What now?

[whattnow]

Any and all advice is appreciated. I attended UC San Diego for 3 and a half years pursuing a BS in Biology. For the first two years I didn't really apply myself and earned a ~3.0 sGPA/cGPA. At the start of my junior year my mother had a disabling stroke and other family problems arose requiring me to seek a full time job. I started work as an EMT (tried to keep it relevant to the ultimate goal) and maintained a 42 hour week on top of my classes and extra curricular activities (student government). With this workload my schoolwork began to deteriorate over the next year and a half, ultimately ending up with me getting academically dismissed from my school.

When I left the school I was told that if I attended a city college for a semester and received good grades I could petition to return (and I was told the chances were very likely). But I decided that it would be better to take a sometime to fix my family life before I jumped straight into the mess I created.

I have since taken 8 months off from school and feel that I have sufficiently stabilized my life to start classes again, but I'm at sort of a crossroads regarding how to pick up the pieces. On one hand I could take the semester of classes and return to my original school, but even if I retake all classes available to me and finish strong my GPA will still be ~2.5.

I've decided that perhaps it would be better for me to start fresh. If I retake GE's at a CC I can transfer to a different school (SDSU or SFSU) and pursue my original degree over again (while adding a second major/minor I never had the chance to pursue).

But is this realistic? Even If I was able to get a 3.8-4.0 at my CC and state school, will I ever be able to escape the damage done at my first school, especially since it is ranked much higher than the second school I would attend?

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[TriagePreMed]

All grades of all universities are counted. If you don't submit all transcripts, you could be kicked out of your program for dishonesty. If they find out later on, I think they can still strip you from the degree.

Do your best with what you're able. Petition to get back and finish strong. Then come back and we can talk about options.

 

[Catalystik]

It might be more realistic to do damage control by retaking classes that tanked your GPA and taking advantage of the DO med school policy of grade forgiveness. They will only count the most recent grade, provided the credit hours are the same or greater.

 

[whattnow]

All grades of all universities are counted. If you don't submit all transcripts, you could be kicked out of your program for dishonesty. If they find out later on, I think they can still strip you from the degree.

Do your best with what you're able. Petition to get back and finish strong. Then come back and we can talk about options.

I never planned on hiding a transcript. I merely thought that taking 3-4 years to complete a new bachelor's seemed more straight forward, than returning to my original university and graduating with a GPA that doesn't get me into a SMP let alone med school

 

[whattnow]

It might be more realistic to do damage control by retaking classes that tanked your GPA and taking advantage of the DO med school policy of grade forgiveness. They will only count the most recent grade, provided the credit hours are the same or greater.

That brings up another question. UCSD is on the quarter system with each classes being 4 units, while state schools typically give 3 units per class

 

[Catalystik]

TriagePreMed has personal experience with California schools and can perhaps respond to this issue when he returns.

 

[TriagePreMed]

I never planned on hiding a transcript. I merely thought that taking 3-4 years to complete a new bachelor's seemed more straight forward, than returning to my original university and graduating with a GPA that doesn't get me into a SMP let alone med school

My apologies for misunderstanding. I thought you were unaware of the policy.

Anyway, it makes more sense to finish your degree since the SMP's have the same policy. If you'll end up with a 2.5, that's tough luck, but the good news is that you can go back to school and retake courses. This can be done at a community college, although some people believe it is harmful. I personally don't believe so, and I suggest you e-mail schools you're potentially interested in to see their policy.

Another thing you can do is join an SMP program at a DO school. Some schools like WesternU accept a range of students from 2.5 GPA+. The program director herself told me there have been 2.5 GPA students there. I think LECOM has a post-bacc guaranteed entrance program.

I suggest you finish your current degree and then work on retakes up to a 3.0 on both science and cumulative and then look at the DO SMP route. This is the route I'm personally taking, although I'm also taking my sciences for the first time.

That brings up another question. UCSD is on the quarter system with each classes being 4 units, while state schools typically give 3 units per class

The units are converted to semester units. This means that for every 1 quarter unit, you get .667 semester units. Typically, 2 semesters (year long sequence) is equivalent in units to 3 quarters.

 

[whattnow]

My apologies for misunderstanding. I thought you were unaware of the policy.

Anyway, it makes more sense to finish your degree since the SMP's have the same policy. If you'll end up with a 2.5, that's tough luck, but the good news is that you can go back to school and retake courses. This can be done at a community college, although some people believe it is harmful. I personally don't believe so, and I suggest you e-mail schools you're potentially interested in to see their policy.

Another thing you can do is join an SMP program at a DO school. Some schools like WesternU accept a range of students from 2.5 GPA+. The program director herself told me there have been 2.5 GPA students there. I think LECOM has a post-bacc guaranteed entrance program.

I suggest you finish your current degree and then work on retakes up to a 3.0 on both science and cumulative and then look at the DO SMP route. This is the route I'm personally taking, although I'm also taking my sciences for the first time.


The units are converted to semester units. This means that for every 1 quarter unit, you get .667 semester units. Typically, 2 semesters (year long sequence) is equivalent in units to 3 quarters.

Thank you for your response. My only concern is that my worst grades are in my upper division classes. If I finish there will be many classes that will hinder my GPA that I won't be able to retake. Its not a few bad grades pulling me down its 1.5 years of sub par classes. If I retook the major (3 years with summer school and such) I could replace almost all of the GE's and Uppers that are there, then apply to a DO school.

But I wonder if adcoms will scoff at retaking a bachelors

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

I suggest you finish your current degree and then work on retakes up to a 3.0 on both science and cumulative and then look at the DO SMP route. This is the route I'm personally taking, although I'm also taking my sciences for the first time.

Just to offer a different perspective...

I'd recommend raising your GPA as high as possible before you graduate. Once you graduate, your undergrad (pre-graduation) GPA is sealed forever. Any more classes will show up only as post bacc classes. If you delay graduation, you can keep raising your undergrad GPA higher and higher and higher.

Personally, I have a great post bacc GPA and a not-so-hot undergrad (pre-graduation) GPA, and I wish I were in your position! I'd rather have one good number than two numbers where one is bad and one is good.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Thank you for your response. My only concern is that my worst grades are in my upper division classes. If I finish there will be many classes that will hinder my GPA that I won't be able to retake. Its not a few bad grades pulling me down its 1.5 years of sub par classes. If I retook the major (3 years with summer school and such) I could replace almost all of the GE's and Uppers that are there, then apply to a DO school.

But I wonder if adcoms will scoff at retaking a bachelors

Retaking an entire bachelors sounds bad. Retaking anything that's C+ and under sounds reasonable. Once you hit about 3.3/3.4, I think you'll have strong chances at DO.

 

[Catalystik]

I'd recommend raising your GPA as high as possible before you graduate. Once you graduate, your undergrad (pre-graduation) GPA is sealed forever. Any more classes will show up only as post bacc classes. If you delay graduation, you can keep raising your undergrad GPA higher and higher and higher.

While classes taken after graduation are summarized under the Postbac category on the application, they are included in the overall undergrad GPA by both AACOMAS and AMCAS, just as if the classes had been taken before graduation. Here is a screen shot showing how the DO application would look: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=9258384&highlight=entails#post9258384