Dilemma: Rising Soph. w/ 85 Hours, 3.26 GPA

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>Hi everyone, I’m a undergrad student at University of Tennessee- Knoxville (UT’s flagship school) who wants to go to medical school.</p>

<p>I just finished my freshman year; I have 52 AP hours+ 12 hours language exemption, a crumby GPA and am taking the MCAT this summer (July 10).</p>

<p>I’ve taken the following pre-Med req.'s:</p>

<p>Biology 101-102 (8 hours) - AP, “S” on transcript
Biology 140 (4 hours)(the preq. is 130, 101-102 also counts) Grade:B+ -2nd sem
Physics 221 (4 hours)- AP
Physics 222 (4 hours)- Grade: A 2nd Semester
Chemistry 120 (4)- AP
Chemistry 130 (4)- AP
Chemistry 350 Organ. I- Grade: C 2nd Semester</p>

<p>(I also have credit for Physics 101-102- 8 AP hrs, but I think that’s probably irelevant)</p>

<p>I didn’t take any science classes first semester because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. </p>

<p>Currently, the plan is to take the MCAT on July 10, and opt for one of two plans:</p>

<li><p>If 35+, stay at UT for two more years, finish a BS degree, get my GPA up and apply to a normal range of Med schools.</p></li>
<li><p>If 30-35, do the UT Pre-Medical 3 years + 1 year program. In this program, the student spends 3 years at UT-Knox, fulfills the pre-Med and gen. education requirements, and earns a BS-Pre-Medicine degree upon ‘satisfactory completion’ of first year at UT Memphis Med. School. about 1 in 3 applicants from UTK get in UTMem (37 out of 108 or something, for accel. and regular applicants).</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I feel like I definitely can get a 30 on the MCAT next month (from practice test scores above 30), but I don’t know whether I should stay at UT for 1,2, or 3 more years. BTW- I really don’t like UT that much. It’s okay, but I wouldn’t mind leaving early for med school. I definitely wouldn’t miss it.</p>

<p>Any help would be appreciated.</p>

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<p>WHAT??? why on earth are you taking the mcat after your freshman year???</p>

<p>I think it was a bad idea to take AP credit for chem if you did not have a good enough foundation as exhibited by your orgo grade. You’re rushing your premed classes and your GPA is taking a really big hit because of it. Also most med schools won’t be ok with you using AP credit for all your science courses and not taking any higher level courses in those sciences.</p>

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<p>Yeah I know it’s pretty crazy. I really don’t know what to think about my Orgo grade. I met with my prof. the day before the exam and he said that as long as I didn’t absolutely bomb the final, I had a solid B. I emailed him when I got my grade and he said that I failed the final. So, <em>shrugs</em>? In my opinion, the C doesn’t accurately reflect my mastery of the material. I got two B’s and an A on the three one-hour exams prior to the final, so I don’t know what happened on the final. </p>

<p>Also, I guess I didn’t say that I’m planning on taking several upper level biochem classes this year and next year.</p>

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<p>That’s a ton of AP credit!! It might be ok to use an AP class for one of the medical school required classes…but especially with weak grades in organic, I think you should consider taking general chemistry.</p>

<p>You’ve already done the course work, so you should already be at an advantage, but you really should get a good foundation before you jump into upper level classes.</p>

<p>Also, I would strongly advise against taking the MCAT after your freshman year. I don’t think that’s a good idea.</p>

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<p>There is no way I’m retaking General Chemistry. As far as the MCAT goes, I’m
already registered. I’ve been studying, taking practice tests, etc. I’m going to be ready on test day.</p>

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<p>i’ve always heard that medical schools in general only accept AP credit for math.</p>

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<p>That’s not true as whole (from what I’ve found online), but some medical schools have that policy.</p>

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<p>why? </p>

<p>also don’t u still have to take the labs associated with all those classes?</p>

<p>I think you should strongly reconsider taking the MCAT next month with only a HS level background in most of the sciences and poor grades in the ones you took in college…the fact that you’re registered for it doesn’t mean you have to take it</p>

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<p>I have only one lab left to take Orgo II. I agree that C is a poor grade for Orgo, but I think an A and B+ for Physics and Bio is acceptable.</p>

<p>What’s the worst case if I take the MCAT? I mean, if I get less than a 30 I can retake it, right? If I dominate with a 35+ this early in the game, then that score will help significantly to offset my GPA. Also, a good MCAT score will give me motivation to dedicate lots of time to upper level sciences.</p>

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<p>your desire to become a physician or go to med school or even succeed in upper level science courses shouldnt depend on your MCAT score. Also the MCAT isn’t like the SAT where most people take it twice…the MCAT is most often taken once and med schools will consider all of your scores.</p>

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<p>MCAT after freshmen year is bad idea. First off, if you passed the AP exam with such a high grade that would warrant credit in your university, why wouldn’t you want to retake? It builds a stronger foundation for the MCAT and it should be an easy A which will boost what you called a crumby gpa. Med Schools will not accept AP credit for the core science pre-reqs, unless you intend to take upper level courses to show proficiency in. Wouldn’t you want some easy A’s, to offset the difficulty in upper level courses? Your current BCPM (science) gpa is a 3.1, so you really should reconsider and just swallow your pride about trying to get ahead so much. Your grades in your first science classes freshman year show you still need to adapt to university level studying and just saying you’ll AP out of a bunch of classes doesn’t mix too well with that fact.</p>

<p>Who encouraged you to take the MCAT this early anyways? MCAT scores are valid for 3 years, meaning that if you do really well, you better hope for god that you can get that gpa up in upper level courses because you’re pretty much stuck in having to get into a med school by the time you graduate. Note that this isn’t so uncommon when someone doesn’t get into medschool their first round of applications, so an early MCAT like this has no benefit. I really don’t see ANY benefit at all, since if you just take it next year, or even your junior year, you can retake if it’s bad, plus you’ll have a stronger science foundation and grades that will give you a better idea of your final science GPA. That GPA factor is important in planning MCAT since you’ll need to know whether you need to stick around a bit longer to improve your gpa, in which case, you have to consider your MCAT score expiration.</p>

<p>Save the time and effort and don’t take the MCAT this early, nobody is really impressed with how you’re trying to speed things up. Strong MCAT’s, doesn’t necessarily offset a 3.1gpa…so you might want to think more about that. Avg matriculants have 30+ gpa and 3.6 science gpa, 3.7 overall. You are quite a bit from that, albeit only completing one year. Do not take the MCAT’s, either retake those AP classes and get the easy A to boost your weak gpa, or take upper level courses so build more fluidity with the subjects. I would recommend the free A, since this is your last opportunity to do so. It allows you to transition into university study, and down the line, you can NEVER have this second opportunity to retake the intro classes for easy A’s after you take upper level courses without throwing up red flags that shows you trying to artificially inflate your gpa with intro level classes after upper level.</p>

<p>Also, MCAT scores are not replaced by succeeding tests. After freshman year and taking the MCAT will almost certainly have less potential for a greater score than in the future after you either retake the classes or take upper levels to strengthen your subjects. What’s the worst that can happen? Well, if you get less than a 20, than there goes your MCAT record in addition to a weak GPA. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THE MCAT. I hope you understand. You’re not impressing anyone by taking it so early, just raising a bunch of flags and jeopardizing your application further.</p>

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<p>The point is not to IMPRESS anyone. Come on now! What do you think I’m doing, taking out an ad in the newspaper telling everyone how smart I am? I am simply a college student trying to make decisions. </p>

<p>The only reason why I thought about taking it in the first place was to give myself the opportunity to go to UT Memphis Fall 09. That is only one year earlier than normal in the 3+1 program. It’s a 2+1.</p>

<p>Astor: Let’s assume for the sake of discussion that I can get a good score on the MCAT (>30). Am I then in a worse situation?</p>

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<p>he means trying to impress med school admission committees …not us</p>

<p>i really don’t understand why you’re here…do you want advice or are you trying to convince yourself that you’re doing the right thing despite what anyone says…it really seems like its the latter and in that case i have nothing more to say</p>

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<p>Okay thx shraf. I don’t understand why threads on cc always get so heated.</p>

<p>Anyway, before I made this thread this afternoon, I was not expecting people to try dissuade me from sitting for the MCAT. I was thinking about whether it would be worth it to try to bring my GPA up to maybe go to a better med school after 2 years (assuming an acceptable MCAT score). Hence the two scenarios of a) UT Memphis and b) ‘Better’ Med School. </p>

<p>Any advice about this?</p>

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<p>acraig - while I certainly applaud your effort, I can’t help but agree with Shraf. Rushing your undergraduate career for the sake of getting into a <em>better med school</em> doesn’t make any sense. College should be an amazing, well-rounded experience, not one that revolves around med school. You’ll miss out on the finer things in life - memories that when you’re 30, or 40, or 50, and miserable as a doctor, you wish you had.</p>

<p>Sometimes I seriously wonder how this <em>system</em> is twisting people so much that they forget how to enjoy themselves and others around them.</p>

<p>If you’re ready for the MCAT, take it. I see no reason why you shouldn’t - assuming that you’ve CONSISTENTLY received your target score (within a TIGHT range) on the AAMC released exams. I wish you the best of luck.</p>

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<p>Thanks, CASTLES. See, I had hoped that college would be that wonderful experience, and I have enjoyed most of it. I tell you what, part of me wishes I had no AP credit and had to do things the long way (and that I had not failed my Orgo final or gotten falsely accused of plagiarism or taken Art History or… yeah). </p>

<p>I’ve messed undergrad up pretty badly and now I’m just looking forward to Med School (<em>crosses fingers</em>).</p>

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<p>Why in God’s name would you try to go to med school after only 2 years of undergrad? Unless I’m an idiot and completely misread your posts.</p>

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<p>acraig, have you been taking practice tests and scoring well on them consistently? A large reason why I encourage you not to persue the route you have mapped out is because of your GPA. It’s weak. You’ve only finished your freshman year. Even if you do stellar on your MCATs, your GPA is still very low. </p>

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<p>You still haven’t improved your situation in your case. Your gpa is 0.6 below the average gpa for matriculations and taking the MCAT this early will only lessen the amount of time you have for your supposed good score to be valid, decreasing the time you have to increase your gpa. Why will you not consider taking those classes you got AP credit for? Your history in college so far, albeit very little, does not exactly demonstrate that you can ace those classes, let alone rely on those AP credits to have given you a good understanding of the material. Are you against just taking those classes to get an easy A to strengthen your background? You can still take the MCAT next year after you find out that you are capable of getting A’s in the core sciences. Only after then, would I even suggest in the slightest that you take your MCAT since you will have a GPA that is a bit more on track.</p>

<p>Remember, MCAT score = valid for 3 years. Also, the higher up scores, 37+ tend to be a bit on luck so assume you got like a 40, which is beyond 99 percentile, chances are, you might not get that score again after it expires and you find yourself struggling to maintain a high gpa. Think about it, you didn’t do too stellar on your current undergraduate record, you really think upper level classes get easier? You’re making way too many assumptions and I really do see this thread as you only accepting confirmations to your route as opposed to really taking opinions and advice into account.</p>

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<p>Dude, astor, I’m sorry that if I gave the impression that I’m only looking for confirmation. Just to rehash the situation once more:</p>

<ol>
<li>My GPA sucks, and I take full responsibility.</li>
<li>I have a lot of AP credit.</li>
<li>I don’t like my college.</li>
<li>I want to be a doctor.</li>
<li>My school has a program that allows people to go to med school 1 year early and earn an undergrad ‘degree.’</li>
<li>The average MCAT score at UT Memphis is a 28 (average GPA is 3.5).</li>
<li>The MCAT must be taken before ‘senior’ year for med school, before junior year in this program</li>
<li> I am confident I will make above a 32 on the MCAT next month.</li>
<li> If I make a high enough score on the MCAT, then I have a shot getting in UTMem</li>
</ol>

<p>Let’s say I get a 33 on the MCAT. I’ll have my scores before school starts, and will have the option to alter my schedule to reflect future plans. Should I stay in for the long hall or try to get in UT Memphis?</p>

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<p>what i dont understand is why you don’t retake the lower level classes and hold off on the MCAT until summer of sophomore year?? This would certainly not close the door on the UT Memphis thing and you would have a better science background and (hopefully) a higher GPA. None of the advice i’ve read or given in this thread would disqualify you from this UTMem program yet you seem to be overly thick-headed about taking the MCAT now…of course at the end of the day, its your call but just take note that noone on this board had agreed with you.</p>