Post-bach vs. re-taking classes

[lebecrouge]

Hello everyone, I'm sure this topic has came up before but I would like to ask for my specific circumstance. I went to community college for a couple of years and completed with a 3.4 gpa cumulative. Then I transferred to a 4-yr university and earned a 2.8 gpa cumulative, majored in biochemistry. I currently don't know my science gpa (I'm too embarrassed to sit down and calculate it tbh...). I have failed a couple of upper-div biochem classes but have retaken them with better grades. I also have not taken A&P or microbio. As you can see, I've never been a good student and my gpa is nowhere near acceptable for PA schools. I was wondering whether I should do a post-bacc or re-take the classes where I received C's/C-'s. Also, are there any schools out there with a joint post-bacc/PA program. I have tried searching but I would like to learn from others' experiences with post-bacc and PA applications. If not, can you guys please recommend a good post-bacc program? Thank you.

[singstar]

I'm curious as well. Anyone have any advice? 

[ThomasR]

I think the universal answer you will receive here is that you should re-take the classes. It shows growth and maturity if you obtain good grades on courses you did poorly in. In addition to that I recommend you immerse yourself in as many challenging and relevant upper division courses as you can. There are plenty of courses that will show maturity which will also have relevance to your future endeavors.

 

Pathophysiology

Pharmacology

Medical Ethics

Endocrinology

Immunology

Virology

 

Post-Bach programs are quite expensive and are catered more for other pre-health fields. Taking additional classes and re-taking classes you did poorly in will also allow you to obtain patient care hours on the side. Good luck, don't feel too down for mistakes you've made in the past, just strive to show growth.

[zoopeda]

I think the universal answer you will receive here is that you should re-take the classes. It shows growth and maturity if you obtain good grades on courses you did poorly in. In addition to that I recommend you immerse yourself in as many challenging and relevant upper division courses as you can. There are plenty of courses that will show maturity which will also have relevance to your future endeavors.

 

Pathophysiology

Pharmacology

Medical Ethics

Endocrinology

Immunology

Virology

 

Post-Bach programs are quite expensive and are catered more for other pre-health fields. Taking additional classes and re-taking classes you did poorly in will also allow you to obtain patient care hours on the side. Good luck, don't feel too down for mistakes you've made in the past, just strive to show growth.

 

Devil's advocate here...  I was told by an admissions director at an info session that "We do not recommend re-taking courses unless it's simply to get the grades above the minimum prerequisite GPA requirement.  It's much easier to do well in a course the second time through, and it would be a red flag for us to see anything but a solid A in a re-take for this reason.  We are looking for students who can achieve at a high level the first time around and not require two attempts at each course.  Our recommendation is that you continue to take upper level courses and prove yourself that way."  Pretty much verbatim.  Also, "post-bac" simply means "after you've graduated from undergrad."  You don't need (and might not find) a post bac "program" yet just about anyone with a degree can enroll in a local college or university and take classes for credit "post-bac."  I'd recommend you research the best value for such courses in your area and check a site like ratemyprofessors.com to make sure you're getting a good instructor and a fair shot at straight As.  Good luck! 

[JohnnyM2]

Hello everyone, I'm sure this topic has came up before but I would like to ask for my specific circumstance. I went to community college for a couple of years and completed with a 3.4 gpa cumulative. Then I transferred to a 4-yr university and earned a 2.8 gpa cumulative, majored in biochemistry. I currently don't know my science gpa (I'm too embarrassed to sit down and calculate it tbh...). I have failed a couple of upper-div biochem classes but have retaken them with better grades. I also have not taken A&P or microbio. As you can see, I've never been a good student and my gpa is nowhere near acceptable for PA schools.

Three problems here; You don't know your cumulative GPA and, therefore, have no plan for increasing it to whatever you consider to be a sufficient GPA for admission into your targeted schools. Secondly, you simply make the statement that you have never been a very good student. No expression of any determination or plan to do better. Third, you retook classes and "improved" your grades from what? An F to a C? If so, that just demonstrates an inability to do well in a tough academic program. If your attitude towards GREs and writing your personal narrative is equally lax, you won't have much of an application.

 

My advice is as follows: Either forget about PA school, which is both rigorous and demanding, or get to work. Calculate your your GPA, decide on a GPA goal, take relevant advanced science courses to achieve your goal. Make an absolute commitment to get As in these courses. If you don't have a documented learning disability, then your only reason for being a poor student is that you don't care enough to get the job done. Meanwhile, make sure other parts of your application shine. Get plenty of good HCE and shadow some PAs keeping in mind a goal of cultivating those who will give you excellent LORs. Be thinking about your narrative and how your past and future experiences will make you a great PA candidate.

 

Go get 'em, tiger!

 

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[JohnnyM2]

Devil's advocate here... I was told by an admissions director at an info session that "We do not recommend re-taking courses unless it's simply to get the grades above the minimum prerequisite GPA requirement. It's much easier to do well in a course the second time through, and it would be a red flag for us to see anything but a solid A in a re-take for this reason. We are looking for students who can achieve at a high level the first time around and not require two attempts at each course. Our recommendation is that you continue to take upper level courses and prove yourself that way." Pretty much verbatim. Also, "post-bac" simply means "after you've graduated from undergrad." You don't need (and might not find) a post bac "program" yet just about anyone with a degree can enroll in a local college or university and take classes for credit "post-bac." I'd recommend you research the best value for such courses in your area and check a site like ratemyprofessors.com to make sure you're getting a good instructor and a fair shot at straight As. Good luck!

An anecdotal story about retaking courses. My daughter wanted all As and Bs in college but was getting a C in Physics 1 so, after talking to her a professor and learning that she could not retake a course with a C, she decided not to take the final exam which resulted in an F. She retook the course and got an A but then we learned that CASPA averages both grades in with everything else so she might as well have just gotten the C and spent her time taking some other course. Fortunately, she got the A on the second try. Had she gotten a B, she would actually have been worse off. And Physics isn't even a PA school pre-req.

 

I would advise only retaking pre-reqs with a D or an F and then make sure you get an A.

 

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[Guest MedLib42]

I was always told that the rule of thumb is to re-take any course in which you got a C or below, but, like zoopeda mentioned, I was also told that ADCOMs really need to see As on a retake (while the occasional B+ might be OK on a really difficult retake, say, something like Organic Chemistry II, there really is no excuse not to get an A the second time around for most courses). So be careful with retakes. Most schools like to see them (as opposed to post-bacc) but the safest thing to do would be to contact the schools you're interested in and see how they feel about retakes, because it will vary from school to school.

 

Also keep in mind that retaking doesn't really bump up your GPA all that much, because CASPA will still calculate in all the old grades as well - it's more for the ADCOM to see that you are looking to improve your performance in those areas, which is definitely important. However, if your cumulative and science GPAs are low enough (something you really do need to calculate out), you'll probably need to both retake courses you got Cs in and take a few more advanced science classes post-bacc to boost your GPA.