Please advise

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LifeIs2Short

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Hi all,
I'm so glad to have found such a supportive network of people and i'm hoping that i can get some advice. :)

I am 22 and just graduated with a BA in sociology. Long story short, i had three family members die and both parents fight cancer while in my undergrad. needless to say, i had a lot going on and was too young to know how to adjust well. I did sociology because i am good at pumping out long winded papers and i love to learn about people, but i never really enjoyed it because i knew i was just "going through the motions". i figured that i should stick with it because of my "never quit" mentality and when it was over i could focus on what my original goals were before "life" happened. I got a pretty crap GPA (2.6 cumulative) but managed to work full time while in school and get a pretty good job.

i currently work at a lab that does chemotherapy resistance testing and am enjoying it. but it's not enough. i need a challenge and i need to follow my dream.

How do i make up for my shotty undergrad GPA. Yes, i've read the low GPA thread, but i still feel lost.

Would it be better for my to go and do a post-bacc (i haven't done any requirements what so ever) or should i just go with a clean slate and get another bachelors and "do it right" this time. I'm really dedicated to this and am not going to let something as petty as finances stand in my way (life costs money. lots of it). Which one would be better? I'm thinking of decreasing my work hours drastically to focus and possibly volunteer.

Should i do pre-pre req's at a JC this year (general chem, brush up on calc, etc) and apply for a post-bacc for Fall 2007? Or should i just jump in full force and get another bachelors?

Thanks in advance. :)

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LifeIs2Short said:
Hi all,
I'm so glad to have found such a supportive network of people and i'm hoping that i can get some advice. :)

I am 22 and just graduated with a BA in sociology. Long story short, i had three family members die and both parents fight cancer while in my undergrad. needless to say, i had a lot going on and was too young to know how to adjust well. I did sociology because i am good at pumping out long winded papers and i love to learn about people, but i never really enjoyed it because i knew i was just "going through the motions". i figured that i should stick with it because of my "never quit" mentality and when it was over i could focus on what my original goals were before "life" happened. I got a pretty crap GPA (2.6 cumulative) but managed to work full time while in school and get a pretty good job.

i currently work at a lab that does chemotherapy resistance testing and am enjoying it. but it's not enough. i need a challenge and i need to follow my dream.

How do i make up for my shotty undergrad GPA. Yes, i've read the low GPA thread, but i still feel lost.

Would it be better for my to go and do a post-bacc (i haven't done any requirements what so ever) or should i just go with a clean slate and get another bachelors and "do it right" this time. I'm really dedicated to this and am not going to let something as petty as finances stand in my way (life costs money. lots of it). Which one would be better? I'm thinking of decreasing my work hours drastically to focus and possibly volunteer.

Should i do pre-pre req's at a JC this year (general chem, brush up on calc, etc) and apply for a post-bacc for Fall 2007? Or should i just jump in full force and get another bachelors?

Thanks in advance. :)

If you think you can get a 4.0 in your post-bac/prereq. classes, i doubt you'll have to take a whole new bachelor's degree worth of classes. Plug your numbers into this simple, handy, dandy formula:

newcredits = oldcredits*(GPA_desired - GPA_old)/(GPA_new - GPA_desired)

Where oldcredits = Total number of credits previously taken
GPA_old = Your current GPA
GPA_desired = Your desired GPA
GPA_new = Your assumed new GPA from any courses that you take.

With GPA_old = 2.6, oldcredits = 120, GPA_new = 4.0, and GPA_desired = 3.0.....

.....you will need to take 48 credits of new coursework.....much less than a new BS degree's worth. However, a 3.0 GPA is still not very competitive....
 
jota_jota said:
If you think you can get a 4.0 in your post-bac/prereq. classes, i doubt you'll have to take a whole new bachelor's degree worth of classes. Plug your numbers into this simple, handy, dandy formula:

newcredits = oldcredits*(GPA_desired - GPA_old)/(GPA_new - GPA_desired)

Where oldcredits = Total number of credits previously taken
GPA_old = Your current GPA
GPA_desired = Your desired GPA
GPA_new = Your assumed new GPA from any courses that you take.

With GPA_old = 2.6, oldcredits = 120, GPA_new = 4.0, and GPA_desired = 3.0.....

.....you will need to take 48 credits of new coursework.....much less than a new BS degree's worth. However, a 3.0 GPA is still not very competitive....
Ahhh...engineers. Truly the tool makers of this world...

To the OP: I was in a very similar situation. Check out my profile (link below) to see what I had to do to overcome my GPA.

In some ways, if I had to do it all over again, I would do a personalized post-bacc (redo pre-req's + some upper-division Bio/Chem classes) instead of grad school. Look through this and other forums, and you'll see people weighing the effects of post-bacc vs. grad degrees. It comes down to this: Post-baccs help more with getting in to med school (primarily by boosting ugrad GPA). However, once you're in, nobody cares. Grad degrees help a little with getting in (for various reasons), but once you're in, it can open doors for you, namely: research opportunities in med school and beyond, and getting residencies (esp. academic residencies).

I didn't know this when I started my master's and it cost me some time and heartache. But then again, now that I'm in, I've got profs asking me to work for them while I'm in med school.

To sum up: You've got a lot of work to do if you go pre-med. Doing another bachelor's may be overkill, but keep your job - many places have tuition-assistance programs that'll cut your bills in half. Explore all of your options, and have an idea of where you want your career in medicine to go. Talk to lots of medical professionals, see what the fields are like. Volunteer to it first-hand. Then, if you still want to do it, understand how far you have to go, make a plan, and stick to it, no matter what the nay-sayers say. Feel free to PM me if you need anything else.
 
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Thanks for your replies. :) I can't keep my job if i go back to school. It's the 40 hours + or no job type and i'm not going to jeopardize my grades for a job that doesn't satisfy me. If i take pre-pre reqs at a JC and get a good GPA, will this qualify me to get into a post-bacc. with a 2.6, i don't see very many post-bacc's available in california. :-( THanks again.
 
LifeIs2Short said:
Thanks for your replies. :) I can't keep my job if i go back to school. It's the 40 hours + or no job type and i'm not going to jeopardize my grades for a job that doesn't satisfy me. If i take pre-pre reqs at a JC and get a good GPA, will this qualify me to get into a post-bacc. with a 2.6, i don't see very many post-bacc's available in california. :-( THanks again.
Some schools won't take JC pre-reqs (call ADCOM offices and find out which ones). When I wrote about a 'post-bacc,' I meant just a series of ugrad classes at a 4-year university, not a formal progam. You won't get the benefit of ties to med schools, like Georgetown or Creighton, but you don't have to 'apply' to them - you just register as a non-degree seeking student. Most of these classes are held at night, so you can work (maybe not with your current job,) while going to classes. You'd also get the benefit of the school's pre-med office, which would help you plan your classes and write you applications.
 
LifeIs2Short said:
Should i do pre-pre req's at a JC this year (general chem, brush up on calc, etc) and apply for a post-bacc for Fall 2007? Or should i just jump in full force and get another bachelors?

You may be hitting some definitional confusion in your use of the word "post bac". Many (if not most) of the established postbac programs will want you to have never taken any prereqs, so taking eg. gen chem would close this route. You are probably really referring to SMP programs when you talk about postbacs which have prereqs. A SMP (special masters program) is not technically a postbac (per AMCAS), as it is a graduate level program. For an SMP program, you would need to take a lot of courses to first bring your GPA up to a palatable level. As others have suggested, due to your very low GPA starting point, it may make sense to just take sciences at an accredited university for a couple of years, do well on the MCAT and just run with that.
 
Thanks again everyone. I did mean post-bacc. I don't even have a GPA that is good enough to get into a post-bacc. :-( A lot of the ones i've seen in california have a GPA requirement of 3.0 (which i am nowhere near). for the jc route, i wanted to take intro to chemo and pre-cal to get back in the mode. Maybe i will just look into the informal route. I think i'd do better with a formal program though. Does anyone know of any formal programs in CA where you don't need higher than a 3.0 to get in? Let me know. :) Thanks
 
LifeIs2Short said:
Thanks again everyone. I did mean post-bacc. I don't even have a GPA that is good enough to get into a post-bacc. :-( A lot of the ones i've seen in california have a GPA requirement of 3.0 (which i am nowhere near). for the jc route, i wanted to take intro to chemo and pre-cal to get back in the mode. Maybe i will just look into the informal route. I think i'd do better with a formal program though. Does anyone know of any formal programs in CA where you don't need higher than a 3.0 to get in? Let me know. :) Thanks

Your problem is one I'm facing. I have a 3.14 undergrad GPA, 3.0 BCMP. I'm working on my biomedical physics PhD right now (my master's was a 3.67, and my current GPA is a 4.0). I'm taking 19 post-bacc credits while I'm doing my PhD (bio2, orgo1&2, biochem, genetics), but even with a 4.0 in those, I'm still looking at a criminally low GPA. I have to hope that adcoms will see the upward trend and the recent academic success in those post-bacc classes as a good thing, and will forgive the otherwise unsightly GPA.

People around here say that, with a good MCAT (I'm studying a year and a half ahead of time.... I want a good score!), I still have a shot, so here's hoping.

Anyway, I say all this just to prove that I mean it when I say best of luck to you. Keep us updated.
 
I am so totally confused as to how to figure my GPA. I have an Associate Degree from 15 years ago with a cummulative GPA of 3.11 (not so great). I went back to school 6 years ago and took some Architecture classes (GPA 3.75). And 2 years ago started the pre-Med prereqs (other than Calc (B- :mad: ), all classes are 4.0). I know all my classes are going to be figured into the mix, but do they weigh more heavily on the ones most recent? Do schools look at everything or do they just get some GPA from the AAMCA's and take that as gold?
 
OBRN2MD said:
I am so totally confused as to how to figure my GPA. I have an Associate Degree from 15 years ago with a cummulative GPA of 3.11 (not so great). I went back to school 6 years ago and took some Architecture classes (GPA 3.75). And 2 years ago started the pre-Med prereqs (other than Calc (B- :mad: ), all classes are 4.0). I know all my classes are going to be figured into the mix, but do they weigh more heavily on the ones most recent? Do schools look at everything or do they just get some GPA from the AAMCA's and take that as gold?
Things are split by ugrad and grad. Other than that, everything's lumped together, regardless of how long ago or how recently you took it.

There is a poster called Shyrem who has had to battle against the same thing. YOu might want to private message her to see what she did.

Rahl22 - There is a recent poster on this board called Relentless (I forget his entire screen name,) who is doing something similar to you. You might want to PM him.
 
RxnMan said:
Things are split by ugrad and grad. Other than that, everything's lumped together, regardless of how long ago or how recently you took it.

There is a poster called Shyrem who has had to battle against the same thing. YOu might want to private message her to see what she did.

Rahl22 - There is a recent poster on this board called Relentless (I forget his entire screen name,) who is doing something similar to you. You might want to PM him.


Thanks for the advice (and the info, as much as that is not what I wanted to hear). I will search for the people you mentioned and see what they have to say.
 
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