<p>I'm a freshman at UC Berkeley. I plan on going to medical school, but have been deppressed/sad because I received my first semester GPA and I got around a 2.1 taking 16 units. I received a B in history, C+ in Gen-Chem, a B in Astronomy, and an F in Calculus! I will definitely retake Calculus during the Spring and hope/plan to get an A. UC Berkeley replaces the bad grade (still stays on transcript), with the new one in terms of calculating the GPA, which would raise my GPA to a 3.08. If I continue volunteering at hospitals, doing research, and massively improve in terms of GPA over the course of my years in college, do I have a shot at Med School even with a bad start?has anyone ever been in my situation? Thanks and I appreciate your feedback!</p>
<p>Hey man, I got a 2.3 my first semester, I thought I would have learned from that, but unfortunately I didn’t. Now, as a junior after 2.5 years of college, my gpa is only a 2.76. I still haven’t given up on my goal to be a doctor. As an Indian people in my family and social circle call me crazy, delusional, and stupid since I don’t have the 3.8/40T Ivy league degree like most Indians in my social circle. I know what kept me back from performing my 100% was my fear of failure, that fear that would make me think that I would screw up if I gave it my all, and listening to haters and letting that affect me.</p>
<p>I know what you are going through, you feel like an idiot, you feel like you should be able to do this easily, that you should be successful as well, but for some reason, you can’t.</p>
<p>Focus on the present. You only have one bad semester and most can people bounce back after it. My situation is a lot worse than yours and I still haven’t given up even though a part of me really wants too. Try your best not to focus on the past or the future, but the present, and you can turn things around for the better.</p>
<p>OP, a frequent CC contributor, colleges00701, recently posted what he learned from the dean of Baylor College of Medicine when this dean visited his college to give the premeds there a talk. The dean said during the first few semesters in college, until you make sure you can get good enough grades, do not get too involved with premed ECs. Get your grades in a good shape first. Of course, this is just an opinion of one person (who holds the job of the dean of an admission office though.) BTW, DS was actually on the phone with this dean back in October, when he delivered a good message for him :)</p>
<p>*Would it also help to take “extra” credits and get top grades to help dilute the negative affect of these lower grades? *</p>
<p>*But be careful not to overload yourself into lower grades, which would just compound the problem. *</p>
<p>Absolutely… so a strategy of carefully selecting courses that won’t be too demanding, and perhaps using Ratemyprofs to determine favorable profs, a student could craft some “fully loaded” semester schedules that would boost science GPA and cum GPA.</p>
<p>You also need to figure out your real reason for poor performance. What you have listed is for us, you need to know for yourself, what has actually prevented you from getting decent grades in each class, which could be very different from class to class. You need to correct these mistakes/wrong approaches/bad study habits. Sometime people work very hard doing the wrong thing over and over, approaching class’s requirements from incorrect prospective. Do not hesitate to seek help. Very top students use all resources at their disposal. Some benefit greatly studying in groups. There is no general rule, you need to know what works for you.</p>