<p>Last fall I had a D in sociology class from community college. It is the only D I ever had on my transcript. I have a chance to retake it this summer. If I retake it, and get an A, will that be better for medical school admissions?</p>
<p>Otherwise, they might look at my transcript and wonder about that D... but if they see I retook the class and got an A, would it be better? I am interested in MSTP and MD/PhD programs, if that matters any. I know that in my college you get a better overall GPA, and the only grade that counts is the latest one, so only the A would count. Should I retake this class or not?</p>
<p>I’m not sure when you’re going to graduate but starting in 2015 the MCAT will cover sociology as well so it’s probably best you re take it :-)</p>
<p>I will be applying to MSTP and MD/PhD programs next year (probably summer 2014?), after my junior year.</p>
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<p>How your college calculates your gpa does not matter for med school admissions. AMCAS will get all of your transcripts and calculate your gpa counting every grade without replacement.</p>
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<p>Really? After all of the excellent input members gave you on your other thread? Why do you continue to ask questions if you don’t consider the advice you get?</p>
<p>Well, I see less negatives if I apply after next school year. I talked to some adcoms of the schools I am interested in (which are less competitive, but are still MD/PhD fully funded), and they said that one year of research and one full-time summer could be good if the rest of the application is good. So I thought, why not give it a chance? Hey, I might get in. If I don’t, oh well, I will just apply the year after with better stats. (more research experience, better GPA, etc). But if I wait a year, then I might have missed my chance to get accepted earlier. And it is still not a guarantee that I would get accepted even if I wait a year, so I will just wait a year for nothing. So I might as well risk it 
But I just got a small scholarship from my community college, so I am considering getting some summer classes in in order to increase my overall GPA.</p>
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<p>But the points made in your other threads is the that the rest of your application isn’t good. And it’s not not just your low GPA that raises red flags.</p>
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<p>The reason ‘why not’ is that re-applicants have a higher bar to pass. The application has to show a significant improvement year-over-year; otherwise, adcoms will not waste their time.</p>
<p>if i had to rank things in terms of most damaging to one’s application it would be</p>
<ol>
<li>commit a felony</li>
<li>commit academic dishonesty</li>
<li>be a reapplicant</li>
</ol>
<p>To get back to your original question. Do not retake the D since the D will be on your transcript either way and the A the 2nd time around means less than an A in another class.</p>
<p>Okay so I will just take another class instead I have a chance to take classes this summer and raise my GPA so that by the end of next school year I will be able to have a GPA of up to 3.75. Which means, if I get any A-'s in any of the Ochem classes, my GPA can still be above a 3.7, which is good. Thanks guys :)</p>