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- Dec 29, 2007
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Here's my situation:
Graduated from UC Berkeley this July.
Took MCAT August 5, still waiting on scores
I'm not sure what my final undergrad gpa is exactly. The last transcript I saw was 2.779.
But there are a couple of special situations that I don't know how to calculate:
1. I took the lower division biology requirement 3 times. The first time, I had done poorly on the first midterm, but had overheard that you can take the class pass/not pass and it wouldn't count to your gpa. Later a counselor mentioned that you couldn't retake the course if you pass it, so I failed on purpose. The following semester I convinced myself I didn't need to study since I had already taken the course once (even though I never went to class because I was intentionally failing), so I ended up actually failing getting a D+. I decided to take it one more time, actually went to class this time and got a B. I know this sounds really dumb. I was addicted to a videogame, and was messing up a lot of things in my life looking for the easy way out without understanding the consequences. The course was seperated into lecture/lab, and although I took both the lab and lecture as pass/not pass the first time, I accidentally passed the lab portion(that's how dumb I was, I couldn't even fail a class correctly) so now I think my counselor will change it to a C- but it hasn't been changed yet.
2. My final semester, I needed to complete the second half of an English requirement to graduate. All of the English courses were full, but a month into the semester I finally found a spot in a class. The teacher told me that they were too far into the curriculum, so I couldn't join. While I was begging the teacher to let me in over email, the drop deadline for classes passed. I filled out a petition, but the school didn't let me drop the class. So I got an F for a class I was not allowed to take. I took an English course over the summer to graduate and got an A-. The transcript hasn't updated since I took the summer course. This F really hurt my gpa obviously.
3. I took a biochemistry class at UCI over a summer and got a B+, that also isn't included in the gpa yet.
I used a gpa calculator I found on SDN, and determined my gpa was a 2.9 and 2.8 BCPM if: I included the A- for the english course and didn't include the F, didn't include the C- for the bio lab, and didn't include the UCI course. I think the biochem class and the bio lab will average to about 2.9 and shouldn't have much of an affect on the gpa.
Right now, I just got a part-time job as an emergency room scribe. So I'll be working 20 hours a week getting great clinic experience. Also, I'll probably sign up for hopefully 2 classes at UCI (either retaking an ochem lecture+a math class that I got C-'s in, or just taking more upper division science courses to get to the big 3.0)
If you've got this far, thank you so much for your patience. Here are my questions:
1. My mom wants me to take the classes at UCI because it is a good school, but Cal State long beach or fullerton would be much more convenient. Would it make a difference where I took the courses? (money isnt an issue)
2. Are there any SMPs in california (preferably southern california) that I can apply to for next fall?
3. Lets say I get into an SMP for Fall of '09, and I'm applying to med school next summer for admission in fall of '10. The med schools will see my app before I have a chance to show a good gpa in the SMP, so how does going to an SMP actually help?
I've got many more questions, but this is getting absurdly long. Thanks in advance for any help or even taking the time to read all of this.
Graduated from UC Berkeley this July.
Took MCAT August 5, still waiting on scores
I'm not sure what my final undergrad gpa is exactly. The last transcript I saw was 2.779.
But there are a couple of special situations that I don't know how to calculate:
1. I took the lower division biology requirement 3 times. The first time, I had done poorly on the first midterm, but had overheard that you can take the class pass/not pass and it wouldn't count to your gpa. Later a counselor mentioned that you couldn't retake the course if you pass it, so I failed on purpose. The following semester I convinced myself I didn't need to study since I had already taken the course once (even though I never went to class because I was intentionally failing), so I ended up actually failing getting a D+. I decided to take it one more time, actually went to class this time and got a B. I know this sounds really dumb. I was addicted to a videogame, and was messing up a lot of things in my life looking for the easy way out without understanding the consequences. The course was seperated into lecture/lab, and although I took both the lab and lecture as pass/not pass the first time, I accidentally passed the lab portion(that's how dumb I was, I couldn't even fail a class correctly) so now I think my counselor will change it to a C- but it hasn't been changed yet.
2. My final semester, I needed to complete the second half of an English requirement to graduate. All of the English courses were full, but a month into the semester I finally found a spot in a class. The teacher told me that they were too far into the curriculum, so I couldn't join. While I was begging the teacher to let me in over email, the drop deadline for classes passed. I filled out a petition, but the school didn't let me drop the class. So I got an F for a class I was not allowed to take. I took an English course over the summer to graduate and got an A-. The transcript hasn't updated since I took the summer course. This F really hurt my gpa obviously.
3. I took a biochemistry class at UCI over a summer and got a B+, that also isn't included in the gpa yet.
I used a gpa calculator I found on SDN, and determined my gpa was a 2.9 and 2.8 BCPM if: I included the A- for the english course and didn't include the F, didn't include the C- for the bio lab, and didn't include the UCI course. I think the biochem class and the bio lab will average to about 2.9 and shouldn't have much of an affect on the gpa.
Right now, I just got a part-time job as an emergency room scribe. So I'll be working 20 hours a week getting great clinic experience. Also, I'll probably sign up for hopefully 2 classes at UCI (either retaking an ochem lecture+a math class that I got C-'s in, or just taking more upper division science courses to get to the big 3.0)
If you've got this far, thank you so much for your patience. Here are my questions:
1. My mom wants me to take the classes at UCI because it is a good school, but Cal State long beach or fullerton would be much more convenient. Would it make a difference where I took the courses? (money isnt an issue)
2. Are there any SMPs in california (preferably southern california) that I can apply to for next fall?
3. Lets say I get into an SMP for Fall of '09, and I'm applying to med school next summer for admission in fall of '10. The med schools will see my app before I have a chance to show a good gpa in the SMP, so how does going to an SMP actually help?
I've got many more questions, but this is getting absurdly long. Thanks in advance for any help or even taking the time to read all of this.
