The Texas Fresh Start Program and Me

Texas has this amazing program called "The Fresh Start." This is designed for non-traditional, aka old, students who wish to pursue a degree, not be held back by sub-par performances earlier in their educational career. Any grades ten years ago or older, are wiped away. This also means that if going on to professional school, like medical school, any prerequisites that were completed over ten years ago are also wiped away and must be redone (but shouldn't they be redone anyway? Who remembers anything from ten years ago?).

In my case, I will instantaneously have a 4.0 GPA! Amazing. Well, maybe not a 4.0 because physics and I are barely on speaking terms lately, but I digress. The only problem is that one needs to apply to the college as a Fresh Start applicant. Since I just learned of this and I am already enrolled, this creates a problem. I mean, I am already enrolled in a 4 year University (more to come about this later), as well as a local 2 year College. So in my case, I will need to enroll at another institution to be able to implement this plan.

My first thought was to enroll in another 4 year University because I need to take biochemistry at some point, and my current 4 year University does not offer it. Seemed like a great plan. The problem is that I just learned the course must be completed before I apply to medical school. Well my timeline has been carefully planned. I am finishing up my prerequisites next semester with physics 2 and organic chemistry 2. I was going to take a month in the summer and study for, then take the MCAT. I was going to then apply to all the Texas medical schools, except for maybe Baylor since they do not accept the program. Well now that I must have the class completed prior to applying, I need to readjust my plans.

So I will now apply to another two year college, take physics 2 there next semester. I will take organic chemistry 2 with my current 2 year college (I already know the professor, and am comfortable with his particular nuances, and I have a scholarship so it's free). I will also take Neurobiology and Psychology Research Methods with my current 4 year institution. So basically, I will be taking classes at 3 different colleges next semester. This is just about enough to make my head spin. The crazy things premeds must endure...