Hello,
I’m currently a Biotechnology major and I’m premed (trying to go to medical school). But I want to change my major to something easier for my GPA to survive but I really don’t want to get a degree in something irrelevant. But I also know that a engineering technology major (biotech) is hard. So I need advice, should I change to an easy major for a higher GPA or stay biotech and have an OK GPA (3.5/3.6)???
Deleted, would sound mean. Good luck OP. There are lots of people knowledgeable about the premed path on here.
You need to have a major that you LIKE, and will get a high GPA.
Getting a 3.5/3.6 GPA in Biotech may mean that you won’t get into any med schools.
Change your major if think it will help you get a better GPA, but you still have to take all the core pre-med science classes and do well in those. Your sGPA is more important than your overall GPA for med school admission. (especially for non-science majors).
In your previous post you indicated that you had earn a C and C- in bio 1 and gen chem 1. With fewer science classes to dilute those poor grades, raising your sGPA is going to be a struggle.
Okay, so you are saying not to change my major because i will earn a good science GPA with all the btech classes?
Also, @mom2collegekids what do you mean i wont get into any medical schools with a 3.6/3.7 in biotech?
Mom2 said :
By that she means your GPA may be too low for med school if that’s the highest you can manage as biotech major.
And I didn’t say you shouldn’t change your major, just that you need to take lots of BCPM classes to dilute the C’s you already have in your pre-req classes.
Okay I understand, Im retaking the C- class anyways.
But I will try to get my GPA as high as possible, im aiming for a 3.7 by the time I graduated.
So bottom line, take as many (easy) sciences as possible to dilute my bad grades?
So far im doing well in my classes this semester.
Adcoms also will evaluate if you took the hardest BCMP courses in your college to determine if you are trying to protect the GPA. They will receive applicants from your college and they will compare your courses with those from your school, maybe back track for two years if they think you are taking the easy way out.
Okay I understand. So where I’m at and what I need to do: don’t change my major (I actually love the field of btech, it just has few hard classes), but try extremely hard to maintain a good GPA
3.5/3.6 may not be get you in MD school, but you will have a better shot at DO schools. One way to be certain, regardless your major, your BCMP GPA needs to be at least 3.5/3.6 level to be comfortable. I am not sure a med school will take C- in a pre-req, you may have to re-take that and make sure you get an A in that retake, otherwise your hopes will be dashed sooner than later. You also should take higher level BCMP courses to do GPA repair. Other than that, a high mcat will compensate your gpa shortfall.
After all these, if you are still on the boarder line, apply to SMP programs after graduation and do well in that, in most cases, you can get in. Lots of DO SMP programs have more than 50% chance to attend a DO school, not so much for MD school SMP programs/
Thank you so much for your kind inputs!!!