Question concerning GPA. (Another one.)

[Ragman]

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If you had messed up in the past, and were to take a lot of classes over time in order to slowly raise your GPA up (seeing as how retakes are factored into your cumulative and science GPA in the end for med school), is that okay to do so?

I'm asking this hypothetically, as I really have no desire to use this as an excuse to slack off now seeing that it would cost a lot more time and money in the long run. I just wonder sometimes how people go about getting into med school who have made some serious mistakes in the past. They have to have some kind of option to raise their GPA since they can't escape the withdrawals and bad grades they made years ago, right?

 

[bobodylan41]

I think that if you messed up awhile ago and you are showing a good positive trend toward the end then that should be fine. Overloading on classes I guess could work to raise your GPA, but it probably wouldn't raise it more than a couple points. Med schools would probably just want to talk to you about why you did poorly.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

If you had messed up in the past, and were to take a lot of classes over time in order to slowly raise your GPA up (seeing as how retakes are factored into your cumulative and science GPA in the end for med school), is that okay to do so?

I'm asking this hypothetically, as I really have no desire to use this as an excuse to slack off now seeing that it would cost a lot more time and money in the long run. I just wonder sometimes how people go about getting into med school who have made some serious mistakes in the past. They have to have some kind of option to raise their GPA since they can't escape the withdrawals and bad grades they made years ago, right?

how else would you do it?

 

[MilkmanAl]

A good upward trend will certainly help your chances. If you're applying to DO schools, you might look into retaking any classes you got D's and F's in (C- or lower really is where my cutoff would be) because they'll actually replace your older grade with the newer one instead of just averaging them out.

 

[oaklandguy]

How bad are we talking? If it will take you 2 years to get your GPA up to something workable then I would suggest looking into a Special Masters Program or something of that nature. If we're talking going up from a 3.4 to a 3.6 then yes, do what you have to do. I don't think it's worth retaking 40 credits or something like that to raise your GPA slightly.

 

[smad4]

Always better to do better from the start than show this upward trend.

 

[Ragman]

How bad are we talking?

I don't know, as I'm not even in this situation. Besides a few C's at the beginning of my college career, I'm doing well and haven't even taken my science prerequisites yet.

I was just asking is all.