Hello,
Thank you kindly for reading this. I do not wish to bore anyone with an emotional tale of failure so I will simply jump into the numbers!
I graduated from UCLA 7 years ago with a degree in Athropology, which required me to take a portion of the pre-med courses. Along my journey to graduation, I did take some of those pre-med courses at a CC, which were then transfered to UCLA for the completion of my major. My grades are as follows:
UCLA 1998 - Life Science 1 (EVOLUTN&ECOL&BIO DIV): C
UCLA 2001 - Life Science 2 (CELLS&TISSUES&OR GNS): C
UCLA 2001 - Life Science 3 (INTRO-MOLECULAR BIO): C
UCLA 2002 - Life Science 4 (GENETICS): D
CC 1999 - G CHEM I: A
CC 2000 - G CHEM II: B
CC 1999 - PHYSICS I: B
CC 2000 - PHYSICS II: B
CC 1997 - CALC I: C
CC 2000 - CALC II: B
UCLA 2002 - ORG. CHEM I: F
UCLA 2002 - ORG. CHEM I (Retake): C
I do not know what my science GPA averages out to as this is a combination of both semester and quarter units. My overall GPA, including CC coursework, is a 3.2 and my UCLA overall GPA is a 2.84. I have the opportunity to attend the University of Pittsburgh on a part-time basis at this time and would like to obtain a second undergraduate degree, this time in the sciences. Obtaining a masters in the sciences is not an option as I have a very weak foundation to start with and must retake these science courses at the undergradute level rather than jump into graduate coursework. Would you recommend that I retake all of my pre-med courses as it has been 10 years since I have taken my first biology course? I also wish to retake all of my pre-med courses because I have no recollection of the material and would need to prepare myself for the MCAT. Looking at my grades above, what would be the best plan of action to take? I would be equally happy to attend an osteopathic school as I would an allopathic school. Thank you very much!
I would retake at least biology and organic chem, probably general chem as well to get it fresh in your mind.
Sit down with your college’s premed advisor and work out a plan of action (or hire a premed consultant to work with, if you don’t have an advisor handy).
Keep reading this site and others like studentdoctor.net to inform yourself of the process and general information about medicine. Start developing your essay–the story of why you want to go into medicine–and refine it as you go. Do some volunteering in a hospital to get a feel for it, and try to shadow a couple of docs. Read books about doctoring.
Best of luck and keep posting; there’s a tremendous amount of collective experience in this forum!
Thank you, ttraub, for taking the time to respond. I was hoping not to have to retake physics or calculus. Retaking Bio and O Chem, then the MCAT, is enough? Or obtaining a new undergraduate degree, this time in the sciences, is better?
Thank you so much!
The best thing to do is to contact a medical school and find out if the grades your received from 7 years ago are still valid. This will give you a better idea of what you have to take. If they will accept grades from 7 years ago, any of the pre-reqs you did well in, you are done. Concentrate on the classes you will need to retake.
Do not plan on the MCAT at this time. You still need to complete those pre-reqs. Remember, you are going to be running a marathon and not a sprint.