NeuroLover Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 3 Yr undergrad student. I had a fairly high GPA that was brought down by a few bad courses: - Cell biology (D+ - I performed well in mid terms, flunked the final) - Organic Chemistry I (D+) - Organic Chemistry II (EIN: attempted to drop for medical reason, request denied by my institution. not so worried about this as it is justifiable). I am re-taking cell bio and orgo I in the winter to better those grades. Since they're pre-reqs and my program has mostly humanities, I find it extremely important that I perform well in those courses, on top of this I'd like to get my GPA back. As for orgo II, i'm taking it over the summer. I will still have a full course load of new classes next semester (3 courses + 2 repeats) My question is, how will repeating courses affect my med school application? My institution replaces old grades with the newest one, and so the newest grade is the only one that will be counted towards my cGPA. Will I be asked about it, will it make me less competitive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeuroPreMed Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 I don't know about all of the school, but one in particular I know of is UofA uses the first grade you received and ignores any subsequent grades. https://www.med.ualberta.ca/programs/md/admissions/applying/faq#Q14 Repeated courses will not be used in the evaluation for the GPA average. Grades from the first attempt will be used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maverick5 Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 You'll probably want to double check, but some schools won't consider it a full course load if you're doing repeated courses as part of your five courses, i. e. they'll only see you as doing the three other courses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh fry Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 Repeating courses is universally a bad idea. Most (if not all schools) don't care about the repeat course grade and take the initial grade for their formulas, and schools that look at your grades "subjectively" expect you to take a higher level course and get a better grade (Biol 201 to make up for biol 101 etc). As others have mentioned it might mess up your full time status as well. Unrelated, but if your institution denied you a medical appeal I don't know why you feel it will go any differently when applying to med. Based on your grade in O-Chem 1, trying to claim that your grade in O-Chem 2 is the result of a medical issue that your home institution did not recognize is a potential red flag and might not go as well as you think. I would do 2nd year O-Chem courses x2 and knock them out of the park if I were you. GL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maverick5 Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 Would it make a difference if OP had taken the original courses in the summer, since most schools don't look at them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 Repeating courses is universally a bad idea. Most (if not all schools) don't care about the repeat course grade and take the initial grade for their formulas, and schools that look at your grades "subjectively" expect you to take a higher level course and get a better grade (Biol 201 to make up for biol 101 etc). As others have mentioned it might mess up your full time status as well. Unrelated, but if your institution denied you a medical appeal I don't know why you feel it will go any differently when applying to med. Based on your grade in O-Chem 1, trying to claim that your grade in O-Chem 2 is the result of a medical issue that your home institution did not recognize is a potential red flag and might not go as well as you think. I would do 2nd year O-Chem courses x2 and knock them out of the park if I were you. GL I would disagree - it would be silly to take a higher level course without a stronger foundation in the lower level. I repeated a few classes I did poorly in my freshman year, it helped ensure i had a good foundation for then pursuing upper level courses(and knocking them out of the park). I would make sure you look into the requirements for each of the schools you may want to apply to - and ensure you follow their formulas for calculations of GPA etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh fry Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 I would disagree - it would be silly to take a higher level course without a stronger foundation in the lower level. I repeated a few classes I did poorly in my freshman year, it helped ensure i had a good foundation for then pursuing upper level courses(and knocking them out of the park). I would make sure you look into the requirements for each of the schools you may want to apply to - and ensure you follow their formulas for calculations of GPA etc. I don't disagree with your main point at all but I don't think you have to pay for, and take time from a schedule, to physically repeat a course in able to prepare for a higher level course. What is a university course fundamentally? 30-35 hours of instruction, 2-3 tests, and limited access to a professor or TA for assistance. I don't think any of that is necessary to grasp the material from any course, especially one that a person has already attended, has the lecture notes, has been exposed to the level of knowledge needed for the exam, and has the materials (plus paid the $600). In medical school people are expected to be self directed learners; they need to identify and overcome their own knowledge gaps without outside assistance. It makes for a much better narrative to fix the problem and move on showing that you are capable by going to the next step. The OP has all summer to what is essentially make up what is 3 weeks (at a full time schedule) worth of knowledge. If necessary a tutor is cheaper than repeating an entire course, and doesn't prevent someone from taking courses that will actually count towards their GPA during their regular academic schedule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 I don't disagree with your main point at all but I don't think you have to pay for, and take time from a schedule, to physically repeat a course in able to prepare for a higher level course. What is a university course fundamentally? 30-35 hours of instruction, 2-3 tests, and limited access to a professor or TA for assistance. I don't think any of that is necessary to grasp the material from any course, especially one that a person has already attended, has the lecture notes, has been exposed to the level of knowledge needed for the exam, and has the materials (plus paid the $600). In medical school people are expected to be self directed learners; they need to identify and overcome their own knowledge gaps without outside assistance. It makes for a much better narrative to fix the problem and move on showing that you are capable by going to the next step. The OP has all summer to what is essentially make up what is 3 weeks (at a full time schedule) worth of knowledge. If necessary a tutor is cheaper than repeating an entire course, and doesn't prevent someone from taking courses that will actually count towards their GPA during their regular academic schedule. I agree with that, but up to the OP if they think they would be able to do that. I would definitely encourage the option you present, so long as they truly get to the core of the material - and not superficially think they understand it etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chels1267 Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 Definitely check with the med schools you're interested in, I'll add that Dal also uses the initial grade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sggh665 Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 What about repeated courses taken during a second undergraduate degree? (i.e. repeating courses that I already took in first degree due to bad marks) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeuroPreMed Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 What about repeated courses taken during a second undergraduate degree? (i.e. repeating courses that I already took in first degree due to bad marks) That still follows the same premise. You would receive transfer credit for it, and even if you didn't, when you applied to your med school of choice they would see the same course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PreMed2014 Posted December 7, 2015 Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 Ok. So repeated courses look bad, and some med schools will take the first grade but what if there is no first grade and you withdrew? I ask because before I had an interest in medicine, I took the same course twice and decided to drop it so I only have 2 W's on my transcript. I really really regret doing it but my first year was really messy and I had no idea what I wanted to do and took a ton of different random courses. Anyone please care to shed some light on this matter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted December 7, 2015 Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 Ok. So repeated courses look bad, and some med schools will take the first grade but what if there is no first grade and you withdrew? I ask because before I had an interest in medicine, I took the same course twice and decided to drop it so I only have 2 W's on my transcript. I really really regret doing it but my first year was really messy and I had no idea what I wanted to do and took a ton of different random courses. Anyone please care to shed some light on this matter? I wouldn't say they are considered universally bad. It is school and situation dependent. In your case, you're fine. A few W's from a long time ago isn't that big of a deal. Just take the class, if you need it, and do well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PreMed2014 Posted December 7, 2015 Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 I wouldn't say they are considered universally bad. It is school and situation dependent. In your case, you're fine. A few W's from a long time ago isn't that big of a deal. Just take the class, if you need it, and do well. Cool, thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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