<p>Well heres my situation. I am a second semester freshman and this year has been a compete disaster to me. I've slacked off so much this entire year that my GPA is suffering. This semester I took an intro to biology class which is specifically geared towards biology majors. I really enjoy this class but Ive been so lazy that Ive completely wasted my first half of the semester and now I'm failing. Now if I study my behind off Ill probably end up with a C- but I dont know whether or not to retake this class in the fall and take an easier bio class this summer as a prep for the fall or should I stick to the C- and move on to the next biology course. I feel as if I wasted alot of time if I retake this class I would be considerable behind. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>You’re going to have to retake if you get a C-. Medical schools won’t accept anything less than a C in prereqs. In addition, most colleges won’t let you go on to the next level of coursework if you’ve earned less than a C in a prereq course.</p>
<p>Can you drop the class? If not, retake it.</p>
<p>Actually, a C- is still a passing grade and is considered satisfactory performance in the class. Only Ds and Fs need to be repeated. In fact, most schools will not allow you to retake a class in which you received a grade higher than a D or F. Nevertheless, a C- in an introductory Biology class is not going to look good when applying to medical schools.</p>
<p>Take W if you can and start over when you are ready to work</p>
<p>*I am a second semester freshman and this year has been a compete disaster to me. I’ve slacked off so much this entire year that my GPA is suffering. *</p>
<p>You have to think about how this image is going to look to med schools. Are they going to give a seat to someone who might “slack off” in med school.</p>
<p>You need to drop this class if you can. Otherwise you have to make this look like an aberration and not SOP. So, you probably should take an extra 300/400 bio class to compensate for this one. Also, you need to dilute the impact of that grade on your science GPA.</p>
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<p>A C- might still be passing, but medical schools don’t want to see anything below a C. I think most schools will allow you to retake class, if you had a C- in it. (Or at least this is from my experience, and the experiences that my friends have had at their schools). I agree with shades on this one…</p>
<p>If it’s freshman bio and you’re planning on taking upper level bio classes anyway (which you definitely should, in my opinion), then I absolutely would NOT bother retaking the class. Thanks to the way AMCAS works, the C- is going to be factored into your GPA regardless of whether it’s factored into your school’s GPA (anything that’s on any college transcript with your name on it will be factored into your AMCAS GPA)…so it would be better for you to take other bio classes and rock them so that As in those classes essentially “balance out” the C- in the freshman intro class.</p>
<p>Since there’s no way to replace a grade with AMCAS, there’s little to no value in retaking the class (unless, of course, you actually fail it and must retake it to get credit). The only way it would be worthwhile is if your school completely erased the first C- grade from your transcript and replaced it with your new (presumably higher) grade. I’ve never heard of a school with such a practice though.</p>
<p>Get through it the best you can, and make a concerted effort to do better next semester in your higher level biology courses.</p>
<p>Just my opinion though. Should be interesting to see what others have to say about this one!</p>
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<p>I’ve heard of at least one school that has ridiculously generous grade forgiveness policies and essentially does this.</p>
<p>That doesn’t change the fact that you have to list both times you took the course on AMCAS. The AMCAS instructions are clear on this. If you don’t and you get caught, forget about ever attending a US medical school.</p>
<p>DO schools, on the other hand, do allow for grade replacement.</p>
<p>Even IF the student’s UG school offers grade replacement, ALL grades must be submitted to AMCAS. Retaking does not undo a grade. Regardless, Gen Bio is a prereq; less than a C must be retaken. Further, a C in a prereq is quite harmful to an application. OP, you have some repair work to be done. Starting out like this is is starting off on a bad foot and will come back to haunt you. You need to make sure you have a strong upward trend (i.e., straight As) from here on out. You don’t have room to slack again. The level of competition you face is only going to increase as it has over the past decade. The average GPA of a matriculating med student last yr was 3.66 (up from 3.65 the year before). It will likely climb a bit more when this cycle is over. While those changes may seem small the fact that the numbers keep climbing is evidence that the level of competition is increasing. I believe this year the average matriculating MCAT score hit 32. It was ~31.5 the year prior. This means that to be *average<a href=“for%20someone%20getting%20in”>/I</a> you must be in the top 10% of the nation’s medical school hopefuls that make it to the application stage (which is very, very few of the freshmen “premeds”)!</p>