Hi there! I was hoping to get some advice regarding the completion of my pre-requisites needed for Medical School.
Currently, I am a 2nd year Political Science major at a UC, and am projected to graduate Spring of 2021 (a year early). I was originally doing Political Science as well as a Pre-Med core track. However, after getting a D+ in Gen Bio, I am no longer allowed to compete Life Science classes at my school. I have already completed Calculus and Gen Chem. With that being said, I’m having difficulty deciding my next steps.
As of right now, I’m registered to complete the entire series of Biology, with Lab, at another UC this summer. My plan is to take Bio this summer, finish my Bachelors, and graduate spring 2021. From there, I would enroll in CC to compete the last of my prereqs (OChem + Physics + any additional helpful classes).
My concern is that I am not sure if my application would lose its integrity if I were to satisfy 2 of the premed series at a community college. Does this sound feasible? Or should I consider enrolling in a Post-Bacc program to satisfy the requirements? I also have the option of dragging out my major requirements and staying another year at my UC, and satisfying the rest of the prereqs in the summer. For reference, my major GPA is 3.9, my cumulative is 3.5, and my science is quite low at 2.3, but this is mainly because I failed Biology. Messing with GPA calculators showed me that getting As in future classes still has the potential to bring the science gpa up in the low-mid 3. GPA.
Ordinarily I would say that taking your pre-reqs at a CC after graduation would be a feasible plan; however, your D+ in biology may make it appear that you are trying to avoid taking your pre-reqs at a 4 year college because of your past poor performance. And rightly or wrongly, community college courses are viewed by adcomms as being less competitive than classes taken at a 4 year college. I think given your poor showing in bio, you really need to do your sciences at a 4 year college. (It doesn’t need to be another UC. If there’s a CSU near your home, that will be fine.)
Also some of your med school pre-reqs will not be available at a CC–specifically biochem.
Realistically, for allopathic medical schools you need a sGPA above 3.6.
A 3.2 sGPA + MCAT >500 might get you accepted to a SMP**.
If you can get your sGPA up to 3.4+, you’ll be in-range for osteopathic medical schools outside of CA–particularly some of the newer schools. (CA DO programs have stats equivalent or higher than national MD medians.)
If you want a MD, you’ll need to do a SMP**.
**SMP = Special Master’s Program. These are high risk-high reward 1-2 year graduate programs that simulate the work load and difficulty of the first year of med school. The best are offered by med schools and come with a guaranteed admission interview for the top performing students.
The downside of the SMPS are:
they’re expensive
if you don’t finish in the top 25% of the class, any chance of every getting a med school admission are gone.
How did you do in Gen Chemistry ? Organic Chemistry is supposed to be tougher than General Chemistry. Physics is a difficult subject. You may have to get A’s in all remaining science pre-requisities. Medical school will still use D+ in sGPA calculation after a repeat.