Pre-med Major questions and request for additional advice.

[kutsuki]

As of this moment, I am a Biology major with a Psychology minor with a horrible gpa. Thanks to the kind folks from this forum, I now intend on applying to DO school after I graduate.

The question is: should I stay with Biology major? I was thinking of inverting my major and minor to make it Psychology major and biology minor. Although I generally like my bio classes, overall I do significantly better in my minor's classes and thus securing the likelihood of significantly increasing my overall GPA. I would like opinions on whether this would hurt my chances of getting into DO schools via aacomas**

**speaking of aacomas, I was told to bring my aacomas gpa to a 3.4. I wasn't sure if that applied to cumm. or science. Sadly, my aacomas gpa is 2.38/1.86 right now.

Based on the pre-med requirement at the bottom of this post, I think I can do this and just make sure to have completed the necessary courses for pre-med.

--List provided by my school--
Two semesters of English Composition
ENGL 1303: Freshman Composition I => Complete w/ a B (before starting college)
ENGL 1304: Freshman Composition II => Complete w/ a B (before starting college)
One semester of Calculus (required for premed, not predent)
MATH 1431: Calculus I => Completed w/ a B (on final attempt) I've done up to Cal 3 though.

Two semesters of general chemistry with labs
CHEM 1331,1111: Fundamentals of CHEM I => Completed w/ a C on Lec. and C- on lab.
CHEM 1332, 1112: Fundamentals of CHEM II => Completed w/ a C on Lec. and B on lab.

Two semesters of introductory biology with labs
BIOL 1431: Introduction to Biological Sciences I => Completed w/ a C on Lec and C+ on lab.
BIOL 1432: Introduction to Biological Sciences II => Completed w/ a B on Lec. and D on lab. (redoing lab right now though)

Two semesters of introductory physics with labs
PHYS 1301,1101: Introductory General Physics I (Math 1330 prerequisite) => Completed w/ a D+ on Lec. and B on lab. (will be redoing lecture for improving aacomas)
PHYS 1302,1102: Introductory General Physics II => Completed w/ D on Lec and B- on Lab (will be redoing lecture for improving aacomas)
Two semesters of organic chemistry with labs
CHEM 3331, 3221: Fund. of Organic Chemistry I => Incomplete. Will be W'ing it this semester and will retake in the summer with the help of a tutor.
CHEM 3332, 3222: Fund. of Organic Chemistry II => Obviously incomplete. Will this be necessary? University of St. Thomas (school i was gonna go to) doesn't require this on their bio major degree plan so it was presumed it wouldn't be a necessity.

Two semesters of advanced biology
The following courses are especially recommended for preparation for the MCAT and DAT:
BIOL 3324, 3124: Human Physiology & lab
BIOL 2333, 2133: Elementary Microbiology & lab
BCHS 3304, 3201: General Biochemistry I & lab
(Note: UT Houston Dental School requires 3 hours of general biochemistry in addition to the two semesters of advanced biology.)
=> I noticed how it says "recommended" but then says "required". Which is it? Once I get my real overall gpa up (2.044 => 2.7) and aacomas to 3.4, I'd like to graduate without unnecessary classes.

Other recommended advanced biology courses:
BIOL 3301, 3201: Genetics & lab => Took this and got a D+ in lec. Unfortunately, even if i switch to biology minor I believe I will need to redo this for the aacomas. Currently in lab so no grade there.
BIOL 4323: Immunology => incomplete
BIOL 4354: Endocrinology => incomplete
BIOL 4384, 4184: Developmental Biology & lab => incomplete
BIOL 4373, 4172: Microbial Physiology & lab => incomplete
BIOL 4374, 4172: Cell Biology & lab => incomplete

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[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Jesus, ok firstly. You need to identify what the problem was! Were you not studying hard enough? Honestly with your stats, you'll need to spend 2 years as a minimal! To re-do all your prerequisites and other courses you did poorly in. Then you'll need a 30+ on the mcat probably! Like honestly you should be worrying more about graduating! I honestly don't know, but DO schools are medical schools. They are not that much easier to get into then MD programs.
All I can say is you'll need to undo all the damage you did in undergrad. Switching a major won't help if you've taken that many classes and your science gpa is that low. You need to raise it up to at least a 3.3. Hell you'll probably need to re-do every class you got a C or below in and then get a A! You'll honestly take between 2-3 years to undo this much damage. It's going to be a uphill battle. So you need to figure out what the problem was, and don't bother even taking classes before that. Because personally at my university you'd be on academic probation at this point or at least be talking to academic adviser to figure out how to improve yourself.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

First, post is too long, that's why the paucity of responses.

Second, yes cum application GPA needs to be at least in the 3's(possibly slightly below if your are an extraordinary applicant in other ways).

Third, college major doesn't matter.

You may make a great doctor, but the problem is that you are not a good or even average applicant. This road is going to be long and rough, and even in the end there are no guarantees.

-senior med student / admissions committee interviewer.



Maybe your improvement against such great odds will be viewed positively by adcoms?

 

[kutsuki]

Jesus, ok firstly. You need to identify what the problem was! Were you not studying hard enough? Honestly with your stats, you'll need to spend 2 years as a minimal! To re-do all your prerequisites. Then you'll need a 30+ on the mcat probably! Like honestly you should be worrying more about graduating! I honestly don't know, but DO schools are medical schools. They are not that much easier to get into then MD programs.
All I can say is you'll need to undo all the damage you did in undergrad.

Regarding my gpa and anything that I took as assumed, its here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=9448550

I fully understood needing at least a 30+ on the mcat. What damage would I need to correct on my pre-reqs excluding the obvious D's? I assumed that correcting them from lowest and up based on aacomas would be okay.
I predicted that it would take up to a year and a half possibly, but a full 2 years? D: (i'm quite tired of the repetitive days @ the school i'm in, though i hope they don't hear me say that xD)

Also, what are your thoughts on going with the psychology major rather than my current biology major?

 

[kutsuki]

First, post is too long, that's why the paucity of responses.

Second, yes cum application GPA needs to be at least in the 3's(possibly slightly below if your are an extraordinary applicant in other ways).

Third, college major doesn't matter.

You may make a great doctor, but the problem is that you are not a good or even average applicant. This road is going to be long and rough, and even in the end there are no guarantees.

-senior med student / admissions committee interviewer.



Maybe your improvement against such great odds will be viewed positively by adcoms?

Thank you I know of the no guarantees but....I hate to think about it @.@
It's quite unfortunate that my interest in switching schools to restart my gpa was met with a flat out 'wont work' response. D:

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Regarding my gpa and anything that I took as assumed, its here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=9448550

I fully understood needing at least a 30+ on the mcat. What damage would I need to correct on my pre-reqs excluding the obvious D's? I assumed that correcting them from lowest and up based on aacomas would be okay.
I predicted that it would take up to a year and a half possibly, but a full 2 years? D: (i'm quite tired of the repetitive days @ the school i'm in, though i hope they don't hear me say that xD)

Also, what are your thoughts on going with the psychology major rather than my current biology major?

Major doesn't matter. Damage repair is every grade below a C+. You'd probably need 2 years to get it up. In the end you need to spend some time to make sure you can get A's in your classes.

 

[kutsuki]

Major doesn't matter. Damage repair is every grade below a C+. You'd probably need 2 years to get it up. In the end you need to spend some time to make sure you can get A's in your classes.

Every grade below a C+. Gotcha.
Does this apply to science grades or all? I really hate to have to redo that nasty art history class from 4 years ago >.<

EDIT: OUCH. I just realized my Calculus 3 is on that list of "below C+" as its a solid C =\

 

[da8s0859q]

Also, what are your thoughts on going with the psychology major rather than my current biology major?

If you want to do it, then do it. You will:

- Enjoy college more.
- Probably score higher in your classes.
- Possibly come to enjoy your "pre-med" courses a little bit more because they've become the standalones compared to classes like cognitive psychology and the rest of the usual fare.
- (...).

There are several people here on SDN who are currently medical students and who have psychology degrees from their respective undergrad schools.

 

[riverjib]

Thank you I know of the no guarantees but....I hate to think about it @.@
It's quite unfortunate that my interest in switching schools to restart my gpa was met with a flat out 'wont work' response. D:

Switching schools won't help. But I believe that re-taking classes will change your GPA for DO schools. For the purposes of the AMCAS, everything you've taken is factored in.

I'm currently in the process of talking to the school I attended 13 years ago, in hopes of removing a full semester "unofficial withdrawals" from my transcript. It's not commonly done, but I had a legitimate reason for leaving mid-semester, so my chances are good. I should have done it then, but I was too distraught, and my transcript was the least of my concerns. Now 16 credits of 0.0 really matter. Since I've retaken all of those classes for A's, my stats wouldn't be affected for the DO application, but it would drag my AMCAS GPA down to a 3.6-3.7 uGPA/sGPA...which means I would probably be "screened out" before many schools even LOOK at my full application.

You want your GPA to be as high as possible before applying. When I returned to school, I sacrificed a lot to make sure I got A's. DO school is still less competitive, but the numbers are creeping up for accepted applicants at all medical schools. You have an incredible "rehab" task ahead of you. Start by re-taking BCPM classes required for med school, and do everything in your power to ace them. Then look at improving everything else, and moving past it. You should be aware that you can't afford to slip up now. You NEED A's. If you can strike a good work/school/life balance, that's great...but if not, you'll need to give up everything else in order to rehabilitate your transcript if you're serious about MD/DO school.

 

[da8s0859q]

but it would drag my AMCAS GPA down to a 3.6-3.7 uGPA/sGPA...which means I would probably be "screened out" before many schools even LOOK at my full application.

I'm not entirely sure if it would. Yes, there are quite a few schools who report a median matriculant sGPA in the 3.8s, but a 3.7 isn't exactly a bad thing.