Retaking a college course from 9 years ago.

[CardiothoracicSurgery]

I'm in the strangest predicament. I could really use some advice.

About me:
I'm 25 years old, graduated from college in 2012 with B.Sci. in Cell Biology (minor in chem), undergraduate GPA 3.57, Awarded Honors, and 2nd MCAT of 29, and now a full fledged nontraditional applicant. I have what I call these "anchors" weighing me down for applying for US MD schools. I have two anchors. As of right now, I'm studying to retake my MCAT because my second score was 29 (BS 11, PS 12, VR 6). You may notice that VR score is the reason why I'm retaking it. Thats my first anchor, which I'm taking care of right now. (Responsibility)

What I'm doing now:
Besides from studying for my third MCAT, I just completed 8 postbach courses back at my university and community college. Four of them being BCPM and the others being pre-med Honors GE requisites. I got A's in all of them, so hopefully that budged my GPA just a little. (Haven't calculated it yet). I'm trying to lift myself over the 3.6 bracket, so I'm planning on taking more courses in the Spring of 2015 at a community college (Honors) in effort to really boost my US MD chances before May applications swing around. (SMPs are a strong possibility.)

Issue:

My undergrad AMCAS GPA isn't actually 3.57.

There's a little issue I have with one course that would severely crash my GPA down into the ground if I took it into calculation. I have a grade of D from a five unit Armenian Language course which I took way back when I was 16 years old (9 years ago)! My parents put me in that community college class in hopes that I would relearn my native language. When they discovered it was taught in a dialect thats very different from our own, they felt it best to take me out midway so I could focus more on high school. Unbeknownst to me at that time, they unofficially withdrew me which resulted in a grade of D. I didn't care much about it, because I was a college-bound high schooler with no intent to transfer over any cc courses. Flash forward a few years, my university found out I've actually been to that community college - all hell broke loose.
By law I was required to submit my transcripts over to them otherwise I wasn't allowed to enroll in any courses. I rushed and fought viciously to get that grade academically renewed, which successfully went as planned. My university GPA remained unhindered. Unfortunately though, for those who don't know, if you have a Grade Forgiveness or an Academic Renewal, AMCAS applications won't care. You'd be required to submit that entire grade with the units and all. I tried fighting tooth and nail to have the CC officials modify my transcripts to replace that units with zeros in lieu of placing parenthesis around the grade and units. (That's how they indicate it's academically renewed). That way, I'll have the grade left intact but the units won't count against me. Exactly what Academic Renewal is supposed to do. I thought that would be a fair petition to fight for. As of right now, I sadly lost a quasi-legal battle between the Dean of Student Services (prosecutor) and myself (defendant), with the Community College President acting as the final decider (Judge). I've spent SIX months fighting it. The CC transcripts remain as is and I have to submit that 5 unit D anyway. This anchor, along with my VR reasoning, was the reason why I didn't apply this year. Mainly because it made me late.

"Why not just retake the course, you big Dummy?" Said the Ugly Angry Troll.
"Just worry about your MCAT, pfftt you'll never be a doctor." Said again the Ugly Angry Troll

-Well Troll, putting your insecurities aside, let me answer that for you.
That course is NO LONGER offered at that CC anymore! (Bummer)

Now for you're Two Cents
Do any of you guys know if retaking a course at another community college counts as a retake?

My university never allows grade forgiveness or grade rollover unless its the same exact course from the same exact school. Does AMCAS work like this? Could I mark it as a repeat? I have no idea how it works but I will do whatever it takes. I'm looking forward to retaking that course and getting an A, but I need to know if its worthwhile. I rather invest time working on BCMPs after I'm done with my third and final MCAT.

I may have anchors weighing me down, but strong winds are pushing my ship forward.

[Please don't mention DO's or Caribbean's. Yes, I have considered them. Yes, I know they're awesome. Yes, I will apply for them too. No Troll, I will still apply for MDs. Down Troll, down.]

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[Aerus]

If you're applying MD, there is no way to discount that D. Even if your University allows some sort of grade replacement policy, that grade will STILL count as 5 units of D.

Don't bother applying Caribbean. It's not worth the trouble.




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[Afford]

How much does it lower your GPA? If you did 120 credits with a 3.57, an F of 5 hours will lower your GPA to a 3.42, which isn't great, but you can still get into a medical school. At least it's not BCPM b/c that would have hurt your science GPA by a lot.

 

[CardiothoracicSurgery]

If you're applying MD, there is no way to discount that D. Even if your University allows some sort of grade replacement policy, that grade will STILL count as 5 units of D.

Don't bother applying Caribbean. It's not worth the trouble.
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"What do you mean by "Don't Bother?"

 

[Boolean]

"What do you mean by "Don't Bother?"

The likelihood of matching from a Caribbean school != the amount of money and time risked.

 

[DifferentialDiagnosis]

"What do you mean by "Don't Bother?"

He means don't dig yourself into a very deep financial grave. Go DO.

 

[Conflagration]

The likelihood of matching from a Caribbean school != the amount of money and time risked.

I didn't know there was a user with the UN Boolean! I'm in Programming now.

OP, if you try to go to the Caribbean for medical training, it's not as easy as you may think.

Regardless of whether or not you are a US resident, you will be considered a foreign medical school graduate, which can really restrict your options. That's also assuming that you do graduate- which is incredibly hard to do so from a Caribbean school.

Applying to DO programs allows you to replace some of your classes that you may have not done so well in, as long as you retake the class and do better.

Equivalence is proven by either retaking the class at the institution in question (by far the easier option), or taking the class somewhere else, as long as it has the same number of credit hours and a similar title, if memory serves me right.

Good luck to you!

 

[MrLogan13]

Assuming ~120 units at your university, that 5 unit D drops you from a 3.57 to a 3.47. Not ideal, but not terrible. If you're taking post-bacc classes, then those will help. You're probably not going to get that D removed, so don't expend your time and energy there. Instead, kill your post-bacc classes and work on improving your VR score.