I Overcame My 1.13 GPA- Do I Still Need More Time? | Old Premeds Ep. 299

This nontrad Veteran already overcame a low GPA- now they're up against the MCAT. What's Dr. Gray's timeline advice?
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As always on the OldPreMeds Podcast, our question this week is taken from our nontraditional premed forum. (Ask your own questions at premedforums.com!)
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[@davidajayi8136]

I had anxiety listening to that course load

[@yourfuturedocburenbeiya]

I wish I had this video or Dr. Gray's advice many years ago when I had this dilemma lol. I am learning the hard way that I shouldn't have taken those classes and no one stopped me from doing that. Now I am still paying for it because med schools really don't care about your course work load especially if you don't even meet the "good enough" metrics.

[@BrianErwin]

one of my buddies is attempting something similar right now. he's taking bio 1 and 2 and ochem 1, with a lab for each. he goes to school from 9am to 10pm, m-th. he has already started dedicating the majority of his time to ochem 1. that's the danger of taking so many courses; there's always one professor who assigns work as if you're only taking his class, then you end up putting all your focus on it and neglecting the others. that list from the veteran would be 20 units at my school, and they recommend 2-3 hours of study outside of class for each unit, so he'd have to study 40-60 hours a week. he'll be sitting in lecture anywhere from 5-10 hours a day, so that's 25-50 hours of lecture per week. that means he'll need to dedicate 65-110 hours per week to school for four months straight. on top of that, he still needs to do dedicated mcat prep. those courses are a good foundation, but they do not translate to mcat preparation. he'll be focusing on quizzes, midterms, finals, etc, and stuff like calculus won't even be on the mcat. it's good he doesn't need clinical cos of his job, but he also has to fit in some shadowing at a hospital. i would bet that he's already decided to attempt that schedule, so i'll just say good luck 😂 it's not impossible, i just think he'll end up with a few Bs and an average mcat, which may be good enough since he has upward trend and might have good story

[@alexmartinez3683]

He never asks WHAT schools they applied to. I feel that plays a factor in their acceptance…

[@Lulu-gb7xu]

Hmm your must not have watched a good amount of Dr. Gray because he’s said this quite a few times

[@blaby4ever]

I don't mean to rant here but this veteran guy with the 1.13 to 3.0 GPA probably knows more about medicine than your typical undergrad pre-med. The simple fact he needs to "prove" his academic capability is pure cow shit. You need all these courses that do little to prepare someone to learn medicine (o-chem. phys, sociology, the arts) yet in the middle east, hong kong, Korea, eastern Europe, and other places, once you finish high school you go straight to study medicine in medical school. The more I hear about guys like this going through this pointless struggle the more it pisses me off. I'm glad I'm going down the podiatry route because I'm sick of this "delay your app", especially if you're ready to learn and handle the material.