Freshman year of high school:
Business Dyn./ Personal Finance Literacy: A
Md Wrld Hist CP: B-
English 9 CP: B
Spanish 2 CP: C-
Env Sci CP/Lab: B
PhysEd 9/Health: A-
Algebra 1 CP: B
Weighted/unweighted: 3.00
Soph. year:
Visual Computer Sci. CP: A
US History 1 CP: A-
English 10 CP: A-
Spanish 3 CP: A-
Biology CP: A-
Phys Ed./ Driver’s Ed.: A
Geometry CP: A-
Weighted/unweighted: 3.76
For junior year, I am set to take AP Psychology, Honors History, Honors English and Honors Spanish but CP level science and math because of the way the course progression works. I am very disappointed that I cannot take any higher level science courses because of this. I aspire to go to medical school and am extremely passionate about science. Several seniors have told me that if I am interested in this field for college, AP Biology senior year is a MUST. How true is this??
The main questions I have are:**
- How negatively does my poor freshman year affect the way colleges view my application?
- Do colleges appreciate the fact that I have shown an upward grade trend?
- Is going into the medical field still a possibility for me? What can I do to strengthen my high school resume??
- Is any form of AP Science required or considered necessary for an aspiring medical student currently in high school?
I also thought I should include the fact that my school does not use class rank and the school itself is ranked #51 of 402.
Thank you soooo much for reading this Any tips/ advice is appreciated!!
Your freshman year will be significantly less important than sophomore and junior years when it comes to university applications. An upward trend will help you.
In order to go into the medical field, you will need to go to a pretty good university and do VERY well when you are there. If your junior year is as strong as your sophomore year, then you should be solidly on track to go to a very good university which has a strong premed program. There are a LOT of universities in the US that have strong premed programs, including most in-state flagships (and many of the in-state non-flagships in larger states).
You should be aware that the large majority of students who start university thinking that they are premed never get into medical school and end up doing something else. However, if you don’t get to medical school then your freshman year of high school will not be the think that stops you.
I know a current university student who went to a high school that didn’t even offer any AP classes. She is considering premed as a possible option, and so far has all A’s and A+'s in her university premed-track biology classes. This is at a university that is known as being very strong in biology. I can see that AP biology senior year might help some, but I don’t think that it is a MUST.
Volunteering in a medical situation (such as a hospital) is useful if you are seriously considering premed as a general goal (and noting that premed is not a major).
Please do not post the same basic question twice. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/2089618-low-gpa-am-i-screwed-really-need-advice.html#latest
If your question moves to the second page and you’d like to try to get move comments you can write “bump” in the comment to move it back up to the top of the first page.
My apologies, the original post was quite lengthy so I shortened it
Colleges WILL take the amazing upward trend into account. Keep up the good work!
This summer you should start working on Khan Academy’s website - take a diagnostic SAT to highlight areas you need to work on, and use the website to review Algebra1 &Geometry and start on algebra2.
Find books you like - just browse the YA and non fiction aisles in your public library - and read as much as you can, while waiting in line with on the bus, before bed… That’ll be fun AND help tremendously for English.
Med school shouldn’t be a consideration for now because it’s so, so far down the road. In college you can major in anything alongside the pre-med pre-requisites.
If you’re interested in the medical field there are lots of professions, including nursing and PA. Both are extremely competitive though so keep on doing well before you reassess whether either is a realistic possibility.
Hopefully you’re taking CP chemistry and CP algebra2 next year. Senior year you should take CP physics. Adding APES would make more sense than jumping into AP Bio in any case.
Look man, a 3.0 is not bad. You’ll be able to get into most colleges with what you’ve got.