Should I go for post baccalaureate to raise GPA?

[john7991]

Currently in CC, almost finished with final three courses, expecting final CC cGPA to be 3.4, liberal arts major, completed no medical school prereqs besides maybe English (which was my goal since I found that some medical schools look down upon prereqs taken at CCs).

Starting at CUNY Hunter this coming spring semester, majoring in either biology or chemistry (maybe chemistry because it’s harder, from my understanding chemistry looks better because it’s harder), will try to get As in all courses so that I can have a final cGPA of at least 3.7 (CC and senior college GPA combined), planning to apply to medical school after I graduate so that they can see my full GPA and not my GPA up until junior year, will aim for a MCAT of 520.

Being that 3.7 isn’t the most competitive GPA for medical schools, should I go for a post baccalaureate? I heard that it could improve your GPA, not sure if that’s true or how. I don’t mind taking an extra year or two after completing bachelors, but no more than that.

***** also, I read somewhere here that MD schools do not consider courses that were retaken for higher grades. Is that true? I might’ve read that wrong, but I retook a good number of non prereq courses for my liberal arts major at my CC. Is that bad? I’m assuming that if it is true that MD schools don’t consider retaken course grades, that means my CC cGPA is, to them, actually much lower?

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[KnightDoc]

You're getting a little ahead of yourself. 3.7 is the average GPA for matriculants. It's perfectly fine, assuming you get it, so why not wait until you are done, rather than thinking about a post-bacc before you enter junior year with a 3.4?

Post-baccs improve your GPA by adding more classes with high grades to your GPA. Assuming you receive high grades, of course. They are for people with sub 3.0 GPAs, or maybe sub 3.5, depending on multiple factors, such as URM, ORM, low SES, the median GPA at the target schools, etc. No one takes post-bacc classes to try to raise a 3.7 to 3.8!!!! That would be really hard to do, since you'd need a ton of As to move the needle with a GPA that's already so high, and, consequently, a big waste of time and money.

Absolutely no need to chase supposedly harder majors. No one will care or be impressed. Major in whatever you will enjoy the most and, accordingly, perform best in. Period.

Yes, since you are aiming to have a serious upward trend, you should plan on taking at least one gap year, as around 2/3 of all matriculants do, so that you won't be applying with only one year of Hunter grades in your AMCAS application.

Finally, you misunderstood whatever you read about repeat classes. All medical schools, both MD and DO, do not allow grade replacement, so ALL grades count towards your GPA. That won't necessarily hurt you, since they do not ignore your retake grades, but, if your 3.4 is calculated by replacing Ds and Fs with As and Bs, you'll have to add your bad grades back in to see what your AMCAS GPA will be.

In addition, it should be obvious that schools will be less impressed by As and Bs received in repeat classes, since you have already been exposed to the material. The expectation is that you will be able to do well in med school classes without needing to retake them, and needing to take UG classes more than once to do well in them does not inspire confidence.

 

[john7991]

You're getting a little ahead of yourself. 3.7 is the average GPA for matriculants. It's perfectly fine, assuming you get it, so why not wait until you are done, rather than thinking about a post-bacc before you enter junior year with a 3.4? Absolutely no need to chase supposedly harder majors. No one will care or be impressed. Major in whatever you will enjoy the most and, accordingly, perform best in. Period.

Yes, since you are aiming to have a serious upward trend, you should plan on taking at least one gap year, as around 2/3 of all matriculants do, so that you won't be applying with only one year of Hunter grades in your AMCAS application.

Finally, you misunderstood whatever you read about repeat classes. All medical schools, both MD and DO, do not allow grade replacement, so ALL grades counts towards your GPA. That won't necessarily hurt you, since they do not ignore your retake grades, but, if your 3.4 is calculated by replacing Ds and Fs with As and Bs, you'll have to add your bad grades back in to see what your AMCAS GPA will be.

In addition, it should be obvious that schools will be less impressed by As and Bs received in repeat classes, since you have already been exposed to the material. The expectation is that you will be able to do well in med school classes without needing to retake them.

I’m sorry, just to make sure,

Let’s say I get a C- in a course. I retake it and get an A. I would still have to include the C- when calculating my GPA for medical school?

 

[KnightDoc]

I’m sorry, just to make sure,

Let’s say I get a C- in a course. I retake it and get an A. I would still have to include the C- when calculating my GPA for medical school?

Yes. Technically, you are not doing the calculation. AMCAS does it for you, and they do it based on everything in all of your transcripts. No grade replacements, and they don't use GPAs as calculated by the UGs. This is how they ensure we are all on the same scale when apps are transmitted to the med schools.

 

[john7991]

Yes. Technically, you are not doing the calculation. AMCAS does it for you, and they do it based on everything in all of your transcripts. No grade replacements, and they don't use GPAs as calculated by the UGs. This is how they ensure we are all on the same scale when apps are transmitted to the med schools.

Ok. I just did the math. My actual CC GPA, as it stands since I haven’t yet completed my last three courses, is a 2.64. It can become a 2.8 after I finish my final three courses, but as it stands, it’s a 2.64, not a 3.4.

2.8 (CC) + 4.0 (senior college) = 6.8/2 = 3.4 (AMCAS GPA)

So, taking the post-baccs is something I think I’ll have to do.

Thank you. That was very educational

 

[KnightDoc]

Ok. I just did the math. My actual CC GPA, as it stands since I haven’t yet completed my last three courses, is a 2.64. It can become a 2.8 after I finish my final three courses, but as it stands, it’s a 2.64, not a 3.4.

2.8 (CC) + 4.0 (senior college) = 6.8/2 = 3.4 (AMCAS GPA)

So, taking the post-baccs is something I think I’ll have to do.

Thank you. That was very educational

My pleasure!

Also, the cGPA is not simply (CC+SC)/2. You have to multiply each grade by the credits you received for each class, and then divide by the total number of credits. If you have a bunch of retakes in CC, that is going to further depress your cGPA by over weighting your CC years (e.g., if you had to retake five three credit classes in CC, and you would otherwise have 60 credits in both CC and SC, you will now have 75 credits in CC to go with your 60 SC credits).

My advice is to take it one step at a time. Rather than projecting out what you are going to be doing 2 years from now, just focus on the next semester, and then the one after that. Everything is much more manageable that way.

Depending on your future progress, plus your MCAT, don't dismiss DO out of hand. It gets most people precisely where they are going, with the advantage that it is more forgiving in the GPA and MCAT departments. No need to make a decision now. Just something to keep in mind, depending on what your stats look like in a few years. Good luck!!!

 

[Goro]

View attachment 346105

I’m sorry, just to make sure,

Let’s say I get a C- in a course. I retake it and get an A. I would still have to include the C- when calculating my GPA for medical school?

Yes. Med schools do not do grade replacement.

If you can maintain a high GPA for the next two years, then you should apply as if your GPA is that of the last two years.

As of right now, it's impossible to determine if you will need a postbac, so stop thinking about that and focus on doing well now.

 

[hamstergang]

Starting at CUNY Hunter this coming spring semester, majoring in either biology or chemistry (maybe chemistry because it’s harder, from my understanding chemistry looks better because it’s harder), will try to get As in all courses

Your major does not matter to med schools.

Also, it's great that you're trying to get all As now, but what were you doing before? Before picking a difficult major and just expecting to be able to get great grades and MCAT, it's important to figure out why your GPA isn't higher already and what you'll do differently for the next 2 years.