Medical Should I do a DIY Post-Bacc?

[TheBoneDoctah]

Hey everyone, hope you're all safe during the pandemic :')!

I know this cycle is far from over, but I rather start thinking about reapplication come next year. Currently, I'm looking into doing a DIY post-bacc and just wanted to understand what I'm getting myself into. I'm 2 years out undergrad (doing a bioethics masters currently lol) and I graduated with a 3.5 cGPA and ~3.18 sGPA. I know that sGPA looks bad :/ Without getting too personal, my second year in college was pretty bad with my grades going from 3.8, to 3.0, to 2.8, and then averaging around a 3.9 after the fourth semester. My MCAT is a 511 so I don't think I'm going to retake it. I think my main barrier is my sGPA and I was wondering if a diy post-bacc at my local SUNY could somehow make up for it? If not make up, then show improvement, at least?

I was thinking of taking ~3 courses this winter break, 3 next semester, and then 3 over the summer, so around ~27 credits. And by the time I apply next cycle, I should have ~18 graded credits. Guess I'm asking for validation if this seems like an alright plan? What I'm worried about is that during undergrad, I took around ~200 credits so I'm not even sure if a small number like 30 credits would eve. impact my sGPA.

Thanks in advance !

Why are you doing a Master's? Are you factoring in your Master's courses with your 3.5/3.18?

Yes, you should do a post-bac and need to absolutely do well. This isn't about raising your actual GPA so much as showing you can excel in rigorous courses. As a rule of thumb, you need at least a year of courses to really show this.

Do NOT retake the MCAT. 511 is good.

What does the rest of your application look like as far as volunteer (clinical/non-clinical), research, and shadowing?

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[TheBoneDoctah]

Hey, thanks for the response, I appreciate it!
The masters was offered free through my job to do at any institution so I thought it would be interesting and a nice addition to my app wth LORs. Unfortunately, didn't factor post-bacc into my time. The 3.5/3.18 is strictly my undergrad gpa. So far with my masters, I have a 4.0 but the classes themselves aren't hard science as is the nature with bioethics

Thanks, haha! I really didn't want to retake it, but I am nervous about the expiration date. I know most schools tasks up to 3 years, and I took it in 2020 so that looks fine.

Research hours: ~6000 (currently doing this full time)
Shadowing: ~300 through scribing
Clinical: ~600 during my gap year
Non-clinical: ~500 during my gap year

I'm aware that my hours for clinical and non-clinical aren't that great given that I'm doing it during my gap year, but unfortunately, COVID halted those hours a few months ago :/

Thanks again!

Very good. So you are probably aware but Masters classes won’t factor into your GPA.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Yeah :/ Should've thought about before, a really stupid mistake. It's super interesting, just not really helping application-wise; that's why I was thinking post-bacc!

Yeah, post-bac would for sure work.