Question about retakes

[Jlaw]

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I'm a non-trad doing a post bacc program to complete my science requirements at the moment. I'm over halfway through and getting to the point where I'm starting to plan for my application. I put together a spreadsheet of all the classes I took when I earned a BS in Finance back in 2004 and the sciences I've taken so far during the post bacc program.

Long story short my undergrad cGPA was around a 2.9. At present my cGPA has risen to a 3.03 as a result of my post bacc. If I continue doing well in the post bacc I can expect to have a 3.15cGPA with a science GPA between 3.7 and 4.0.

I have 7 undergrad classes with C's or below (two were D's). If I retake these and get A's, which would probably be very easy to do, I could bring my cGPA up to a 3.4 or 3.5

Is it worth the time/money to retake them all just to bump my GPA? A couple are good classes (calc, psych, etc), but I also have some BS stuff like Art History. Also, when should I take them by? If I plan on applying next summer/fall would it be ok to do the majority of the retakes in the Fall and then update my application or should I have them done before I submit? I will probably try to squeeze a few in here and there before then but I want to keep my focus on the post bacc program until next spring.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[jpagano]

It seems at this point, your goal (i.e.GPA wise) should be to maximize your SCIENCE GPA and to assure that your cumulative is above a 3.0.

That is what I would do.

BTW, math does not count towards your SCIENCE GPA for Osteopathic Medical Schools. Hope that helps.

 

[Jlaw]

It seems at this point, your goal (i.e.GPA wise) should be to maximize your SCIENCE GPA and to assure that your cumulative is above a 3.0.

That is what I would do.

BTW, math does not count towards your SCIENCE GPA for Osteopathic Medical Schools. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the info. My cum is already over 3.0 and the science GPA is good so hopefully I keep it that way. Anyone else have any advice on the retakes?

If I ended up with a 3.7-4.0 science GPA, a good (30+) MCAT and a 3.1-3.2 cumGPA would I be competetive or would the low cumGPA kill me?

 

[Goro]

Right now the admissions field is VERY competitive at DO schools. Do yourself a favor: look at the avg GPA and MCAT scores for the different schools. You'll find that a cGPA of <3.2 is NOT very competetive; but >3.4 is.

So yes, if you want something hard enough, it's worth doing the work.