<p>So I had a horrible first year here at Cal in terms of grades. This year, I was not serious at all about studies and I was only verbally pre-med, taking pre-requesite courses for medical schools. Well, that is starting to change-I am actually very serious about wanting to pursue my career in the medical field.</p>
<p>Well, here is the dillmma, here are my first year grades for math and sciences:</p>
<p>Calculus I: B+
Calculus II: A-
General Chemistry: B-
Organic Chemistry: D
Statistics: C+</p>
<p>It is horrible, I know, and I will be re-taking organic chemistry over the summer. Well, finally realizing how stupid I was, I calculated my final BPCM GPA assuming that I will get ALL A's (I KNOW, highly unlikely) and it would be slightly higher than 3.7 and my total GPA would be ~3.8.</p>
<p>This is a theoretical situation and I DO realize that it is highly unlikely that things will go as planned. But still, assuming it true, (please don't flame me for asking a question in a theoretical sense), I have a question: do I even stand a chance at ~UCLA caliber medical schools with this kind of horrible first year consisting of even a D (on top of C+, which by itself is already bad enough), provided the theoretical situation of getting straight A's from now on (and all other stuff like research and intership, etc)?</p>
<p>Clearly, you've acknowledged your errors from last semester, and therefore, I think if you work as hard as you say you certainly stand a chance. Good luck.</p>
<p>There's no one component that can automatically doom you from a school. There are only degrees of how spectacular the rest of your application has to be to compensate.</p>
<p>Agreed. Although the GPA will play a big role in obtaining interviews, a lot of other factors can help offset (albeit not tremendously) the GPA such as clinical experience, research, and MCATs. If you can get a GPA that won't automatically reject you from med school (and at the same time, do all those other activites and score well on the MCAT), then I would say you still have a very good shot at admission.</p>
<p>Have you only taken 1 semester each of orgo and gen chem or are those your averages from both semesters?</p>
<p>My new position is probably more accurate, although for all intents and purposes they're pretty close.</p>
<p>Thanks much guys.</p>
<p>redsox: I have taken only the first part of ochem.</p>
<p>Speaking of the D in the first part of organic chemistry, I should retake it right?</p>
<p>Absolutely. The only problem I see with that is the fact that you would be taking it during the summer. If you can take the course at Cal, that would be fine. However, I would not advise taking any pre-med requisite at say CCC or the like.</p>
<p>I defimitely will be taking this course over at Cal during summer as I have an apartment up there I must pay for anyways heh</p>
<p>I'm not sure what to think of a retake.</p>
<p>If you do well:
"Well, obviously he did well. He's taken the material before, for gosh sakes! And he moved into the summer section!"</p>
<p>If you do poorly:
"You're telling me he couldn't even get an A on his second time through the course? And in the summer, no less?"</p>
<p>Should you skip the retake entirely, then you'd probably want to move on to biochemistry to establish your competence. The MCAT would take on dramatically elevated importance.</p>
<p>bluedevilmike, that was what I was thinking- getting an A the second time will be almost meaningless. So I was wondering then, should I move onto second part of ochem or go straight into biochemistry? Must I not take the second part of organic chemistry?</p>
<p>And as for the second part of organic chemistry, I am willing to do anything for an A, including using the short break I have to review and learn the material of the first part.</p>
<p>I didn't realize you were only talking about the first part of OChem. Yes, you'll need the second part.</p>
<p>I have just one more question. Because I have not shown excellence in the area of math and in chemistry, I was wondering what kind of upper division courses I should take in order to not cover, but somewhat to prove that I can in fact excel in those areas? </p>
<p>Move on to multivariable calculus?
Biochemistry (is biochemstry considered chemistry)?</p>
<h2>Please provide me with some suggestions.</h2>
<p>Thanks a lot all of you, it really does provide me with a meaningful encouragement. I see this event in my life as a challenge and no matter what the outcome, I will try my best.</p>
<p>you don't need to take multivariable. i would suggest biostatistics. </p>
<p>also, biochemistry is usually an important class to take since more and more schools are requiring it, and it is "highly recommended" at many schools.</p>