Hi there! I am a junior in high school and am in the process of finishing my AA degree but unfortunately, I am not too happy with my expected GPA. This semester I am taking 3 dual classes and I will be getting B’s in two and a C in one of the others. Wait! Before you say in that I am not qualified for medical school or something, I do have to admit I kind of messed up and overloaded on courses … meaning, I was taking 11 classes at one point and I also was studying for the ACT/SAT and I was also running a club. Now, I am not blaming my grades on that, like maybe I truly am not qualified for medical school or maybe I just had too much on my plate, I can’t decide really decide at the moment as I am stressing over my grades. Anyway, by the time I am finished with my AA credit, if I can get A’s in all my upcoming courses, I will finish with a 3.7. I’ve wanted to get into Duke medical for years now and now I am afraid I won’t get accepted because of my AA GPA as I know you have to submit when applying for medical school. Will this affect me badly? Even if I end up getting a good MCAT score/EC’s/undergrad GPA?
Yes, it will affect your college GPA. Is there any possibility of withdrawing?
I have said similar things on other threads. You dont need to think about getting into Duke Med school, worry about going to college and doing well there. All of your dual enrollment classes will need to be reported on your med school application so don’t overload yourself next year.
@bouders The semester is ending in a week and my professor just put in grades, which is how I learned I will be finishing with a low grade 
I understand it will affect my AA GPA but I’ve also heard my UG GPA will start over?? I was asking if it will affect my chances of getting into Duke
@CottonTales I know as I have definitely learned my lesson. Duke was going to be my motivation during my undergrad years. Like, I won’t become too sad if I don’t get accepted but it would be amazing to get in.
When you apply to Med School, all of your college-level coursework will matter. So yes, bad grades now can affect your overall GPA.
But you have senior year to pull your overall GPA up, plus all those years of college. In the longer term, this bad grade won’t be such a big deal.
There are a few out there who are going to top med schools eventually. The likelihood that they knew who they were at age 17 is pretty low. Part of getting into med school is learning and accepting hard facts. And then putting the results into practice.
If you really want to go to med school, there is no value getting an AA degree. Therefore, don’t do it. Don’t even think about it. I know it is too late for that, but you will likely want to triple major - don’t do it. Volunteering is important nowadays. But not more important than grades. Don’t volunteer in college until you have established that you can get almost all A’s. And that does not occur midway though your first semester.
College should be fun. But life is not fair and being a successful pre-med is likely to be particularly unfair when you compare yourself to peers. Therefore, expect to have less fun than most of your friends. “Thirsty Thursday” is great but not of you. You should be studying on Thursday night. Greek life is great but it is a time drain and you won’t have time to spare. So don’t join a fraternity or sorority - until you have established that you can do the work.
Often good or precocious students think they are the exception to the rules. But that is precisely what gets drummed out of you when you go through the process of pre-med to medical school.
So keep it simple: top grades, apply yourself on the ACT/SAT, go to a college that you can afford and where you are likely to standout rather than be average, work hard, forego extraneous time commitments until you have at least a year of A’s behind you, spend your summers wisely with volunteering/research/shadowing, prepare for the MCAT, and apply widely to a variety of medical schools. Of course, one can do otherwise but I would say that the more one veers from that path, the less likely the average prospective pre-med is to be successful.
Starting college with your GPA for premed purposes preloaded at 3.7 is not necessarily bad, although 4.0 would be better.
You are a junior in high school You have a lot of time ahead of you doing college work to bring up the GPA (which isn’t bad BTW–it’s an A-). But first, you need to slow down. Considerably. You are running a marathon, not a foot race. Stop piling on yourself. You are going to burn out… It is time to sit with a guidance counselor and make sure that your senior year has a rigorous, but manageable course load. Focus on ACT/SAT scores (although I have never been a big fan of stressing over those either.) Do something EC with a health related focus if you are really focused. And, FWIW, I know lots of adutls and kids who had plenty of fun in college, received stellar grades and made it to med school. You have plenty of work ahead of you and stressing this much in your high school years is not going to help you achieve your goals. Best of luck.