Need help advice on how to prep. my apps. for next year

[FuturePAinthehouse]

Hi all,

I am thinking of a career transition change for myself.  I have been working in the corporate healthcare world for 4-years (doing government and consulting work) and I want to do a career transition and be on the field and perhaps go through the PA school.  Before I do that, I will like to take a year to prepare and make sure I am able to put myself as competitive as possible.

 

Prior going to a 4-year university, I went to community college because I had some person issues that were going on.  I done a lot of the intro classes in the bio. track and GPA was 3.59.

My undergraduate major was Biology at Cornell University, but overall GPA was 2.65.  

My graduate degree major was a MPH in Health Policy at St. Louis University, with an overall GPA of 3.98.

 

My science GPA is on the low side.  But since I have already taken the majority of the prerequisites courses, what will the best option for me?  I have been out of undergraduate for about 7 years.  Should I start a post-bac program for career changers or for academic record enhancers (I can take advance science classes to help boost the science GPA)?  Can I do them at a community college?  Or should I apply to an university?

 

I would appreciate your input on this as I would love to apply to the program next year.

 

Below are my stats:

 

1st Community College:

CHEM	111	UG	General Chemistry I (L)	A	4.000	16.00
CIS	102	UG	Intro to Info Science (I)	B	3.000	9.00
ENG	101	UG	English Composition(E)(Honors)	A	3.000	12.00
MATH	203	UG	Calculus I (M)	A	4.000	16.00

GPA:  3.59

 

Undergrad:

Evolutionary Bio&Diversity                 Cred: 4.00   Grade: C-

Org. Chem for Life Science                 Cred: 3.00   Grade: C+

Intro. to Sociology                        Cred: 3.00   Grade: B+

Nutrtn Hlth and Society                    Cred: 3.00   Grade: C+

 

General Microbiology Lectures              Cred: 3.00   Grade: C

General Microbiology Lab                   Cred: 2.00   Grade: C-

Intro Exper Organic Chem                   Cred: 2.00   Grade: C

Or Chem for the Life Science II            Cred: 3.00   Grade: C

 

Priniciples of Biochemistry                Cred: 3.00   Grade: C+

Medical Parasitology                       Cred: 2.00   Grade: B

Intro Microeconomics                       Cred: 3.00   Grade: C+

Soc. of Health and Ethnic Min              Cred: 3.00   Grade: A-

Fundamentals of Popul Health               Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

 

Intro Statistics                           Cred: 4.00   Grade: B

Princ Of Biochem: Mole Bio                 Cred: 2.00   Grade: B-

Epidemiology in Context                    Cred: 3.00   Grade: B

Fundamentals of Physics                    Cred: 4.00   Grade: C

 

Genetics and Genomics                      Cred: 5.00   Grade: C

Argumentation and Debate                   Cred: 3.00   Grade: B+

Intro to policy analysis                   Cred: 4.00   Grade: A-

The US Health Care System                  Cred: 3.00   Grade: B+

 

Human Microbes and Health                  Cred: 3.00   Grade: C

Encrionmental Microbiology                 Cred: 3.00   Grade: B

Finance                                    Cred: 3.00   Grade: B

Race and Public Policy                     Cred: 3.00   Grade: B-

Religion and Reason                        Cred: 4.00   Grade: B

 

Cumulative GPA:  2.652

 

Graduate School:

Principles of Biostatistics                Cred: 3.00   Grade: A-

Health Care Organization                   Cred: 3.00:  Grade: A

Fundamentals of Econ and Finance           Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

Management of Health Care Organization     Cred: 3.00   Grade: A-

Health Policy Cred:                        Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

 

Behavioral Science and Public Health       Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

Principles of Epidemiology                 Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

Health Economics                           Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

Government Financing of Health Care        Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

 

Econometrics I:                            Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

Environmental & Occup Health               Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

Health Policy and Law                      Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

Ethical Issues in Public Health            Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

 

Economic Evaluation:                       Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

Captain Sem. In Health Policy              Cred: 3.00   Grade: A

Health Policy Evaluation and Analysis      Cred: 3.00   Grade: A-

Policy Implementation Theory               Cred: 3.00   Grade: A-

 

Culuative GPA:  3.92

[Ejohns20]

Hi - congrats on all the work you've put in so far and for exploring a new chapter in your life. Excited for you!

Overall GPA and science GPA are very important in CASPA, and generally to adcoms, though some schools weigh it more heavily than others. You can read on the CASPA website about how exactly they calculate each GPA; I'd recommend this, since yours isn't super straightforward (with the three different schools, two degrees, etc). I'd also recommend starting a running list of schools you are interested in applying to and researching exactly what their pre-reqs are and how important GPA is to them. 

Generally, schools don't really care where/how advanced the pre-req course is as long as you get it done. University courses are not considered superior to community college classes nor is a post-bacc unless that's something you want to do for other reasons. I think it kind of depends on how many pre-reqs you still need to do or redo. If it's just a handful I'd say take em at a CC. If it's a lot, I personally would like to have some sort of additional degree/certificate to show for it, but that's me

[FuturePAinthehouse]

On 4/26/2019 at 10:44 AM, Ejohns20 said:

Hi - congrats on all the work you've put in so far and for exploring a new chapter in your life. Excited for you!

Overall GPA and science GPA are very important in CASPA, and generally to adcoms, though some schools weigh it more heavily than others. You can read on the CASPA website about how exactly they calculate each GPA; I'd recommend this, since yours isn't super straightforward (with the three different schools, two degrees, etc). I'd also recommend starting a running list of schools you are interested in applying to and researching exactly what their pre-reqs are and how important GPA is to them. 

Generally, schools don't really care where/how advanced the pre-req course is as long as you get it done. University courses are not considered superior to community college classes nor is a post-bacc unless that's something you want to do for other reasons. I think it kind of depends on how many pre-reqs you still need to do or redo. If it's just a handful I'd say take em at a CC. If it's a lot, I personally would like to have some sort of additional degree/certificate to show for it, but that's me

Thanks!

So my pre-reqs are expiring in some of the schools I am looking at.  It looks like I might have to retake them.  But do you know if my pre-reqs. expired are they still part of my cGPA?  Or will they still be part of it and if I do a retake, they see it as a separate class?