Retaking courses

[wasteofskin]

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Hi, I was wondering if I should even bother thinking about med school. My GPA upon graduating was only a 3.0 and then I spent a year taking and retaking some more courses. I did really well this past year and got straight A's and A+'s. But my GPA is now still only a 3.3 or so. I would need another year and a half to bring it up to 3.8, which I think seems to be considered competitive for US med schools. I live in Canada and it seems like all the schools here want 3.9 to be competitive. Not only that, but if you retook a course, they want you to disclose it and instead of just taking the new grade into consideration, they take the average of the two grades. That means that it's basically impossible for me to get into a Canadian med school. I don't want to go to the Caribbean. I haven't done much research on American med schools yet because I just recently started thinking about this route. Can anybody tell me if I even have a chance? Are there any decent American med schools that forgive previous bad grades?

 

[SpoiledMilk]

Not an expert, but AMCAS considers all grades. I believe this is the last app cycle where DO schools will consider grade replacement. Others will hopefully confirm. But as of right now, your best bet is DO route with grade replacement.

P.S. Unless Canada has a whole different set of mathematical laws, is it really possible to pull a 3.8 after only 2.5 years of As after a 3.0?

 

[wasteofskin]

Not an expert, but AMCAS considers all grades. I believe this is the last app cycle where DO schools will consider grade replacement. Others will hopefully confirm. But as of right now, your best bet is DO route with grade replacement.

P.S. Unless Canada has a whole different set of mathematical laws, is it really possible to pull a 3.8 after only 2.5 years of As after a 3.0?

Damn, I hate that policy. My old grades do not reflect my current level. I'm a completely different person now.

There were a few particularly bad grades bringing my GPA down. I failed Orgo 1 and 2 and Physics and did pretty bad in first year Bio as well. I just finished retaking Orgo 1 and will probably get an A or an A+. Going to start Orgo 2 on Monday. Next year I was planning on retaking Physics but now it all just seems pointless.

I may not be using the correct GPA values since I go to York University and they use a 9 point system which I tried to convert to the American system: Weighted Grade / GPA Calculator (York U) - GradeCalc.info

I'm currently sitting at a B+ average.

EDIT: after doing some more calculations, I realize you are correct. I can't get a 3.8. It seems like even if I take 3 more years worth of credits and get an A+ in all of them, I still won't be at a 3.8...