Bad freshman year due to severe illness... is medical school still possible?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>During my freshman year of college, I became really ill and as such, I ended up not doing well. I had to withdraw from a few courses, and despite getting mostly A's first semester, I ended the year with a GPA of ~2.9, scoring mostly in the C+/B- range second semester. I'm currently on a leave of absence for my sophomore year, so that I can get healthier and deal with some other family issues that have to take priority. Anyway, at this point my science GPA is negligible; when I got sick first semester, I realized that I wouldn't be able to do well enough in biology and chemistry and ended up withdrawing. I got a C in calculus, although I got a 4 on the AP exam and technically didn't need to take math period in order to fulfill the university core. Also, the medical schools that I'm seriously considering either don't require calculus, or they accept AP credit.</p>

<p>I'm a much better student than my freshman year shows; I graduated high school in the top 5% of my class, currently attend a prestigious university, etc. I know that once I'm fully recovered bringing up my GPA will not be a problem, and I plan on taking some of the classes that I find more difficult (i.e. physics) over the summer so that I can devote more time towards doing well. My school has an extensive alumni network and is located near several prominent hospitals and med schools, so finding research and volunteer opportunities in the medical field won't be an issue. Also, while this isn't a huge point, it merits mention that my particular university tends to get students admitted to medical school with lower GPAs than average, as we have a reputation for having a strong, but very rigorous, pre-medical program.</p>

<p>So, assuming that I am indeed able to bring up my GPA, is there any chance that I haven't completely ruined my chances of going to medical school? I'm totally fine with doing post-graduate work before applying; I'm actually interested in pursuing a Master's degree in public health or psychology (I'm a psych major) in addition to attending medical school.</p>

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<p>Sorry you were sick. Medical schools don’t weigh the reasons why your gpa was low, although there’s a place to explain in the application. Also, some schools don’t put much weight onto the freshman year. But, they don’t care at all how you did in HS, or how you did on the AP tests. Just remember that when you start up again, stay serious and focused and do the best work moving forward. That’s all you can do.</p>

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<p>Yes, I realize that high school isn’t factored in… the only reason I mentioned that was to show what is typical for me vs. how I performed while ill, so that people replying have an idea of what kind of student I am. As for AP scores, I mentioned that several of the schools I’m looking at accept AP credit for mathematics :)</p>

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<p>A grad degree in psych won’t do much, if anything at all, to improve your med school chances. A grad GPA is reported separately from undergrad GPA and its your undergrad GPA that is used during applicant screening. Some biological sciences grad programs (grade enhancing post-baccs) might have some influence with adcomms, but a psych grad degree won’t. </p>

<p>Be cautious about taking pre-reqs during the summer. Adcomms look at class loads and if it’s obvious that you’re deliberately taking summer classes to lighten your regular year workload, then it may raise questions about your ability to handle the workload in medical school.</p>

<p>On your application, there will be a place to explain any special circumstances. You can explain about your illness there, but your GPA is not going to be recalculated just because you had a rough freshman year. </p>

<p>You’re going to need to do some GPA repair and that will likely require that you postponing applying to medical school until after graduation so you can have an additional 2 semesters of good grades to strengthen your GPA. </p>

<p>P.S. I have no idea why you are so focused on your high school AP calc AB score. It’s irrelevant. Since you took calc at your college and it’s on your transcripts, med schools aren’t going to consider your AP score. By enrolling in the class, you surrendered any opportunity to use the AP credit later on. The course grade supercedes the AP score.</p>

<p>RE: reweighting freshman grades that limabeans mentions. I know of only 2 medical schools that do this–both are public med schools in states that really don’t take OOS/OOR applicants.</p>

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<p>I suppose I should have phrased that better - I’m a psych major focusing on a biological approach, so I’ll finish with a B.S. instead of a B.A. Any grad program I pursued for psych would be more focused on neuroscience rather than social psych. Not sure if that makes a difference, but since it’s something I’m really interested in I’ll likely pursue it anyway. The ultimate goal is psychiatry, so even if it doesn’t improve my med school chances I think it would still be relevant in the long run.</p>

<p>That’s good to know about summer classes. The only reason I would take physics over the summer is so that I can devote more time to doing well in it, as it’s not my strongest subject. I’d still take a rigorous course load during the year, likely chemistry and biology classes with labs, upper level psych electives, etc., and do research. I wouldn’t underload or anything like that; I just feel like I’d get a much better grade for physics if I could concentrate solely on that. Is that a bad idea?</p>

<p>I’m not counting on or expecting GPA recalculation or weighting or anything like that… I’m not completely na</p>

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<p>"the classes that I find more difficult (i.e. physics) over the summer "
-Do NOT take Med. School pre-reqs over summer (physics is pre-req)</p>

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<p>BS vs BA is pretty irrelevant. Different schools award degrees differently. (For the record, I have a kid with a BS degree in biological neuroscience. Her school awards both BAs & BSs in the sciences–for the purposes of post-grad education the difference in outcomes of BS vs BA was pretty negligible.)</p>

<p>You need to focus on your undergrad grades. Even if you attend grad school, a great grad GPA will not necessarily compensate for a weak undergrad GPA.* Admission offices screen using your undergrad GPA even if you have a grad degree.*</p>

<p>A grad degree in biological neuroscience may or may not impress an adcomm reader or make any difference in how a weak undergrad GPA is percieved. A surgeon or pediatrician or immunologist may not care about neuroscience and discount a it or know which grad programs are tough and which are diploma mills. Also there is major, serious grade inflation in grad school so grad grades are often viewed skeptically by adcomms.</p>

<p>One last consideration—terminal master’s degrees are seldom funded. This means you will have to pay for your MS, thus adding more debt to any undergrad debt you already have. </p>

<p>tl;dr-- don’t count on a graduate degree redeeming a weak undergraduate GPA</p>

<p>RE: physics in the summer</p>

<p>The general advice is not to take pre-reqs in the summer unless you have a very good reason to do so. I’m not sure your reason qualifies.</p>

<p>However, if you want to take physics during the summer make sure you take it at your current college and not somewhere else. </p>

<p>My reservations about summer classes are more pragmatic. Summer classes move fast because there is so much material to cover and it’s easy to get left behind if you aren’t a strong student. You also have less time to recover from a bad test. Lastly a full summer (8-10 weeks) of courses limits your options for summer activities. You can’t do a summer research program, for example. </p>

<p>But–as a word of hope. My older D (not the neuroscience one) had a rocky start in college. She managed to recover (though her GPA never climbed into the 3.5+ region), scored very high on the MCAT, engaged in a number of high value ECs and was accepted into med school as a non-trad. (2-3 years post-graduation.)</p>

<p>There are many paths that lead to medical school.</p>