researched and still clueless. please help i beg you.

[KK82]

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okay someone i know really needs some help.
these are her questions, in Quotes:

"
Okay i have a 3.19 bcpm and 3.45 overall from berk. 26 mcat.

Do i do a post-bac or masters. someone said if you do a masters it goes into graduate gpa so you still wont make the undergrad cutoff..

also, i have read faq and all that stuff so please someone answer my question!!!! i called every school on aamc for pst-bac and they all are just for people who are changing careers, so i don't think i qualify for 99% of these (like uc, usc...).

1) thus, i don't know why my counselor said do a post bac and not masters since I don't qualify for any post-bac.
i wanted to do a post-bac bc they help you prep for mcat and i thought a masters WONT HELP WITH THE MCAT. IS THAT TRUE???????

2)so if i do have to do a masters, are the only good ones georgetown, bu, drexel. Will they take me with my mcat?

so i gues i am asking, do i qualify for a post-bac, which i dont think i do, or a masters. if a masters how do you choose a good one that aims to get people into med school, since harvard and hopkins also offer masters, but no one talks about these as they do about georgetown and Bu
"

 

[rpost3]

hi,

Okay i have a 3.19 bcpm and 3.45 overall from berk. 26 mcat.

Do i do a post-bac or masters. someone said if you do a masters it goes into graduate gpa so you still wont make the undergrad cutoff..

also, i have read faq and all that stuff so please someone answer my question!!!! i called every school on aamc for pst-bac and they all are just for people who are changing careers, so i don't think i qualify for 99% of these (like uc, usc...).

1) thus, i don't know why my counselor said do a post bac and not masters since I don't qualify for any post-bac.
i wanted to do a post-bac bc they help you prep for mcat and i thought a masters WONT HELP WITH THE MCAT. IS THAT TRUE???????

2)so if i do have to do a masters, are the only good ones georgetown, bu, drexel. Will they take me with my mcat?

so i gues i am asking, do i qualify for a post-bac, which i dont think i do, or a masters. if a masters how do you choose a good one that aims to get people into med school, since harvard and hopkins also offer masters, but no one talks about these as they do about georgetown and Bu

Well, you can get into a D.O. school easily with those numbers, and probably a couple M.D. schools too. But I doubt you'll have much trouble getting into a school after any of those programs you asked about. But Philly is definitely the coolest city, better than Boston and DC 😉

 

[Law2Doc]

hi,

Okay i have a 3.19 bcpm and 3.45 overall from berk. 26 mcat.

Do i do a post-bac or masters. someone said if you do a masters it goes into graduate gpa so you still wont make the undergrad cutoff..

also, i have read faq and all that stuff so please someone answer my question!!!! i called every school on aamc for pst-bac and they all are just for people who are changing careers, so i don't think i qualify for 99% of these (like uc, usc...).

1) thus, i don't know why my counselor said do a post bac and not masters since I don't qualify for any post-bac.
i wanted to do a post-bac bc they help you prep for mcat and i thought a masters WONT HELP WITH THE MCAT. IS THAT TRUE???????

2)so if i do have to do a masters, are the only good ones georgetown, bu, drexel. Will they take me with my mcat?

so i gues i am asking, do i qualify for a post-bac, which i dont think i do, or a masters. if a masters how do you choose a good one that aims to get people into med school, since harvard and hopkins also offer masters, but no one talks about these as they do about georgetown and Bu

I'll take a stab at your question. There are lots of places where you can take upper level sciences which will count as "postbac" (post-baccalaureate) work, even though the place you take it may not have an official postbac track for someone who has already taken the prerequisites, and you will not be in an official "postbac" program. If you took a bunch of upper level sciences and aced them, you could goose up your BCPM. I suspect that is what your counselor meant by postbac. If you aced a bunch more sciences, and retook and improved your MCAT, you might be in decent shape. Your other option is to enroll in a SMP program(Georgetown being the best known of these, but there are a number of such). You are correct that a SMP (like any other graduate work) will not help average up your undergrad GPA. However these programs have good track records of people getting into med school, and having done well at a decent SMP program may help some med schools overlook a slightly below competitive GPA. You will likely want to retake the MCAT in either case and snag a couple more points if you desire to have a strong shot at an allopathic school, in my opinion.

 

[paradiselost]

i wanted to do a post-bac bc they help you prep for mcat and i thought a masters WONT HELP WITH THE MCAT. IS THAT TRUE???????

I did a master's at UMDNJ. I got to take some classes with the med students (especially physio), and it was spectacular prep for the MCAT bio section. The review books/classes mostly do basics and don't get into really specific topics that usually show up on passages. The physio (and biochem and genetics) class really helped familiarize me with a lot of the specifibc passage topics on the MCAT that undergrads aren't ever supposed to have seen before.

That being said, I still highly recommend taking a review class, unless you're so disciplined as to be able to write up your own schedule for studying, and, more importantly, stick to it. I certainly couldn't do that on my own.

Good luck.

 

[LAcmw]

hey..with those scores you can't be that bad off. i was in your same boat looking for a school and realized i can't even apply for most, if not all the programs. but wait...you did take your mcats!! if you're still in the state of CA, there are a ton of re-apps... but have you actually applied to med school at all?? and, you do qualify for post-bac programs...almost most the UCs have re-apps for those that have taken the MCATs. really..your best bet is to go back to your school and get some advisement so they can guide you in the best direction. i was able to get an appt with the director of prehealth professionals today at Cal State LA and she helped me thoroughly. well, i hope i helped a bit...good luck!

hi,

Okay i have a 3.19 bcpm and 3.45 overall from berk. 26 mcat.

Do i do a post-bac or masters. someone said if you do a masters it goes into graduate gpa so you still wont make the undergrad cutoff..

also, i have read faq and all that stuff so please someone answer my question!!!! i called every school on aamc for pst-bac and they all are just for people who are changing careers, so i don't think i qualify for 99% of these (like uc, usc...).

1) thus, i don't know why my counselor said do a post bac and not masters since I don't qualify for any post-bac.
i wanted to do a post-bac bc they help you prep for mcat and i thought a masters WONT HELP WITH THE MCAT. IS THAT TRUE???????

2)so if i do have to do a masters, are the only good ones georgetown, bu, drexel. Will they take me with my mcat?

so i gues i am asking, do i qualify for a post-bac, which i dont think i do, or a masters. if a masters how do you choose a good one that aims to get people into med school, since harvard and hopkins also offer masters, but no one talks about these as they do about georgetown and Bu

 

[mizzoudude]

Hey buddy,

Whats up? I am in the same boat..almost same stats. I have a 3.27 overall and a MCAT of 25. I am going to attend a masters program at the university of louisville (my parents live here)...I am going to go to the advising office on the 4th of August to get this cleared up about getting screened with a low undergrad GPA. Even if I get a 4.0 in the masters program, what is the point if I get screened out with my undergrad?

Most of the people in here are either those who think they know it all...or just generalizing after talking to their one school...etc. But all their opinions are respected. I called both my state schools and they said they would definately consider my masters GPA. I am still skeptical and want the answer from their mouths, so I am going to go see them soon.

Check out the link from the masters program I am doing and look at the people who have gone onto medical school from there...it is encouraging:
http://www.louisville.edu/medschool/physiology/degawded.htm

Definately call your state schools and ask them if you will be screened out even if you get a 4.0 in your masters program. If you have any questions/comments feel free to post or to send me a private message. Thanks all.

 

[AnotherDork]

What was your major? If you already have a bunch of science courses under your belt, I'd go for a SMP. Your undergrad grades are decent- not an insurmountable obstacle.

If you majored in something other than sciences, a postbacc will probably do the same job and possibly save you money. However, an SMP will probably help more with the bio section of the MCAT.

I may be biased because I'm an SMP graduate. 😀 And my undergrad grades were much worse than yours. And since I did a SMP, they did split up my GPA into undergrad and grad (so they saw my crappy 3.1, 2.9 science undergrad) but I still did fine in the application process.

 

[peppy6]

hi,

Okay i have a 3.19 bcpm and 3.45 overall from berk. 26 mcat.

Do i do a post-bac or masters. someone said if you do a masters it goes into graduate gpa so you still wont make the undergrad cutoff..

also, i have read faq and all that stuff so please someone answer my question!!!! i called every school on aamc for pst-bac and they all are just for people who are changing careers, so i don't think i qualify for 99% of these (like uc, usc...).

Also, I was wondering if anyone knew about submitting MCAT scores to these post-bac programs and SMPs. I am planning on applying to a few of these programs for the 2006-2007 school year and am going to take the April 2006 MCAT. I know that Georgetown says it's okay to take the April MCAT during the application period but do you know if other schools will also accept this score? I had originally planned on taking the MCAT this Aug but decided that I still needed to improve a bit more. I'm just worried that come April, I might find that it's too late to submit my MCAT score for these programs, and that'd be stinky. I looked up a bunch of programs recently but they didn't all talk about this situation. Any help/ideas would be appreciated!

 

[EastWestN2grt]

hi, i took my mcats, got a 26 and applied just for the hell of it. did you do a masters or post bac or anything like at drexel or georgetown.

KK82,

Did you look at the post-bacc programs at UCSan Fran and UC Irvine(if still in Cali.) Both of these programs will take re-apps: people who have taken the MCATS and have applied, but did NOT get accepted the first time into med school. The also have linkage programs with their respective med schools.

But as another poster said: You could definetely get into a DO school with those stats. You should consider it as an option.