Hello everyone,
I am new to this amazing site. I would like to ask a question and get some feedback. I am sorry if these questions have been asked already.
I am 29 years old. I just received my BS in management of information systems. I have a 2.5 gpa and I want to go to medical school to become a radiologist. I know I need to work on my gpa. I really do not want to re-take any of my previous classes because most of them were very difficult computer programing classes. Should I go back to school and get another associates degree in a science to raise my gpa? I am currently volunteering at two hospitals to bulid 100 hours of volunteer work. One of the hospitals has one of the top medical schools in the US.
What should I do?
I am single with no children…if that helps your answer for me.
Thank you so much
Happyn2009
Have you taken any of our prereq’s yet? If not, and you do well in them in addition to some easier courses, will boost up your gpa. Develop a gpa range for yourself. Determine would be the idea gpa you will strive for and what would be on the lower end. Check out medical schools that average gpa falls into those ranges and consider applying to them. You don’t have to get another degree just to take your pre-req’s. Just take the necessary coursework needed to apply.
Hi, First of all, I want to congratulate you for making the decision to go to med school. I, myself is also in your shoes except I’m much older than you. I also have a Bachelors degree in Business Management and none of the classes I took while doing my undergrad were classes required for med school. I only took one science class which is not even required to get into med school.
So, I basically have to start all over either by getting into a post baccalaureate program or do a second degree in biology, which both would probably take the same amount to do.
My suggestion to you is talk to a premed advisor at a school you would like to do your pre-reqs at. Whatever path you chose to take, just do really well in those classes to get a good GPA. The gpa in your pre-reqs are ones that will really count when applying for med school.
I’m still trying to figure what to do as well. Hope all is well and keep us updated.
Just as a general FYI - you do have more choices than getting accepted to a post-bacc program or doing a second degree. You can just take the pre-reqs and maybe a few more classes on your own - either as a non-degree student or you can take them as a degree-seeking student (even though you don’t really plan to finish the whole degree).
Welcome, all!
Hi Emergency,
Thanks for the information. I heard that before but wasn’t sure how that would work. Maybe I need to talk to a premed advisor. Wouldn’t I have to pay for those classes on my own though? Especially coming in as a non-degree student?
Its just that if I do a 2nd degree, I can get student loans and not have to worry about paying out of my own pocket. I guess if money wasn’t such an issue at this time, I would go in as a non-degree student.
You can get loans as a non-degree student if you are taking courses that are pre-requisites for admission into a professional program. A lot of financial aid people are not aware of this stipulation, but it’s there. I actually posted a link to the document from the federal government’s webpage on this in the past couple of months or so.
The caveat - you are only eligible for 12 consecutive months of loans and it’s very difficult to complete all of the pre-reqs in 12 months. Still, it’s an option.
Lots of people enroll as second-degree seeking students for a variety of reasons. One big one that comes up is being able to schedule the courses you need. At some schools, non-degree students are given lowest scheduling priority and it can be nearly impossible to get into the pre-reqs that every freshman pre-med, pre-vet, pre-whatever wants to take. However, just like many people don’t ever finish their first degree, don’t feel like you have to actually finish the second degree if you enroll as a degree-seeking student. If you want the second degree, go for it, but don’t feel like you have to finish an entire second degree.
Thanks that makes great sense. I really appreciate the information. Can you give me that link to the government site you said you posted awhile back?
The link to the post can be found here: http://www.oldpremeds.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/42276/post/60941/ hl//fromsearch/1/#60941
Hm. So it appears that the link in the original post no longer works. I just checked this link and it appears to work. As in the previous post, the relevant info is on page 77.
Hey, Happy. To tag onto Emergency’s comments, I was able to complete all my prereqs in a year but it required taking the gen chem sequence in the summer, along with calculus. The following academic year I took my bio, o-chem, and physics sequences. Then took the MCAT in June. It was demanding but enjoyable and I actually found it to be less work than the full time work I had left to pursue it.
This would give you the generals, but it wouldn’t allow for advanced courses (I took biochem, molecular biology, genetics and picked up a physics minor the year following my generals in my “glide year”).
I also did most of the pre-reqs in a year by taking organic chemistry and labs during a summer session. I typically don’t recommend that route because it was absolutely brutal. I was able to retain enough to do okay on the MCAT shortly afterwards, but it was gone from my brain very quickly. I don’t think gen chem would be QUITE as bad during a summer session, but you need to be very, very on top of things. I took my last quarter of physics the fall of my application year and also took microbiology and biochemistry.