<p>I confess to finding CC in the 2000-2001 school year, when it was tiny and there was not much info. This January, for the first time since that 2001 year, that DD will not require the FAFSA, but she will get her PhD :)</p>
<p>Regarding Cs, I always try to remind kids to watch their A-/B+ marks, too. DD never had less than a B+, usually A/A-, but her junior year she realized the need to get all As senior year to pull her GPA up to 3.6/3.7 range. A- sounds good, hey, it’s still an A, but they sap the strength of that GPA without the student ever feeling like anything has gone wrong.</p>
<p>Med school apps are all about proving you can do the hard stuff and do it every day, every week, every month, every year. Yes, you need to be smart, but it is about tenacity and stability, too.</p>
<p>Both points (watching their A-/B+ marks, too, and proving you can do the hard stuff) are very good points.</p>
<p>It appears most successful premeds DS knew could work very hard regularly. One kid could study from 8:30 am to almost 3:00 pm almost non-stop on a day when his class on that day happens to start late. Another kid was almost burnt out after 4 years of hardwork to obtain excelent grades with an overloaded courseload. His work etics is amazing. (After two gap years, he bounced back to attend a top med school in NYC.)</p>
<p>I heard the percentage of hardworking med school students are even higher. DS mentioned that if you are surrounded by so many such students, it is hard to not study hard. (I think he said he tends to work harder while in campus than come back home for a break. I thought, as a med school student, unlike an UG student, he even studied quite a lot even during the break.</p>
<p>somemom, Although I know you have been with CC for quite a long time, I do not know you found CC as far back as 2000-2001. DS was still a middle schooler then and we did not have any idea what he would do in his future. We thought he would attend the in-state public university. (Our prepaid college 529 Plan was for an in-state public university.)</p>
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<p>So you would say that colleges should have a grading system with just two grades (A = passing, B = failure)? While it may seem that way for medical school admission purposes, the whole reason that there are more than two possible grades in a typical grading system is to distinguish between different levels of student performance (e.g. A = outstanding, B = good, C = solidly passing, D = barely passing, F = failure).</p>
<p>I am saying that Cs are a waste of time in college, any major, somebody is paying for that, even if it is free. Cs tell that a student does very little in his classes. No smarts are required in UG, just work hard and you will get your As. And it is only fair to others who are paying for it one way or another.</p>
<p>If everone got A’s in every class there would be no value to a grading system. Grades are distributed for a reason, and it is beyond ridiculous to claim that “no smarts are required in undergrad”. Sheesh. It is also extremely insulting to students to tell them that if they got a C it is a waste of time.</p>
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<p>This makes no sense at all and is very hurtful to a lot of hard working students. Please stop.</p>
<p>reading over these posts i think alot of good points have been made. are the c’s the end of the world?..no…but it does mean you have to assess things a little differently…as others have said it is too early to determine which med school you will go to… It will take some time and effort to see what your gpa will be later in the game.
but i also think you need to re-assess your understanding of other undergrad schools too. kids at other schools are working just as hard as you are, and to think differently is not only naive but very judgemental imo. they also will deal with professors that are tough, they will also have heavy course loads, they will also have to do the same courses, ec’s volunteering, shadowing etc that you will have to do. they aren’t getting a easy ride into med school just because they arent attending the school you are.
once you are in a position to apply to med school, just be smart, look at your stats, look at the average stats of the schools you are applying to… apply broadly not just to the “dream school” and understand (as has been pointed out) that there are no bad med schools.</p>
<p>plumazul,
put me on ignore list, you will not see my posts any more.</p>
<p>Miami-
Perhaps beoing open to some helpful feedback might be of consideration rather than to simply tell people you don’t agree with to put you on their ignore list.</p>
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<p>That is an extremely ignorant position, and one that ignores the reality of reasoning ability (which is different than ‘smarts’). Some kids are born with strong reasoning ability – and they easily morph into physical science majors, including engineers. Others kids, may have a much higher IQ and work a whole lot harder, but will struggle to ‘get it’ until they teach themselves how to reason. (Reasoning ain’t taught in high school anymore, if it ever was.) The classic case is those kids who earn a C/C+ in Organic I, but then ace Organic II, because they finally ‘get it.’ (Or, were they just slacking off in I?)</p>
<p>Self-taught reasoning skills are great, but it can take awhile.</p>
<p>But carry on.</p>
<p>This was the funniest post I’ve read today…an average college student asks if a “C” is ok and 20 different moms become outraged :P</p>
<p>@domer825, don’t let ANYONE tell you that you CAN’T do something. If you have C’s in those courses, so what. When it comes for you to apply to med schools, apply and see if you get it. If you don’t, retake those courses the next semester and re-apply. I had a professor when I was in college that told us his wife is a cardiologist, went to a Med School (not one of the top schools), graduated, and is still a doctor, gets paid the same amount of money. The good thing about med school is that they are all accredited so if you are a doctor from Johns Hopkins or somewhere else, you will still be a doctor. Just when applying for med schools don’t narrow your list down, look at all the med schools that are available and their average GPAs, etc.</p>
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<p>With the knowledge that for MD programs, BOTH grades will be counted in your gpa, as there is no grade replacement.</p>
<p>samd1993, Your post #52 is hilarious: “an average college student asks if a “C” is ok and 20 different moms become outraged.” You must be not a parent, so you will not understand why parents may act in this way, even when it is not directly about their child. (but the topic itself may be.) </p>
<p>parent56’s post #48 summarized the points on this thread very well, without too much “raging emotion.”</p>
<p>entomom pointed out an important fact that some newbies may overlook.</p>
<p>I think some of disagreements here may have more to do with the communication skills than anything else. Not many people have excellent communication skills. But the lack of this crucial skill could get someone dinged. Been there, done that. I was once accused of “misrepresentation” (Failing to have included a disclaimer: I am a parent) just because of my not so good communication skills.</p>
<p>The supervisor of my previous job once told his staff that, if you could not let him understand any point you try to convey to him in 5 minutes, no matter how complicated the topic (e.g., a complicated algorithm in a large software program) is, it is because you yourself does not understand it in the first place, and it is not him who could not understand your point. (That was why I left that job – He was just too difficult to deal with.) Always having a post that is brief and precise on CC (just because you could not invest too much time in the posting) takes a similar skill, especially for someboy who is not particularly good at “getting your idea across in a few sentences.”</p>
<p>To OP: It is possible to get in-you’re still early in your college career. You’ll need to remember, though, that med schools look at GPA and MCAT first(in most cases) before moving on to the rest of the application. And you’ve set a high bar for yourself-honors engineering at ND is mighty tough. You’ll get some credit for taking the tough courses, but not as much as you probably should. That’s one tough major. But your chances aren’t shot; it’s more a matter of structuring your goals, remembering that GPA and MCAT matter a lot.</p>