<p>Do top med schools such as Harvard, duke, etc, automatically throw away your application if you have one such grade...but retake the course and do well in it? I am truly worried about this because im not doing well at all in calc. Thank you</p>
<p>A few points on this.
1) will your school even allow you to retake the class without failing it? I'm doubtful, especially if you get a C
2) even if you do get a C and for some reason are allowed to retake (which i think unlikely) it only does you any good if your school purges the old grade from your transcript, which I've never heard of occuring; med schools assume you can get an A or B in a class the second time seeing the material.
3) Does a C or even a D kill your chances to get into an accredited med school? Absolutely not. Does it kill your chances to get into Harvard Med or similar places? Probably, as even students with nearly flawless records have very slim chances at getting in. If you go to a very, very high ranked undergrad institution with a very competitve student body, do an exellent job on your MCAT and have stellar reqs, research, clinical work, etc., and, most importantly, get your GPA up into the range of the the top schools (3.8 +), then you might have a chance to get an interview, which then becomes the most important part of your application. It'd be a lie to say it doesn't hurt you a lot though.</p>
<p>how does everyone feel about a C+ in a non-science course (U.S. Gov) at a school notorious for a difficult Gov department? I mean, it seems sort of silly to say a C kills your chances, but do you think a C+ in Gov will hurt me a lot (assuming everything else is average-to-top-med-school-good or better)?</p>
<p>Most schools will let you retake a class if you get a C- or below.</p>
<p>Med school admissions are much more holistic than undergrad admissions, so you can likely find at least a couple of C's and other poor grades at those top schools - WUStL, Harvard, Duke, JHU.</p>
<p>However, SASer pointed out one thing - even great applicants have trouble getting acceptances anywhere - let alone to one of those top schools. The point is your focus should be to get in somewhere because the fact is, getting into any medical school is an accomplishment, and getting in is all you need - get in and you're going to earn your MD. Unless you are looking seriously at research, going to those top schools isn't really that important.</p>
<p>At Brown (unique among the Ivies, in this and other respects) there is no grade of D and failing grades are not recorded.
[quote]
Given Browns unique grading system, it is difficult to compare a GPA calculated from a Brown transcript with ones from other schools. Brown allows students to take an unlimited number of courses S/NC (Satisfactory/No Credit) and only records full-letter grades of A, B or C (without plusses and minuses). There is no grade of D, and failing grades are not recorded.
[/quote]
<p>ok I just found out Ill be getting a C in this course. Am I pretty much screwed now?</p>