I am currently a sophomore who is on the pre-med track at Boston University and I am looking to transfer to a CUNY school because I believe I can do better than I am doing right now at a school thats not grade deflated. I currently have a 3.17 gpa and a 2.8 sci gpa. The reason for my low gpa is solely due to chemistry at BU. I believe the grade deflation is very real at BU because it does not make sense to put in more than the amount of allotted study time for a class and still end up with Cs and C+s on a transcript after making adjustments each semester (for gen chem courses and orgo). Besides chemistry, I am doing well in every other pre med course. I know that pre med is still a hard task wherever I go but if Im still getting the same grades after countless hours of studying, at this point the cause of a low gpa can be the school I am in. I am not trying to take the easy way to medical school but I want to prove to medical schools that I am capable of being in med school with the same intensity of studying but a less deflated grading system. I know for a fact I can get my grades together with an easier chem program because that is basically all that I need in order to get a higher gpa. I am also interested in transferring in order to save a lot of money, so far over the first couple of years at BU i’ve paid 40k per year. On the other hand going to a cuny will be around 16k per year so I can save money and have enough for medical school in the future. Is a bad idea to transfer from a top tier school to a middle to low tier school? Will med schools look badly on a person who transfers in the middle of their undergrad career? Do I have a chance of getting an acceptance to Queens College or Hunter College?
I am also thinking of Pre-Optometry as a track in case my gpa is not high enough for med school. Is there anything that you recommend for someone who wants to be an optometrist?
Lots of students from Queens and Hunter are going to med schools, do not worry, you are making a good move. However, you need to make near perfect grades over there. I know if you got a committee letter, you will be a strong candidate.
What gpa would be good enough for optometry schools? Im doubting I’ll get into an MD or DO even if I go up from a 3.2 to a 3.4.
Why sell you short? If you get 4.0 from now on you maybe able to make it. Anyway, they have a large advisory board when you get there, ask.
Getting a 4.0 is easier said than done but I’ll like to get 3.6+ consistently for the next five semesters.
List with average accepted 2015 GPAs and OAT scores for OD schools:
[Profile of the 2015 Optometry Entering Class published online by the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry](http://www.oatbooks.com/oat-scores-for-optometry-schools)
Looks like average GPAs range from 3.3 to 3.7, depending on the school.
(Remember that some schools have in-state or in-region bias in admissions.)
A good college gives grades based on results, not effort. Your performance in chemistry at BU was poor and you received C’s. You need to address your academic realities, not blame your school.
TomSrofBoston I can only willingly say that chem is my weakness besides that I have no reason to drop pre med but what if I did better in chem at a university that’s not tough on grading?
WayOutWestMom I am thinking about applying to MCPHS and New England College of Optometry if I pull my cgpa to a 3.3 and my sci gpa to a little above a e (say 3.05) will I get accepted? Also, do you have any advice for shadowing an optometrist? Ive only been recently considering pre-optometry because of the fact that I’ll have a better lifestyle with less stress, less schooling, and more family time, while still making a decent salary compared to the path to an MD.
What major are you in? What made gen chem and orgo so hard at BU? Any extra efforts you put in those classes?
You should discuss this with your pre-health advisors when you get into CUNY, your options, including NP, PA, OD and others. Any school that has a “committee” (and Queens has a large one) is not going to ruin its reputation by recommending an “unfit” student in to a field, no matter what that is. I used to compete for jobs locally with CUNY schools graduates(in my profession), I don’t think the better students are less competitive than those from BU. Yes, they have a lot of lower level students because they have to take in everyone and not very selective. But, those less competitive students are weeded out very quickly and their good students are as competitive as any. Our school, at one time, as an experiment, did grant about 50 full ride students from Harlem and after one year in the program, most, if not all were gone, that includes my roommate.
I’m a bio major. Gen chem was challenging at BU because of exams and even though I did well in lab and discussions, the exams were impossible to complete because the professors included info that wasn’t even taught in lecture and the curves are very bad. Orgo is challenging to understand at BU because of how the material was presented but it’s hard at every college. Similar to gen chem, I’d say that the exams were the reason I got the grade I did, I did average to above average in both lab and discussion but lost in on exams. Yes, I made an effort to even pay for private tutoring which never helped me because my tutor was hard to understand and made the material even more complex. I know the best tutors come at a hefty price around $60/hr and I can definitely be willing to pay for a better tutor now that I have a job. I’ve been to professors office hours but they don’t help that much for chem because a lot of people come to office hours every time I come to them.
I thought pre-med and med required a strong understanding of chemistry? Many students talk about how hard Organic chem was in relation to the easier general chem classes. If you are having a hard time in your lower level chem classes then maybe you should simply reconsider your major. There is no shame in picking a challenging major and finding out you were not cut out for it. You must know many students at BU who started in engineering and then changed due to the challenge. Happens all the time and is totally normal. Nothing wrong at all. All students have areas that are more challenging than others.
You may be better served by changing majors and staying at BU. It is a great school and you did well to get in in the first place. Just some food for thought.
Too soon to guess. You’d need to really show strong grades in ochem, biochem, physics and micro to have a chance. (Or at least that’s the advice my optometrist tells hopeful OD students.)
A 3.0 sGPA will hurt your chances at either program since individual program data shows the sGPA of accepted students is higher, closer to 3.2.
Start by asking your own eye care practitioner, network out from there. Your college’s health office may able to suggest some places to start asking. Otherwise, start cold calling OD offices.
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the exams were impossible to complete because the professors included info that wasn't even taught in lecture and the curves are very bad.
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The learning paradigm in college is 180 degree flipped from high school. In high school, teachers tend to spoon feed the students the material. In college, you're expected to largely teach yourself the material using a multitude of resources, only one of which is class lecture. You need to use as many resources as possible--lecture, recitations, homework problems, study groups, office hours, Khan Academy videos, extra reading and extra problems sets besides those assigned.
College lectures will seldom cover 100% of the material you're expected to know. Just sayin'.
The curves are "bad" because you now competing in a bigger pond with bigger fish. You need to either step up your game or go home. If my OAT is higher than the average score for a optometry school can that take precedence over a slightly subpar gpa?
I don’t know.
It depends on what your key grades look like and what, if any, grade trends you have.
If you have good grades in key pre-reqs and a consistently upward grade trend, then maybe. If your science grades remain flat with mostly Bs and Cs or if your grades are all over the place (some good, some not) probably not.
Every school weeds its pre-med, just how bad they are doing the weeding. If you did well in Bio at BU, you’re lucky that BU bio dept is not as harsh as its chem dept, or you’re much better at bio than chem. Orgo is well known as #1 pre-med killer because it is very time consuming, tricky concept and hard to catch up once fell behind. You need to have a much better plan. Get better tutors, read textbook before lectures and never fall behind. How many mid-terms did gen chem and orgo have at BU? Did the syllabus say how the grading is done (where A, B, C, … cut-off)?
@bcher2596 you’ll want to apply to more than just two optometry schools. And to find internships, create a well worded letter explaining why you are interested in optometry and why you would like to intern. E-mail the letter to doctors close to home and let them know that you will be home over spring break and available to interview for a summer position.
It’s a known fact that BU has one of the highest grade deflations in the country! My relative is a biochem major there, she was one of top students at a very strong public school in NJ and she has been struggling. BU was a complete nightmare for her, tons of money because she lost the scholarship after her grades dropped and now, she is about to graduate and her parents are at a loss as what is the next step to take.