SMP vs. Post-Bacc vs. Retaking classes.. help please!

[rachanaaa]

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Hi all!🙂

I am a 24 year old non-traditional student. I majored in finance and proceeded to get my MBA right out of undergrad. I had taken all my pre-med prerequisites just because I had a slight interest in pursuing medicine and now, 2 years out of college, I've realized that medicine is, in fact, definitely what I want to do.

My GPA however, is going to be problematic in this pursuit. I have a 3.13 BCPM GPA, a 3.2 cum and a 3.65 business school gpa. I have A's and B's in everything except a C and a D+ in Physics, and 2 Cs in OChem. I was hoping that you guys could give me some advice on whether to take the post-bacc/SMP/or retake classes at a state or community college route to make medicine a reality for me.

A little bit of background in case you needed it when advising me: I'm presently studying for my MCATS and planning on taking them in January of 2012. I have a full time research position and have boat loads of shadowing and volunteering experience both inside the country and out. I'm totally open to both MD & DO but am realllly hoping to exhaust all other options before considering leaving the country to go to med school.

Thank you in advance for all of your help!!

 

[AM4012]

Hey. I'm a 24 year old doing the same thing you are. I'm kinda new to the board but so far I've been told to consider the SMP. I graduated with a B.A. in Biochemistry and a B.S. in Biotechnology with a 3.2 cGPA. A common theme I see throughout the posts in this forum is to re-take your pre-med courses as a non-degree seeking student if you need GPA repair in that area...then apply to med school with a great MCAT score or consider an SMP. This is the advice I was given recently on this forum.

I work full time in a research position right now so I get tuition reimbursement for my classes. Intro chem is like $2500 here, so money is alway an issue with that plan. Wish I had more to offer, but I thought this would be somewhat relevant. Good luck.

 

[TwinsFan]

I'm pretty sure most schools won't count a prereq lower than a C, so a retake of physics is in order.

I would personally retake those 4 classes to boost the gpa for DO schools and show you can handle the sciences. Those are very low grades (3Cs and a D+) in important classes to be thinking about med school, also you need to know this material inside and out for the MCAT. If you retake all 4 with a few upper level courses (1 yr full time) and then rock the MCAT, that should gain you some academic credibility.

 

[theseeker4]

Hi all!🙂
I am a 24 year old non-traditional student. I majored in finance and proceeded to get my MBA right out of undergrad. I had taken all my pre-med prerequisites just because I had a slight interest in pursuing medicine and now, 2 years out of college, I've realized that medicine is, in fact, definitely what I want to do.

My GPA however, is going to be problematic in this pursuit. I have a 3.13 BCPM GPA, a 3.2 cum and a 3.65 business school gpa. I have A's and B's in everything except a C and a D+ in Physics, and 2 Cs in OChem. I was hoping that you guys could give me some advice on whether to take the post-bacc/SMP/or retake classes at a state or community college route to make medicine a reality for me.

A little bit of background in case you needed it when advising me: I'm presently studying for my MCATS and planning on taking them in January of 2012. I have a full time research position and have boat loads of shadowing and volunteering experience both inside the country and out. I'm totally open to both MD & DO but am realllly hoping to exhaust all other options before considering leaving the country to go to med school.

Thank you in advance for all of your help!!

As already suggested, retake the pre-reqs you got lower than a B in and get A's. Do this BEFORE taking the MCAT. You have a below-average GPA, and you will still have one when you apply, so you want your MCAT to be as high as possible when you apply. The best way to get a good MCAT is to ace the pre-reqs so you just have to review what you already know, rather than learn everything outside of class for the test. After re-taking your classes, take every practice test you can get your hands on, and review each and every question, both wrong and right, and read the explanations as to why each answer is wrong or right.

Since you have shadowing and volunteering, you will be good there but you will want to keep up some type of clinical volunteering throughout your preparations, to show continued interest rather than "checking a box."

You shouldn't have to leave the country to get into medical school. It would be better to take 2-3 cycles of applications before you get in rather than go to the Caribbean, etc. Retake any other classes you got low grades in and your DO GPA will be significantly boosted due to grade replacement. If you ace all the classes you retake and get a good MCAT, you will have a shot at MD schools and a good chance at DO schools, depending on what your DO GPA will end up being. Good luck.