Retaking classes or upper-division

[Poisson]

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I want to take biochemistry, but have also considered retaking general biology from back a ways. Retaking the biology (C) would bring my GPA up more if I get an A, but I feel much more interested in taking biochemistry and other uperdivision courses. My case is a 3.2 bs and a 4.0 ms, thesis. I may actually do both, but just curious. To me, if I was on admissions I would like the upper division course, but the retake does play a bigger impact. I would like to hear people that have had success based on this, and not guesses. I.e., it would be interesting to hear someone say they got accepted by retaking their courses only, or one person that did not elect to retake courses that got accepted, and hear the sides. I recently read a guy on here said he got a C- in general bio, and was accepted to MD, that told a kid to chill when he was considering retaking the course. I really want to improve my profile for MD admission as well, and considering they don't accept retakes, I figured why bother. Also, with so many science credits, yes retaking moves the
GPA up faster for DO, but it is still quite incremental.

My next question is, are there specific biology courses that are must haves that are not listed on the pre-reqs? I was contacting some school and the admissions board member gave me a list of courses that were required to consider the applicant, and they were far beyond general bio and what not. I however think this is a really rare case for a med school. I talked to an engineer in radiology residency that had no pre-reqs complete in bio, and took them concurrently while applying, 2 courses. He had about a 3.7 in engineering, plus a masters, and this was in the 2000s to a DO school.

Should I do both retake and upper levels? No retake and upper levels only? Are cell, genetics, and biochem required at most schools (MD and DO)?

 

[dntke1518]

I want to take biochemistry, but have also considered retaking general biology from back a ways. Retaking the biology (C) would bring my GPA up more if I get an A, but I feel much more interested in taking biochemistry and other uperdivision courses. My case is a 3.2 bs and a 4.0 ms, thesis. I may actually do both, but just curious. To me, if I was on admissions I would like the upper division course, but the retake does play a bigger impact. I would like to hear people that have had success based on this, and not guesses. I.e., it would be interesting to hear someone say they got accepted by retaking their courses only, or one person that did not elect to retake courses that got accepted, and hear the sides. I recently read a guy on here said he got a C- in general bio, and was accepted to MD, that told a kid to chill when he was considering retaking the course. I really want to improve my profile for MD admission as well, and considering they don't accept retakes, I figured why bother. Also, with so many science credits, yes retaking moves the
GPA up faster for DO, but it is still quite incremental.

My next question is, are there specific biology courses that are must haves that are not listed on the pre-reqs? I was contacting some school and the admissions board member gave me a list of courses that were required to consider the applicant, and they were far beyond general bio and what not. I however think this is a really rare case for a med school. I talked to an engineer in radiology residency that had no pre-reqs complete in bio, and took them concurrently while applying, 2 courses. He had about a 3.7 in engineering, plus a masters, and this was in the 2000s to a DO school.

Should I do both retake and upper levels? No retake and upper levels only? Are cell, genetics, and biochem required at most schools (MD and DO)?

I would do both, and yes Cell, Genetics and Biochem are pre-reqs in some cases, best to take them anyways as you will have them in medical school.

 

[Poisson]

Yes, I think taking all of these would be good as well. Some evaluators could look for this.