Bad grades freshman year... Do i still have a chance?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>Hi everyone, I attend Duke University, and I'm not doing as well as I would like. I'm just finishing up freshman year. I ended up with 2 C+s in Gen Chem and Calculus II. For my other classes however, I have all either A, A-, or B+. My GPA is naturally pretty low right now, because of the 2 C+s. I know i can do better than this. I kind of got too carried away with college freshman year and definitely didn't study enough at all. I know getting 2 Cs straight up in my first year of college is definitely not a good thing, though. </p>

<p>It's extremely frustrating, because an A- or even a B+ is a big accomplishment in the pre-med classes here at Duke. All math classes and some science classes are curved to a C+, so if you're average in that class that's what you're going to end up with. I had a B+ in Calc II (known as the the most failed class at Duke) before my final, and because I didn't have enough time to study for it, my grade ended up getting dropped to a C+ just because of one bad test. </p>

<p>Do I still have a good chance for medical school in the future? I don't want these two bad grades to ruin my chances.</p>

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<p>You still have a chance, but I’m not sugarcoat it-- you’ve kinda shot yourself in the foot here. You’re going to have to step up your game and improve your sGPA. Alot.</p>

<p>What’s your major? If you’re a science major you’ll be taking more science classes to dilute those freshman grades. But if you’re not…you may have to take more (alot more) upper level science classes to have a chance to improve your sGPA into the 3.5+ range.</p>

<p>And please don’t whine about how hard your school is. Every single kid who didn’t do as well as he/she thought he/she ought to says it’s the school’s fault. It’s not. </p>

<p>Centering the curve at C in intro science classes is not unique to Duke. It’s actually a pretty standard practice and has been for decades. </p>

<p>You should try to figure out why your science/math classes are giving you problems. Are you having trouble with conceptualization? Can’t apply concepts to new situations? Poor basic skills? Making dumb arithmetic errors on exams? Not putting sufficient hours for the material? Once you know, then decide what to do about it. Do you need a study group? Need to do more practice sets? Attend office hours/review sessions? Get a tutor? (Duke offers free tutoring thru its Academic Resource Center.) Change your major to something else?</p>

<p>One last thought–not everyone is cut out to be a scientist, mathematician or a doctor. (Heck I got a C in Calc 2 each of three times I took it. It’s why I have a degree in English and not chemistry.)</p>

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<p>@ OP
It is not just Duke, Calculus II is probably the most failed course on every campus in the country. One of the problems is that while they give you some general techniques such as substitution, integration by parts, trigonometric substitution as well as several others, the fact is that finding anti-derivatives, which is essential to solving integrals, is often something for which there are no formulas or rules and solving the integral often requires a great amount of inventiveness, ingenuity, creativity and imagination which American college students are often not used to having to employ in a math class and have little experience with. The other problem is that series and sequences, particularly the Taylor Series, are introduced in Calculus II and most students have trouble with these types of problems.</p>

<p>Other than the adverse impact it has on GPA the C+ in Calculus is not likely to be troubling to medical schools. In medical school you are very unlikely to ever see an integral and will certainly never encounter a Taylor Series. In addition, the last thing an attending physician or senior resident wants to see in a medical student is even a hint of inventiveness, creativity or ingenuity.</p>

<p>The C+ in Chemistry is a little more problematic. This is considered an important pre-requisite by medical schools and anything lower than a B is not acceptable. Since it happened freshman year it may be allowed to slide but do not do it again if you hope to become a doctor.</p>

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<p>* If you’re a science major you’ll be taking more science classes to dilute those freshman grades. But if you’re not…you may have to take more (alot more) upper level science classes to have a chance to improve your sGPA into the 3.5+ range.</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>Absolutely!</p>

<p>I think that Cal III doesn’t really build on Cal II, so if you’re not that strong with Cal II, you can still do well in Cal III…which you NEED to do.</p>

<p>I’m guessing that the C+ is in Gen Chem I? Are you prepared to take Gen Chem II? If not, you might need to do some self-study over the summer and learn what you didn’t learn so that you’ll be up to speed for Chem II.</p>

<p>You will definitely need to dilute the impact of those grades on your science GPA (and your overall GPA as well).</p>

<p>If you end up with 36 credits of bio chem, physics, math and 8 of those credits are a C+ and the rest are As, then your BCPM (science) GPA would be…</p>

<p>4.0 x 28 = 112 (about 7 BCPM classes with A’s)
2.3 x 8 = 18.4 (the 2 BCPM classes with C+)</p>

<p>130.4 / 36 = 3.622</p>

<p>But if you took 50 BCPM credits…</p>

<p>4.0 x 42 = 168 (about 12 BCPM classes with A’s)
2.3 x 8 = 18.4 (the 2 BCPM classes with C+)</p>

<p>186.4 / 50 = 3.728</p>

<p>(I hope my math is right…lol…others please correct if necessary!)</p>

<p>And, if you don’t get A’s in all of those other BCPM classes then that would be another problem. Keep in mind that an A- is not a 4.0. An A- is a 3.7. And a B+ is a 3.3</p>

<p>Grading System Type: Five or more passing grades, alpha with +/-
AMCAS Grades… A…A-… B+… B… B-…C+. C… C-. D+. D… D-… F
AMCAS Weights 4.0 3.7 3.3 3.0 2.7 2.3 2.0 1.7 1.3 1.0 0.7 0.0</p>

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<p>“In addition, the last thing an attending physician or senior resident wants to see in a medical student is even a hint of inventiveness, creativity or ingenuity.”</p>

<p>This is very true.</p>