Need some serious advice, taking the pre-med path

[DDS.230]

Hey guys, I'll just get started right off the bat.

Went to UC Irvine, started out as a bio major for 2 years, my head wasn't in the right place and graduated with a B.A in Economics.

After college, I worked in a huge corporation for 2 years, made decent money, had a stable job, but it just wasn't for me, so I made the big decision to leave.

Since I was a bio major for 2 years at UCI, I have a year of Biology and Chemistry done, but this was back in 05-06.

These were my grades in a QUARTER system:

DNA TO ORGANISMS BIO SCI 93 4.0 A-

ORGANISMS TO ECOSYS BIO SCI 94 4.0 C+

GENETICS BIO SCI 97 4.0 D

GENERAL CHEMISTRY CHEM 1A 4.0 B

GENERAL CHEMISTRY CHEM 1B 4.0 C+
GENRL CHEMISTRY LAB CHEM 1LB 2.0 B

GENERAL CHEMISTRY CHEM 1C 4.0 D
GENERAL CHEMISTRY CHEM 1C 4.0 A- (RETAKE)
GENRL CHEMISTRY LAB CHEM 1LC 2.0 B

To be honest, although some of the grades might be okay, I was planning on taking them all over because:

1) It was over 5 years ago.
2) Refresh my memory for the MCATS
3) It was quarter system.

I'm planning on starting my pre-reqs this fall of 2012, and during the summer I'm planning on getting my EMT certificate. I know a lot of ppl do this to have something to put on the resume, but for me I really want to get some first-hand experience and see with my own eyes exactly what I am getting myself into.

After that, I was planning on doing some part-time EMT work/volunteer work while getting my pre-reqs done.

Now, here are my questions:

1) I'm not sure how the quarter system and semester system works, but should I retake ALL of my pre-reqs?

2) Is working part-time as an EMT while taking pre-reqs doable?

3) I know this is a huge topic but CC or 4-year college?

4) I looked into post-bacc, but it's already too late for this year, so I was thinking of doing an informal post-bacc at my local 4-year college. In which case I would take ALL of the pre-reqs over.

5) Any other suggestions or what would you do differently?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance!

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[Chip N Sawbones]

There's no need at all to retake the A's and B's. If you feel like retaking the classes would be a good way to study for the MCATs and money isn't a problem, go ahead, but otherwise there's no point. Just retake the D's, add organic chemistry and physics, and you should be all right. What is your overall GPA? If there are other bad grades on your record you should look at retaking those.

One quarter credit gets counted as 0.67 semester or trimester credit, so if you have five quarter credits of chemistry, it counts the same as 3 credits. Make sure you have a full year of each of the prereqs, no matter how they are counted. Med schools want at least eight semester credits, including a lab.

As for CC vs 4-year, a search will yield lots of information. Basically if 4-year is at all a realistic option for you, do that. CC credits are never preferred, but if you have other college experience to prove you can do well in a tough load of classes, then they will be alright. Make sure you get nothing but A's in any CC classes you take.

Working part time while doing prereqs is certainly doable. I was able to avoid working this year, but ~20 hrs/week of work combined with ~16 credits of classwork is doable. There are also people on this forum who balance full time jobs with various amounts of credits, with varying degrees of success.

 

[DDS.230]

Thank you for the reply~

There is something I'm not sure about, and it is regarding the Biology classes.

So as you can see above, I plan on retaking BIO 94, and BIO 97. But I plan to take these at a local CC because they offer the exact same classes (Bio 93, 94, 97)

But these classes are on a semester based unit, and at uci they were quarter based.

So if I were to just retake Bio 94 and Bio 97, would that fulfill the Biology portion? and also, neither did UCI or the CC Bio courses come with a lab. Is it okay to take only upper div labs after I finish the core bio classes?

 

[prolixity29]

I think the answers to a lot of your questions also depend on what your overall goal is: DO or MD? in-state california or US anywhere, or Caribbean for that matter? You need better creds for MD and California, all else being equal.

In the perfect world, you would not do the CC route and shoot for a post-bacc or your state-school. You would retake anything less than a B. I would lean toward the post-bacc especially if you have no real medically-related experiences since you've been working in economics. Doing a post-bacc program, especially over a condensed time frame, will help demonstrate your commitment to medicine. How much you deviate from this ideal path will depend on your long-term goals and how much money you need to make by working between now and med school.

 

[DDS.230]

Thank you for your input. I am on the path to the DO route, and would like to know if there are any COM that the grade replacement DOES NOT apply?

I've been calling around but thought it would be faster to ask on here to see if people know for sure...

 

[ShoTyme]

Thank you for your input. I am on the path to the DO route, and would like to know if there are any COM that the grade replacement DOES NOT apply?

I've been calling around but thought it would be faster to ask on here to see if people know for sure...

Grade replacement does not apply to TCOM

 

[DDS.230]

Thank you everyone for the replies!

So after much input, I enrolled at my previous university (UCI) to retake BIO 94 and CHEMISTRY 1B during the summer! It was a little pricey, but it pays to have been working corporate for the past 2.5 years

I'm planning on taking BIO 97 at UCI as well (just to get the bio series and gen-chem series finished from the same school i started them) and then most likely start o-chem and phys at a local university, something more affordable.

One thing I was a little worried about was that when I contacted UCI, they have a policy that if you retake a course in which you did not receive a C- or below, they will give you no credit for it/gpa won't be affected, and an M4 will be printed next to this class on the transcript (which means they will be no credit given for this class)

Now to my belief, this is just UCI's policy, and when AACOMAS calculates the gpa, they will most likely take this grade because it is a retake of the old class correct? even if there is a M4 printed next to the class?

thank you for all your help! much appreciated

 

[ShoTyme]

Correct