Rejected from FSU w/ AA due to high credit hours [transfer applicant currently at USF, 2.57 college GPA with 100 credits]

College Search & Selection
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Honestly you should stay at USF.

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Figured Iā€™d post an update. Iā€™m still going to Tallahassee to continue my education at the community college there and will reapply to FSU after 2 semesters. Aiming to get all Aā€™s and hope this pattern is enough to show that I am a worthy enough student to be admitted and finish at FSU. If not, USF has a policy that allows me to return within 3 semesters of away time so I will just finish there if I donā€™t get into FSU

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But if you have an AA already, wonā€™t you be wasting time because youā€™ll need upper division classes? And FSU might have a residency requirement - i.e. you canā€™t just go one year. You need to askā€¦some are at least 4 semesters.

It doesnā€™t make sense to me although I donā€™t know all the details.

Best of luck in your pursuit.

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Iā€™ll be doing upper div. classes there (Orgo, Anat/Phys 2, Bio 2 + labs) over 2 terms.

Good point about the residency requirement, didnā€™t notice anything about that when I initially applied. Iā€™ll look into that.

Thank you

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Those are not upper division classes
Upper division classes are 3000 and 4000 lvl classes

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Yes - OP - it doesnā€™t sound right what you are doing.

You need to speak to a transfer advisor.

You might be adding a year with this plan - and for what? Get your degree ASAP - and then you can look elsewhere for grad school.

Why would you leave the optimal path at very solid USF?

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@wayoutwestmom Can you give OP (premed aspirations with low GPA) guidance here? OP has completed over 100 hours of courses at USF (see original post). Now going to Tallahassee community college for the next year to take the above courses (note they are not upper division courses as OP states), with the intent to transfer to FSU in Fall 2024.

Here are the FSU residency requirements (more details at the link below):

  1. Completion of at least forty-five semester hours in courses numbered 3000 and above, thirty of which need to be taken at Florida State University.
  2. Completion of the last thirty semester hours and half of the major course semester hours, in residence at this University.

FSU Undergraduate Bulletin.

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Every college course youā€™ve ever taken will be used to calculate your gpas for med school admission. This means you are going to have trouble raising your GPA due the large number of credits you already have. You will need excellence in any coursework you take from now on. Donā€™t repeat any science classes where youā€™ve earned a C or better. Take a higher level class in the same department and ace it.

Do not take any premed courses at a community college. You need to demonstrate that you can be successful at a 4 year college while taking the tough premed classes. You have not shown that you can be a successful student while attending a 4 year collegeā€“which is something that med school adcomms are very much looking for in applicants. Plus rightly or wrongly, community colleges have reputations for easier grading and having less comprehensive/challenging material included in their classes.

In order to pass the first round of automated screening for med school, your GPA/sGPA needs be ~3.25 or better. (Could be higher depending on the school.)

The usual remedy for a non-traditional pre med with a weak GPA is a post bacc (either a formal one or a self-directed one) to raise your GPA, but because of the large number of credits you have itā€™s going to hard to move the GPA needle.

Since med schools do not allow grade replacement, non-traditional students with excessive credits really only have 2 options after improving their GPA as much as possible:

  1. apply only to those med schools that reward re-invention* (Most DO programs plus about 10 or so MD programs)

  2. enroll in and ace a SMP (Special Masterā€™s Program). A SMP emulates the difficulty and type of coursework that is taught in the first year of medical school. SMPs are a high risk/high reward choice. Do well in the program, graduate with 3.5 or higher and in the top 25% of your class and your chances for med school admission are about 50-50 (or about what a good applicant from undergrad has). Donā€™t do well and all hope of med school is gone forever. SMPs have proliferated recently since colleges has discovered they can be big-money-makers. Do your due diligence before enrolling in one. The best SMPs are offered by med schools.

*DO programs will include any graduate SCIENCE credits earned during a formal grad degree programs in GPA all calculations for admission. MD programs do not.

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