Grades, Competitiveness, & More

Hi there!
I have a 3.4 GPA right now and I’m finishing up my freshman year at Florida State. I was wondering if the C I got in my first semester will be detrimental for Med School applications in the future?
I’m a biological science major and I’m strongly passionate about going to Med School and want to do everything in my power to get there. I ended up getting all As and a C in biology (long story but no need for excuses). Assuming I can finish college strongly (all A’s or all A’s and a few Bs), what are my chances of going to an Ivy med school?

Based on my current stats, what do I need to do to be a sure-fire candidate by the end of my college journey?
Should I minor in anything or join a certain club?

How can I make my application stand out? I’m the first in my family to even go to a major university and would love all the help I can get from you wonderfully educated people!

Thank you in advance for your responses, I greatly appreciate it. (:

First of all, there is no such thing as a “sure fire candidate” for med school. This process is very uncertain and fraught with many pitfalls along the way. (And this is why every single pre-med needs to have a Plan B career they would be fine with.)

The weeding out process to get into med school is very intense. Of all the freshmen who declare themselves pre-meds, about 75% of them never take the MCAT. Of the 90,000 or so students who do take the MCAT every year, only about 47,000 actually apply to medical school. Of those 47,000, only 22,000 get a medical school acceptance.

Right now your GPA and sGPA are suboptimal. But you have plenty of time to improve both.

Besides working on improving your grades, you need to look for activities that are meaningful to you and that give you the opportunity to:

–demonstrate your leadership
–show your compassion for the less fortunately by volunteering
–develop your understanding of what the profession of a physician entails by doing physician shadowing (in several different specialties, esp. primary care fields)
–gain exposure to bench or clinical research
–show that you are capable of and willing to spend your future dealing with the sick, injured, disabled, debilitated, demented, abused and chronically ill (and their families) by working or volunteering in clinical settings (clinical settings include hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities, stand alone free clinics, group homes for physically or mentally disabled, hospice centers, and sexual assault or suicide hot lines)

Ah, thank you so much for your response!
Wow, I did not realize how sparse the final pre-med posse becomes. As of right now I don’t know what a degree in biology can do for me if I don’t get into med school. I’ve heard a lot of kids wanting to change their majors because they don’t want to end up teaching, but is there really no other options with this field?

What can I do to start preparing for the MCAT now? Or am I still too young to be worrying about that?

Until you have completed your pre-req coursework, prepping for the MCAT is pretty pointless.

RE: a bio degree. You should go talk with the career office at your college. They can suggest some alternative careers with bio degree.

Also consider other health profession careers. Here’s a good resource to get you started:

http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/home

If you have a strong aptitude for mathematics, biostatistics is a very hot field right now. (Requires a MPH or MS degree as entry level degree.)

When I was in school, the options for serious students pursuing a Biology degree was pretty much medical school or graduate school. Of course, there were other students who had all kinds of other majors and just took the required pre-medical courses.

Refocus your efforts. Your focus is ALL As. This should have been a goal from the very first day at college.
“How can I make my application stand out?” - You do NOT need to stand out. Having high GPA, decent MCAT, medical ECs and being OK socially are sufficient enough.
“Should I minor in anything or join a certain club?” - No need for these either, unless you want to. Since you do not have a minor now, it has not been your goal. Minor or club will NOT fix your GPA, they will NOT compensate for the low GPA .
“What can I do to start preparing for the MCAT now? Or am I still too young to be worrying about that?” - Yes, too early to think about MCAT.

Your priority is your GPA. Start checking things like Med. Research lab internship, volunteering. These opportunities were greater for my D. at her college than anywhere else.

Of course it’s detrimental. C is worse than A. Is a C prohibitive of a career in medicine? As someone who got a C in orgo 1, I can assure you no.

Interesting choice to blanket target “ivy medical schools.” Princeton doesn’t have one. Cornell is outside the top 10%, and Dartmouth and Brown aren’t in even in the top 25% of medical schools.

In terms of careers? Biotech, pharma, consulting, communications, policy work, NGOs, and writing are also possible with degrees in bio.

If it offers you any encouragement, S ended first year in college with GPAs under 3.2. He is currently a resident. In order to get his GPAs he didn’t apply “traditionally” (ie after third year of college) but waited until he graduated. His waiting also gave him some breathing space to allow him to acquire ECs. He did well on MCAT. So you’re at a much better starting point than S. Med schools like upward trends, so finishing strongly should be viewed positively. Even very strong applicants fail to gain admission to Ivies. Yes it’s important to develop strong app but it’s important to realize that in last reported cycle almost 60% of all applicants did not get in anywhere. So gaining one acceptance is quite a feat. Apply broadly. Also realize that although you may develop a competitive app from here on, that may only get you an interview invite. And although you may look pretty on paper, a poor interview can easily end in no med school acceptances. Nothing is sure fire.

As to prepping for MCAT, some people can do well by obtaining prep materials and self studying. S took course (eg Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc) which started I think early in year (Jan?), he took test in April. I think you need to focus on raising GPAs, ECs. I think it’s premature to spend much, if any, time on MCAT prep at this point. Good luck

EDIT: In order to get his GPAs up he didn’t apply “traditionally” (ie after third year of college) but waited until he graduated.