Starting from scratch and need advice!

[pizzapie007]

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Hello all!

I have been lurking for a little while and would like to get some advice. However, before I dive in to my post I just want to preface it by saying this forum is really cool! I am not sure I would even be seriously considering that I am viable for medical school if I had not found this forum. So thank you.

I am part of the beautiful group of people that had a low overall undergraduate GPA - a 2.3. All the usual excuses - no insight into the importance of Academia, no goals, laziness, boredom, and lack of direction. Anyways, here I am as a 26-year-old woman, with an entire family in medicine, who wanted to rebel and be an artist- and look what I have become interested in - becoming a doctor.

I realize the uphill battle I have ahead of myself due to negligence on my part during undergrad. And while there has been many a time I have spent kicking myself over it, I have come to terms with it. While I made this journey much harder for myself, I know I have the tenacity to overcome it. And, I like a challenge.

Along with crushing the MCAT and acquiring as many volunteer opportunities as I can, I need to ace the pre-reqs and show I have become a better student. However, I would like your advice on which route I should take to do that.

The only sciences I completed in undergrad were Biology, Anatomy, and Functional Anatomy. I would like to re-take all of them. I did not take any other sciences.

I am located in Seattle. So I think my options are to either take some general math and pre-chem, and then try to get a spot in Seattle U's post-bacc (it does not have a linkage). Or, enroll in non-matriculated classes through UW and then apply to get a second bachelor's.

What are your insights on which I should go for?

And thank you for your input. 🙂

 

[Dr. Let 'er Buck]

The big questions for me are,
1. How long ago was your last college course
2. How many credit hours do you have

 

[pizzapie007]

The big questions for me are,
1. How long ago was your last college course
2. How many credit hours do you have

1. Last college course was almost 4 years ago.
2. A beastly 188 credits.

 

[Dr. Let 'er Buck]

1. Last college course was almost 4 years ago.
2. A beastly 188 credits.

Okay............. Unfortunately your last foray into academia wasn't so long ago that you could chalk it up to youthful arrogance or anything. That is the situation I was in and the adcoms looked over my scholastic transgressions from 15+ years ago.

You also have quite a few credits and a low gpa. Finishing a second bachelors degree and acing the science courses would help and go a long way toward showing you are a changed student, but I fear that the gpa would still be too low and would almost immediately get tossed for not meeting the minimum required (which seems to be about 3.0). My gpa calculator seems to think you would need your next 50 credits to have an average gpa of 5.66 in order to get to the 3.0 threshold.

If you did a post bacc on your own, it looks like you would need 100 credit hours at 3.98 gpa to get your overall to 3.0. This sounds like a lot (and is), but could be doable. You would just need to hammer it out, ACE IT, and in a couple years you would have some repair of gpa and an upward trend.

The other deal would be an SMP. Again, it would take a lot of credits which wouldn't necessarily help how your gpa looks BUT, if you could get into one which transitions you right into a medical school, it would be great. I'm no smp guru however and am not sure what work you would have to do to get into one. I believe a number of them require a 2.5 gpa for admission. If that were the case, 30 credit hours of a 3.9 or better gpa would get you there. And that could be done in just a couple semesters.

There is always the financial burden as well. You have a large hole to dig out of and it will be costly both in time and finances to do so. Could it be done? Ya, I think so. With a ton of work and a few years you could repair the gpa. Throw in getting the ECs and such, and it's a big mountain. Before I leaped from this precipice I would closely examine if I wanted to open this quagmire and commit myself to a somewhat unsure path.

 

[BluMist]

Some quick notes:
You could try starting at Seattle Colleges, see how you do with 1-2 classes, and build up from there. Tuition will be much cheaper than Seattle U.
Would not recommend enrolling at UW under non-matriculating status. You will be last in line in term of registration priority and access to resources.

In term of taking on the longer path, as @Old Medic stated, this will take both time and financial commitment, so you have to be sure you are willing on take on the work.