Im 25yrs young have a Degree in Criminal Justice and absolutely hate what I am doing. I graduated in 09’ with a GPA around 2.2. At the time I had a lot going on in my life (mother sickness, immaturity, etc) and didn’t focus much on school at all. Well like many on this forum I really regret my decisions to do so poorly in school overall and to choose CJ as a major. So recently I have decided to take steps to reach my goal of being a MD. I am caught at a few cross roads and hope the great individuals on this site could help point me in the right direction.
Due to my extremely low GPA is it best that I go back for a second bachelors? (If so, will I be accepted into another program with the low GPA)
Is it possible to just take the mandatory pre-reqs and still have a chance of getting into med school?
I am open to all opinions and any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks…I am looking forward to sharing my journey with all of you and hopefully helping others along the way
Im 25yrs young have a Degree in Criminal Justice and absolutely hate what I am doing. I graduated in 09' with a GPA around 2.2. At the time I had a lot going on in my life (mother sickness, immaturity, etc) and didn't focus much on school at all. Well like many on this forum I really regret my decisions to do so poorly in school overall and to choose CJ as a major. So recently I have decided to take steps to reach my goal of being a MD. I am caught at a few cross roads and hope the great individuals on this site could help point me in the right direction.
1) Due to my extremely low GPA is it best that I go back for a second bachelors? (If so, will I be accepted into another program with the low GPA)
2) Is it possible to just take the mandatory pre-reqs and still have a chance of getting into med school?
I am open to all opinions and any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks...I am looking forward to sharing my journey with all of you and hopefully helping others along the way
welcome aboard,
1) generally, a second bachelors is not typical path, even to though with low GPA. While it will be difficult to bring up your overall GPA, you post-bacc grades with show up on a separate GPA calculation on the application.
2) Taking the needed post-bacc courses, and perhaps a few additional advance bio courses should be enough to show the ability to do the work. If you do that and a good MCAT, you have a shot
3) I'm thing out loud here. If your will be doing a DIY/informal post-bacc, you can position yourself for a possible second bachelors. It will take you 2 or 3 years part time to get the preqs. Lets suppose you take a few advance bio courses as well. If you apply at that point and get rejected, finishing a second degree may be a good showing of commitment, especially if you graduate with honors. If you do not get in on second or third try, you will have completed the degree and that at least will help get into something other than CJ. Used to be that med school interviews often asked about your plan B.
My humble opinion: I wouldn’t worry about a second bachelors degree. Just do a post-bac and do your best to knock the cover off the ball. Find somewhere to volunteer and show committment with it.
It is a road full of lots hard work. Also make sure that you’ve got a good network of friends and family that are supporting you.
If I do an informal post bacc and have a great GPA will they average the two together. In that situation even if I had a 4.0 post bacc the average would still be very low to be competitive in most schools.
Im continuously coming up with new questions so please forgive me for not putting it all in one post.
new questions
I heard some DO schools will replace an old grade if you retake the class. Is this true?
2)Will the fact that I did not take any sciences courses during my BA be helpful. To add to that will they even look at my courses in criminal justice or will the only look at the core courses?
1) I heard some DO schools will replace an old grade if you retake the class. Is this true?
Yes, the DO application replaces grades when calculating the overall GPA. AMCAS (the MD application service) does not replace them, so they are averaged.
In reply to:
2)Will the fact that I did not take any sciences courses during my BA be helpful.
Yes, because if you do well in your pre-reqs you can have an outstanding BCPM (biology, chemistry, physics, math) GPA. My original ugrad GPA was a 2.78, but because I only took the required number of math/science courses for my original major, I ended up with a 3.93 science GPA on my application.
In reply to:
To add to that will they even look at my courses in criminal justice or will the only look at the core courses?
Yes and no. They do look at all courses to a certain extent, but the grades in your science courses will be looked at much more closely.