First of all, I will say that I am so glad that I stumbled on this website. I will be 34 next month and I decided to go back to school last year as I was pregnant with my 2nd baby. It seems really crazy but I became clear about what I wanted to do with my life. Right after high school, I was an extremely lazy student and received about 5 C’s, 3 F’s and some W’s. I am in the process of getting an academic renewal to get rid of the F’s from my previous school which I am eligible to do but the C’s are my biggest problem. They are bringing my GPA down greatly and I don’t know how to fix them. C’s are not eligible for academic renewal. By the way, the C’s were in the easiest classes I could’ve taken (Speech, English 1, Spanish 1 & 2).
Although my grades since my return to school a year ago are all A’s, my GPA is still only a 2.8 (this is with the F’s being removed through academic renewal). So needless to say, I am in clean up mode. I am almost done with my General Ed and am just now starting to take my Sciences that will be pivotal in my school career.
My question is, do any of you think that these C’s are a deal killer for my pre-med career? Anyone have a similar experience?
Hello MMC, congrats on starting your journey. I am currently in my first year of medical school and can tell you I got in with a D+ and multiple C’s from my original undergrad degree. (macro econ, and other non science courses from my 2nd year of undergrad) Graduated right at a 3.0. The key is do great from here on out. I believe adcoms love to see the improvement. I finished my post-bacc with a 3.9 and it included a lot of upper level science which I believe helped me not only get in, but helped me perform better in the first year. (I did get asked in 2 of my interviews questions about why the grades were so low in undergrad, and so great in post bacc) Get a good MCAT score and celebrate your desire to be a physician through your ECs and your personal statement and you will be fine. Best of Luck!
I am afraid I have some bad news. In terms of GPA calculation for medical school, there is no such thing as academic renewal. Unless you do something like the Texas FreshStart program, those grades don’t go away.
Perhaps you best bet is to look at grade replacement which is a policy that DO schools follow. Basically they take the highest grade if you take a class again (as opposed to MD/AMCAS schools which would average the two).
In retrospect, this may appear a tad harsh but I don’t want you to have the wrong information.