I initially started college 13 years ago(General Studies). My freshman year of school didn’t go so well. insert sob story here I basically failed a majority of my class and withdrew from some. After my freshman year, I decided that maybe I should take a break from school and pursue something else. I knew that obviously wasn’t ready for college yet. So I worked in corporate America for about 3 1/2 years as regional supervisor for a retail store before I landed a job traveling the world as a FA for a commercial airline. However, growing up in a family of lower level healthcare providers, I knew that I wanted to be in healthcare eventually and that when I did, I wanted to be a physician. I’ve been flying for the last 9 years and started going back to school only 2 years ago to work on finishing my undergrad. I knew I loved science so I majored in biology. When I started 2 years ago I started with a gpa of 1.33 (OMG! Ikr?!) due to my failed first attempts at college. I have been able to bring my gpa up to a 2.55. So far I have taken chem I ©, chem II (A), physics I ©, physics II (A), Bio I (A), College Algebra ©, and Pre-cal © for Pre-reqs for medical school. I’m 30 years old and I still have 2 years left of nothing but upper level sciences to take as part of my undergraduate biology degree track. I know if I can get straight As from this point on I can bring my cGPA up to at least a 3.5-ish. In the process of all this I have maintained my full time job as a flight attendant as well as running a non-profit organization for the last 5 years (cofounded with my husband). For the last 3 years, I’ve been volunteering with another non-profit and I also have about 10 hours of shadowing under my belt as of right now. I feel like I’m doing enough ECs already but I’m concerned about my grades and my lack of clinical experience. Any suggestions on what I should do? Am I in over my head here trying to go to medical school? I’m a 30 year old non-trad student and a URM. I don’t know if that will mean anything when applying though.
I don’t know a whole lot, being a returning student myself, but if you can retake those C’s, you’re more likely to get a better gpa than to rely on getting straight A’s in the upper level courses. For instance: if you get all A’s for the next 8 classes, you can get around a 3.3, but if you retake the C’s from the past and get A’s, you can get around a 3.7 even if half your uppercourses are B’s. A 3.3 is obviously acceptable, so I don’t know if you’d want to put in the extra time to retake them, but it is an option.
AAMCAS (MD application service) doesn’t accept replacement grades and will count both attempts in your gpa calculation. Historically, AACOMAS (DO application service) did grade replacement, but they stopped doing so effective either this application cycle or the next. At this point, you’re probably better off taking those upper level classes and finishing strong. You may want to refresh yourself on some of your weaker areas before attempting the MCAT.
Oh, wow, I didn’t know that. Thank you, Kennymac!
Thank you. At the time I got those Cs, I was just doing entirely to much. I was working a full time job, a part time job, going to school still time, running our non-profits and taking care of my hubby after a horrible car accident (hence taking on the additional part time job). I was overwhelmed to say the least. I’ve reviewed the material and I know I can get an A in most of those classes if I took them over. I just don’t want to waste money if I don’t have too.