<p>Kid completed first year at WashU premed. Did well the first semester but got a couple of C's in second semester. GPA for first year is 2.88 science and 3.1 overall. Choices are: continue premed at WashU, transfer to a state school and continue premed, quit premed and do something else. </p>
<p>Kid says medicine is what he wants to pursue and will do whatever it takes to get into a med school.</p>
<p>Would like to hear from those who have had similar experience at WashU or other premed progams. </p>
<p>Please help!</p>
<p>I’m from Washu! Tell him to go talk to Joan Downey, she’s an amazing premed dean though the waiting list for her is like 2 months so he better make an appt soon. I think the general consensus here is that freshman year grades might be forgiven if the grades from them on are high and continue to rise. That said, physics and orgo at WashU are not easy so thats something to take into account. He might have seen this already: <a href=“http://prehealth.wustl.edu/Documents/Handbook2010.pdf[/url]”>http://prehealth.wustl.edu/Documents/Handbook2010.pdf</a> but go to page 55 of this book for some numbers of gpa, mcat, and accepted for WashU</p>
<p>It also depends on the “state” school…some states are less competitive than others, particularly for instate applicants. (residents of West Virginia in comparison to California, for example)</p>
<p>My D is senior at “state” school. If you are looking for less challenges, it will not work. She was surprized how challenging her classes are, had to work extremely hard for her "A"s. She is coming from small private HS with very rigoruos academics, that places 100% of graduates in 4 year colleges with couple top ones going to Ivy’s. She graduated #1 and opted to State school instead because it offerred her premendous opportunities and later on even much more than was offerred originally. She is extremely happy with her choice but it has been very very challenging.</p>
<p>If I were at a tough school that I loved, I wouldn’t transfer just because another school might be easier. Organic II isn’t a cake walk, no matter where it’s taught. Unless the kid hates WashU, I don’t think transferring would be the way to go. </p>
<p>It’s also too early to give up on pre-med, you never know what will happen in the next few years. A 3.1 is an uphill battle but not the end of the world–a good 3 years can make up for it.</p>
<p>That chart is ridiculous. WashU has a 60 percent acceptance rate for kids with gpas of 3.2-3.39 and 27-29 mcat scores. Thats really impressive…At my school, if you have the same stats, you only have like a 40 percent chance of getting into medical school…hahaha…</p>