OT to Med School

[beestrng]

I have a year or so left in OT school and been thinking about pursuing medicine in the future. I am pretty sure I will do fine on physics and chemistry. I got Bs on them but 5+ years ago so I will have to retake them.

For medical schools bio requirements- do they look at Anatomy classes I have taken in OT school? I ask because I only got a C+ and it isn't the type of class you can retake.

I feel I wont be able to compete with a fresh ug with a 3.8 GPA.

add: I got a B in biomechanics. So anatomy and bio are the 2 major bio classes I took. I'm not sure what the other classes would just be calculated under my overall GPA.

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[beeboops]

Any and all classes at the college level will be calculated in your overall GPA. So, yeah, med schools would look at the anatomy classes you've taken in OT school. Also, not sure if your OT program is a graduate program (I am woefully ignorant about OT), but if so, your undergraduate GPA and graduate GPA would be calculated separately. If you google and search around on here, you'll be able to find a calculator that tells you what your GPA would look like to med schools.

I don't think that there's an expiration date on pre-requisites, so you wouldn't necessarily have to retake those Bs in physics and chemistry, but if you feel you need the refresher on them, then retake them. For MD schools, retakes don't count, so both the original Bs and whatever you get in the retakes will count towards your GPA. However, DO schools have grade replacement, so they will replace your previous grades with whatever grade you get in the retake provided that the content and credit awarded are the same.

 

[beestrng]

I see. I have been reading around some the threads and have proven helpful. Good point retaking the classes. For some reason I thought there was a time limit on that.

So will there be a grad gpa and a ug gpa for science in addition to overall gpa for both?

Which GPAs are more important?

 

[beeboops]

There might be a time limit at some schools, but I have no idea which ones those are! Make sure to look at the websites of some schools that you're interested in to double check whether there is a time limit, but I haven't heard of any really. I know there's a few SDN users floating around that took some of their pre-reqs 10+ years ago.

Yes, you will have a graduate cumulative GPA (cGPA) and science GPA (sGPA) and an undergraduate cGPA and sGPA. These are looked at separately. Whether a school weighs cGPA or sGPA more heavily is completely dependent on the school and maybe even on the individual person reviewing your file. Obviously, schools want to see you doing well in the sciences, but they want to see that you're performing well overall. Concentrate on making both your cGPA and sGPA as competitive as possible. I doubt a high sGPA would make up for a low cGPA or vice versa.

 

[beestrng]

Very good points.

What do you think about retaking them for the sake of getting a good score on the MCAT?

I am originally from Detroit so I might look into schools there.

 

[beeboops]

Ultimately, it's up to you whether you retake them or not. If you really think that you'll do better in them and that they'll help for the MCAT, I would retake them, money and time permitting. It doesn't really matter which school you retake the courses at or whether you enroll in a formal post-bacc or not, just do well in them!

 

[beestrng]

Thanks for the points man. Gl on your admission success.