CGPA and sGPA- courses taking in Sophomore

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>My son at last made C+ in Org chem and C in Eng Phy while in Freshman fall semester and ended up with B’s in Eng Phy and Diff Eq. His cGPA is 3.2 and sGPA is 3. </p>

<p>He placed out of gen chem, bio and calc II for his AP credits.</p>

<p>Completed the following:
Calc III - A
Eng 101 - A-
221 - Org Chem I - C
PY 205 - Phy eng - C+
org chem 222 - Org chem lab I - A-
Ph 208 - Phy eng - B
Stat - A-</p>

<p>Taking the following in sophomore fall:
chm 223 - Org chem II + lab,
Bio 212 - Basic anatomy and Phys
NTR 301 - Nutrition
Other required courses</p>

<p>And planning to take other Bio courses for his major. Planning to major in Bio and genetics.</p>

<p>What else he can take to bring up his GPA in next two years.</p>

<p>Appreciate your help.</p>

2

<p>Possible, but he’s facing an uphill battle. He will need lots of science/math A’s to dilute those C’s in physics and OChem.</p>

<p>Coursework in Nutrition (which falls into the Allied Health Science classification on AMCAS) and other similiar classes will NOT count toward his BCPM GPA.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181694/data/amcas_course_classification_guide.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181694/data/amcas_course_classification_guide.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If your son is good at math and likes it, maybe more math classes?</p>

3

<p>That freshman schedule is certainly a cautionary tale. Unfortunate choices/unfortunate grades. Where was his advisor? </p>

<p>All he can do is load up on courses in Bio, Chem, Physics, and Math where he can make A’s and plan on applying after graduation. He’ll likely need the full 4 years of coursework.</p>

4

<p>Feel kind of cheesy barking for my own thread but here. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1331981-new-pre-med-students.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1331981-new-pre-med-students.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>Thanks for all your help. Now, my son says that he is done with Physics and Math. Are there any Math and Physics courses he can still take in coming years and keep Bio as major?</p>

6

<p>Your son can take a minor or second major in either math or physics if he wants.
Neither will “interfere” with a bio major.</p>

<p>Minor requirements vary by school but usually require 5-8 courses.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the responses. These really help. He wants to take Genetics as minor. Please advise if this will bring his sgpa up or take Math or Phy as minor.</p>

8

<p>Here’s AMCAS offical course classification guide:</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181694/data/amcas_course_classification_guide.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181694/data/amcas_course_classification_guide.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>~~~~</p>

<p>But I don’t understand how he can minor in genetics (a subfield of bio) and major in bio. Usually your minor has to be in a different field. For example, my D2 majored in bio with a concentration in neuroscience. Her department also offers concentrations in genetics, ecology, microbiology, biochemistry,and cellular/developmental biology. </p>

<p>Same was true at my older D’s university.</p>

9

<p>Our local in-state public 4 year allows majoring in bio, biochem, micro and minoring in genetics. Son did it for his second degree a year ago. Can now major in genetics as of this year.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

10

<p>My son is going to public school where they offer genetics as minor.</p>

11

<p>My son placed out of Gen Bio and Chem and had to take Org chem1 in freshman year. Now he is going for Org chemII in his Sophomore yr. Is there any way he can also take Gen chem now as it will help him in his MCAT.</p>

12

<p>This is a question that your son needs to address at the school level as some schools will allow it and some won’t.</p>

<p>He should ask his pre-med advisor at ECU.</p>

13

<p>Thanks for the quick response. He is going to NCSU. I will ask him to talk to his advisor.</p>

14

<p>If he can’t retake the class, what D1 found very helpful was as a tutoring or TAing. She said that by having to teach the material to other people, she was forced to review/relearn the material for herself.</p>

15

<p>Same school as in post #9. Son majored in biochem and microbiology with a genetics minor. They now have genetics has a major. Use the tool online to let you know which major overlaps with the other. He might be better served as a biochem major vs. biology, since there is more chem involved. ECU and UNC SOMs are not going to like those C’s in orgo and physics. The micro major was only 2-3 more classes with the biochem major and genetics minor.</p>

<p>I don’t know if nutrition is in the BCPM gpa.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

16

<p>Nutrition comes under “Allied Health” courses and isn’t included in the BCPM. (See link in Post #8.)</p>

17

<p>Will those 2 C’s basically hinder me from applying to Broady SOM (ECU) or UNCH SOM? Will they see the C’s and will they even consider my application? Even if I bring up my GPA and BCPM GPA will my application be less competitive than someone else who got B’s and A’s and no C’s?</p>

18

<p>Hinder you? yes, stop you from applying, no.</p>

<p>If you take an upper level chem course, or upper level biochem and get better than a C that would help. </p>

<p>Your competition will have A’s and B’s in O-chem and physics. More than likely A’s. However, if your second semester of O-chem you can pull higher than a C that would obviously help gpa-wise and showing an upward trend.</p>

<p>I am assuming your mom is the original poster?</p>

<p>So it looks like you transfered in a bunch of APs to state and skipped the bio, chem and calc.</p>

<p>As a pre-med I would have advised strongly against that since the med schools want to see grades for the required pre-requisite coursework. I would have only advised to keep those credits and take the higher level courses if you KNEW FOR SURE you would get A’s in those courses (which in physics and chem you didn’t), especially if attending NCSU. </p>

<p>ECU won’t be AS picky but UNC will be. They have applicants that are NC residents that not only graduate from the state schools including Carolina and Duke but students that went to school out of state and come back home to apply. This is what my son did, he graduated from an ivy, took a gap year and completed another degree during that year at NCSU with the above posted majors. So his first degree was from an ivy in econ, and the others were in STEM.</p>

<p>There are currently 6 Harvard grads in his class, several from Yale, Penn, Columbia, many from Duke, Davidson, Swat, Amherst, and many from CA (UCLA, UCB, Stanford and some LACs from the west coast). This does not include people who have moved here from out of state, worked and then apply as NC residents. </p>

<p>Those will all be your competition. ECU only takes NC residents so that will help. Son’s new roomie graduated from ECU with a 4.00, both overall GPA and BCPM. He actually does not have many classmates from NCSU, the most from Carolina and others from around the state.</p>

<p>With tuition last year at $14,000 UNC can afford to be very picky. They have applicants that have applied 5-6 times. And some do get in. So your competition isn’t just this year’s grads but those from several years previous from other states and newly minted NC residents.</p>

<p>Raleigh/Durham is one of the fastest growing cities. RTP is a hub for the bio industry. And keep in mind all those pre-vet students who don’t get into NCSU, often apply to med school the following year. Son has a few of those in his class.</p>

<p>You already have the grades you have. It is time for re-evaluating your courses. It is not impossible, but you need to bring up your GPA. The more science classes that count for BCPM the more your first set of grades are diluted. Hence my suggestion for a biochem or micro major, the guy in charge of micro is a good guy and is often looking for TA’s and researchers. That will help as well.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

19

<p>Thanks for the quick reply. My mom was the original poster.</p>

<p>If I go back and take the general chem after organic chemistry then will that look even worse if I got a B in a higher level chemistry? Ex. I placed out of CH 101 and 201. If I go back and take those two courses and get an A, will it look worse than if I take CH 431 and CH 433 and get B’s? (CH 431 and 433 are physical chemistry)</p>

<p>As far as my EC’s go, what would you recommend I do to boost my service and social parts of my portfolio. </p>

<p>Switching my major to Biochemistry would only mean switching my major to biochemistry. As far as the number of BCPM classes I would take - the number would change from the major I am in now - human biology. In fact, if I move my schedule around and take all my required genetics classes for my genetics double major in my junior year then I would have almost 14~15 BCPM classes until my junior year ends. What would you suggest then?</p>

<p>Thank you all for your time and I look forward to reading your responses.</p>

20

<p>So you have 8 units of bio? 183 and ?
And the 2 semesters of general chem? Ch 431 and 433 aren’t easy. And using AP chem as the base for taking 431 and 433 would worry me. It will have been years since you had the classes in high school to leap into PChem.</p>

<p>To be safe you might take the gen chem even if you have credit, the credit on your transcript will just disappear for the AP exams once you take the classes. Jumping into orgo at state as a freshman is just a nightmare. Its not the curriculm but rather the zoo-like atmosphere and learning to be a college student not a good recommendation.</p>

<p>Did you take any classes this summer? Not pre-med pre-reqs but GE’s or getting the 2 unit PE out of the way? Or maybe one of the genetics classes? or biochem or micro?</p>

<p>Also imbedded in the biochem/micro/genetics major/minor is also the minor in biotechnology. Which could be helpful if you need to take a glide year or get a job for a short period of time.</p>

<p>Look to TA’s, research within the microbiology department/genetics/biochem…also the botany department is looking but at the cellular level. That is why I mentioned the guy in the micro dept.</p>

<p>Son stayed away from the human bio major in favor of the more chem/bio/genetics…served him better for the schools he was looking at.</p>

<p>Also NCSU has the learning/living environments labs…the equine unit, dairy, small ruminant, beef, poultry, swine where you can live on-site free of charge in return for 10 hours weekly for work. Work can be mucking stalls, running equipment, working on the breeding programs (genetics) or conducting research. Makes for an interesting EC, you get paid, do research, work with the public and it can turn into something else down the road. And no rent/dorm and access to a full kitchen.</p>

<p>NCSU offers so many opportunities…you just need to start looking, really looking. And be mindful of your GPA.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

<p>it will look better if you get A’s in gen chem and then A’s in PChem.</p>