My chances...Post Baccalaureate route

[Mayday857]

I'm going to be in the Post-Baccalaureate program at John Carroll University in the fall. I was a history student in undergrad but took most of the pre-med courses. I got a B in cell biology, C- in organisms, B- then C+ in chemistry, B+ in Calculus and B in statistics. I know my grades aren't good but I was the captain of my school's track team and I was an RA of my dorm. At the Post-Bacc program I'll be taking Orgo and Physics and I have yet to take the MCAT. I'll be shadowing two doctors.

Because there is not a direct feeder school to med school, what else might I need to do to up my credentials to get into med school?

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[DrMidlife]

1. Study your competition. They mostly have better than 3.5 cumulative GPAs, higher science GPAs. MD and DO. More than 20,000 well-qualified applicants get rejected every year. Respect that pile of apps.
2. If you don't have a competitive GPA, then do more undergrad. Depending on your GPA damage you may need to do 2-3+ years of additional undergrad/SMP to get into med school.
3. Retake the prereqs where you got less than a B and/or can't remember the material.
4. Don't be in a hurry. Don't nickel and dime it. Every grade you get that isn't an A is a step away from med school. Get A's.
5. Study the stories of those who were in exactly your shoes and shared on SDN. Thousands of us. Do your homework.
6. When it's time for the MCAT, do rigorous review and prep, take the test once, and be above average (31+ for MD, 28+ for DO)
7. Don't say postbac. Useless word. Say what you need and/or what you're doing. You are finishing prereqs and doing GPA redemption in a structured program. Then you might need to do a 2nd bachelors for more GPA redemption. Then you might need to do an SMP for GPA redemption. All postbac means is "after you have a bachelors" and the word will never get you good advice.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Greasy Pete]

"Then you might need to do a 2nd bachelors for more GPA redemption. Then you might need to do an SMP for GPA redemption." Jesus christ. what?

 

[popopopop]

"Then you might need to do a 2nd bachelors for more GPA redemption. Then you might need to do an SMP for GPA redemption." Jesus christ. what?

Well, if I understand Dr.Midlife correctly, she means by the time you do a structured GPA redemption program, you're pretty close to a second bachelor's anyway. Sometimes taking just the few premed pre-reqs aren't enough to redeem a 2.9 cumulative GPA if the volume of credits you have is already so high. I know I'm taking several extra courses to raise my cumulative gpa. I'm actually a semester away from a biology degree if I wanted lol.

 

[DrMidlife]

I didn't see a GPA in the question, and this is SDN so there will be a sub-3.0 Californian posting a followup "me too!" question in about 4 minutes. The more distance between your low GPA and a competitive GPA, the more years of work you have to do.

Fun-fact-slash-dirty-secret about GPA redemption: people don't magically wake up one day and start pulling straight A's. When you're talking about possibilities for getting into med school, everybody thinks they'll be all grateful & motivated by a second chance. And then it's exactly the same person who got B's or C's or worse, facing exactly the same motivation/focus/discipline/facebook problems. And then you get a tutor and you start thinking adderall is magic and you maybe get an exciting new gf/bf and time goes by and that GPA redemption is nothing like what you pictured. I'm summarizing about 8 years of SDN low GPA stories here. Mine was a mess but nowhere near the messiest.

Point being, yes, sometimes people spend 5+ years doing school full time for the sole purpose of getting into med school. Sometimes it works out.