I currently have a 3.90 GPA, but i took bio 101, bio 102, A&P 1 and 2, and microbiology at different universities. Would a post bac program such as Goucher or bryn mawr still accept me even though i have taken a lot of biology courses? Also, I took a withdrawal in CHM 102, but I never took CHM 101. I skipped 101 and tried to do 102 b/c I go to a small school and they did not offer CHM 101 in the spring. This obviously back fired b/c I had no idea how to set up labs or what was going on in lecture. Is this a red flag or a thing that wont let me be accepted to top post bac schools?
post bac question 1
- Thread starter cbaker049
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"bio 101" and "bio 102" are not helpful info. Were these the premed courses, with labs? Or were they the nursing courses? (A&P & micro sound like the nursing courses.) Either way, the formal postbacs make exceptions sometimes.
Of course it's a red flag to have withdrawals. It looks like you're not taking your education seriously. This is a med school issue as well as a postbac issue. All you can do about it is to prepare to answer for what you did, after some introspection about what your responsibilities were and how you didn't meet them, and what you learned.
A 3.9 is great, however. How compelling will you be as an applicant? Have you done substantial clinical volunteering? Was your SAT or GRE good? Do you have fantastic letters of recommendation from faculty who know you?
Best of luck to you.
Bio 101 an 102 are the pre med biology courses. I am a volunteer emt, a hospital volunteer in the Ed, and have research experience with a med schol professor. I also have solid GRE scores ad good letter of recs coming. My biggest concern is the withdrawal in chm 102. My adviser recommended that I take chm 102 even though he knew I didn't take chm 101 and I didn't have any lab knowledge or any of the knowledge needed for chem 102 that you learned in chm 101.
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Good.
Okay, now think about how you want to tell that story so that it's clear you are taking responsibility for what happened and not blaming anybody. What will you do differently in the future? What did you learn? What do you know, now, that you should have done differently then?
Hint: the answer is not "I won't trust people to know what they're doing" (even though there's merit to that attitude). The answer is more like "I need to take advantage of more sources of information, such as faculty and other students. I'm responsible for the outcome; the adviser is not."
Best of luck to you.
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Don't bring it up in your personal statement. The personal statement is a marketing document - you're selling yourself as a candidate for the medical profession. A mistake doesn't belong in there. (When a red flag is part of a compelling redemption story, it's worth including in a personal statement. For instance: failing out of college at the age of 18, and later graduating summa cum laude at the age of 25+.)
There will be extra questions on applications to talk about academic anomalies. The issue may or may not come up in an interview.
Best of luck to you.
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Programs like Goucher or Bryn Mawr generally consider candidates who have taken no more than 1 year of the required premed courses. At Goucher, they accept people who've taken a year of bio, a year of gen chem, OR a year of physics. Generally, you enroll in some alternate course that you work out w/ the director of the program. (The alternative varies, depending on what fits into the schedule.)
I agree that you should not bring up w/ the withdrawal in your personal statement (don't give them a reason to reject you up front!). If there is a place for you to address additional issues, you might include an explanation there. Otherwise, prepare an answer for the interview and hope for the best.
