Post-Bacc question

[kotarouf]

---

Members do not see this ad.

There are approximately 100k of these question on here I know... But I also know that many of you understand the concept of someone being Neurotic so...

I currently have a BS in Computer Science with a cGPA of 3.74. I took an introductory Music class from a comunity college, which I had to withdraw from due to a family illness (resulting in a W on that transcript). I live in Bozeman Montana (I recently moved from Illinois). I have spent 11 months as an EMT-Basic working in the South Side of Chicago (so I've got a few hours of patient contact). I've spoken with 3 doctors regarding what life as a doctor is like and I've informally spent some time with 2 of them. I know I want to be in medicine as an MD. I need my pre-req's as well as proper preparation for the MCAT's. My two question are as follows:

Am I, as I stand now, competitive (cGPA/etc wise)?

I'm looking at Montana State's Post Bacc Pre-med program, which has me taking Chem I/II and Phys I/II over the summer (each class taken 2 hours a day ~4 days a week for 6 weeks), followed by BIO and OCHEM full term for the Fall and Spring semesters. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? (I'd be starting next summer as the application process is curretly closed and Ineed to spend the next ~2 semesters studying some algebra and pre-calc).

Thank you for your help... sorry to drone on with questions you've answered.

 

[DrMidlife]

I took an introductory Music class from a comunity college, which I had to withdraw from due to a family illness.

Plan on needing to submit this transcript so that you're not committing fraud. It won't hurt you, but if you fail to submit a transcript you can land in deep doo doo. This is stupid for a single W, but be safe.

I live in Bozeman Montana (I recently moved from Illinois).

Ha ha! Your "state" school is U Wash, and your odds getting in from Montana are second only to Alaska in awesomeness. UWash's WWAMI program allows you to spend 1st year at "home" (ie Bozeman), then you have to be in Seattle for 2nd year, and then you can do rotations 3rd & 4th year at "home" again. I think the WICHE program also gives you instate consideration in Colorado and Arizona. My point in bringing all this up is that public MD schools are a really good value, and just because there isn't one in Montana doesn't mean you're not eligible for a public school.

Am I, as I stand now, competitive (cGPA/etc wise)?

Yep, 3.7 is the current national average. For the love of all that's holy, keep that GPA high during your prereqs.

Note that computer science counts as neither math nor science in the standard app service (AMCAS). Med schools care about your cumulative overall GPA and your "BCPM" science GPA (bio, chem, physics & math). So you stand to have a substantially higher science GPA than your overall GPA, if you do well in your postbac.

I'm looking at Montana State's Post Bacc Pre-med program, which has me taking Chem I/II and Phys I/II over the summer (each class taken 2 hours a day ~4 days a week for 6 weeks), followed by BIO and OCHEM full term for the Fall and Spring semesters. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? (I'd be starting next summer as the application process is curretly closed and Ineed to spend the next ~2 semesters studying some algebra and pre-calc).

I've heard of this program before, and it looks organized and supportive. Why not?

Note that for the summer schedule, 2 hours a day doesn't include lab time, which is probably another 6-10 hours a week per class. This is a full time, accelerated schedule, so I would discourage you from working more than part time. Study time and lab report production can be VERY time consuming, and you don't want to blow that pretty 3.74.

Good plan so far. Go get 'em.

 

[kotarouf]

I wouldn't dream of not reporting my W to the AMCAS... not after the (more likely than not scare tactics) horror stories I've heard about guy X getting kicked out as an M3 for somthing stupid like that.

As far as my BCPM goes I've looked into calculating that and If I pull the grades I intend to I'm looking at a cGPA (including post bac) of 3.738 and a BCPM of 3.679 (I'm planning for the worse and expecting B's in Ochem I/II and BioChem. Of course if I manned up and got a's we'd be looking at a 3.924 (cGPA 3.815). IF IF IF... I'm going to assume that the way to make IF a DID is just to work at it.

 

[72531]

I wouldn't dream of not reporting my W to the AMCAS... not after the (more likely than not scare tactics) horror stories I've heard about guy X getting kicked out as an M3 for somthing stupid like that.

As far as my BCPM goes I've looked into calculating that and If I pull the grades I intend to I'm looking at a cGPA (including post bac) of 3.738 and a BCPM of 3.679 (I'm planning for the worse and expecting B's in Ochem I/II and BioChem. Of course if I manned up and got a's we'd be looking at a 3.924 (cGPA 3.815). IF IF IF... I'm going to assume that the way to make IF a DID is just to work at it.

I love that you've already estimated the grades you are going to get. Just work as hard as you can.

 

[kotarouf]

Neurotic behavior knows no bounds...

But seriously I both get and understand your point, and I plan to work very hard.

 

[72531]

Neurotic behavior knows no bounds...

But seriously I both get and understand your point, and I plan to work very hard.

Oh I know. I think we all wouldn't be on here so much trying to get validation or whatever if we weren't a little neurotic.

 

[DrMidlife]

Re neurosis, when I started prereqs, I also started a GPA spreadsheet that goes back to 1984. It now has over 120 courses on it, and has itemizations that correspond to all 3 app services' categorizations (AMCAS, TMDSAS, AACOMAS) so that I could verify the app services' calcs.

I also included the number of hours I was working any given term, which led to a killer trend graph that shows I'm a 3.9 when I'm working under 20 hours a week. Over a 25 year period, that ends up looking pretty compelling!