Returned to school to improve GPA

[mattosu]

First off I'm not asking "what are my chances with a 400 AA/ 400 TS a 4.30 GPA, 2000 hours of shadowing and a LOR from the president of the college that I want to go to."
So... I went to college and got a BA in psychology in 2005, didn't want to do anything with that and joined the army for 4 years. decided to go to optometry school went back to take science courses and a few other prereques. With my first 4 years in college I had a 2.9 something GPA but for the last 5 quarters i have had a 3.5 GPA almost all science classes. but because there is so much pulling my overall GPA down will that hurt my chances, or will the curve up at the end even it out? has anyone else been in a similar situation?
Just to be clear Im only asking about the GPA factor, my OAT scores were good.

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[pienfoo]

First off I'm not asking "what are my chances with a 400 AA/ 400 TS a 4.30 GPA, 2000 hours of shadowing and a LOR from the president of the college that I want to go to."
So... I went to college and got a BA in psychology in 2005, didn't want to do anything with that and joined the army for 4 years. decided to go to optometry school went back to take science courses and a few other prereques. With my first 4 years in college I had a 2.9 something GPA but for the last 5 quarters i have had a 3.5 GPA almost all science classes. but because there is so much pulling my overall GPA down will that hurt my chances, or will the curve up at the end even it out? has anyone else been in a similar situation?
Just to be clear Im only asking about the GPA factor, my OAT scores were good.

some schools require a 3.0 minimum gpa, period. but the majority don't and will take into consideration your recent performance. of course you'd really have to push at it in your essay as well. they will always make sure your academics are strong enough prior to evaluating everything else (which do matter). so if your GPA is weighted down just have a really good OAT score (350+ in every/most sections) then i don't see a problem of you getting in. plus you were in the army which is something nice to talk about with the admissions counselors. g'luck you'll be just fine.

 

[optoapp2012]

First off I'm not asking "what are my chances with a 400 AA/ 400 TS a 4.30 GPA, 2000 hours of shadowing and a LOR from the president of the college that I want to go to."
So... I went to college and got a BA in psychology in 2005, didn't want to do anything with that and joined the army for 4 years. decided to go to optometry school went back to take science courses and a few other prereques. With my first 4 years in college I had a 2.9 something GPA but for the last 5 quarters i have had a 3.5 GPA almost all science classes. but because there is so much pulling my overall GPA down will that hurt my chances, or will the curve up at the end even it out? has anyone else been in a similar situation?
Just to be clear Im only asking about the GPA factor, my OAT scores were good.

I think you're fine.

(A) Yes that curve up at the end makes a big difference. Your most recent performance is most important, as is the fact that your science classes all fall into that higher GPA part of your studies.

(B) It's been a lot of years since the 2.9 GPA - schools know you change a lot as a person since that time.

(C) Your GPA doesn't have to be above 3.0 from any one particular school - if you factor all of your classes together into one GPA, you will be above a 3.0 for sure.

BUT...something important to think about...some schools have time limits on classes taken. So double check the pre-req lists and make sure that any classes you took in your first 4 years that you want to count for the pre-req's are allowed by the schools. For example, science classes are usually only counted 5 years from when you took them. Since you took mostly science classes in the post-bacc work, then just check things like calculus, psychology, English, etc. Every school is different, so you will need to check with each of their admissions offices separately.