Retaking to meet minimums or grad school.. Advice?

[Alliepop]

Hello all,

After graduating last May I have decided to take a "gap year" to get HCE full time and honestly just take a break from school. I graduated with a 3.0 cGPA and approximately 2.6 sGPA (got a lot of C's but nothing lower). Pretty rough stats, but after exploring other options I have realized that being a PA is 100% where my heart lies and there is no other career for me. I am willing to put the work into repairing my grades and bulking up my app. 

While I know how to improve other parts of my application, the part that I am most stumped on is the GPA.

I'm debating 3 choices currently:

1. Retaking prereqs through online classes to continue to be able to work full time

2. Quitting my job and going to a community college to retake the prereqs

or 

3. Going all in and applying to and hopefully completing a Master's program in Biomedical sciences or applied anatomy and then applying after that.

 

Any advice or option other than those 3 is greatly appreciated!! I am willing to do what it takes and put in the time and money. 

[Potatolife]

If you're absolutely set on PA, I would suggest retaking your prerequisites and earning only As! Your cGPA is low and your sGPA is very low, so you must prove to admissions that you can do really well in difficult coursework. I would suggest taking 1-2 classes a semester while working. Do not do a Master's program unless you are going to use the degree. It'll be a waste of time and money. The most important classes are the prerequisites. I also suggest doing very well on the GRE, earn at least a 300. If you use your time correctly and begin repeating classes this summer, you could apply next year. Do not rush your application though. Your GPA is not competitive, so you want to make sure everything else on your application is phenomenal. Good luck!

[hmtpnw]

I think you’ve received some really solid advice above. The only thing I would add is that given your current GPA, prereqs should probably be taken in person.

Online classes can work for many applicants, but with a less than stellar academic history, you should be showing that you can handle rigorous science coursework that’s taught in a traditional setting.

[UGoLong]

Hopefully you realize that repeating prereqs doesn't replace your old grade under CASPA; it just adds another class with a (hopefully) better grade. If you know how many science credits went into the 2.6 you have now, you can compute how many credits of As it will take to get you to even a 3.0. (Otherwise you should look for a school that values the last y credits over the first x credits.  Some apparently do.)

If x is the number of science credits that led to your 2.6, then you need y credits of As to reach a 3.0, where:

y = 0.4 x

 

[MT2PA]

As above and as Rev famously says 'HCE accumulates, GPA averages'

Idk what your job is but you need PCE (not just HCE) and you need to both retake pre-reqs to meet minimums and take more upper level science courses to raise sGPA and prove you can handle it.

This may be more than a 1 yr gap in order to make a competitive application.

[Alliepop]

Thanks everyone for all the great advice!! I do know that CASPA averages so I'm probably looking more at schools that consider the last 60 credit hours more. Just trying to get my GPA to at least the minimums. I really appreciate everyone's input!

 

@MT2PA my job is PCE I just lumped both of those together in my initial question  I am expecting more than a 1 yr gap, but am staying optimistic for next cycle