Postbaccalaureate Question

[davev]

My application year isn't here yet, but I just want to make sure I have all my bases covered. If you apply to med school and aren't accepted and decide to enter a postbaccalaureate program, do you still need to re-take a pre-req class you got below a C in even if it was just one? If you do, do you have to take it at your undergrad school or is it acceptable to take it at your postbaccalaureate school?

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[Catalystik]

My application year isn't here yet, but I just want to make sure I have all my bases covered.
1) If you apply to med school and aren't accepted and decide to enter a postbaccalaureate program, do you still need to re-take a pre-req class you got below a C in even if it was just one?
2) If you do, do you have to take it at your undergrad school or is it acceptable to take it at your postbaccalaureate school?

1) Not necessarily. It depends on which class it was, whether you took a later course in the same series with good grade, and if you plan to apply to osteopathic med schools along with MD.

2) You can take a repeated class elsewhere. If applying to osteopathic schools, it must have the same or greater credits to invoke the grade forgiveness policy of AACOMAS.

 

[MDOnlyWillDo]

My post-bacc program won't take any pre-reqs with a grade below C, so if you do apply to a post-bacc program, just check that they don't have grade thresholds.

 

[davev]

Thanks for the responses!

Another question - Is is better to stay an extra semester/year/time at your undergrad school to boost GPA or are postbaccalaureate programs weighted more (assuming you do really well)?

And apologies, because I just noticed that there was a forum for postbaccalaureate questions.

 

[Catalystik]

Is is better to stay an extra semester/year/time at your undergrad school to boost GPA or are postbaccalaureate programs weighted more (assuming you do really well)?

If you stay at your current school and delay graduation, you will keep your higher priority for signing up for classes. If you graduate and take postbac coursework, the GPA will be listed on a separate line on the application, potentially highlighting a high GPA instead of having the good grades lumped into senior year grades.

There are various types of postbaccs, formal or informal, undergrad or grad (like an SMP). Some types of postbaccs are weighted more heavily by some schools. A generalization can't be made.

 

[davev]

If you stay at your current school and delay graduation, you will keep your higher priority for signing up for classes. If you graduate and take postbac coursework, the GPA will be listed on a separate line on the application, potentially highlighting a high GPA instead of having the good grades lumped into senior year grades.

There are various types of postbaccs, formal or informal, undergrad or grad (like an SMP). Some types of postbaccs are weighted more heavily by some schools. A generalization can't be made.

Are senior grades (I'm assuming every semester you delay graduation, your GPA at semester's end is considered part of your "senior" year) less weighted than freshmen, sophomore, and/or junior grades? Or are final composite and science GPAs more closely looked at?

I'm starting to nice that. I recently started to briefly look into postbaccalaureate programs just in case I may need one. I think that's what my winter break is for, haha!

Thank you for the help!

 

[Goro]

Either looks fine to us. The key thing is to do well.

Is is better to stay an extra semester/year/time at your undergrad school to boost GPA or are postbaccalaureate programs weighted more (assuming you do really well)?


We have to start somewhere, and so we look at the GPAs first. Then we look at year by year perfromance, and the last two years are looked at more stringently than the first two. The idea is that you're taking more intensive coursework, and you should still be able to do well. Medical school will be harder, so you need to show us you can do well under that type of load.




Are senior grades (I'm assuming every semester you delay graduation, your GPA at semester's end is considered part of your "senior" year) less weighted than freshmen, sophomore, and/or junior grades? Or are final composite and science GPAs more closely looked at?

I'm starting to nice that. I recently started to briefly look into postbaccalaureate programs just in case I may need one. I think that's what my winter break is for, haha!

Thank you for the help![/quote]

 

[Catalystik]

1)I'm assuming every semester you delay graduation, your GPA at semester's end is considered part of your "senior" year
2) Are senior grades less weighted than freshmen, sophomore, and/or junior grades?
3) Or are final composite and science GPAs more closely looked at?

1) Yes.

2) Each school will have their own system of weighting grades. Some don't. Some weight the first year less. Some weight each year differently. Some weight the last one year, or two years, or the last 20 credits, more. Some recalculate to remove a single bad semester. Some have complex formulas that are known and others have never let them be known. It's logical to conclude that no one will weight senior year grades less. Keep in mind that most applicants don't have a senior year to report, anyway.

3) The cGPA and sGPA/BCPM GPA are closely looked at. Depending on what's seen, microanalysis of the transcript will vary in intensity.

 

[davev]

Thank you both for answering my questions! I really appreciate it.