Hello everyone,
I’m soooo grateful to have found this board. I need some suggestions on a course of action; Please forgive me if this seems a bit long: I graduated 6 years ago with a BA in French and almost all of my pre-reqs completed. I started out as a double major in Biology (pre-med) and French, but dropped out of pre-med because I kept getting C’s in all of the science courses (I was still learning English back then and had a huge language barrier: french is my first language). So here I am, 26, fluent in English and ready to start over in getting ready for medical school. I’ve been doing some research and reading this board and from what I learned I don’t seem to qualify for post-bacc programs since I completed almost all pre-reqs (chem I and II and labs, bio I and II and labs, Physics I and II and labs, organic chemitry and calculus I). The HUGE problem is that I earned C’s or B-'s in all of them (cumulative graduation GPA: 3.04 with all A’s in my other major). SO, Should I take my chances and apply to medical schools after taking the MCAT(I’m currently a high school science teacher who took science tests to get accredited, so I should be fine, I think) or should I go back to school and take upper level science courses to improve my science GPA and get acquainted with professors who could give me letters of recommendation?
Thank you all for your advices and suggestions.
Not sure what exact advice to give, but there are post-bac programs that are dedicated to help boost your academic records. The aamc website should be able to help you track these down.
Hi Jo.
I would advise you not to take your chances. Besides, your MCAT score is usually proportionate to your performance in the core sciences. An excellent MCAT score is not going to compensate for your academic performance. There are plenty of “record enhancing” post-bac programs out there. Just google “post bac pre-med programs” and start doing some research. Take 1 year of full-time science courses (including a generous dose of upper-division ones) and then take the MCAT and apply. You will waste less time and energy this way, and be better able to keep up your spirits.
You will also want to prove that you can handle the coursework at the medical school level. With your current GPA, there may be some doubt about this in the minds of the adcoms. Your job, as I see it, is to preemptively remove this doubt before it can hurt you.
If it is possible to take a fairly heavy dose of upperlevel science classes while you prepare for the MCAT, I think this might help. Also, there are “special masters” programs that are often tailored to people in your situation - they are academically rigorous, and if you do well in them it looks really good.
Others on this board probably have more advice than I do - I was lucky enough not to take the science classes the first time through - so I get to start from scratch (both a blessing and a curse, I suppose).
One important thing to note is that there are many people in your situation, and you are not alone. It has been done, and it can be done, and there’s no reason you can’t do it too!
Good luck and welcome to OPM!
If you need to keep your teaching job, take one or two advanced sciences during the year and see if you can find anything to load up on over the summer. Sometimes the advanced courses aren’t offered in the summer, though.
If you’re teaching science and can really blow away the MCAT, I’m not sure you absolutely have to have an entire special master’s program to get into med school.
Thank you all for your suggestions. I do think that it’ll be in my advantage to take upper level science courses while preparing for the MCAT. I’m just worried that those science grades from 5 years ago might hurt me no matter what. In any case, I won’t give up and I’m going to take it one step at a time; I am very glad that I found you guys. I feel much less alone embarking in this long and difficult process of getting into medical school.
Again, thank you everyone.