I graduate in 2006 with a Biology degree. My GPA was a 2.9. I have a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in Public Administration and my GPA was a 3.6. Life has gotten me off track and now I want to pursue a MD Degree. That has been my goal since middle school. I want to know what path should I take to demonstrate I can handle a vigorous medical school curriculum. Since it has been over 10 years since I have taken any pre-requisites for medical school, should I re-take them at a community college, which is affordable to me, or do an academic enhancer post-baccalaureate program? Thank you in advance for your guidance.
We have a very similar situation. I would recommend contacting the current premed advisor of the college you graduated from and getting some guidance there. Get onto their premed mailing list if they have one.
I don’t know if this is the best place, but this is what I started doing about 3 years ago. Took a science class pass/fail at local university “extension” program just to get into groove of things. Then restarted all my pre-reqs. To be clear, they say you should usually not retake the entire pre-req series, but if it’s been 10 years and you did poorly the first time, like me, my logic is that I need this in order to do very very well on MCAT. I need to re-lay my foundations. This time around I’ve been doing well. Mostly A’s, but some B’s mainly due to balancing two jobs.
Try to get plugged in to the premed path wherever you can. I’m doing my classes at community college. I would only do it there if they have a strong science reputation. The med schools I apply won’t know the rep, but I know that the rigorous classes will help me do better on MCAT, which the med schools WILL see. It’s also a money thing for me. But I also happen to be near a CC with super strong sciences (harder than my original college and harder than the very prestigious university in the same city…I know b/c I’ve sat it on the same class there).
Start doing the other premed stuff like volunteering and shadowing etc as you have time.
That’s MY path. If you can get into a postbacc program (which I wouldn’t have been able to when I first went back to school due to low GPA), then I think that’s the better route, though. I’m about to max out on my lower division sciences, so I’m going to be applying to a postbacc this next year.
I’d say community college. I talked to my MD friends and they all said CC is just fine - especially for a busy working non-trad student. You already have a master’s degree and therefore have demonstrated that you can handle upper level studies. Save yourself some $$.
Master’s degrees in Public Health don’t carry much GPA “weight” from what I’ve seen and been told though a concentration in Epidemiology is “stronger”. I think CC classes are fine but ONLY if combined with a number of credits of upper level courses taken at a University in classes like Biochem, Immono, Genetics, ect.