Unofficial Post-Bac

[triplerox]

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My local university offers post-grad students opportunities to take science classes to improve their chances of getting into med school. I guess you can pretty much consider this an unofficial post-bac since they don't really offer anything else. My question is as follow:

My GPA as I graduated with a degree in Biology is 3.18. If I were to score extremely well on MCAT (40+) as well as Aced all my classes that I'm taking as "post-bac," then will it significantly improve my chances at MD school (assuming EC/LOR are both strong).

My main concern here is my GPA. I was hoping if I can prove to them that by taking more advanced science courses and getting A's on all of them, I can definitely handle the course work.

 

[CaliforniaKid]

My local university offers post-grad students opportunities to take science classes to improve their chances of getting into med school. I guess you can pretty much consider this an unofficial post-bac since they don't really offer anything else. My question is as follow:

My GPA as I graduated with a degree in Biology is 3.18. If I were to score extremely well on MCAT (40+) as well as Aced all my classes that I'm taking as "post-bac," then will it significantly improve my chances at MD school (assuming EC/LOR are both strong).

My main concern here is my GPA. I was hoping if I can prove to them that by taking more advanced science courses and getting A's on all of them, I can definitely handle the course work.

absolutely. rock your classes and get a 40+ on the MCAT. your chances should increase dramatically! best of luck

 

[Mtnbiker]

I was hoping if I can prove to them that by taking more advanced science courses and getting A's on all of them, I can definitely handle the course work.

The dean of our state school made this point specifically when he was asked how a person with a so-so academic past could "prove themselves."

40+ on the MCAT proves you're smart and a good test taker, but there are a lot of smart people out there who don't have what it takes to make it through medical school. If you can do well on legitimately tough courses that take hard work as well as brains, it speaks well of you.

 

[triplerox]

Thanks for the prompt replies. When I am retaking courses, what kind of classes should I take? Should I retake those that I did not get A's in or more advanced biology electives? Also, is one year enough or should I extend to two years worth of classes before applying?

 

[vc7777]

Good luck!

The answer to your hypothetical is "Yes".

But it begs the question of what sort of score you are getting in practice MCATs?

Read my MDapps profile if you want to see how it played out for me ( I had a 38 on my MCAT). I had a bad academic past - I would have killed for your GPA!

I do have to play the devil's advocate here - so you understand what a 40+ score means:

In 2009 less than 400 people scored 40 or above out of over 79,000 tests administered. Thats about half a percent, or 99.5 percentile. 😱

What I'm saying is do not place your hopes in a 40 on your MCAT. If you do get a 40+ awesome! But you are right that you need to focus on crushing the post-bacc first.

Best of luck!

 

[triplerox]

Good luck!

The answer to your hypothetical is "Yes".

But it begs the question of what sort of score you are getting in practice MCATs?

Read my MDapps profile if you want to see how it played out for me ( I had a 38 on my MCAT). I had a bad academic past - I would have killed for your GPA!

I do have to play the devil's advocate here - so you understand what a 40+ score means:

In 2009 less than 400 people scored 40 or above out of over 79,000 tests administered. Thats about half a percent, or 99.5 percentile. 😱

What I'm saying is do not place your hopes in a 40 on your MCAT. If you do get a 40+ awesome! But you are right that you need to focus on crushing the post-bacc first.

Best of luck!

Thanks for your post 🙂 And very nice job on being accepted! Your story is truly inspirational!

And yes I understand 40+ on MCAT is ridiculously hard but I am aiming high because I know it is well within my capabilities (I was just extremely lazy during college 🙁)

Thanks!

 

[EdLongshanks]

Thanks for your post 🙂 And very nice job on being accepted! Your story is truly inspirational!

And yes I understand 40+ on MCAT is ridiculously hard but I am aiming high because I know it is well within my capabilities (I was just extremely lazy during college 🙁)

Thanks!

Let me put this plainer. 40 is not a reasonable goal. Most of the 40's that are scored are 38 or 39 scoring students who happened to get lucky that day. There may be 100 pre-med super geniuses in the world who can consistently score a 40 on the MCAT but they are the type of people who have never had a bad test in their life. You are unlikely to be one of them.

Realize that the MCAT is scored on a curve, and the curve is a curve of all of the people attempting to get into medical school. About a third of these people are totally neurotic about the issue and are used to scoring in the top half of 1%. That means that the top half of 1% of college bound seniors compares to a 27 on the MCAT.

Yes, you can aim for the upper 30's. A score of 36/37 and up will be sufficient to reach your goal. A good student who spends a year or two planning for that kind of score can reach it - if he takes courses and plans for that purpose.

I am very good at Verbal Reasoning. On some practice tests I can score a 14. On the actual MCAT I got a 13. The difference between a 13 and a 14 on the VR is 1 question. Get 1 question out of 40 wrong and you are 14, get 2 wrong and you get a 13. And these are 40 extremely hard questions. Some of the answers could actually be a good subject for debate. But you don't have time to debate. You have 30 seconds to choose and go on. For you to get a 40 on the MCAT, you would have to score 13's and a 14 on a section. This is not a consistently possible score for a normal sane person.

 

[longwhorn]

Just take a practice test online, a timed one. I think you will change your mind about that goal. Re-take all of the required courses and make A's in them, then take the MCAT. Worry about the grades first because the subjects covered on the MCAT are all covered in the pre reqs.

 

[ChE04]

Let me put this plainer. 40 is not a reasonable goal. Most of the 40's that are scored are 38 or 39 scoring students who happened to get lucky that day. There may be 100 pre-med super geniuses in the world who can consistently score a 40 on the MCAT but they are the type of people who have never had a bad test in their life. You are unlikely to be one of them.

Realize that the MCAT is scored on a curve, and the curve is a curve of all of the people attempting to get into medical school. About a third of these people are totally neurotic about the issue and are used to scoring in the top half of 1%. That means that the top half of 1% of college bound seniors compares to a 27 on the MCAT.

Yes, you can aim for the upper 30's. A score of 36/37 and up will be sufficient to reach your goal. A good student who spends a year or two planning for that kind of score can reach it - if he takes courses and plans for that purpose.

I am very good at Verbal Reasoning. On some practice tests I can score a 14. On the actual MCAT I got a 13. The difference between a 13 and a 14 on the VR is 1 question. Get 1 question out of 40 wrong and you are 14, get 2 wrong and you get a 13. And these are 40 extremely hard questions. Some of the answers could actually be a good subject for debate. But you don't have time to debate. You have 30 seconds to choose and go on. For you to get a 40 on the MCAT, you would have to score 13's and a 14 on a section. This is not a consistently possible score for a normal sane person.

...So your message is to aim lower?? There's a difference between AIMING for a 40 on the MCAT and EXPECTING a 40 on the MCAT...

 

[EdLongshanks]

...So your message is to aim lower?? There's a difference between AIMING for a 40 on the MCAT and EXPECTING a 40 on the MCAT...

Right, Aim high but don't build your plans on an expectation of a 40. Almost certainly not going to happen.

 

[brdmadgrl82]

I agree that the 40+ is very hard. I know a girl who graduated from Duke with a near perfect gpa and also tutors mcat prep...she scored 35. Make sure you have a backup plan...take those additional science courses and get that gpa up to at least a 3.4 (based on the advice I got this should be a good enough gpa with a higher mcat score). Good luck

 

[triplerox]

Duely noted. I will aim for 40+ but I won't build my plan on expecting it to be 40+.

I am going to take additional post-grad classes to improve my GPA and overall chances, what kind of classes should I take? Advanced science courses? Retake classes to improve grade? or other classes from different field of study?

 

[apumic]

Thanks for your post 🙂 And very nice job on being accepted! Your story is truly inspirational!

And yes I understand 40+ on MCAT is ridiculously hard but I am aiming high because I know it is well within my capabilities (I was just extremely lazy during college 🙁)

Thanks!

I don't think you get what being in the UPPER half of the 99th percentile of medical school applicants means. In reality, this means that out of the students in your freshmen bio class who said they were "pre-med" you are 1 in 1,317* people. In other words, if, at your school, freshmen gen bio classes (including your own) had 200 students each and there were 3 sections, chances are NONE of the students in all 3 sections of gen bio your freshmen year would have gotten a 40 on the MCAT come jr/sr yr.

Your chances of doing that as a low-performing student are literally zero -- unless you have billions of years and quadrillions of attempts, in which case anything can happen....

That having been said, by all means, shoot for the best score you can obtain and get your GPA up. The truth is, you will most likely be applying DO with that GPA and you'll probably get in. There is no shame in going DO and DO schools tend to value having worked after school (i.e., being a non-trad) more than do MD schools. Good luck!

*based on adjustment of standard deviation

 

[NTF]

Honestly, once you get to 37+ it's all the same to med schools. Concentrate on getting A's and building your ECs/LORs. Apply broadly and early to MD & DO schools.

Trust me getting A's in your post-bacc is way more important than getting a monster score on the MCAT.

 

[Art Vandalais]

Don't re-take classes you've already taken, it looks bad. Take 3000 and 4000 level bio classes that you haven't seen yet, and if you can't find enough of those (since you were a bio major) take biopsych, stat, chemistry, math, physics, etc. You want to demonstrate that you can handle a challenging curriculum.

You don't need to get a 40+, which is a good thing because you won't (sorry, but I feel pretty comfortable saying that). If you can get 30+ hours of upper level sciences - maybe a summer and two semesters - with a 3.8-4.0 GPA and anything 30+ on the MCAT with good balance, e.g. 10/10/10, you'll be very competetive.

My state school actually has a policy for post-bac student where if you take 32+ hours of sciences, then they consider that to be your GPA rather than previous undergraduate work. Different schools have different policies, and they'll all look at your complete body of work, but the recent trend is most important.

 

[triplerox]

Thanks for the advice guys. Since my local university doesn't have an official post-bac, I will be enrolling through the Open University Program, that's fine right? Anywho, I was looking through the classes they offered and came up with a list of classes to take within the next 1-2 years. The general consensus seem to agree to not retake classes that you have already taken (for MD not DO). What do you guys think? (I will be listing more courses than I will probably be taking because it is not guaranteed that I will get into all the classes I want)

Immunology
Human Genetics
Endocrine Physiology
Human Neuroanatomy and Physiology
Pathogenic Microbiology
Hematology
Intro to Principles of Toxicology?
Biochem series?

Then I was thinking perhaps I should take classes in different subjects to show the committee that I can excel in more than one field and stand out compared to others. Is that a good idea?

Nutrition Metabolism
Medical Nutrition Therapy
Calculus (I have taken calculus during my undergrad year but did poorly)
Drugs, Brain and Behavior
Abnormal Psychology
Psychology of Personality
Child Psychopathology

Taking these classes is just one step on my path to med school. I'm probably going to be a part time student/part time job to pay for this. I want to find an occupation that will make me standout and competitive. Sales maybe? Since I seem to have an interest in that or maybe some sort of entry level management if I can find. Then add some shadowing/volunteer/maybe research in there.

How's that plan so far?

 

[sharmi]

My state school actually has a policy for post-bac student where if you take 32+ hours of sciences, then they consider that to be your GPA rather than previous undergraduate work. Different schools have different policies, and they'll all look at your complete body of work, but the recent trend is most important.

Out of curiosity, which state are you from ?