I am on the fence while pondering fall classes. It’s been ages since I posted my stats, so here it goes: I’m a practicing ER nurse who is going pre-med. I graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Nursing witha 3.6-something GPA. I have always done fairly well, but do have a few skeletons in y closet from very early undergrad. Nothing that crushing, just a C, a C+ and a couple of B’s. As a result, my overall SGPA is 3.45. However, in my pre med prereqs, I have a 3.95. (Most of these prereqs have been completed in the past 2 years, after I’d already graduated with my nursing degree.)
So, here is my question. This summer, in addition to staying full time in the ER, I will be starting part-time practice as a sexual assault nurse examiner (“SANE”). I am all certified, love the work and hope it will help out my eventual practice as a physician also. Come fall, I can either continue working in this capacity and take a 2-credit graduate level course, in addition to preparing for the MCAT. This 2-credit course, despite being grad level, will raise my overall GPA to only a 3.48 if I got an A.
2) Or, I could NOT work as a SANE, and take more credits (maybe a 4-credit bio plus the grad course.) This would raise my overall GPA to about a 3.59 if I got A’s. I don’t feel that I could do SANE practice, take all these credits and prepare for the MCAT appropriately, however. So, the SANE work would have to go.
I guess the underlying question is: which will be more helpful to me in the long run: the experience of SANE practice or the extra credits potentially boosting my GPA by that dastardly 0.11 points ?
Whoops, I misspoke. I meant that if I took ONLY the 2-credit grad level bio class, I COULD continue to work as SANE. However, if I took the 2-credit grad class PLUS a 4 credit, I could not: it would just be school and work in the ER as usual, plus of course the lovely MCAT studying.