Adding Pre-Med Junior Year?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

I am a current sophomore in college. Throughout my first two years of college I was very confused about my goals and plans for the future. During my freshman year I considered the medical school route, but did not have much exposure to medicine until I was chosen to be on our university’s student-run EMS program at the end of my second semester. After riding throughout my sophomore fall with my university/with the city’s EMS and shadowing, I recently decided that I would like to attend medical school. I naturally have a few fears that make me doubt whether it is feasible or not. During these first two years I was very lost in regards to what I wanted to major in and do in life, so I took many different classes (including some pre-req classes due to coinciding majors) and didn’t work that hard due to my lack of motivation and a path.

1st Semester: 15 credits (3.091) - Calculus (C-)
2nd Semester: 15 Credits (3.668) - Cell Bio (B) / Ecological Bio with lab (A) and (A-)
Summer: 3 credit Stats ©
3rd semester: 12 credits (3.668)
4th semester: 12 credits (N/A) I also did not start off well in a class so I will be taking one of these pass/fail.
So I am worried that my sophomore year will look very terrible and lazy, but I was very confused about my future and had no real goals for the future. I am also worried because i was in 12 credits then basically 9 credits the next semester and still only had like 3.6+ instead of a 4.0 in such little hours. I was lost. I most likely will have 2 A’s and a B for the remaining 9 credits for this semester. My current GPA is a 3.457 and I predict it will be about a 3.5 at the end of this school year.

For student activities I am an EMT on our school EMS, a Senator for our Undergraduate Student Government, a tour guide, and I shadow.

So my plan the rest of undergrad would be

5th Semester: Gen Chem I & Genetics
6th Semester: Gen Chem II
Summer: Orgo 1&2
7th Semester: BioChem & Physics I
8th Semester: Physics II

So my question basically is basically is being pre-med a possibility for me at this point considering my very lack luster first two years, especially my sophomore year and my bad math grades, or will I be able to come back from this if I do very well in my future classes. This is something I am very passionate about and I could really use the guidance. Thank you.

2

Is it possible? Yes. Is it going to be easy & straight-forward–no.

The truth is you’re going to need to do some remediation. Your current sGPA is well below 3.0. Your sGPA is just as important as your GPA. Adcomms want to see that you’ll be successful in the high level science courses that make up med school.

Three issues–

  1. you need to retake Calc 1 since grades below C in pre-reqs will not be accepted as fulfilling admission requirements. (BTW, you need to ace Calc when you retake it…otherwise adcomms will say look, this student can’t even ace a class even the second time through. Also from now on any BCPM class that is not an A is only moving you away from your goal of med school)

  2. you need another bio lab. Maybe 2. ALL med schools (MD and DO) requires 2 semesters of bio lab. Will you be taking lab with genetics? And please check with your in-state med schools (shoot an email to the admissions office) to make sure ecological bio lab will fulfill admission requirements. It may not.

  3. Are you out of Vulcan mind! There is no way you should even be thinking about taking 2 semesters of OChem over the summer. Ochem is a very intense class. Taking it very highly compressed into 6-week chunks is practically guarantees you won’t do well–especially once you add in 6+ hours/week devoted to just labs.

Gaining as admission to med school isn’t a race. Don’t rush your coursework. Take as long as needed to get the excellent grades you need to raise your GPA/sGPA and make yourself as strong an applicant as possible. You may need to add an additional year to undergrad, or to take some of your pre-med classes after graduating.


Currently, your GPA is very low for allopathic med school. Are you open to attending an osteopathic med school? (The good news is DO programs don't include math classes in sGPA...)

And your sGPA right now is very problematic. It may take additional upper level bio electives to raise your sGPA into a range where you are a competitive applicant.