a freshman and already stressin...help

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>now its been 5 weeks since school started.... im a freshman currently at UW-madison trying to get into medicall school..but college gave me a slap in the face in regards to grades. In high school I didnt hit the books at all. All I did was stay at the firestaion (ff/emt) everyother night since junior/late sophmore years. It gave me the passion to be a trauma surgeon tho lol. I look at college confidential as a great resource of knowledge and plannin as they helped me get into uw, but when i look at the majority of medical applicants...i cant help but realize that most of them are 4.0ers. I tried so hard for a 4.0 butso far but all i have is 3 shaky As,1 AB(B+), and a C from math (college algebra -__-). All my classes are intro classes except for neurology undergrad research and i thought maybe if im at this level i wont do so good in the coming semesters (i.e calculus and org chem) and...medicall school is for people who are naturally gifted (im the most average u can be in terms of smarts)</p>

<p>I tried new ways of studying but i have no studying habits at all because of hs. I'm just wondering how did u guys cope with the academic challenges of college?</p>

2

<p>College was a slap in the face for me, too. I came from one of the top public high schools in my state, but now I actually had to work to get good grades! The standards and expectations were also a lot higher, and that took some getting used to.</p>

<p>My first two years were on the rough side - I finished sophomore year with a 3.63 GPA, which is okay but not great. What really helped me was junior year. For whatever reason, I really "got it." I think part of it was that I matured enough to be a good writer when it came to my non-major-but-still-required-for-graduation classes. That's something that takes time. The other thing was that I really hit my stride in my major. All those things boosted my GPA to 3.75 by the time I actually applied.</p>

<p>So don't despair, at least not right now. Keep yourself motivated and work hard. Make sure you get out and do some non-school things. It'll give you perspective, and it helps with the way you approach school. Things will get better.</p>