Extend Senior Year or Start DIY Post-Bacc Like Normal?

[gracej775]

Hey everyone, I want to thank everyone in advance for the help because I am a first-gen college and med school, and I don't have anyone to ask about this.

I am currently a senior, one semester away from graduating, and am worried about how my upward trend looks. I need advice on what is the best plan of action for deciding how to tackle the rest of senior year and my DIY post bacc. I was chronically ill for the first two years of undergrad, so my upward trend is my saving grace in the GPA department.

GPA Trend by Year: 3.129, 3.121, 3.931, and 3.706
cGPA Trend: 3.129, 3.125, 3.376, 3.493 (I have no clue which one actually matters, the cGPA or the GPA by year)
AACOMAS sGPA Trend by Year: 2.5, 2.762, 3.857, 3.348
AACOMAS cSGPA Trend: 2.5, 2.690, 3.070, 3.167

I was planning on doing a DIY post bacc at a CC or potentially at the school I'm graduating from to raise my sGPA, but I'm worried about the highlighted GPA. Will it look bad to have that GPA decrease in senior year even though the cumulative is still in a positive direction? More specifically, would it be better to start my post bacc classes without technically graduating so it stays under my senior year sGPA (and thus bumping that highlighted GPA up), or graduate and have the upper-level sciences go into the post bacc category (keeping the highlighted GPA and improving back up in post bacc)?

So, in essence, I am asking, which trend looks better:

AACOMAS sGPA: 2.5, 2.762, 3.857, 3.348, 3.85
AACOMAS cSGPA: 2.5, 2.690, 3.070, 3.167, 3.353

(Keep senior year how it is and then do my post bacc like normal)

or

AACOMAS sGPA: 2.5, 2.762, 3.857, 3.548, 4.0 (potentially do 2 more classes outside of 'senior year')
AACOMAS cSGPA: 2.5, 2.690, 3.070, 3.306, 3.352

(Include post bacc in senior year grades and postpone graduation)

Thank you again for your help. I would prefer to graduate and move on, but to be honest it doesn't make much difference whether I do it before or after graduating (COVID won't let me have commencement anyway). I just don't know what is better for the application. If there is anything else you think I'm not considering I'd also like to know about it. Thanks again for your help.

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[Doctoscope]

I would personally do the cheapest option that gives you 30+ units of UD science coursework, without any retakes.

 

[Calizboosted76]

So I just went through this. If you extend your senior year, your upward trend will not be as apparent to adcoms.

I have had multiple rejections turn into secondaries once I reached out and pointed out that my “senior year” was actually 3 years and the last two were at a 3.8 GPA (one of those rejection turned into an acceptance after pointing this out and having a great interview).

However why go through all the trouble when you can spend a little more through a post bacc and not have to deal with it not being apparent in your GPA trend.

 

[gracej775]

So I just went through this. If you extend your senior year, your upward trend will not be as apparent to adcoms.

I have had multiple rejections turn into secondaries once I reached out and pointed out that my “senior year” was actually 3 years and the last two were at a 3.8 GPA (one of those rejection turned into an acceptance after pointing this out and having a great interview).

However why go through all the trouble when you can spend a little more through a post bacc and not have to deal with it not being apparent in your GPA trend.

Thank you for your reply! I'm happy everything finally worked out for you. I was planning on doing a DIY post bacc, either at the CC nearby, another 4-year university (to maybe make it more evident that it is a post bacc), or request to continue to take classes after graduation at my current university. Do you think it necessarily matters? Maybe I'm undershooting, but at the moment I don't think I have such a bad GPA that I would need to pay the extraordinary price of a formal post bacc (a DIY would be significantly cheaper).

 

[DrThanos]

So I just went through this. If you extend your senior year, your upward trend will not be as apparent to adcoms.

I have had multiple rejections turn into secondaries once I reached out and pointed out that my “senior year” was actually 3 years and the last two were at a 3.8 GPA (one of those rejection turned into an acceptance after pointing this out and having a great interview).

However why go through all the trouble when you can spend a little more through a post bacc and not have to deal with it not being apparent in your GPA trend.

Literally going through this right now and emailing admissions people.

 

[Calizboosted76]

Thank you for your reply! I'm happy everything finally worked out for you. I was planning on doing a DIY post bacc, either at the CC nearby, another 4-year university (to maybe make it more evident that it is a post bacc), or request to continue to take classes after graduation at my current university. Do you think it necessarily matters? Maybe I'm undershooting, but at the moment I don't think I have such a bad GPA that I would need to pay the extraordinary price of a formal post bacc (a DIY would be significantly cheaper).

No It doesn’t matter. I did my whole undergrad at a school that was a community college but changed into a four year university.

 

[Calizboosted76]

Literally going through this right now and emailing admissions people.

It’s a pain and I wish someone would have informed me prior to me spending two years more in undergrad. It worked out great for loans and financial aid, however it caused my GPA trend look unimpressive.

 

[DrThanos]

Hey @Goro I hope you're well. Is it a good idea to update schools about this DIY postbac clarification? I have 3 years worth of credit hours listed under my senior year.

 

[Goro]

Hey @Goro I hope you're well. Is it a good idea to update schools about this DIY postbac clarification? I have 3 years worth of credit hours listed under my senior year.

Can't hurt

 

[Maria_L]

Hi Grace!

I'm also first-gen and I come from a low-income family. I added a 5th year to my undergrad degree (next semester is last semester !) and I am really glad I made this choice instead of going through a post-bacc. I essentially saved over $10,000 per year of tuition that I would have paid if I had chosen a post-bacc. For me the deciding factor in making this choice was financial aid, my tuition is fully paid for by the Pell Grant since I continued to attend my university instead of graduating, the grant is only for undergrad NOT post-graduating with a bachelors. I would rather advocate for myself by calling the med schools I apply to, remind them that my "senior year" is actually 2 years, than go through the hassle of (1) moving to a new city where I know no one/no support system and thus having to readjust, (2) obtaining a new job that is flexible like the one I have now, (3) paying a new apartment when I can just do online school right now due to covid (4) pay over $10,000 in tuition per year. (here's a link to the tuition costs http://opsa.tamu.edu/OPSA/media/library/postbachandout.pdf)

I also read a lot about how post-baccs are run and it seems really competitive, most have you take classes alongside med students and in some you actually have to do better than their average to remain in the post bacc, plus if I was to do badly this would be a really harsh blow on me and essentially be ample evidence that I cannot thrive in med school, this is the way (I read) it would likely look like to admissions people.

This is not to disparage the other commenters, some of who also spoke from experience. I hope this is helpful to you! I wish you good luck as you make this difficult decision <3

 

[Calizboosted76]

Hi Grace!

I'm also first-gen and I come from a low-income family. I added a 5th year to my undergrad degree (next semester is last semester !) and I am really glad I made this choice instead of going through a post-bacc. I essentially saved over $10,000 per year of tuition that I would have paid if I had chosen a post-bacc. For me the deciding factor in making this choice was financial aid, my tuition is fully paid for by the Pell Grant since I continued to attend my university instead of graduating, the grant is only for undergrad NOT post-graduating with a bachelors. I would rather advocate for myself by calling the med schools I apply to, remind them that my "senior year" is actually 2 years, than go through the hassle of (1) moving to a new city where I know no one/no support system and thus having to readjust, (2) obtaining a new job that is flexible like the one I have now, (3) paying a new apartment when I can just do online school right now due to covid (4) pay over $10,000 in tuition per year. (here's a link to the tuition costs http://opsa.tamu.edu/OPSA/media/library/postbachandout.pdf)

I also read a lot about how post-baccs are run and it seems really competitive, most have you take classes alongside med students and in some you actually have to do better than their average to remain in the post bacc, plus if I was to do badly this would be a really harsh blow on me and essentially be ample evidence that I cannot thrive in med school, this is the way (I read) it would likely look like to admissions people.

This is not to disparage the other commenters, some of who also spoke from experience. I hope this is helpful to you! I wish you good luck as you make this difficult decision <3

From dealing with this currently, most medical schools do not care and would rather see a post bacc year. A majority of schools basically told me that it was to bad and that I should have done a post bacc. (I extended my undergrad for financial aid reasons as well).

However just for anyone out there that may read this, if it is at all possible to graduate and do a post bacc, take that route. The amount of money I wasted applying to schools that did not care that I had two years of upper level sciences at a 3.8 since it was clumped into one senior year, would have balanced out the cost for a post bacc.

 

[Maria_L]

From dealing with this currently, most medical schools do not care and would rather see a post bacc year. A majority of schools basically told me that it was to bad and that I should have done a post bacc. (I extended my undergrad for financial aid reasons as well).

However just for anyone out there that may read this, if it is at all possible to graduate and do a post bacc, take that route. The amount of money I wasted applying to schools that did not care that I had two years of upper level sciences at a 3.8 since it was clumped into one senior year, would have balanced out the cost for a post bacc.

I didn't know that before staying a 5th year, and I haven't applied yet. I just didn't think it would be viewed as 1 year exclusively, like yes maybe in the preliminary screening but after separating it out in their algorithms and such, I would hope they realize that it's 2 years clumped into 1 due to the credit hours? Did you have to call them after submitting your application and then they told you you should've done a post bacc instead or was it during your interview? I also wonder if this differs between AMCAS and TMDSAS

 

[Calizboosted76]

I didn't know that before staying a 5th year, and I haven't applied yet. I just didn't think it would be viewed as 1 year exclusively, like yes maybe in the preliminary screening but after separating it out in their algorithms and such, I would hope they realize that it's 2 years due to the credit hours? Did you have to call them after submitting your application and then they told you you should've done a post bacc instead or was it during your interview? I also wonder if this differs between AMCAS and TMDSAS

So this was pre interview rejection. I called and emailed and was told a majority of the time that I while they understood there was two years of good academic success, they preferred to see it represented in the GPA trend. I was also advised that it would have been beneficial to have done a post bacc instead because they would have considered it more than what they did. Frankly I think it is complete bull crap.

 

[Calizboosted76]

So yes, they realize it was two years (after I called them and explained) however it did not make a difference in almost every case.