really looks down on community college courses for that?

 

[Rapsidy]

I did every single one of my DIY post bac classes at my community college and it was never an issue for anyone as far as I’m aware. But I also had none of the prereq science courses done before when I went back.

A formal post bac may be your best route, and I would highly suggest at inquiring with local universities regarding their policies about admittance in them, but since the goal of these programs is to show that you can handle the rigors of medical school I think you’ll find a lot of people have lower GPAs entering them as it’s meant to be a redo option.

The problem with them is usually the cost (I’ve heard anywhere between 40-80k total usually) and the nature of them. It’s high risk high reward. You succeed in them and your chances of getting into schools become much better. You struggle and you’ve pretty much sealed your fate.

I would do research on programs that have high rates of linkage in their programs to the medical school itself. I would also highly suggest reaching out to medical schools you are interested in and setting up a time to talk to admissions counselors to see what they think might be the best course of action.

Also keep DO in your differential.

 

[Faha]

You probably need 2 years of reinvention. A DIY post bacc at a local college is fine. If any of your premed prerequisite grades were C or lower you should retake those. Take enough additional undergraduate level science courses that you have not previously taken in order to increase your sGPA.
Of course, you need to do well on the MCAT bit do not take the MCAT until your practice scores are consistently 507+ and after you have completed your post bacc.

 

[WildWanderman]

I did every single one of my DIY post bac classes at my community college and it was never an issue for anyone as far as I’m aware. But I also had none of the prereq science courses done before when I went back.

A formal post bac may be your best route, and I would highly suggest at inquiring with local universities regarding their policies about admittance in them, but since the goal of these programs is to show that you can handle the rigors of medical school I think you’ll find a lot of people have lower GPAs entering them as it’s meant to be a redo option.

The problem with them is usually the cost (I’ve heard anywhere between 40-80k total usually) and the nature of them. It’s high risk high reward. You succeed in them and your chances of getting into schools become much better. You struggle and you’ve pretty much sealed your fate.

I would do research on programs that have high rates of linkage in their programs to the medical school itself. I would also highly suggest reaching out to medical schools you are interested in and setting up a time to talk to admissions counselors to see what they think might be the best course of action.

Also keep DO in your differential.

Great point, I didn't think about that in terms of all of the lower GPA's doing post-bacc programs. I would probably be more interested in the CC DIY because of the program cost. High risk for the post-bacc programs includes struggling not resulting in anything too right, because they're not considered master's programs? It's only taking classes to show that you'd be able to succeed in medical school. Is there anything specific, from your experience, that you'd recommend asking the admissions counselors besides their opinion on handling course repetition?

You probably need 2 years of reinvention. A DIY post bacc at a local college is fine. If any of your premed prerequisite grades were C or lower you should retake those. Take enough additional undergraduate level science courses that you have not previously taken in order to increase your sGPA.
Of course, you need to do well on the MCAT bit do not take the MCAT until your practice scores are consistently 507+ and after you have completed your post bacc.

I'll definitely be waiting on the MCAT until I can get my courses sorted. I'm not in that much of a rush for reinvention, 2 years seems expected. In terms of pre-requisite courses I think I've read that they're averaged in with the old courses while additional courses are added in. Looking at retaking pre-reqs at a different university though, I should look for courses with content that are considered as close to the ones I've taken right? I'm assuming there might be some course differences between semester and quarter systems.

 

[Darrow O'Lykos]

Formal post bacc + apply broadly to DO.

 

[Faha]

Great point, I didn't think about that in terms of all of the lower GPA's doing post-bacc programs. I would probably be more interested in the CC DIY because of the program cost. High risk for the post-bacc programs includes struggling not resulting in anything too right, because they're not considered master's programs? It's only taking classes to show that you'd be able to succeed in medical school. Is there anything specific, from your experience, that you'd recommend asking the admissions counselors besides their opinion on handling course repetition?


I'll definitely be waiting on the MCAT until I can get my courses sorted. I'm not in that much of a rush for reinvention, 2 years seems expected. In terms of pre-requisite courses I think I've read that they're averaged in with the old courses while additional courses are added in. Looking at retaking pre-reqs at a different university though, I should look for courses with content that are considered as close to the ones I've taken right? I'm assuming there might be some course differences between semester and quarter systems.

Some schools have a minimum grade requirement for science prerequisites, so if your original grades were C, C- or D they may not be accepted at certain schools. That is the reason to retake those courses.