I’m at the beginning of my sophomore year in university and last year was awful. Basically I had a lot of personal issues last year and now I feel like I have no hope into getting into medical school at all. My intent going into college was to graduate early and work hard to stand out in medical school apps. Is there anything I can do now to pursue a successful career in medicine? What are ideas to help me become a competitive applicant?
Since you have failed two classes, you should not apply or graduate early for med school. You need take extra classes to repair GPA (average out) those two classes. Especially if they are pre-req for med school.
The other thing come in mind is that you should try to get all As from now on. That will increase your chances to get in a med school.
Don’t forget to get in a med school, you also need a lot of medical ECs and LORs, so start work at it asap.
In addition, all US med schools are good, baggers cannot be choosers.
What was your freshman GPA?
- don’t graduate early. You’ll need the additional time to improve your GPA
Plan on applying only AFTER you graduate from 4 years of college.
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the only way to become a competitive applicant to demonstrate a very strong upward GPA trajectory. Only As, especially in your science & math classes, from now on.
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be open to Plan B careers, whether they are in healthcare or some other field.
If either or both of those failed classes were premed reqs, you must retake those classes. And a grade below an A in any retake will be viewed very negatively.
freshman gpa was 3.01
I should also mention that I no longer have plans to graduate early. I must have sent the wrong message when I said so as I was hoping to convey the idea that I had high hopes for what I could do. However due to unfortunate circumstances I am where I am now. Thank you for all you replies so far.
You failed 2 classes and still have a 3.0 /B average?
Yeah I tried to work really hard and took on a lot of classes but then family issues pulled the rug out from under me. I don’t really have anyone in my life that can offer much advice on subjects like this so I’ve been doing my own research and asking around online. I truly want to succeed in a career in medicine but I don’t want to waste my time if I have an unrealistic goal. Biology and medicine are my passions and I want to follow my dreams but those decisions will affect those around me so I can’t afford to keep pursing those if I don’t have strong chance.
No one can make a decision for me but again I really appreciate everyone’s outlook/perspective. And if anyone has any advise on how to become a better candidate (such as just focusing on say one internship over four years versus doing lots a smaller things) I would love to hear that as well.
First is your GPA, next is MCAT and everything else (ECs, research, internship …) are secondary or even optional. Without achieving GPA/MCAT up to certain level, don’t waste your time on ECs.
To help you from a GPA standpoint understand where you’re at and the hill you are facing, you should know that med school GPAs get calculated primarily into two important ways. One is a cumulative GPA, or cGPA. A cGPA will be calculated separately for each year, and an overall cGPA is also calculated. Two a science GPA, or sGPA. This will include all bio, chem, physics, and math courses (BCPM) you’ve taken. Like a cGPA, your sGPA is separately calculated for each year and an overall sGPA is also calculated. One’s sGPA is typically considered to carry more weight
I assume your 3.01 GPA is your cGPA. What’s your freshman sGPA?
- Consider DO School. DO schools allow grade replacement...so if you got a B in the second time you took Bio, it would replace the F. For MD schools,they woudl average them. 2) Consider if med school is right for you. You didn't pass these classes. Was the personal issues an anomoly? How have you done since then? Are the family issues resolved? 3) Have you talked to your adviser at school? They can help you plan out what you need to do and also refer you to a health career adviser. 4) The worse thing to do is to try to figure this out all on your own. Before you failed, you shoudl have talked to your Dean or adviser about withdrawing. You shoudl have talked to the counseling center to get help on family issues. Reach out to all the support systems your college has.
DO schools no longer do grade replacement, @bopper.
There is no grade replacement for DO schools.
My apologies! I believe my sGPA is 1.32 (makes more sense of course)
My focus is on MD Schools, so basically I need either a miracle or to give up? No other solution? What would a miracle look like?
I’m trying to move forward as I can’t change the past and going to medical school has been my biggest dream (and I realize that I can’t just coast on dreams) so I’m trying to find a logical empirical solution or rough idea on the path I should take from now on.
If the OP took 8 courses of equal credit value, 6 A grades and 2 F grades would give a 3.0 cGPA.
If 3 of the courses were BCPM courses, with 1 A grade and 2 F grades, that would give a 1.33 sGPA.
If the above is the case, then even taking 13 more BCPM courses (of the same credit value) with all A grades would get your sGPA up to 3.5, which is marginal for medical school admission. So you would need to take even more BCPM courses than that and earn all A grades in order to bring your sGPA up enough.
Your focus shouldn’t be on getting into a MD school, rather doing what is necessary to get into ANY med school, including Caribbean schools.
A miracle looks like this:
–As in the retaken classes you previously failed
–three years in a rigorous science major with mostly As and no C-D-F grades ever again in any science or non-science course
–a strong MCAT score than is above the national mean for accepted students (513 or higher)
–ECs that show a strong commitment to medicine and to helping the disadvantaged
–very strong endorsements from your science professors in their LORs
–if you haven’t been able to raise your sGPA to a 3.5 or above by college graduation, then a SMP and graduating in the top 15% of the class
–a willingness to be humble enough to realize that if you want to be a doctor that DO school may be your only choice.
You do not need to give up. There are schools that like re-invention stories, but…even these school only expect excellence in the applicants they accept. You cannot afford any more missteps. Every grade you earn that is less than A takes you farther away from your goal.
There is another solution, but you aren’t going to like it…
–do the best you can for the rest of undergrad and raise your GPA/sGPA as much as you can
–graduate and go to work in career-type job for at least 3 years
OR join the Peace Corp/enlist in the military and complete your 3 year service commitment
–continue ongoing community service & clinical volunteering during this time
–after 3+ years enroll in a grade enhancing post-bacc and earn at least 3.75 during the post-bacc
–take the MCAT and score at or above the mean for accepted medical students
– be humble enough to realize that DO programs may be your best and only option
The reason for the 3 year delay is to let your older grades fade in importance and show that your new [hopefully] better grades in the post-bacc are the you of now.
Whether you take the “miracle” approach above or the longer term route, please understand that there are no guarantees of a medical school acceptance for you or anyone. There aren’t any quick fixes for your situation.
WOWM gave great suggestions … or OP can continue pushing through all pre-med classes, take the MCAT, apply with sub-par GPA and get screen-out…(sorry if this sounds harsh…but some people would go through the entire journey to realize they are just not cut for the med school race…).
I think there is yet another route but it is risky and costly. You can graduate with some where around 3.2 cgpa and 3.0 sgpa with a decent Mcat, apply to SMP, depends on the level of SMP, some(either MD or DO SMP) will accept you. If you are the top 10-20% of the class, you may be able to get into a med school (DO or MD). I have seen it done.
In this case, there are too many IFs in your next 4 years of UG and post graduate.