<p>so as the title indicates, i am currently almost done with my first quarter as a freshman at nothwestern....and my grades suck really bad. right now im looking at a 3.1 - 3.3 im premed so this is not good. my question is, if i work really hard in the coming quarters, would med schools kinda go easy on my first quarter grades..?</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if you have one bad quarter as long as you drag up your average. But bear in mind, just because you work really super extra hard doesn’t mean you’re necessarily going to do better in the future. If you’re in MENU, btw, drop out RIGHT NOW. There is no reason to take it, and it WILL kill your GPA.</p>
<p>Freshman year, especially first quarter, is a transition year and miniscule for your overall 4 year average, don’t worry. Did you know that Johns Hopkins only gives P/F for first term Freshmans? Great idea I think! Relax.</p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly - realize that 3.1-3.3 isn’t that bad. The campus average is a 3.4, and that is largely inflated thanks to Comm and SESP.</p>
<p>Thats the nature of NU: half of the students here who walk in with 1400+ SAT scores walk out with a GPA below 3.4. Yes, you could’ve gotten a 3.8ish at a state school, but thats not what you signed up for.</p>
<p>@ Cerebral Assassin</p>
<p>Assuming students from the School of Comm and SESP really are inflating the average pre-med GPA, what do you think would be a “good” GPA for someone applying from Weinberg or McCormick?</p>
<p>Med schools don’t really care about your overall GPA- they care about your science GPA. Thus, other schools cannot inflate the revelant grades, but those grades are also not publically available. You should be gunning for absolutely no lower than 3.3 in math/science GPA (pure sciences). Aim for a 3.5</p>
<p>Yeah I mean, the pre-med advisors will tell you like 3.6 or bust, but they for the most part have no idea what they are talking about.</p>
<p>A 3.4 student wide average is really annoying, and yeah it’s inflated thanks to some departments. It’d be interesting to know what gpa averages by department actually since some have more strict guidelines than others. </p>
<p>First quarter freshman year grades dont’ matter, you’re adjusting, but I mean, just don’t fail</p>