<p>^^^ hahaha reading through my post again, it sounds like a huge rant. The reason for that was because, I remember in high school, some of my parents friends would tell, “medicine is not for everyone, do you really think you have what it takes to become a doctor?”. ;The messed up part about these comments was that the people making them were not doctors themselves, nor have they ever worked in the healthcare field. My parents’ friends who were doctors on the other hand, would encourage me to work harder in college, and would let me know if any cool internships in healthcare field were available in my area. Thats kind of the reason why I don’t like it when people try to discourage high school kids from the medical field, lol.</p>
<p>bluebayou,
Thanks! You have solved what has been great California mystery to simple Midwestern applicants. We have been wondering…not any more.
However, I am surprized with kind of low (~3.8/34.5 mcat) standards for top 5/15 California schools. Based on D’s experience, I got impression of a bit higher standards (3.9+/36+). (~3.8/34.5 mcat) would not be enough for some top schools (including publics) in Midwest (like U of Mich, U of Chicago, Cleveland Clinic), although (~3.8/34.5 mcat) are admirable and no argue very high stats overall.</p>
<p>*Quote:
Colleges…Did you start at Emory as a frosh? </p>
<p>^^ Yes, main campus, not oxford.</p>
<p>Quote:
What was your cum high school GPA? </p>
<p>^^^ It was slightly lower than a 3.7 unweighted. My weighted gpa was slightly higher. However this was not enough for me to be in the top 10 percent of my graduating class, which REALLY screwed me when it came time to apply to top 20 colleges. Emory, and a couple of other top 20 schools waitlisted me. Emory, then accepted me two weeks after they had waitlisted me, so I enrolled. It was the first school to take me off the waiting list. </p>
<p>Quote:
What were your test scores? </p>
<p>I had a 1500/1600, and a 2200/2400. 750 Math, 750 Verbal, and 700 writing*</p>
<p>The reason I asked the above questions is because your earlier post suggested that you were a bit of a slacker in high school. Well, you may not have worked up to your potential but you clearly emerged with impressive stats…and was accepted to a highly ranked school. Your situation is VASTLY different from the OPs…like night and day.</p>
<p>Quote:
I would go to school 8 hours a day,</p>
<p>??? What high school was this? </p>
<p>^^^It was a public high school in Texas. Although it was a very highly rated public located in one of Houston’s very wealthy suburbs. </p>
<p>Wow…I wasn’t aware of any public school that has students going to class from either 7-3…or 8-5. That’s quite the long day. Where I’m from (Calif), kids go to school 7-2 or or 8-2 or 8-3. And, same as where I live now.</p>
<p>*I remember in high school, some of my parents friends would tell, “medicine is not for everyone, do you really think you have what it takes to become a doctor?”. *</p>
<p>Obviously, you have the academic ability and intelligence to become a physician…evidenced by scores/grades. Your family may have been commenting on your self-discipline at the time. It sounds like you’ve fixed that issue.</p>
<p>@M2CK, my high school had an optional(with permission) “0th period”. This could be used to take certain AP and college level courses (i.e. Cal 3, DE) when there was no time to do so during the regular session. Band members would find this very helpful. Anyone doing this would be on a 7-3 schedule.</p>
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<p>Hahaha, no they were making those comments before I had taken the SATs, when I wasn’t top 10 percent and I had a low gpa. After I got my SAT scores back, they stopped.</p>
<p>Since both the OP and colleges have decided that I am being too harsh, let me try to defend myself a bit. Doing a quick review of science/math classes taken to date, the OP’s current science/math GPA is a 2.43 which is a C+. </p>
<p>I honestly find it hard to believe that any student serious about Med school would slack off that much in two highly critical areas for Med school success-science and math. </p>
<p>colleges…it’s hard to compare what you deem as your having “not done well” with your 3.7 and 1500/2200 to OP’s stats. Sorry, but the comparison doesn’t fly or as they say around here, “that dog won’t hunt.”</p>
<p>I would never want to discourage anyone here nor would I want anyone to give up their dreams but I also know the rigor of med school which either of you have yet to experience. I have also witnessed first hand the level of disappointment experienced by my D’s roommate who has two physician parents and couldn’t cut the Med school pre reqs (organic killed her) at Vandy despite her high level of success in science and math classes in a very good, highly regarded and very competitive private school.</p>
<p>All I wanted to say is that it appears to be a very long shot for the OP unless, as I said before, she just took high school off. The big question I would then have to ask if this was the case is: can the OP not only turn it back on but also get to a level of success in the science and math courses that we have no previous proof can be attained? I don’t think that even having URM status can mitigate a 2.43 science GPA in college, though I may be wrong.</p>
<p>Because of what I see to be a highly uncertain situation I was merely trying to have the OP be a little more realistic about the odds so that if things don’t turn out as the OP hopes they will, the let down won’t be traumatic in the long run.</p>
<p>I sincerely hope that the OP can and will turn it around…the first real test will be senior year of HS…if there isn’t significant grade improvement in science and math classes (like all A’s) now that they have supposedly “seen the light” I’ll stick to my original advice.</p>
<p>Eadad…you’re 100% right. Colleges is not a comparable figure…and neither are his med school friends who went to UT or TAMU which pretty much require you to be top 10% to attend. </p>
<p>That said, yes, it is possible for a low-performing student to “turn it around” in college, but the uphill battle will be difficult for a few reasons.</p>
<p>1) a student with weak grades will likely have to start at a lesser college. </p>
<p>2) the student will be lacking the math and science foundation to do well in Gen Chem and Bio - which means that emerging with high grades is unlikely. </p>
<p>If it were rather simple to go from weak grades/weak academic foundation in high school to top grades in college, then that would suggest that high school is not necessary at all. Some might argue that 
but a good high school education is the best foundation for success in college.</p>
<p>This student could have some problems with acceptance…The Calif publics are largely GPA driven, so the better ones probably won’t accept her. The Calif publics have their own system to determine GPA, so A’s in PE or office aid won’t count.</p>
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<p>My friends weren’t top 10 percent. For A&M you just have to be top 25 percent and have a 1300/1600 for automatic admission. 2 of my friends went to a&m, and both are UTMB-galveston. UT pretty much requires top 10 percent for auto-admin. 1 of my friends wasn’t top 10 percent but still managed to get into UT, because his EC’s were great. Hes at UTMB-Houston.</p>
<p>My point was that your friends didn’t have stats like the OP…so they aren’t comparable either. </p>
<p>You’ve pointed to yourself and your friends as some kind of examples…but y’all aren’t examples. </p>
<p>In all my life I have only known one person to truly turn themselves around in college after some really average grades low 2.X GPA but good test scores (approx 1300 M+CR old SAT). And…that person went into the military, got married, had kids, then went to college and got a PhD in Physics.</p>
<p>^^^ hahaha, to each his own, I guess. I still think the OP will be successful if he/she works hard (realizes whats at stake) and starts paying attention to this forum.</p>
<p>Hey I didn’t read all of the posts, but I just wanted to let you know that since you did not get the best grades in high school (neither did I), You can start out going to a community college for at least 4 semesters and a UC or a CSU will look at your gpa from those 2 years at a community college. So work your butt off and if you bring up your gpa and you can get yourself into a UC school, and not only that but you can prove to yourself that you can do this, high school was high school, college is another story, like you said. Anyway thats what I did. I got terrible grades in high school, like you, I took geometry twice! 
But I went to RCC (riverside community college) took most of my premed requirements and transfered with a 4.0 to a UC and planning to finish my premed reqs here. My point is, you can do it. A lot of the people on here are half right though, and you do have to know that it is a HEAVY work load. So be prepared, and as long as you know what ur gettting into then you are fine. Oh and also, if you start at a community college to bring up ur gpa, you have a better chance at getting scholarships and other financial aid, which you may or may not need for a UC, but in most cases YOU NEED. It is expensive. worth it, but exepnsive. So you should also be looking into that, the prices. But as far as grades go. This is your best bet. You wont get into a UC with grades like that.</p>
<p>The palce is of very secondary consideration. The primary consideration here is to recognize the cause of low HS GPA and correct it. keep in mind that no matter where OP end up going, college is much much more challenging than HS, even HS AP classes. If the cause of mediocre performance is not removed, discussion about which college to attend and more so discussion of future Med. School are irrelevant. I would say go to any place and see what kind of grades you can get, then take a next step of transferring /staying or completely changing your plans for professional future.</p>
<p>okay here’s my case:
I am a hs junior/senior. I am graduating as a junior and my gpa is 4.59, i have all A’s on my transcript expect for Alg 2; i have one B. my mom is an RN so me and my brother don’t get any financial aid what so ever. so i am going to CSUB, my bro is a junior there. and i just found out that we are moving to the bay area this summer so my counselor suggested to go to CSUB for first sem. then transfer to SFCU to finish my bachelors, my dream is to go to UCSF to study medicine. what are my chances of getting into UCSF after i graduate form SFCU, the only reason i cnt go to a UC is the fact that my parents are gonna have to pay for everything out of thier pockets on top of paying for my brother, and we simply wont be able to afford for me to go to a uc. So i was just wondering if i have the chance and if this is not a good idea can someone pelase tell me what my other options are. I will 16 when i go into CSUB as a freshmen and i get good grades but that’s not all that takes to get into a good medical school.</p>
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