Picking out courses to improve science gpa...

[gintoki21]

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Hi all,

I'm relatively new to making my own SDN forums (in fact, this is my very first one), so here goes...

I've been attempting to improve both my cumulative and science gpa throughout the course of my senior year. So far, it seems that I've done just that--my cGPA went from a 3.37 to a 3.43, while my sGPA went from a 3.16 to a 3.31. This is mainly due to the fact that I've been able to take classes that have good professors with fair grading for 4 science classes.

However, this semester, I'm facing a bit of a challenge--I have found only 3 science classes that I feel confident in taking--for some reason, every other upper-level science class I come across conflicts with my pre-existing schedule or has horror stories about the professor.

My question here is: would medical schools look down upon a non-science course as the fourth choice? Or is it ok to be taking a courseload that I'm perfectly confident with? My projected maximum cGPA and sGPA would be 3.49 and 3.4, respectively (which is still a huge improvement). I plan on taking the MCAT in August, so I figured that my upward trend during senior year, along with a great MCAT score would be sufficient...

 

[freedoctor17]

Hi all,

I'm relatively new to making my own SDN forums (in fact, this is my very first one), so here goes...

I've been attempting to improve both my cumulative and science gpa throughout the course of my senior year. So far, it seems that I've done just that--my cGPA went from a 3.37 to a 3.43, while my sGPA went from a 3.16 to a 3.31. This is mainly due to the fact that I've been able to take classes that have good professors with fair grading for 4 science classes.

However, this semester, I'm facing a bit of a challenge--I have found only 3 science classes that I feel confident in taking--for some reason, every other upper-level science class I come across conflicts with my pre-existing schedule or has horror stories about the professor.

My question here is: would medical schools look down upon a non-science course as the fourth choice? Or is it ok to be taking a courseload that I'm perfectly confident with? My projected maximum cGPA and sGPA would be 3.49 and 3.4, respectively (which is still a huge improvement). I plan on taking the MCAT in August, so I figured that my upward trend during senior year, along with a great MCAT score would be sufficient...

Take the non science course. No point in taking a science class you won't do well in.

But also you should probably apply to mainly DO especially since you don't know your mcat score yet. If you're taking the mcat in August do you plan to take another gap year? That might be too late to apply MD since you would'nt have your score until September. That would mean you'll probably be limited to all DO unless you take a second gap year in which case you could improve your gpa even more with some more post bacc courses.

 

[gintoki21]

Take the non science course. No point in taking a science class you won't do well in.

But also you should probably apply to mainly DO especially since you don't know your mcat score yet. If you're taking the mcat in August do you plan to take another gap year? That might be too late to apply MD since you would'nt have your score until September. That would mean you'll probably be limited to all DO unless you take a second gap year in which case you could improve your gpa even more with some more post bacc courses.

Thank you for the reply, freedoctor17! I figured that I would need to take some time off prior to medical school, mainly to improve my application by getting in volunteer hours (I currently have none) and working a technician job. However, upon seeing your comment mentioning the post-bacc, is my GPA really that low? Correct me if I'm wrong--while I'm considerably lower than the average GPA of matriculants (3.7), I would be just around the average GPA of applicants (3.5), right? I would like to save money spent on extra courses by not doing a post-bacc, but would doing well on the MCAT have no impact on my application, in spite of an upward trend in GPA during my senior year? I've also got a summer of clinical research and will have 1 year of biomedical bench research under my belt by the end of the year, in terms of extracurriculars.

I know that I'm in the worst position demographically as an Asian male, so I'm willing to accept any honest and straightforward opinions on my chances for admission and how to best improve them. Thank you!

 

[freedoctor17]

Thank you for the reply, freedoctor17! I figured that I would need to take some time off prior to medical school, mainly to improve my application by getting in volunteer hours (I currently have none) and working a technician job. However, upon seeing your comment mentioning the post-bacc, is my GPA really that low? Correct me if I'm wrong--while I'm considerably lower than the average GPA of matriculants (3.7), I would be just around the average GPA of applicants (3.5), right? I would like to save money spent on extra courses by not doing a post-bacc, but would doing well on the MCAT have no impact on my application, in spite of an upward trend in GPA during my senior year? I've also got a summer of clinical research and will have 1 year of biomedical bench research under my belt by the end of the year, in terms of extracurriculars.

I know that I'm in the worst position demographically as an Asian male, so I'm willing to accept any honest and straightforward opinions on my chances for admission and how to best improve them. Thank you!

It's your science gpa that is kind of low and it really depends on your mcat. I was referring more to the fact that you'd be too late to apply MD this upcoming cycle. Since you're taking time off anyways then that won't be an issue. I'd still recommend you focus on DO. If you get 515+ on the mcat you can probably do half MD and half DO since you have an upward tend as long as you apply broadly enough. It really depends on what your Junior year grades are though. Can you post your gpa across all 4 years? It's hard to tell if the upward trend is significant enough.

That money you use on the application cycle might be better put towards a do it yourself post bacc which is usually cheaper than an official one rather than risk applying more than once due to a weak application.

Anyways post your full gpa trends (for science and cumulative) and then we'll be able to help better. Although until you have an mcat score it'll still be tough to advise.

 

[gintoki21]

Could I PM or email this to you, somehow? Thank you so much for taking the time to provide your input!

 

[freedoctor17]

Could I PM or email this to you, somehow? Thank you so much for taking the time to provide your input!

Yeah you can pm them to me if you'd like. Although @Goro might be a better person to advise you on this. He's an expert on this.

 

[gintoki21]

Yeah you can pm them to me if you'd like. Although @Goro might be a better person to advise you on this. He's an expert on this.

Why not both? I'll PM them to both you and @Goro so n=2...
Once again, I really appreciate your help!