Hi everyone, I just ended my first year of college in Boston and I am a Psychology major. I ended this school year with a 3.2 GPA and i am upset and nervous. First semester my lowest grade was a C+ and I earned another C+ this semester in Biology. It was a difficult class. My professor had to curve the grade. The class average was a 72 and he did not want it to be lower than a C so when we took our final he raised the grade 3 points to make the class average a 75. So, ending with a C+ in the class was not bad compared to the class as a whole.
I am very interested in psychiatry and going to talk to my academic adviser soon to see if I should double major in Psychology and Biology. I am VERY interested in med-school. i am not a lazy student and I LOVE school and learning. What I am asking is, should I be stressed out about a 3.2? I just want to know everyone’s opinion if Med school is a possibility for me!
Medical school classes are difficult too. If you can’t handle freshman biology what about orgo chemistry in the future?
Sorry, I should have been specific, It was organisimal biology.
A 3.2 GPA with a marginal grade in freshman bio is not the best start for someone who wants medical school in her future. It’s not fatal, but you have a lot of ground to make up if you are going to be competitive applicant for med school.
You can’t afford any more Cs. Get yourself help as soon as you feel you are struggling in any class. Get a tutor, go to office hours, find a study group to work with, take study skills class at your college’s academic support center.
I strongly suggest you don’t double major. No particular undergrad major will “help” become a psychiatrist. Very little, if anything, you learn in undergrad will be at all relevant to what you’ll learn as psychiatry resident. (And residency is where you really learn how to practice your specialty, not med school.) Medical school admission committees are not impressed by double majors and having a double major won’t help you get accepted to med school. Pick one major–one that you enjoy and will offer you good career opportunities if you are among the 75% of pre-meds who never actually apply to med school or the 60% of med school applicants who don’t accepted each year.
I also suggest that you plan right now that you will only apply to med school after you’ve graduated from college. You will need the extra time to raise your GPA and sGPA.
As for the curve–that’s pretty typical of college science classes. It’s also pretty typical that only a limited number of As and Bs given out in those classes. This is called “weeding” --it’s process where only the very strongest students end up with GPAs that are good enough to apply to med school.
Thank you!
Don’t double major. Pick ONE major that you’ll do the best at, and use your extra time to focus on the premed prereqs.
Would retaking this biology class at a local community college in the summer help? or would you guys not recommend that? I do not know how retaking classes work?
No you can’t retake that bio class anywhere, better to take a higher level bio class to average it out.
And never say a word about how tough was the class anywhere in the med school application process. The adcoms will write you off if you do.
If it helps, S finished freshman year with GPAs below 3.2. He’s an MD. So first take a deep breath, you still have a chance, but as you’ve dug a hole, stop digging.
As it is best to apply one time with strongest application possible, you must do some grade repair which means that you may want to consider waiting until you graduate before applying. The extra year (i.e. senior year), would allow time to take more courses which could help you raise your GPAs, provide time to prep for MCAT, participate in ECs, have a college life. As soon as possible you need to seek out and use school’s resources to assess what you may be doing wrong and how to improve.
Don’t double major. Although many successful applicants double major, you will not get bonus points from med schools unless you have competitive GPAs to go along with double major AND all the other things med schools expect to see (eg ECs, competitive MCAT). You’re already in a hole, why would you want to make your life more difficult.
Understand that med schools break down an applicant’s in various ways. You can’t just get a C+ in a bio course and think an A in a Psych course can smooth things out. Med schools will calculate a separate science (or sGPA) for all science courses (bio, chem, physics, math (or BCPM)) by year and cumulatively. They will also calculate a separate cumulative (or cGPA), by year and cumulatively. They will notice that you started low and hopefully see an upward trend, a positive in the eyes of med school.
When it comes to applying, remember all US med schools are good schools and can serve as a pathway to whatever field of mediocre you are interested in. Take the notion that you can only succeed if you go to certain school(s) out of your head. You only need one acceptance.
S did very well in hs. He just got caught up in different demands/expectations of college profs, trying to fit in with other students, time management, etc, the common freshman stumbling blocks. He had grades like yours. He however had no problems with ochem or the many, many upper division bio courses he later took. Don’t think just because you stumbled in freshman bio, you can’t do better later. You can.
If you ultimately change your mind about medicine, always have a plan B in upcoming plans. Good luck.