Hi there - I’ve been lurking for a while, and I feel much more comfortable here than at SDN, so I thought it was time to jump in! I’m a 31 year old mother of six. I worked in IT for 8 years, then took a few years off to stay home with my kids. My bachelor’s degree is in History. I’ve used the time home with my kids to really evaluate what I want from life, and I feel very confident in my decision to pursue medicine.
So, the inevitable and no doubt repetitive questions. I did read a lot of old posts asking similar questions, but I’ve seen some conflicting advice, so I thought I’d post my particular situation. My UG GPA is only 3.1, not sure of the science but it wasn’t great (and I haven’t done all the prereqs yet anyway). I graduated in 1997, and most of my science coursework was from a few years before that. The school I really really want to go to says that they prefer coursework to be no older than 10 years, so I’m all set to retake all the prereqs and start on the ones I haven’t taken yet. In a nutshell, is this the right course of action? Retaking the intro classes rather than taking more advanced classes? It will certainly help me to have the refresher, but is it the right thing in terms of the adcoms? Any other thoughts/advice?
Thank you so much!
- debbidala Said:
So, the inevitable and no doubt repetitive questions. I did read a lot of old posts asking similar questions, but I've seen some conflicting advice, so I thought I'd post my particular situation. My UG GPA is only 3.1, not sure of the science but it wasn't great (and I haven't done all the prereqs yet anyway). I graduated in 1997, and most of my science coursework was from a few years before that. The school I really really want to go to says that they prefer coursework to be no older than 10 years, so I'm all set to retake all the prereqs and start on the ones I haven't taken yet. In a nutshell, is this the right course of action? Retaking the intro classes rather than taking more advanced classes? It will certainly help me to have the refresher, but is it the right thing in terms of the adcoms? Any other thoughts/advice?
Thank you so much!
Hi, Welcome and Happy New Year!
As I am sure that you know from looking through the threads, your basic prereqs are a year of Biology, a year of general chemistry, a year of organic chemistry and a year of physics. Then depending on the medical school, they may request some advanced courses such as biochemistry.
While a uGPA of 3.1 is on the low side, especially for allopathic medical schools, you may find yourself with a higher science GPA if you haven't taken many sciences. You would have to look at your transcript to see what is what. You would also have to check the medical schools you are interested in to see how about their stand on old classes. The one I would make sure that is not too old is biology since it is one in which is changing due to genetics.
It's not going to be an easy ride, but if you want it and work hard, I think it will be very worthwhile. You'll find a real great group on this thread and they will shoot straight with you.
Kris
I think it may depend on what pre-req classes you have that are old and which ones you still need to take. Physics and gen chem tend to be the least important to retake if they are old while the importance of new organic is up for debate. Of all the pre-reqs that should be recent, biology is absolutely essential. You’re right, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of definitive advice on retaking pre-reqs vs. taking new upper level courses. In general, I would say that retaking coursework by itself is not enough for an adcom- you would also need to take upper level courses. I don’t know what the answer is regarding skipping the retake and jumping into upper levels. I suspect that you will get a different answer from different schools. If you have any doubt at all about your ability to do well (meaning get an A) without a refresher first, then I would say that answers your question about retaking. You want to do the best you can in any new coursework.
I agree w/ Emergency! You don’t “lose” any points for re-taking a class if you do well and then also do well in some higher-level courses. You DO “lose” points for going straight to the upper-level and NOT doing well. SO the way I see it, the “only” thing you lose by repeating prereq courses is time and money - which of course is meaningful but actually not that huge in the grand scheme of achieving your goal of a career practicing medicine.
Mary
Happy New Year!
Thank you all so much for your replies, that really helps clarify my path. I think I’m going to pursue a 2nd bachelor’s in chemistry, since it only requires an additional 6 classes over the med school prereqs and it interests me anyway. That way, I’ll have the advantages of being a degree-seeking student (early registration), get some more in-depth information about a subject that interests me, and still be actively doing something during that glide year.
I really appreciate everyone’s help, and I’m sure I’ll post again! Happy new year!
This question comes up so often that perhaps it should be in a sticky or FAQ.
There are lots of reasons to retake the basic four courses. For one thing, you’ll be approaching them as a pre-professional student with perhaps a different attitude and priorities than before.
Medical schools like to see recent coursework. Your fellow applicants are mostly undergraduates or recent grads who are immersed in their studies. You want to have taken a good chunk of your courses quite recently to level the playing field and to demonstrate that your brain can still handle this stuff. I have met medical school faculty who confess that they could not imagine starting over at their age in such a rigorous field. You have to prove to the skeptics that you can do it.
The MCAT is based on the four prerequisites–chem, bio, orgo, and physics–and it will only help to have the knowledge fresh in your mind.
You can collect fresh letters of recommendation from teaching staff who are aware of your career goals. It’s especially nice to take basic bio, then an advanced course with the same professors, because they will tend to take more of an interest in your career as they get to know you. Also, you can network with fellow premedical students, which can sometimes be useful as a motivator and source of (hopefully correct) information.
Best of luck,
Keep in mind that you can register as a degree seeking student, but you don’t necessarily have to finish the degree as long as you already have one. If it’s something you want to do or think you need to do in order to make up for prior poor performance, great, but med schools generally don’t take note of how you were enrolled when taking post-bacc classes.
Good luck.