Independent Student? Second Undergrad?

[nomesayin]

Hey guys - new to the forum and I'm looking for some advice. I finished my undergrad degree in Cognitive Science last May and started on my planned year off (saving some money/travelling). At my time of graduation I had been planning to go into research - I currently work in a lab, and it's what I've spent the past few summers doing as well. Over the course of this year, however, I've started to realize it's not what I want do as a career, and I'm considering medicine as a serious option.

 

The first problem is my undergrad grades - my final year GPA was 3.72, but due to mediocre philosophy minor in which I failed 2 classes (mostly just lack of effort), my CGPA is only 3.2. Having said that, I've taken quite a few first and second year basic science classes (e.g. chem, bio, orgo) and aced them. I know quite a few people who have done well on the MCAT and who did similarly to me in these classes, and so I have some confidence that with preparation, I can get a competitive score. I will obviously need to go back to school to raise my grades - I'm considering doing an additional 1-2 years full time, which would make me competitive for schools that consider only more recent years (e.g. Queens, Ottawa etc) and also possibly for schools that drop your lowest year (as the majority of my bad grades are concentrated in my 3rd year).

 

My initial idea was to take courses as an independent/non-degree student, but I haven't been able to find an answer as to whether universities will take full time years not towards a degree program into account? For example, if I took a full course load next year as an independent and applied to Queens, would they count that year and my last year undergrad for my 2YGPA? If not, would I be better off trying to get into a second bachelors program and just leaving after 1-2 years?

 

Finally, am I even being realistic? Through my undergrad, I had a pattern of only really trying in classes that I actually cared about/was interested in, and as a result I ended up doing badly in quite a few classes by not handing in assignments etc. I know that if I put in the effort (and I’m willing to), I can get pretty close to straight A’s . However I’m also realistic about the grade’s I have right now and I don’t want to go back to doing undergrad classes for two years only to still be uncompetitive for med school. A few other things to note – I have a couple good ECs, but obviously this is something I would be working on over the next two years. I will also likely have middle authorship on one or two decent papers by my time of application, though I’m not sure how much this will help me.

 

Thanks in advance for your responses!

[Exocytosis]

Western (which takes your two best years) will let you use one post-degree year (a Special Year) if you already have one year above the cut off. You only get one though, and there are a host of conditions it needs to meet. There should be some informative threads about that in the Western forum. You could use that + your last year to apply (assuming your last year also meets a the required conditions in terms of course load, year level, etc - again, the Western forum can tell you more about that).

 

I can't really speak for other schools, but I can say that people in far worse situations than you have made it in. So no, not unrealistic at all. Although it might require a fair amount of effort (second degree, etc).