post bacc courses?

[dr.rick]

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hello everyone, I am a bit confused with what courses go to what gpa (graduate or undergrad). I am finishing my undergrad with a dismal 2.76 overall and need to boost it up. I have already done my BCMP's with a gpa of 3.4 but my overall stinks. What can I do to have a better cumulative to match my BCMP gpa? Is my undergrad Gpa set in stone upon graduation or can retakes of certain low courses bring it back up after graduating. Thanks in advance!

 

[relentless11]

All upper division undergraduate courses taken after graduating with your bachelors will be considered post-bacc. This includes taking upper div undergrad courses as a graduate student (according to our director of admissions). All graduate level courses taken during undergrad or graduate degree programs are counted in the graduate GPA.

Retaking courses that you got a D or F in is fine. However retaking a course because you got a C is probably not worthwhile. Adcoms will EXPECT you to get an A in a course that you retake...since you've taken it before. Therefore it does not say much in terms of how strong your foundation is in that subject area. It just says you can do better the second time. Thus, you should take advanced classes in the courses which you did poorly in. In regards to how they count retakes, AMCAS will count retakes as two seperate courses. Which means, if you took OChem twice. The first time you got a C, the second time you got an A, both will be counted on your GPA, rather than replaced by the most recent grade.

 

[Law2Doc]

The first time you got a C, the second time you got an A, both will be counted on your GPA, rather than replaced by the most recent grade.

True for allo. I think it's otherwise for DO.

 

[relentless11]

True for allo. I think it's otherwise for DO.

Really? I didn't know that. I never looked into DO though. I wonder why that is the case?

 

[UMP]

DO replaces the great which is nice. So if you're looking towards that path retaking those C's might be good. Or retaking any F's in non-science courses that are bringing your average down

 

[dr.rick]

So if I retake a couple courses in g. chem and bio 2 along with biochem 1 and histo, the upper div. courses will be added to my post bacc gpa and the lower division courses will be added to my science gpa? If I do this for approx. one year, could I use this post-bacc gpa for my cumulative gpa? btw i am looking into DO schools.

 

[relentless11]

So if I retake a couple courses in g. chem and bio 2 along with biochem 1 and histo, the upper div. courses will be added to my post bacc gpa and the lower division courses will be added to my science gpa? If I do this for approx. one year, could I use this post-bacc gpa for my cumulative gpa? btw i am looking into DO schools.

Your post-bacc grades will be added to your undergrad grades to yield a GPA for all undergraduate level courses. Although AMCAS does require you to designate when you took these classes (undergrad, post-bacc and grad), the adcoms can view (if they choose to do so) post-bacc courses as an extension of the undergrad GPA. Therefore you can't make your undergrad grades dissapear, but doing well in post-bacc can only increase your overall (undergrad + post-bacc) undergrad course GPA, and show you have an upward trend.

In terms of AMCAS, if you retake courses after graduating, they would be designated as post-bacc. In terms of DO schools, I guess based on what Law2Doc said, they will replace the older grade with the new one. Don't know what you mean by lower division courses being added to your science GPA. All science courses taken, whether they be upper or lower division, undergrad or post-bacc will be added to your science GPA. The difference between post-bacc and undergrad catagories is when you take these classes.

Pretty much your grades as an undergrad will always be there, since they will also appear that way on your transcript(s). Taking more and doing well in undergrad courses during post-bacc only serve to show adcoms that you are competant enough to get good grades in this level of classes. The big problem is, your undergrad days consisted of 4-5 years of fulltime coursework. Thats a lot of units. Taking a few courses over the course of one year as a post-bacc may not be enough to convince adcoms that you are academically sound. I have known people who did not get in because they did not take enough classes to make the adcoms feel confident about their abilities. Optimally, one would want to do a year of fulltime course work consisting of NEW upper division science classes. Getting a 4.0 with 1-2 undergrad classes is not a bad thing, but not neccessarily a good thing. Since as an undergrad, we had to take more than that...so they can argue that your weakness is not being able to take a high workload and do well.

 

[Ailleurs]

i'm bumping an old thread, i know, but I didn't want to create a new thread. I'm planning on taking post-bacc classes at HES (to begin improving my undergrad GPA). Specifically I plan on taking:

• an english class (canterbury tales)
• multivariable calc
• physio of sleep
• intro. to proteomics.

Am I required to only take science classes? Or can I throw in one english/psych/whatever class in there--something I find interesting? Will this course load show rigor and improved academic potential if I do really well in all of them?

I chose english, because I've noticed I tend to do really well in English classes. (Sadly, I majored in Bio instead of English, which I should have done in the first place).