Homemade Pre-Med program

[Jonathan Whatley]

Back to BYU IS BIO 100 Principles of Biology:

Description: Introductory course for general education students.

That means that it isn't a qualifying premedical course by convention. Terms that tend to indicate a qualifying course include "for biology majors" and "for science majors." Often descriptions indicate directly that a course is part of a pre-medical or pre-health sequence.

[clep3705]

(p.s. every class you've EVER taken will be on your application, including courses you've withdrawn from or repeated)

Texas has a state law that can be used to hide grades older than 10 years if Texas Academic Fresh Start is invoked. TMDSAS Medical: Texas Academic Fresh Start

Texas has one private medical school, Baylor College of Medicine. As a private school, it is not subject to the legislation that enacted Texas Academic Fresh Start. Texas has at least (meaning more are under development) 7 public medical schools and 1 public osteopathic school. There is a centralized application for the 8+ schools that is administered by what is known as TMDSAS.

By law, a student can elect to invoke Texas Academic Fresh Start. All credits and all grades older than 10 years cannot be considered for admissions purposes. You can't pick and chose. Every course older than 10 years goes away. Since transcripts are sent to TMDSAS instead of the individual public schools, the staff at that state agency follows the law. What is forwarded on to the individual state supported schools does not contain any record of courses older than 10 years. Previous degrees are listed, but not with GPAs containing grades older than 10 years. If the entire degree was awarded more than 10 years ago, no GPA is reported.

The schools will know that Texas Academic Fresh Start was invoked, but that's all. To invoke it, you must apply to or reenroll (after being away for more than 12 months) at any publicly funded college or university in Texas, fill out a form, and take a course. The timing of the steps is critical. I tried invoking it at two different schools but was told that I didn't meet the filing requirements even after checking with them before filing. I don't think registrars like this law. Registrars tend to have a full disclosure bias. One registrar refused to tell me how to comply with the law's filing requirements.

I've exchanged several emails with the TMDSAS staff. They've been very clear that should I ever apply to medical school, I should invoke Texas Academic Fresh Start because it would raise my GPA by 0.5, which is a lot. It's possible that schools could be biased against applicants who have invoked Texas Academic Fresh Start, but the schools are smart enough to not leave a trail. And that's the big issue, the schools are very smart. They've seen every trick in the book. They are smarter about applications than the cleverest applicant. Sneaking in an online lab isn't going to work.

[cookderosa]

Here's how specific med schools can be about these prerequisites.

I'm taking General Chemistry I at Harvard Extension School at Harvard University this semester. My lab partner took AP Chemistry in high school for college credit, General Chemistry I at the Ivy League college where she earned her bachelor's degree, and Organic Chemistry I and II at HES last year. She's also taken standard premedical biology and physics sequences, and she's applying to medical schools this year.

She is outstanding. She's been accepted to one U.S. MD school already and interviews or are pending with or replies pending from a good number more.

However, meanwhile, she's still finishing up this General Chemistry prerequisite with newbies like me.

Why? AP Chemistry doesn't count. Having taken the higher-level organic chemistry courses doesn't count against the general chemistry requirement. General Chemistry I from her first college doesn't really do anything without part two of the sequence. Different schools split up their sequences differently, and one school may change how they divide it year to year… The best way for her to clearly meet the requirement was to start a qualifying general chemistry sequence one more time from square one.

This is a HUGE point, and I think it should be emphasized. There is no testing or accelerating allowed, so that whole premed block must be completed. In my opinion, doing this from the same school is preferred if you're doing a home made program simply because it appears more conservative/traditional. Med schools are notorious for NOT being progressive and open minded.

[cookderosa]

Texas has a state law that can be used to hide grades older than 10 years if Texas Academic Fresh Start is invoked. TMDSAS Medical: Texas Academic Fresh Start.

Not true. Page 19 and forward.
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/1...manual.pdf

What the SCHOOL in Texas does is their own thing. AAMC rules must be followed for all med school applications.

Edit- this is for MD schools.

[clep3705]

You provided a link to the rules for AMCAS applications. Applicants to Texas schools are going to use a TMDSAS application, not an AMCAS application. I am going to contact TMDSAS for an unambiguous clarification. Would you like TMDSAS to reply to both me and your personal email address? I think we both want clarity on this for the benefit of all.

[New User]

Medical school admission is extremely competitive and medical schools aren't going to waste their time with online community college students. There is a big difference between courses acceptable for an application and the courses that the accepted applicants actually took.

Most schools are not going to care too much. It's largely a numbers game. A student with a 4.0 who did the first 2 years at a community college and finished a BA in Women's Studies is going to get in before a 3.4 Chemical Engineer from Purdue.

[New User]

I have been searching for a couple of years for a program that will allow a student to complete the Pre-Med requirements. Because no such program exists....

What kind of program exactly are you looking for?? You can finish all the med school prereqs within pretty much any traditional degree.

If you are looking for speed, you can complete all the prereqs within one year. Just look around at your local universities and community colleges and put together a schedule. I would think using these credits and finishing a liberal studies degree from Excelsior might be one of the fastest ways to complete all the requirements. Depending on ones background, it could be possible to do all of this within a year, but most people would probably need at least 2. This is of course assuming you don't have to work and can do the student thing full-time.

[publius2k4]

This is of course assuming you don't have to work and can do the student thing full-time.

That's exactly the problem. I'd love to be able to go full time, but I can't exactly do that right now because of work.

[New User]

That's exactly the problem. I'd love to be able to go full time, but I can't exactly do that right now because of work.

Before you do anything, you should look at yourself and consider if you'd even have a chance. If your GPA is less than I'd say 3.4, you're unlikely to get in anywhere, even DO schools, unless you are an under-represented minority. The national average for people getting into DO schools is around 3.5, and around 3.7 for MD matriculants.

[cookderosa]

Before you do anything, you should look at yourself and consider if you'd even have a chance. If your GPA is less than I'd say 3.4, you're unlikely to get in anywhere, even DO schools, unless you are an under-represented minority. The national average for people getting into DO schools is around 3.5, and around 3.7 for MD matriculants.

Also remember, you'll have 2 GPAs. One overall, and the other using only sciences.