Retaking courses at other colleges?

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EMTB2MD

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Hello everyone,

I've been out of college for about 8 years now and havn't used my sience degree whatsoever. I need to take/retake a couple of courses in order to be a competitive applicant. My undergrad was in biology and I had a 3.48 gpa. In calculus I got a C- so it looks like that will probably be the first class I'll be taking followed by the two organics.

For convience, I'm choosing to take calculus this spring at a local 4 year private college right across the street from where I work full time. It is not where I graduated from. Will medical schools take the average of the two grades? If I do not do well in the course (anything less than a B) do I have to report it? How would anyone know I took the course? The reason I ask these questions is because right now I'm a bit rusty not having taken a single class in years (it's been 12 years since I took calculus) and may need some adjustment to taking college classes but don't want to harm my transcript in the process.

Thanks,

Ken

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Allopathic Medical Schools will AVERAGE all of your grades.

Osteopathic Medical Schools will allow you to REPLACE grades from equal courses, should you retake and do better. (I believe that this is the case, I ended up not applying Osteopathic this year, so if this is incorrect, please correct me.) TCOM, which uses TMDSAS instead of AACOMAS is an exception. See the rules for Allopathic Medical Schools above.

For BOTH, you must submit ALL of your transcripts from EVERY College/University for EVERY class that you have EVER taken.
 
Thanks for your reply. Everyone is very helpful on here! One more question for all. What would stop an overachiever from taking/auditing a difficult course (such as biochem) at a community college or another college prior to taking it at their main university to guarantee an 'A'? I remember back in high school a bunch of my friends took classes at a local college in their junior year in high school to get ahead senior year and be better prepared for their first year in college. I personally couldn't do that since I work full time (60+ hrs/wk) and volunteer another 20 hours per week (not to mention being 31 years old with a family), but for a student with a lot of time on their hands it could be beneficial. Is there any way for admissions to check to see if you took courses anywhere other than the transcripts you send them?

Thanks,

Ken
 
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Thanks for your reply. Everyone is very helpful on here! One more question for all. What would stop an overachiever from taking/auditing a difficult course (such as biochem) at a community college or another college prior to taking it at their main university to guarantee an 'A'? I remember back in high school a bunch of my friends took classes at a local college in their junior year in high school to get ahead senior year and be better prepared for their first year in college. I personally couldn't do that since I work full time (60+ hrs/wk) and volunteer another 20 hours per week (not to mention being 31 years old with a family), but for a student with a lot of time on their hands it could be beneficial. Is there any way for admissions to check to see if you took courses anywhere other than the transcripts you send them?

Thanks,

Ken

I believe that AMCAS requires that you to list EVERY class that you ever completed (or earned an incomplete) from EVERY single post-secondary school that you ever attended at the time of application, even if no credit was earned for that class. If you have a transcript from that school, you need to send it to AMCAS. If it isn't on your transcript yet, and you are taking it now, then there is no way for them to know about it (I don't think they will sweat that). Most medical schools will request an updated copy of your transcript upon matriculation, however, to confirm successful completion of the premedical requirements and, in some cases, your earned degree.

Now, I'm sure it's very possible they won't find out about it if you don't tell them. It's out of integrity, but I'm sure some people choose to do that at their own risk.

Personally, I wouldn't take a class at a CC just to learn the material so that I could potentially perform better; it's too time consuming and inefficient.
 
Hello everyone,

I've been out of college for about 8 years now and havn't used my sience degree whatsoever. I need to take/retake a couple of courses in order to be a competitive applicant. My undergrad was in biology and I had a 3.48 gpa. In calculus I got a C- so it looks like that will probably be the first class I'll be taking followed by the two organics.

For convience, I'm choosing to take calculus this spring at a local 4 year private college right across the street from where I work full time. It is not where I graduated from. Will medical schools take the average of the two grades? If I do not do well in the course (anything less than a B) do I have to report it? How would anyone know I took the course? The reason I ask these questions is because right now I'm a bit rusty not having taken a single class in years (it's been 12 years since I took calculus) and may need some adjustment to taking college classes but don't want to harm my transcript in the process.

Thanks,

Ken

EMT, out of curiosity, why are you retaking a calc class? I don't think it is required for the MCAT, nor other classes.
 
^
It's not a requirement for the MCAT and many medical schools don't require it, but then again, some schools do. Calculus is a class that is also factored into the BCPM GPA (biology, chemistry, physics, and math), aka "science" GPA, and may be required for certain college physics and upper level chemistry classes (if you want to get your GPA up by taking some upper level classes). Grade replacement is an option for DO schools, I believe, which could potentially help his GPA.

I can't speak for EMTB2MD, but I took all of my premedical requirements between 8-15 years ago. Most medical schools would want you to basically retake all or the majority of them again after that length of time to show competency, even if you did "well" in them before. Yeah, I know it's funny to think that requirements have an expiry date, but they do! Nevertheless, it's one of the challenges that some non-trads have to face. I retook about 35 credits of basic premedical classes through an informal post-bacc program, not including calculus and english (I assumed that most institutions wouldn't care so much about these, and would be satisfied that I took them at least once before; besides, I did well in two semesters of calculus-based physics).
 
Now I'm starting to freak out...again. My advisor told me I wouldn't have to retake any classes I already took even though it was 8 years ago. if you think about it, why should you have to 'renew' your classes anyway? As long as you do well on the mcat it shows you have a good foundation for medschool. my advisor did highly recommend that I retake calculus and get no lower than an A. I wonder how many credits I need to move my gpa from 3.48 to over 3.5. having above a 3.5 looks a lot better. ideally I'd like to get around the 3.6 mark but that would involve more classes than I have time to take.

thanks,
ken
 
Now I'm starting to freak out...again. My advisor told me I wouldn't have to retake any classes I already took even though it was 8 years ago. if you think about it, why should you have to 'renew' your classes anyway? As long as you do well on the mcat it shows you have a good foundation for medschool. my advisor did highly recommend that I retake calculus and get no lower than an A. I wonder how many credits I need to move my gpa from 3.48 to over 3.5. having above a 3.5 looks a lot better. ideally I'd like to get around the 3.6 mark but that would involve more classes than I have time to take.

thanks,
ken


Hopefully the med schools you plan on applying to don't have a "current course work" requirement. Some require coursework to be completed within 7 years.
 
Now I'm starting to freak out...again. My advisor told me I wouldn't have to retake any classes I already took even though it was 8 years ago. if you think about it, why should you have to 'renew' your classes anyway? As long as you do well on the mcat it shows you have a good foundation for medschool. my advisor did highly recommend that I retake calculus and get no lower than an A. I wonder how many credits I need to move my gpa from 3.48 to over 3.5. having above a 3.5 looks a lot better. ideally I'd like to get around the 3.6 mark but that would involve more classes than I have time to take.

thanks,
ken

Take a deep breath. :) Check your radial pulse. Repeat until you are around 60 BPM. :)

It sounds suspicious to me when an advisor recommends retaking calculus, but not other more relevant premedical requirements, or even taking more advanced classes in BCPM. Was calculus the only premed requirement that you didn't do well in? If so, then your advisor is probably right on about retaking that class.

I don't know for sure if you need to retake your premedical requirement classes. I was also told, as Meg mentioned, that some medical schools require that requirements be taken within 7 years of application; the exact time frame probably varies per school. So, I'd check directly with the admissions departments of the individual schools that you are thinking about applying to, for their advice. I'd trust them over your advisor, who may not have all the facts on applying as a non-traditional student who has been away from school for awhile. After all, these individual departments are the final authority on the matter. I think you'll probably find that some schools will recommend that you refresh your requirements and some will invite you to take upper level equivalents to show competency. Heck, some might even be okay with you as you are now.

I don't know though. I just know that I talked with some advisors at a few formal post-baccalaureate programs and they recommended that I take my classes again, both for the MCAT and for application. I threw in an advanced class or two as well. Then again, I've been away from academics for a LONG time.

It's true that the MCAT is a good indicator of knowledge, most medical schools also like to see that you are up to speed with your study skills, which are best seen through direct academic performance over time. On some secondary applications that I am filling out now, they ask you the date that you took the class. I'm not sure what that means, but it shows that they are interested in that fact.

In short, talk to some real admissions people and maybe to some formal post-baccalaureate programs for advice.

Good luck!
 
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