past life

[javi]

anyone have experience with (or know of a situation) where an applicant received a bachelors degree with a not so stellar gpa over 5 years prior to reattending college and getting a pretty alright one?
do schools take this into consideration, or is the number calculated using all prior college experience, or both maybe? I understand all prior gpa's received and credit hours are used to calculate one gpa for the application. is this correct?
any feedback on this topic, and i would be greatful.

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[Disinence2]

Did this happen in a past life?


Title is misleading.

And yes.

 

[javi]

i guess i was not so concerned with the title. i consider my first attempt of college as my "past life" meaning i went for reasons other than my gpa. so, would you like to evolve on your response?

 

[Disinence2]

I think the general idea on this site is that a good MCAT score can overshadow a bad GPA. Along with a strong upword trend..There are plenty of threads on this topic.

 

[future_dr_house]

All courses count towards your gpa unless there's any unique situations around you. In Texas if it's been something like 7 (maybe 10 I can't remember) or more years you can apply for academic forgiveness and all your previous grades will be dropped from your records.

More than likely though, your old grades will still be counted, but that's not to say that the admissions committee won't be compelled to accept you if you get another 120 hours of a 3.7 or higher.

 

[Law2Doc]

I think the general idea on this site is that a good MCAT score can overshadow a bad GPA.

This is an often repeated SDN myth. In fact you need both good grades and MCAT. A high MCAT does not repair a low GPA. There are no 2.5/40 students in med school. A string of A's are what you need if you have a low GPA.

 

[gujuDoc]

I think the general idea on this site is that a good MCAT score can overshadow a bad GPA. Along with a strong upword trend..There are plenty of threads on this topic.

Incorrect. The way you presented your inforamtion is wrong. Upward trend is not the key here. The key is postbacc or SMP program. See the previous discussion in kikalu's thread on this topic.

OP,

You need to get a strong MCAT and do very well in an informal or formal postbac program in the prereqs and other science courses to get considered.

 

[UMP]

anyone have experience with (or know of a situation) where an applicant received a bachelors degree with a not so stellar gpa over 5 years prior to reattending college and getting a pretty alright one?
do schools take this into consideration, or is the number calculated using all prior college experience, or both maybe? I understand all prior gpa's received and credit hours are used to calculate one gpa for the application. is this correct?
any feedback on this topic, and i would be greatful.

yes, read my "2.77 last year, accepted this year" post

This is an often repeated SDN myth. In fact you need both good grades and MCAT. A high MCAT does not repair a low GPA. There are no 2.5/40 students in med school. A string of A's are what you need if you have a low GPA.

there are people with 2 point somethings and a high MCAT score that get in. junebugf comes to mind. But you need to do AT LEAST 2-3 semesters of informal post-bacc work. try to have at least half of them be in the sciences, but some patsy courses in poli-sci and history can boost up the GPA, too

 

[UMP]

This is an often repeated SDN myth. In fact you need both good grades and MCAT. A high MCAT does not repair a low GPA. There are no 2.5/40 students in med school. A string of A's are what you need if you have a low GPA.

and it's not a myth, it happens often. But you need to show that upward trend over a couple semesters

 

[Law2Doc]

But you need to do AT LEAST 2-3 semesters of informal post-bacc work.

Exactly -- the cure for GPA problems is success in additional courses, not just the oft quoted "killing the MCAT". You can hack that MCAT to a bloody corpse, but schools are still going to want to see a recent successful track record of classes that suggest you can handle med school.

(Edit - Regarding your prior post, I don't think we are actually disagreeing).

 

[UMP]

Exactly -- the cure for GPA problems is success in additional courses, not just the oft quoted "killing the MCAT". You can hack that MCAT to a bloody corpse, but schools are still going to want to see a recent successful track record of classes that suggest you can handle med school.

(Edit - Regarding your prior post, I don't think we are actually disagreeing).

no we are not... but as usual, i hate your tone but thanks anyways for pissing me off last year... it lit a fire under my ass a bit

 

[gujuDoc]

Incorrect. The way you presented your inforamtion is wrong. Upward trend is not the key here. The key is postbacc or SMP program. See the previous discussion in kikalu's thread on this topic.

OP,

You need to get a strong MCAT and do very well in an informal or formal postbac program in the prereqs and other science courses to get considered.

Let me restate that what I mean is upward trend as in one or two semesters will help but not as much as doing another degree with or postbac work will. hope that clarifies cuz I just reread my post and saw that it could cause confusion.