you guys have been so helpful and now i want to ask another question.
i know i should be studying for mcat but for some reason i started worrying about my gpa. i wish i wasnt such an idiot in college!
right now it is 3.042/not sure science. maybe 2.4 or something,. i know, i know i know.
so what is the best thing to do. i cant take undergrad all over again, but i have to do something. do i:
take , what, 10 classes? get all a’s to boost the undergrad gpa (ambitious i guess)
do an smp which wouldnt help my undergrad and wouldnt help with a cutoff, right?
get a masters?
retake pre req’s?
give up?
i wanted to apply DO but i also wanted to give my state schools a shot. anyone out there in the same boat, and what did you do to change?
thanks guys, again.
I’m not an expert on GPA, but this is what I would suggest. First off, evaluate all your prereqs. If you have below a B in any of them, or you feel like you didn’t understand them, retake them. Then, I would take some upper level biology classes, which will not only help your science GPA, but it will also better prepare you for med school. And since your overall GPA could use a little tweaking, why not take a few other classes, English, History, etc, fun classes, to boost your GPA and also for a nice break from the sciences. Good luck and don’t worry so much! There’s always a way to make it work, but sometimes you just need to do a little more prep work.
Gina
hey,
im just worried because i spent the night staying up and analyizing my college transcript. then i have my mom telling me i should do nursing even tho it wont help with my science gpa. plus, i would have to start taking classes soon (in january)not for nursing , but…
the thing is, the p/f classes are not factored into the gpa calculation, right, except for DO…so the classes i got c’s in were entmology, ecology (the prof told me he never takes sophmores and i thought id prove him wrong, oh well) the only pre req really i ahve a c in is intro bio, cuz i took ap and didnt care. so would taking upper division courses help at all?
yea i thought of taking some non science…the breakdown, for the overall according to aamcas would be around 3.3 for non science.
ah, is this even possible to do in two-three years while working? im so stressed. it seems like this huge, impossible hole to dig myself out of. sigh.
Miasma -
Bringing your overall GPA to a competitive level is going to be a tough task at this point. What you need to focus on instead is showing a strong upward trend and that you can handle the course load of medical school. You may get automatically rejected by schools that have a GPA cut-off, but many of them do not. They will look at the whole package and if you can show that you have done well in recent coursework (especially science), that will factor into their decision.
If you have already taken all the pre-reqs with C’s or better, you should lean toward upper level course work in the sciences (assuming that your pre-req foundation is good enough to allow you to do well in these classes). From you other posts, I remember you saying that the reason your classes were showing up as P/F was because you transferred from another institution. For AMCAS, you will be required to submit the trancript from where you originally took these classes and they will use those grades (not the P/F given when you transferred the credits) to determine your GPA. I don’t know if the DO application works the same way, but you should find out.
I had a 2.77 overall undergrad GPA, and probably a 2.50 GPA math/science (although I only took three math/science classes). Although my poor undergrad GPA was mentioned at my interviews, all of my interviewers were impressed with my recent GPA while taking the pre-reqs.
Since you have apparently taken quite a few sciences, it is going to be difficult for you to boost your overall and science GPA’s significantly. This is not an unsurmountable hurdle. Read Dave’s post about how he overcame a GPA worse than yours.
Good luck.
Well Some go after a masters to boost the GPA, Maybe just another year of Sci classes. If you score really well on the MCAT and have a lot of other parts to the application, like a lot of volunteer work, medical experience (shadowing, volunteering and or work) this can count a lot. I did what most here do not I’m going to a Carribean school but I do not suggest anyone do that until they have tried other ways first.
Read Dave’s post about his bad grades!
Good Luck
thanks guys.
well, after much deliberation and reading the bad gpa threads on this site for many hous and your advice…and the advice of my SO…i know getting my gpa up to a high level will be difficult. but i plan on taking more upper level bio and maybe redo some of my pre-reqs, . and focus on the mcat…allopathic seems totally out of the question at this point, hopefully DO will give me love.
amy, you said yr undegrad was low…how many classes did you take afterward and where did you apply?
Quote:
amy, you said yr undegrad was low…how many classes did you take afterward and where did you apply?
I took 3 quarters of gen chem w/lab (15 quarter hours), 2 quarters of biology w/ lab (15 quarter hours), 3 quarters of physics w/lab (15 quarter hours), 2 quarters of math - pre-calc and calc (10 quarter hours), 2 semesters of organic chem w/lab (8 semester hours), 1 quarter of biochem (5 quarter hours), 1 quarter of microbiology (5 quarter hours). I also had a 4.0 in my masters, but as it was a MEd, I don’t think that gained me a lot other than showing I had turned into a serious student.
The biochem, micro, and last physics were not on my AMCAS as I was taking them while applying. I received A’s in everything except an A- in one organic and a C in biochem. This gave me a pretty decent BCPM GPA because I only took 9 semester hours of math/science in undergrad).My MCAT was a 31M (11VR, 10PS, 10BS).
I applied at Medical University of Ohio, Wright State University, University of Cincinnati, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, and Ohio State University. I was accepted at all of them. (All allopathic)
I wouldn’t say that allopathic is out of reach. Most schools will look at your recent grades - there are a few that have a GPA cutoff for screening purposes, but all of the schools I talked to said that they would take a recent upward trend more seriously than an overall GPA. It was a little easier for me because I had never taken the pre-reqs. Med schools do not view good grades in retakes of pre-reqs in the same light as getting good grades the first time. That’s why you may want to consider upper level sciences. Definitely redo any pre-reqs that you feel you don’t have the necessary knowledge in if you need that knowledge for upper level courses. Whatever courses you take, you MUST do well in this time.
If you have schools close to you (DO or allo), it may be worth your time to solicit some opinions from admissions counselors at a few of them. Some of them may give you standard lines about what they like to see in an application, but you may find that some will be very honest and straight forward with you.
Amy
I would agree with everyone above. Get that upward trend going with all future classes. Take some upper level science classes an ace 'em. Don’t give up or count youself out for anything.