needing some advice..please!

[msmack22]

Hey all! I just started browsing around here again recently, and I'm a bit confused quite frankly. I'm kinda just wondering what others advice would be at this point if I were to pursue med school (again), what the best way to go about it would be.

Long story short, I started college off great, finished horribly, for reasons that don't really matter. I have no problem owning up to the poor grades, and unfortunately my grades had a downward trend through college. I was pre-med through college and a bio major/psych minor. I have all my prereqs, although I didn't get a's in them all. My cumulative undergrad sGPA wound up being a 2.32, with my cumulative undergrad GPA at a 2.86. I took MCAT study courses, but decided not to take the MCAT my senior year or apply to school for obvious reasons. I graduated college in 2011.

Now, I've been working in medicine since graduating. I'm assuming that working as an MA counts towards patient care hours, in which I've accumulated over 13,000 hours. I also wound up taking the GREs and got myself into a MS program focused in exercise science and epidemiology. (almost) all my classes were science classes, as I figured I needed to boost my GPAs. I originally was going to go the PA route, which is why I didn't just go back and re-take my basic science courses (caspa just averages all grades together, no grade replacement). Anyways, my cumulative graduate GPA was a 3.85, and my graduate sGPA is a 3.92. I did continue to work full-time through my master's program along with being one of the primary caretakers of a special needs child, along with increasing my volunteer hours. I did shadow physicians a few years ago, which I could do more of, and I know I would have LOR from physicians and the director of my master's program.

I have no problem repeating some courses, especially if I have any intention of applying to med school. My question is really what is the best way to go about applying/what classes to retake? My overall science is up to a 2.70 now, I know that needs to come up, and my overall GPA is over a 3.0 now. And I'll need to study/take the new MCAT. I haven't done too much research yet into if pre-reqs need to be taken within a time frame, but I'm coming up on 10yrs from when I started college, which is when i took my bio 1 and 2 classes, so I dont know if I should retake those too, or just the Biochem and upper level biology classes. Any input/advice would be awesome!

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[Plastic156600sub3]

Don't retake your bio 1 and bio 2 unless you really want to improve your grade. If you take them and blow it, it won't help you. You can take a post bac and it really may be advantageous to you.
My advice would be to buckle down on studying for your MCAT and try to get a great score the first time. I know, I know. No one wants to take it more than once. It happens, a lot. Focus on taking practice tests often. Keep working on it. You'll get there.

 

[brainnurse]

Your GPA is heavily resistant if, after stellar performance in your graduate program, your sGPA is still sub-3.0. It might be worth calculating if taking any amount of science classes will even move that number enough that the expense/effort would be worth it. Beyond that, take Biochem, study for the MCAT and boost your ECs. No need to repeat prereqs unless you failed them or you want grade replacement (which might be well worth it to pull your sGPA up).

 

[ThoracicGuy]

Graduate courses are not weighted much for med school apps. Unless it was a SMP, your GPA is not going to really be improved. Work on a post bacc and when you are ready, then take the mcat. This is a marathon, not a sprint. The schools aren't going anywhere, so make sure you have the best application possible the first time around.

 

[Goro]

The fastest path for you to become a doctor is to retake all Science grades that are C or lower and apply to osteopathic schools.

If you were boning for the MD degree, do the same and apply to a special master's program. Ace that and the MCAT and you will find that there are MD schools that reward reinvention

 

[msmack22]

Don't retake your bio 1 and bio 2 unless you really want to improve your grade. If you take them and blow it, it won't help you. You can take a post bac and it really may be advantageous to you.
My advice would be to buckle down on studying for your MCAT and try to get a great score the first time. I know, I know. No one wants to take it more than once. It happens, a lot. Focus on taking practice tests often. Keep working on it. You'll get there.

Thanks so much! I don't really want to retake my gen biology/chem courses, etc. but it's coming up on the 10yr mark for when I took them the first time my freshman year of college (in 2007), I would only retake those if they required it to be within the time frame. otherwise I didn't do bad in them, not even a C so it wouldn't do me much good (wouldn't be worth the effort/payoff i guess) to bring it up to an a from an a- type of deal for grade replacement w/ DO schools. The dr i work with now said to do a million practice MCAT tests and that he would help and quiz me between procedures if I wanted, so there's that haha. no one wants to take the mcat more than once, but as you said, it happens. I never took it after i took the kaplan prep course, but I still have my books from them, I just don't have any info on the newer behavior section they just added in. thanks for the advice!

 

[msmack22]

Your GPA is heavily resistant if, after stellar performance in your graduate program, your sGPA is still sub-3.0. It might be worth calculating if taking any amount of science classes will even move that number enough that the expense/effort would be worth it. Beyond that, take Biochem, study for the MCAT and boost your ECs. No need to repeat prereqs unless you failed them or you want grade replacement (which might be well worth it to pull your sGPA up).

My gpa from college was terrible, I have no problem admitting this as I said above. I did well my freshman year when I was playing division 1 athletics. I was constantly busy, and was always keeping up with courses. Freshman year I had a 3.8. After that I wound up transferring schools and quit playing college athletics, one of the biggest mistakes of my life. My grades dropped dramatically when I changed schools, and by my senior year I was taking 20+ credits a semester to graduate on time and get out of the school. I did the master's program because most programs won't accept you into a master's without a 3.0 overall, this school gave me an interview and wound up offering me a spot in the cohort in person. I needed to prove that I could do the classes and get good grades, so I still worked full-time through grad school in the medical field so it wasn't like i was doing nothing with my days. Before my master's, my sGPA was like a 2.28 or close to that. I have it up to a 2.7 now, but after being a bio major in college I've taken a fair share of science classes, so every A i get moves my sGPA maybe .02 or some crazy low amount. I've never failed or withdrew from a class, but I would do the grade replacement for DO schools as that is pretty much my only chance of getting in. I have nothing against going DO vs MD (my dad is a DO so I kind of prefer going that route) but I would do anything to do what I can to bring the GPA up. thank you for your response!

 

[precisiongraphic]

You don't say what state you're in but some states/schools look at only the last two years' grades. I'm not exactly sure which ones but Wayne State come to mind. You'd still have to do some remediation and maybe an SMP but it's something to look at.