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post bacc student needs advice...
Started by morrigal
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Since AMCAS, the MD med school application service does not practice grade forgiveness with repeated courses the way that AACOMAS does, you would have more work to do before you'd have a chance of an MD school acceptance. After you get your cGPA above 3.0 and get a competitive MCAT score, you would need to apply to a Special Masters Program to further redeem your poor undergrad record. This is not a traditional masters, rather a last ditch effort to prove you can be competitive in a med school environment. Drawbacks are that you typically need to get a GPA of 3.5 or better while competing with med students, and they are very expensive. They also are not a guarantee of allopathic med school admission. See SDN's Postbaccalaureate Forum if you want more info about this option.
My situation was somewhat similar, and the previous poster is right if you are going to apply to MD schools your gpa will be much lower. I took 40 credits in two semesters with all A's for my Post-bac and it only brought my GPA from a 3.0 to a 3.25 due to all of the credits I had already taken. (around 160 credits). It is dificult to bring your GPA up but if you are really dedicated and willing to give up free time to volunteer, work, and study it can be done. I currently hold a D.O. Acceptance and several other MD and DO interviews.
I say go for your dream, but work as hard as you can.
I say go for your dream, but work as hard as you can.
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Do the math and see how much your post bacc grades will potentially move your GPA.
The advice in this thread is correct - even if you get your cum GPA above 3.0, you may still need an SMP for an MD program to touch you...you have a long way to go before becoming an even semi competitive applicant.
The advice in this thread is correct - even if you get your cum GPA above 3.0, you may still need an SMP for an MD program to touch you...you have a long way to go before becoming an even semi competitive applicant.
From what I've gathered recently:
1. All courses taken at any university will be calculated for your GPA. You will have to report courses and grade work from all three universities you attended.
2. Retaking classes will not replace your GPA if you are looking at MD programs (AMCAS).
3. You threw around a lot of GPAs in your first and latest post. I think I am kind of confused. Are you saying your cumulative (all courses at all universities) GPA is ~3.2? You mentioned your undergrad gpa is 2.97, which is what everyone assumed above.
If your overall GPA is 2.97, you will have lots of work to do to raise this above 3.0 to first get past initial screening. Then you must prove to med schools you can handle hard science coursework and an SMP (as suggested by Stratego above), is a great way to do this, but obviously very risky and tough. You need to compete against med students, which is not easy. From what I've gathered, if you screw up an SMP you further damage your chances to get into an MD or DO program.
If your GPA is actually around ~3.2 (and science GPA?), then you still have work to do. It seems like your trend became worse, as your GPA at the final undergrad institution was 2.97, a big decline over your 6 year college streak. Also, you have switched universities plenty of times (I work full time, and this is similar to job hopping, I don't see it as very good). Were there any circumstances for this? E.g. family moved, etc. I think you should start taking coursework to up your GPA a bit and try and study hard for the MCAT (similar to what I'm doing) to nail it. How were your grades in the actual preqreq classes (Gen chem, gen physics, organic, bio)? That would also say a lot.
Regards,
-Medfan.
1. All courses taken at any university will be calculated for your GPA. You will have to report courses and grade work from all three universities you attended.
2. Retaking classes will not replace your GPA if you are looking at MD programs (AMCAS).
3. You threw around a lot of GPAs in your first and latest post. I think I am kind of confused. Are you saying your cumulative (all courses at all universities) GPA is ~3.2? You mentioned your undergrad gpa is 2.97, which is what everyone assumed above.
If your overall GPA is 2.97, you will have lots of work to do to raise this above 3.0 to first get past initial screening. Then you must prove to med schools you can handle hard science coursework and an SMP (as suggested by Stratego above), is a great way to do this, but obviously very risky and tough. You need to compete against med students, which is not easy. From what I've gathered, if you screw up an SMP you further damage your chances to get into an MD or DO program.
If your GPA is actually around ~3.2 (and science GPA?), then you still have work to do. It seems like your trend became worse, as your GPA at the final undergrad institution was 2.97, a big decline over your 6 year college streak. Also, you have switched universities plenty of times (I work full time, and this is similar to job hopping, I don't see it as very good). Were there any circumstances for this? E.g. family moved, etc. I think you should start taking coursework to up your GPA a bit and try and study hard for the MCAT (similar to what I'm doing) to nail it. How were your grades in the actual preqreq classes (Gen chem, gen physics, organic, bio)? That would also say a lot.
Regards,
-Medfan.
