Not sure what to do?

[ajk1897]

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I am on track to graduate with my bachelor’s in August. I have all the prerequisites complete except for organic chemistry 1 and 2 and biochemistry. Prior to attending my current school, I attended community college to transfer credit. I had a 3.6 GPA. At my current school I should graduate with a 3.5. For my science GPA I included all the biology, chemistry, physics and math classes from all my transcripts. My science GPA came out to be 3.3, I added organic chemistry and biochemistry and assumed A’s for the sake of argument. I have not taken the MCAT yet. I am unsure of what my next steps should be. I am aware that any classes I take will after I graduate with my bachelor’s will be separate from my undergrad GPA. My current thoughts are that I need more upper level science courses to prove that I can handle the coursework. I will have 87 science credits that make up my science GPA. Is an SMP the way to go?

 

[mmchick]

My understanding is that post-bacc classes taken at undergrad level after graduation do indeed go into uGPA, especially considering some of the courses you have left are prerequisites that will most certainly affect your sGPA.

Did you calculate out your sGPA as 3.3 after you assumed A's in your remaining pre-reqs? My concern if so is that you're left with still slightly below average GPAs at a presumed cGPA 3.5 and sGPA 3.3 if you simply take your pre-requisites. The good news though is you're borderline threshold and could simply add more high level science courses like you've said to continue to raise both of these GPAs. You should do so at a 4-year university near you as CCs will not have the upper level division courses that you need. Do not re-take anything you got >C. Adcoms will not be impressed that you received a higher grade in a course you've already been exposed to.

You don't need an SMP. SMPs are expensive, last-resort, high-risk options for applicants with no other choices and GPAs <3.0. You should create an Excel sheet and calculate out what both of your GPAs would be with any number of post-bacc courses (somewhere between 20-30 credits would likely suffice or 30-50 credits if you want to take full advantage of gap years/making yourself as competitive as possible, assuming MD is your goal).

I cannot offer any further advice without seeing final GPAs and MCAT. I would take all the courses you need first to remediate your GPA, then focus on killing the MCAT, somewhere along the tune of 512+ for MD or 505+ for DO. On that note, if you are shooting for DO, you'd likely be competitive with simply finishing out your pre-reqs and attaining that MCAT score (assuming all your ECs and other ducks are in row).

Good luck.

 

[ajk1897]

My understanding is that post-bacc classes taken at undergrad level after graduation do indeed go into uGPA, especially considering some of the courses you have left are prerequisites that will most certainly affect your sGPA.

Did you calculate out your sGPA as 3.3 after you assumed A's in your remaining pre-reqs? My concern if so is that you're left with still slightly below average GPAs at a presumed cGPA 3.5 and sGPA 3.3 if you simply take your pre-requisites. The good news though is you're borderline threshold and could simply add more high level science courses like you've said to continue to raise both of these GPAs. You should do so at a 4-year university near you as CCs will not have the upper level division courses that you need. Do not re-take anything you got >C. Adcoms will not be impressed that you received a higher grade in a course you've already been exposed to.

You don't need an SMP. SMPs are expensive, last-resort, high-risk options for applicants with no other choices and GPAs <3.0. You should create an Excel sheet and calculate out what both of your GPAs would be with any number of post-bacc courses (somewhere between 20-30 credits would likely suffice or 30-50 credits if you want to take full advantage of gap years/making yourself as competitive as possible, assuming MD is your goal).

I cannot offer any further advice without seeing final GPAs and MCAT. I would take all the courses you need first to remediate your GPA, then focus on killing the MCAT, somewhere along the tune of 512+ for MD or 505+ for DO. On that note, if you are shooting for DO, you'd likely be competitive with simply finishing out your pre-reqs and attaining that MCAT score (assuming all your ECs and other ducks are in row).

Good luck.

Thank you for the reply. Yes the 3.3 includes the organic and biochemistry classes. If I take 30 credits post-bac I can get my sGPA up to a 3.5. My main reason for thinking I needed an SMP is because my state medical school has average sGPA of 3.7. I think my focus is better served at doing well in additional courses and the MCAT.

 

[mmchick]

Thank you for the reply. Yes the 3.3 includes the organic and biochemistry classes. If I take 30 credits post-bac I can get my sGPA up to a 3.5. My main reason for thinking I needed an SMP is because my state medical school has average sGPA of 3.7. I think my focus is better served at doing well in additional courses and the MCAT.

Sure, a 3.5 uGPA is still considered average and sub-competitive for most MD schools.. but some low-tiered it's decent and the chances for applicants with that GPA in combination with 512+ MCAT have 60-70% historical acceptance rates. SMPs again are extreme measures for candidates with GPAs <3.0 that have no other options. SMP for someone in your position is a very unnecessary risk and I would recommend that you look into these options discussed (e.g. postbacc, how that affects uGPA, SMPs, etc.) to get a better understanding of your options/my advice.