HI everyone, I’ll first bombard you with my stats:
Stats:
1st year: 2.86
2nd year: 2.85
summer session 1 : 2.85
summer session 2: 2.81
3rd year: 2.77
summer session 1: 2.81 (with upward trend starting this summer till my 5 th year with A’s and B’s)
4th year: 2.95
5th year: 2.99
Cumulative GPA: 2.99; BCPM GPA: 2.654
Note: i was a pre-med in college and became a non-traditional pre-med student after college.
Background: I understand my grades are abysmal, and while there shouldn’t be any excuses, I was struggling with taking care of my family and maintaining grades along with tons of other problems: not knowing how to study efficiently, not having support, being emotionally unstable, etc. I have always been a pre-med but wasn’t sure i wanted to do medicine until I met my amazing mentor in the summer of my 3rd year and started volunteering at a clinic and doing research. I changed my studying habits drastically, especially during the last year of college, but i was still struggling with test taking skills. Anyway, long story short, I graduated from a UC in 2016 and spent a year a half on taking care of family matters, dealing with unfortunate events, and improving myself physically, mentally, and emotionally. I buckled down to study for the MCAT in Jan 2018, but i’m going to void the exam score this 9/19 cause as of right now, my AAMC FL 2 is 126/120/125/126.
Calculation: it takes 77 units to bring my BCPM GPA (NOT cumulative GPA) from 2.654 to 3.00 (which is an equivalent of 2 years of classes).
Plans: 1st step) do a DIY post bac starting in Winter 2019 till Fall 2019 next year - an entire year of upper division science courses of about 37-39 units.
-during this year of my DIY post bac at a UC: i’m going to apply to the UC post bac consortium and other programs in CA
2nd step) If i don’t get in the UC post bac program, I will continue taking classes at Sacramento State University. During this year, once I’m used to doing well in upper division courses, I’ll add volunteering work and others back to the curriculum.
Questions:
- What do you think of first doing a DIY post bac to raise my BCPM GPA so i can be more competitive for post bac programs?
- What do you think of continuing a DIY post bac at Sac State afterwards if i don’t get into a UC post bac? By then I’ll be having about 2 year DIY post bac, and am confident that I would be able to apply to medical schools in 2020. Thanks to the MCAT, I finally am able to think more critically, study and take tests more effectively, and especially stay calm under pressure.
- I also have a second thought that if i’m going to do a DIY post bac the second year at sac state (after doing my first DIY post bac at a UC), shouldn’t I be spending money at a linkage post bac program? Are there any programs with linkages or trustworthy programs that are not so expensive?
I’m sorry for such a long post and thanks for bearing with me. Any advices would be greatly appreciated. :))