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<p>I still don’t know why this thread is 5 pages long. What more can you guys do? Its up to the op to take the advise and get his/her stuff together. Posters on an online forum can’t help you out anymore op, they have given you all the advise they can give, its up to you to either take the advise they gave you and apply it, or to reject it and seek advise elsewhere. Its your call.</p>
<p>This is the short version of what I would have told my daughter if she had approached me during her junior year adamantly professing her dream of becoming a doctor yet having not done well academically (and feeling that a transfer might make things better). </p>
<p>-Forget the med school obsession right now and take general courses that you will enjoy and will raise your GPA. You talk about your abilities but you have never shown that you can be a good student. It is time to step up to the plate…but perhaps not with organic chem. If you continue to want to try for medical school down the road plan on some form of post-bac. </p>
<p>-You are struggling personally. You need some time to grow up and figure yourself out. Talk to someone. The demands of medical school will tear you down if you don’t arrive in a relatively good place. </p>
<p>-Transferring this late in the game is going to be very tough socially. Don’t do it. You already have friends at your current school. You just need to learn to be a student. Use your remaining undergrad time to teach yourself how to juggle the social and the academic. Developing the ability to do that will serve you well no matter what you end up doing.</p>
<p>I don’t know the percentage of applicants during a given year that are successful when they apply but the number is low enough that I would be VERY concerned if my kid wasn’t mature enough to at least discuss other things that they might want to do with their life if med school didn’t happen.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>(Sorry Colleges00701, for some reason the OP brought out my mothering instincts.)</p>
<p>WOW……okay where do I start.</p>
<p>@ WayOutWestMom: What I got from therapy is that it consists of me getting information I already know from another person, and didn’t really help me get anywhere and im not wasting my time jumping from shrink to shrink and getting regurgitated info. Its also embarrassing as hell. Its tough because im Indian, and Indians are supposed to be naturally smart and successful and they don’t go to counseling. It kills me that I am the complete opposite of this. Whatever, ill just be the exception, I am already so no harm done.</p>
<p>@ BDM: Yea whatever I do. Stop responding because this is pointless, my true reasons for being a doctor have been stated multiple times, and success would be a byproduct of that. Since you don’t get this, just don’t respond to the thread.</p>
<p>@ ChemFreak/Colleges: Yea your right. You don’t know what its like to fail and struggle like I am and probably had it easy with that 3.9/40S score. Whatever, I hope to become stronger by failing, know what its like to hit rock bottom so that I can relate to my future patients too. I have listened to the advice that’s relevant like going to see a therapist, which was pointless, but not stupid things about “career options”, I will be a doctor. Period. </p>
<p>@ kluge: I think I know me better than you know me based off some internet posts. Even if I score poorly, its just a reason for me to work harder.</p>
<p>@ Elleneast: Thank you for the genuine response which is actually pertinent to my original question.</p>
<p>1) This is true, I think this maybe a good idea. Thank you.</p>
<p>2) I am trying to do this, I went to counseling but I was just uncomfortable and saw that I really learned nothing from it. Maybe time will make things better.</p>
<p>3) I do understand that it will be tough socially, but im also struggling socially here too with all of these issues that I have. Maybe starting over socially might be a good thing.</p>
<p>@ Everyone else: To those of you who offered pertinent advice, I thank you very much. It was indeed useful since I did make some changes (like go to counseling). To everyone else, yea you 3.8ers and 37S MCAT holders might be astounded to see that a guy with a 2.73 gpa wants to be a doctor. We aren’t all the drug addicts, drunkards, stupid party animals that you think we are with no direction in life. Some of us actually have goals and dreams in life and that may come as a huge shock to you. Albeit my goals seem a little farfetched at the moment, things aren’t over yet. So I guess the point of this is, as much as you guys are used to judging people by their GPA’s for your whole lives, know that sometimes GPA, capability, and overall worth can be different things. Im not quitting my goal and spending the rest of my life in regret at some job I will hate knowing that I lost out on my dream. If I do get into med school, I will be sure to let the doubters and cynics know that they shouldn’t judge a person’s capability by their GPA.</p>
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Well, that’s certainly true.</p>
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<p>You advanced your discussion significantly in your post #44 (you find sick people inspiring), but the follow-up question was a fairly obvious one (why not another health profession). And you answered that with:</p>
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<p>If you don’t feel these are accurate reflections of your reasoning, then indulge my curiousity and please explain it again.</p>
<p>I don’t get the same level of satisfaction as a paramedic (there are no Indian paramedics, every Indian in the health field is a doctor, so that would just look stupid as hell), or a nurse (LOL an Indian male nurse, imagine that). No other health profession offers me the fascination of exploring the medicine and science behind a disease, in addition to the satisfaction gained by patient interaction.</p>
<p>Are we done playing psychologist now?</p>
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<p>Okay. This is very reminiscent to previous statement:</p>
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<p>Again, the question is: do you think these are good reasons for choosing a career?</p>
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Okay. Again, this is good progress. Nurses and paramedics have patient interaction, too, so presumably what you’re really interested in is exploring the science while preserving that interaction. (Being a doctor in order to explore medicine is circular reasoning.)</p>
<p>That’s progress, but that’s still very general. What aspect of the science specifically appeals to you?</p>
<p>Another suggestion for you, kamasutra. I think it would be worth your while to challenge your preconceived notions of other healthcare fields by experiencing them too. To just dismiss nursing or becoming a paramedic etc because that’s not something for Indian guys to do is immature at best.</p>
<p>Let me give you a personal example. One of the reasons I am drawn to medicine is because at its core, it’s about service to others. I am profoundly drawn to serving others and have a list of meaningful activities a mile long to show for it. But a question I often faced was “why medicine? Why not, say, social work? Nonprofits? Counseling?”</p>
<p>So I started exploring those fields too, notably social work and nonprofits. I noticed that social workers often are the point people who help others access community resources. I decided I don’t want to be a point person, I want to be the resource–a benefit of medicine over social work. </p>
<p>As far as nonprofits go, that work was more fulfilling than anything else, and consequenly I started my own nonprofit. It’s amazing and I am thrilled to be doing the work I am doing.</p>
<p>These activities have really bolstered and affirmed my choice to go into medicine because I know its right for me since I’ve considered many relevant alternatives. It hasn’t made me want to do something else, but I was open to that possibility.</p>
<p>I challenge you to do the same. Get to the bottom of why you want to devote your life to this profession and then figure out how to make it happen. A few experiences at a clinic in India does not a doctor make. Use those as your springboard and do some soul searching. Then get back to us.</p>
<p>PS: be careful with the snide remarks, many of the posters you’re bashing are old vets around purely to help you and other applicants out. You could be ruining it for everyone if you keep responding so harshly.</p>
<p>Don’t say that Kirstin. Everyone who’s been here a few times knows to really appreciate these guys and gals who stick around even after their children are done with all of it or the ones who are busy medstudents/residents themselves. And the other premeds who are going through the process with have been just as much of a source of information and encouragement as the others have.</p>
<p>I came into this freshman year with a similar (though hopefully not as bad) attitude as OP. My first post on this board had a similar tone of how I feared not getting into a top 10 medschool LOLS. I’ve matured a lot since then, and also learned that being top 10 well as Curm put it in that original thread: keep in mind there are lots of measuring sticks. Reading that post wow I can’t believe what a presumptuous, condescending, b**** I was. Even then I was getting respectful thought out responses.</p>
<p>So thanks guys!!</p>
<p>@ BDM: Let me just summarize this for you.</p>
<p>I don’t want to be a nurse, a paramedic, an astronaut, or even an actor. Yea nurses and paramedics have patient interaction, BUT DO NOT EXPLORE THE SCIENCE AND MEDICINE BEHIND DISEASES LIKE DOCTORS!!!</p>
<p>I hope I made my point.</p>
<p>Stop telling me to look into other options because at the end of the day, I don’t want too. You want to know the aspect of the science that most appeals to me? MEDICINE. Hows that for circular reasoning? I hope you get the hint and seriously stop responding.</p>
<p>@ kristin:</p>
<p>My main reason for being drawn to medicine is that it allows me to be a source of hope for people and I gain satisfaction knowing that I can create a positive difference in their lives while at the same time gaining the satisfaction of exploring a fascinating science in order to make that difference. Its a one of a kind field and im sorry for sounding harsh but when BDM, and all the other keep telling me to pursue other options when I clearly don’t want too gets very annoying very fast.</p>
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<p>Why does the science appeal to you? What aspects of it appeal to you?</p>
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<p>So far as I know, I don’t believe I’ve made any recommendations to you at all. I’m inquiring as to your reasoning about this option.</p>
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<p>But again, what I’m really curious about is the sorts of statements you’ve been making all along, similar to:
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<p>Let’s talk about where this comes from. Why is this important to you?</p>
<p>Alright Dr. Phil let’s do this since you clearly don’t take a hint even when I ask you multiple times.</p>
<p>What aspects of medicine appeal to me……gee….how about LEARNING about it??? It’s apparently what they do in med school.</p>
<p>As far as I know you’ve suggested that I look into nursing and being a paramedic. Sounds like alternate careers to me boss.</p>
<p>Yea its true I shouldn’t place so much emphasis on not looking stupid. I should look stupid all the time. You ever see an Indian paramedic/nurse/DO? Nope, they don’t exist. Indians are supposed to be capable intelligent people, especially doctors. It kills me that im not when I have a genuine passion for medicine (which isn’t related to culture, other people, or anything superficial). This is something that perpetuated my fear of failure and is independent from my reasons for having interest in medicine.</p>
<p>Your move Phil.</p>
<p>Your just ■■■■■■■■ now Kama, despite what you may have been raised to believe your family/ethnicity/culture are not the only ways to define yourself. So what if there aren’t other indian non-MDs (which is, btw, patently false and you probably know it), why should that stop you from being fulfilled by it? Same goes for your comments about all indians being smart and successful, why define yourself by a stereotype. It isn’t even true, though many are indeed hard working. I know many indians that are not smart, successful, or hardworking.</p>
<p>I was answering BDM’s question.</p>
<p>My cultural values had impacted me severely and contributed to the feeling of failure that I had. Though my passion for medicine remains independent of that, and I still want to be a doctor because of it. People don’t fly to India for two months to work in a cancer hospital if they weren’t genuinely interested in pursuing medicine.</p>
<p>I am going to stick my head into this discussion. Wasn’t going to at first, but now I will.</p>
<p>I am a nurse. An NP actually. I have been a nurse for 30 years. I am not here to encourage you to be a nurse or an NP. I am here though to tell you that there are all kinds of people that become nurses. </p>
<p>We are female and male. All ages. We are Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, etc. We come from many different nationalities. I work with nurses that are Native Americans. I work with Muslim nurses. I even work with Indian nurses (yes, plural). And the one nurse in particular that I am thinking about is male and he is 100% Indian. He is in his mid 30’s, married, 4 great kids. And he is one of the best nurses I have ever had the pleasure of working with. There are several doctors in our hospital that are also Indian and they do not look down on him at all for being just a nurse. He is highly respected. </p>
<p>I hope you weren’t inferring that the reason why Indians are not nurses is that because they are caring intelligent people and therefore would only consider medicine and not nursing. Caring intelligent people go into many different careers besides medicine. Nursing, teaching, social work, etc…</p>
<p>All indians are “smart and successful” ? HAHAHAHAHAHA Only because the parents of those who aren’t don’t brag about it all the time. Since there is absolutely no significant differences in intelligence between races/ethnicities please explain to me how there are Indians who own, manage, and/or work at Indian restaurants, run those indian stores in the indian part of town in almost all the big cities of the US. Explain to me why most of the Indian people I know are not attending Harvard, MIT, and the other big names in the Indian circle. </p>
<p>I personally think all the people I listed above are successful in what they do, or working towards something but I know most Indian people might think than owning or managing a restaurant/store might be a failure as compared to being a doctor or engineer. </p>
<p>Explain to me why even at my own college most Indians are premed but doing everything from public health (omg they disliked premed but still liked the field) to english literature.</p>
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<p>^^^^ I am indian, and this is not true. I know a couple of indian paramedics and nurses. In fact my aunt is a nurse, does that make her stupider than my uncle who is a doctor. I don’t think so, and no in my family thinks so. </p>
<p>Wow the op knows how to ■■■■■ like a champ.</p>
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<p>Granted, there is a chance you are really interested in going back to your parent’s home country to work in a hospital environment and have really initiated all these volunteer opportunity all by yourself. If this is the case, it is good for you.</p>
<p>However, I do know plenty of people who go back where their ancesters used to live just because they can get a better opportunity there, an opportunity that he could not find in US by himself. The general statement like this does not hold. They just pursue a better volunteer opportunity there, rather than just “folding towels” or “pushing patints around” in a US-based hospital here.</p>
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<p>What I have seen from A LOT o indian pre-meds is that during the summer if there family is going to india for a couple of months to visit the country and meet relatives, most of them “go and do clinical work” in some hospital to say they can say they “worked with poor people”. In fact, all they really do is spend most of their months in India hanging out with relatives and relaxing in 5 star hotels, and only a small fraction of those months in india actually “helping poor people”. They probably spend like 1 day every three weeks in a poor indian hospital and then on their resumes write that they spent “3 full months helping villagers in indian hospitals”. They lie because medical schools in the U.S. have no way of knowing how credible their clinical work in india is. Whenever I see an Indian pre-med talking about all the clinical work he/she has done in India, I call BS. And if the OP is like most indian pre-meds out there I really doubt that he did the following:</p>
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<p>Wow, done responding to this poster. Consider that a bridge burned.</p>
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Again this is dead-end (circular) reasoning. You want to learn about medicine so that you can learn about medicine. It’s like saying that the sky is green because of its greenness. Let’s go one step deeper here.</p>
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I haven’t suggested anything. I’ve asked questions about why you aren’t willing to consider them.</p>
<p>A question is not a suggestion unless you think the answer is obvious. But if the answer is obvious to you, then it’s really you who’s making the suggestion.</p>
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<p>Your argument has actually receded a bit here, so let’s go back to the most logical thing you’ve said recently. You like medicine because it involves science and humanitarianism in a relatively unique way. That’s fair. But it’s still very general.</p>
<p>Let’s dig down on that more. Why do you like science?</p>