Hello,
I was hoping for some advice on my undergraduate studies. There has been a bumpy road in my undergraduate time, meaning I had to leave school for financial reasons, transferred then got academically dismissed from that school, and I changed my major a couple of times. So there has been a lot of time of me not being in school. I am supposed to be a senior this year and my major is psychology but I still need to complete my major requirements. However I’m thinking of getting a BS in psych instead of a BA because it also covers the pre-reqs for med school. However, it’ll probably be another 2-3 years before I can graduate. But it would give me time to start my extracurricular activities as I have not started them yet. This makes me feel like I have a new start. However I thought of just getting a BA with some pre-reqs then a masters then med school or maybe going into a post-bacc degree. What you think would the best option? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Allopathic med schools will not overlook your previous poor grades. AMCAS requires that you report ALL your post-high school coursework and all grades will be included in your GPA calculations.
Osteopathic med schools will count only the newest grade of re-taken previous coursework; however, the credit value AND course description must be identical for grade replacement to work. If you’re serious about med school, this will probably be your fastest and least expensive route. Retake any C/D/F grades
Sooo… long story short–those previous grades aren’t going to just disappear.
It depends on several things—
how many credit do you currently have? how many science credits? (Count any courses where you failed, had grades replace thru academic second chance programs or earned alternate credit thru AP, IB, CLEP etc.)
what is your current GPA?
what is your current sGPA (all bio, chem, math and physics)
what pre-reqs have you already taken?
how are your finances? (Post baccs aren’t cheap! And bio masters are all self-funded. Unfortunately there is little aid other than loans for these programs.)
On the whole most MS programs really don't help with med school admission as much as people think they do. (Most med schools screen applicants using your undergrad GPA/sGPA. Grad GPA only gets considered if a human being actually gets your application to read and even then the response is highly variable.)
The most effective MS programs are called Special Master's Programs (SMP). These are science-heavy bio degrees that mimic the coursework of the first year of med school. These require that you have completed all med school pre-reqs and taken the MCAT to be considered for admission.