Starting over after college

I gradauted from a 4-year school here in Georgia with a B.S in Psychology and a less than stellar GPA. I have decided to obtain another Bachelors degree in a different major (Biology). Does anyone know the process of applying to colleges/universities after having already graduated with a B.S. degree? Any advice would be helpful.

Many schools offer a second bachelor’s degree. Check the websites. Generally there is no financial aid from the colleges, just loans, regardless of your need.

Thank you! I will look into that.

I have heard of people getting two Master’s degrees and even two PhDs. I’ve never heard of getting two Bachelor’s degrees.

Would it be more efficient to take the bio courses you need that would qualify you to enter into a Master’s biology program?

Maybe others will weigh in differently.

Haven’t thought of that…I can definitely look into finding out more information, thank you dearly!

What do you want to do with that biology major?

There are several ways to approach this. I know people who have done each of these:

  1. Return to your original university and pick up the coursework needed to finish up the second major. Often this will result in a second diploma for that major and year of graduation. Upside, only one transcript to worry about. Downside, anyone seeing that particular transcript also sees your old, bad grades.

  2. Find a handy cheap place (home-state public U often is the choice), enroll as a transfer student, and complete the requirements for a degree there. Upside to this, your GPA from University#2 will probably only reflect the grades you earned there. Downsides include loss of credits on transfer and the possibility that you might have to take way more classes than you had hoped if you need a bunch of different Gen Eds or distribution requirements, and ending up with that second transcript you have to keep track of for the rest of your life.

  3. Pick up the specific courses that you need at a community college and/or cheap public U in non-degree status. Even if you need to be an official transfer student for some reason, you could collect the classes you need and leave without a degree. Upside, possibly the quickest route (you only take specific classes that you want and any missing pre-reqs for those classes). Downside, no degree earned.

My plan is to become a Medical Doctor… To prevent myself from being rejected given the low GPA in my major, I chose to start over. THANK YOU!!! to the information you have provided, its given me hope towards the path or direction I’m planning to take.

There’s no starting over. Medical schools will see all your transcripts.

If your plan is to become a doctor then you don’t need a 2nd degree in biology. What you need is one of the post baccalaureate programs for people who are missing classes required to apply to med school. A number of colleges offer these. In addition to the coursework you will get counseling to help apply to med school, since this is the whole point of the program. You should talk with several programs about whether your plan is realistic given your existing GPA. Often these programs are expensive but there are some public options.

The real thing to think about now is how do you know you want to be a doctor? Have you been doing volunteer work in a medical setting? Have you explored other options in the medical area that require less training and are far less expensive? Or is this just a “I don’t know what is my life, why not become a doctor” type of decision?

Another avenue for me to look at, thank you!

@mikemac is exactly right…look at Post Bacc programs that have you just take the pre-req classes.
Definitely volunteer/shadow so you know what you are getting into.

Post Bacc programs for Premed
https://apps.aamc.org/postbac/#/index

Thank you so kindly.