Hello everybody! First, I would like to say how thrilled I was to stubble on this site. Just within the past couple of weeks perusing the forum, I have gained very valuable information and changed my pre-med plan. Now I feel more confident about getting into medical school and becoming a doctor. So THANK YOU to everyone for sharing your experiences and knowledge! It is truly priceless!
A little about myself:
I graduated from the U of MN in 2006 with a BA in Speech Communications. My original plan was to major in biology, but I let my boyfriend (at the time) talk me out of it, my biggest regret to this day. I ended up marrying the guy at a young age, didn’t take college seriously, too focused on my future as homemaker, and just being content playing housewife. My husband then stated he wanted to plan for kids (I was 23 at the time)and that absolutely terrified me. Realizing we didn’t want the same in life at that time (among other reasons), I divorced him and have decided to continue where I left off…a time in my life when I was making decisions for me and only me.
I told my friends that I was entertaining the thought of medical school and their support and encouragement was overwhelming!
So here I am, 26 years old and beginning pre-med courses this summer. My original plan was to take just the sciences I need to apply to med school since I have a BA already, however my GPA of 3.24 isn’t so stellar, so I’ve decided (after reading these wonderful forums) that it may be more to my advantage to obtain a 2nd bachelor’s degree a number of reasons:
(1) It’ll only take 1 more year of undergrad as opposed to just pre-med courses.
(2) If I were to take just the pre-med courses, I would be a non-degree seeking student, therefore I don’t believe a GPA is calculated, only the credits obtained. Also, being non-degree seeking puts me at the back of the line when it comes to registering for classes.
(3) I think simply taking the pre-med courses may make (some) adcoms think that I can’t handle a full load of classes and see it as doing the bare minimum needed to get in.
(4) I actually really want to take the courses for this second degree, Neuroscience.
So thats my story…I look forward to my journey to and through med school and beyond with OPM on my side!
Thanks again everybody!
Many of us are going for a 2nd degree out of interest, GPA repair, etc. My uGPA (3.01) needs some boosting before I start my application for 2012 so I figured I might as well get a second degree in something that actually interests me.
Also in my situation, financial aid is not given after a 12 month period to a student who already has a degree unless they are seeking another one. Knowing that it is going to take more than 12 months for me to do the prereqs, I enrolled into a second program.
While I am new here myself, welcome aboard!
Have you checked out post-bac premed programs. These are more like masters degrees, specifically designed for those with bachelors who need to get the med school prereqs. Your bachelors gpa will stand, but if you have a 4.o masters level science core, it may do the job. Especially if the rest of your app. is top notch.
To be honest, I don’t really know much about pre-med post-bac programs, maybe because there are none offered where I live (MN). I did a search for programs on the AAMC website, and no results were found, nor any in my sister state (WI).
So it appears that a 2nd bachelors is my best bet. A post-bac program would be nice however!