<p>I didn't know where to put this, but I saw "pre-med" so I figured it would be a good idea to put this question here.</p>
<p>So, here's the story, I've been planning to go to medical school since my sophomore year in college, and I know to start with, it wasn't going to be a easy task. However, I've been taking my pre-meds and I've been doing pretty well in biology and physics... but I've been doing horribly in chemistry; general chemistry A, to be exact (the first chemistry class), where I may get a D, or may even fail the class. I've tried to get help, but the entire chemistry department and list of chem. majors have been nothing but trouble, where all of them were just intolerant towards non-chem majors, so no matter how much help I ask, they tell me to beat it (In my school the chemistry department is like a clique of those popular rich girls you see in high school stereotypes); the attitude the chemistry department has is partly the reason why I don't want to continue on. Bottom line is, I've done terribly in one chemistry class and I'm considering on giving up and going to law school instead, because I know you need to know a lot of chemistry for medical school and years ahead, and I know Organic Chemistry is the "slaughterhouse" of weak students (Of a class of 250 students at my school, only 1 person got a 35% out of 100), whereas I'm also very good in English and essay writing. The reason why I want to chicken out so quickly is because I know that if I'm wasting time and money on chemistry classes that I may never pass, I may be damaging my grades more to the point where I may not be able to go to law school as well. So, my question is, should I just give up on medicine and head on to becoming a lawyer?</p>
<p>I am a astrophysics major with a 3.5ish gpa (probably will go down alot because of this G-D chemistry class that I wasted money on) in my junior year (so I really don't have time), if it matters.</p>
<p>Also, if you're a member of Student Doctors Forums, I also posted a similar question there, but I wanted to post it here to get more opinions, so please don't inform me about this.</p>
<p>you definitely don’t need a lot of chemistry for medicine. You have to take chem as part of the requirements but I know both BDM and I got Cs in orgo and he went to med school and i’m in an MD/PhD program.</p>
<p>Truly? I checked out a program online for University of Chicago, and the medical students are required to know alot of biochemistry and organic chemistry for the classes. Moving to the point, even if it’s not something I will need for medicine, it’s proving to be a real problem. Already, this one class is proving that I’m one of those students that will be weeded out and put on to the failure pile. I believe it’s only going to destroy my GPA if I don’t get out. Is it even worth putting up a fight if I can’t even pass the most basic general chemistry class?</p>
<p>^false. Im pretty sure no med school will cover anything orgo related. Havent seen that stuff since sophomore year in college. You will need to understand basic chem though.</p>
<p>and biochem isn’t really chem. In med school biochem is mainly metabolic pathways and genetic diseases associated with mutations in certain enzymes but there’s basically no chemistry.</p>
<p>The only topics in gen chem that I can readily recall appearing in med school are:
pH
polar/charged vs non polar molecules and how that affects solubility in stuff.</p>
<p>I actually expected the list to be longer but that might be it.</p>
<p>The only topic from orgo I’ve needed is the ability to recognize the steroid backbone.</p>
<p>OP, have you looked into tutoring? The style of the professor and your style of learning may not jive and that’s life. What makes a successful student is the ability to recognize that is happening and seek out a resource that does jive with your learning style. You can recover from a C if it’s your only one. I think a D is not accepted by med schools (i.e. not just looked down upon, but actually doesn’t count for having “fulfilled” the pre-req).</p>
<p>How about taking the required chem classes at a different school?</p>
<p>I<em>wanna</em>be_brown: I have, but unfortunately, the chemistry tutors are all very unhelpful. The last time I had a tutor, they’d just throw more problems rather than explaining it and they would openly show frustration if I didn’t understand, which really annoys me; they even went to the point off talking slow like I had brain damage or something of that nature. I can’t find one outside the school because the school is located in a rural area, so the only profession that dominates the neighborhood is being a farmer. Problem is, I can’t find anyone patient enough to help me out; I’ve had better luck trying to explain it to myself in my experience.</p>
<p>texaspg: I’ve considered it; but as I had mentioned to brown, I go to school in a rural area and the next school is about 40 miles away; I don’t have a car and the buses don’t run over there that frequently. I’ve also tried to take the class(es) at a local JC in my hometown, but they didn’t accept my financial aid, so they refused to let me take classes unless I pay them a ridiculous amount in check; regardless this school still was at least 15 miles away (again no car or means of transportation). Besides, it’s probably better to take it at my school because of the convenience.</p>
<p>I see three separate issues involved here.</p>
<p>First, the question is whether you actually need to know chemistry. The answer is yes for your coursework, and yes for the MCAT, but essentially no afterwards. Medical school and residency require basically zero chemistry.</p>
<p>Second, the issue is your grades. If you are indeed on the verge of a D or F, that will be a problem. It’ll require you to retake the class, damage your GPA, raise red flags, and hold you back from advancing to organic chemistry and likely delay your fulfillment of prerequisites.</p>
<p>Third, the issue is that there seem to be some social, economic, and interpersonal issues making your schoolwork difficult. It can be hard to focus in an arena where you feel like you don’t belong, or where you don’t feel like you have the resources and encouragement to succeed. To whatever extent possible, I urge you to (1) focus on what you can control rather than things you can’t control, and (2) solve the problems you can solve before focusing on your schoolwork.</p>
<p>Thanks bluedevilmike, and everyone else that’s answered the post, I suppose there’s not much to really get my head over after this drama over MCAT and such. However, there is one problem that’s bothering me. I know the best possible answer is to find any one who gives a hoot to help me out (even if I have to do a video conference with them if necessary) and get overboard in studying, as well as to think long and hard about it, but as I had said before, general chemistry is still a major problem (specifically speaking, A) and right now, I’m very hesitant to take B, or part 2 of this awful class. Should I even attempt and gamble my chances to try to do well in the class? Statistically, I know people say it is MUCH harder than General chemistry A, thus my reluctance grows. Also, remember to note, if it’s not worth it and it’s probably going to ruin my GPA, then I would like to get out before I make things any worse that would ruin my chances for law school instead.</p>
<p>Long shot but… have you tried the Khan Academy Gen Chem review?</p>
<p>D1 (who used to tutor chemistry/physics/math for her big state uni) says that some people find it useful.</p>
<p>In my view, this whole discussion seems a little premature to me. I would delay the decision as long as possible while you study like crazy for the class you’re already in. That might mean enrolling and then withdrawing during drop/add later.</p>
<p>But for now, focus on the class you’re in. Learn chemistry, and learn about your own chemistry skills. Try a variety of study techniques – probably several simultaneously – until you find ones that work for you. Tutors are great; extra time is great; extra supplemental materials are great; do everything you can think of and which you have easy access to.</p>
<p>If one of those things isn’t working, then forget it and move on. Don’t waste energy getting upset, or annoyed, or wondering why the department is so cliquish, because you need every ounce of energy you can spare to devote to actually LEARNING material.</p>
<p>Once you’ve done this – once you can conclusively say that you’ve given it your best and left no stone unturned – then you’ll know whether you can continue with chemistry or not, and you can make your decision then.</p>
<p>The impression that I personally have from your OP is that you DO NOT CARE much one way or another. The medicine is NOT for people like this. The UG Gen Chem class is one of the easiest of your obstacles. The future challenges are so overhelming to even the devoted students who DO NOT see thmesleves doing anything else but being an MD. They are willing to work harder and harder meeiting all requirements. You will have harder time because you are not the one sollely committed to the field of medicine. I would suggest (again, based strictly on your own post) to switch before you put too much effort into it.</p>
<p>Spot on MiamiDAP-</p>
<p>And since Law is a backup to Medicine, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of conviction from the OP in trying to go to Law school either. </p>
<p>Getting an MD, JD, or Ph.D takes a whole lot of conviction to complete successfully. Anything less has “dropout” written all over it.</p>
<p>I’m not going to contradict this. However, be aware that if I didn’t care in the first place, I wouldn’t have wasted my money on all of my pre-med classes. I’ve already finished up physics and biology, it’s just chemistry that’s really a pain in the back. Why would I just throw away my money if I was this lazy? I would’ve just stuck with not going to college in the first place if I had this attitude and probably got a job instead. Besides the point, the only reason why I thought about going to law school in the first place was because chemistry aside, english is one of the best skills that I have. The only reason why I sound very careless in the first place is because it is absolutely humiliating and frustrating that I’m faring well in my other pre-meds (and other classes) but this one class (how would you feel if of all classes you do well in, you find out there’s a class you can’t do?). I think many people would disagree with you that gen. chemistry is easy, unless you’re a chem major yourself, because quite frankly, the test averages are pretty mediocre, and I’ve yet to meet one person who’s said “it’s easy”. If you say that I “don’t have enough conviction” just because I worry about my grades, that’s your opinion. I would rather have something I can rely on that I’m good at than sniveling that I couldn’t get into and curse the world about. Maybe I’m not devoted to medicine enough, but at least I’m devoted to what I’m good at.</p>
<p>*Correction, ignore the “chemistry aside” part in the statement.</p>
<p>And NWcrazy, I absolutely, 150%, disagree with your idea that you have to go to grad school. Do you even go to grad school yourself? First off, there are plenty of successful people who did just fine without a masters, phd, etc. (Do I really need to bring up the Mark Zuckerberg and Richard Branson story?) Some are actually dropouts, and they did just fine; In fact, some of my relatives never went to school, grew up in a farm during a time of severe economic hardship, and they’re making plenty to put 5 kids to school without worrying about debt, while buying their nephews cars. Rags to riches. I even know some who did go to grad school and guess what? They’re struggling to make ends meet at a Denny’s and blaming themselves for having a useless piece of paper that hardly appeals their shift managers and coworkers and blowing away 3 years of time to make money. If you didn’t know (considering the fact it looks like you haven’t yet), when you apply for a job, they don’t care where you went and what you got a degree in, they want to know what you can do; Even if you say you dropped out, you can still get the job if you know what to do, believe me, I’ve seen it happen. I don’t know where you come off with this belief of yours, but it’s a very unfair assumption to make, let alone an arrogantly bigoted one.</p>
<p>Anyhow, I got my answers, so consider this matter concluded. Once again Bluedevilmike, and everyone else before him, thanks again. I don’t need a lecture about being “convicted” or having a masters.</p>
<p>By the way, can an admin close this post up? It looks like it’s attracting some trolls for the drama.</p>
<p>i think you’re reading a bit too much into nwcrazy. I think his point was that medicine, law, or PhD are really intense, consuming pathways and without a high level of dedication to THAT pathway in particular, pretty much everything else is going to look better and you’ll “dropout” of the pathway and pursue greener pastures.</p>
<p>Chill out a bit. Classes can be tough. It’s not like this exact scenario can’t happen in med school and you have to find a way to deal with it. I like to quote the Governator here (from back in his Mr. Universe Days): This area of pain divides a champion from someone who is not a champion.</p>
<p>FWIW, I and many others did find gen chem easy - in fact I was better at it than bio because there’s less memorization but honestly that’s neither here nor there. I find gen chem easy but you do not. I’m sure there are things you find easy that I don’t.</p>
<p>OP,
First you ask for our opinion. Then after we have expressed our honest opinions, you argue. Do we care? Not a bit. We just provided what you have requested. You have to decide, it is YOUR life, we are making decisions in reagrd to OUR lives, we have ABSOLUTELY NO INPUT to yours aside from what you personally asked for - our opinions. So, take them as is and make conclusions for yourself instead of arguing here. Again, we do not care one way or another, we have our own plates full…</p>
<p>@DaymanNightman -</p>
<p>Are you okay now???</p>
<p>When you post on a public message board, you leave yourselves open for ALL kinds of responses. Some you may want to hear, some you may not…</p>
<p>@i<em>wanna</em>be_Brown - You said it better than me.</p>