Okay so I’ve always wanted to go to med school or PA school for my whole life, but I starting to feel like its not going to happen. I did pretty well in my first semester in college, all A’s, but one C in my Honors Calculus class. So I told myself that its not the end of the world, and that I will definitely do better next time. Fast forward to now, I have two C’s, one in Calculus II and the other in my Biology lab (mostly due to a harsh grading student lab instructor), the in the rest of the classes I have A’s. But I’m nervous about how this will hurt my GPA and my chances at getting into a good med and PA school because I feel like I’m falling behind more and more as the semester progresses. What should I do? I feel stuck 
If medicine (physician or PA) is your dream, it’s much too soon to give it up.
While the 2 Cs in calc aren’t the best way to begin your journey, neither are they lethal.
(Quick question–why are you taking 2 semesters of calc? Is it required for your major? Because med schools don’t require 2 semesters of calc–just calc 1 plus stats. If math is a weakness of yours–don’t take more math! )
If you feel you are going to get below a C in calc or if you are feeling totally overwhelmed by it–consider dropping the class. You can always take it at a later date if you need to.
Have you availed yourself of the help that is offered by your college? Are you going to recitation? Office hours? Have you gone to your school’s academic center to get tutoring? Are you working with a study group of your peers? Are you doing extra problem sets? Have you watched tha Khan Academy calc lessons? All of these will help you get a firmer footing in your math class.
Take a deep breath and remember you have 6 more semesters to earn high science grades which will dilute those 2 Cs. Also remember you don’t need to apply to med/PA school at the end of your junior year. Given your rocky start, plan on applying after graduation to give yourself more time to earn more good science grades to dilute those Cs. (BTW, almost half of med school applicants take 1 or 2 gap years before med school. You won’t be “too old” and you certainly won’t be the only applicant who applies post-graduation. This is also true for many PA applicants who use their gap years to get the required hundreds of hours of hands-on patient care required for admission.)
Osteopathic med schools do not include math in sGPA calculations so keep that option in mind.
And for the record–all US med schools are good. They all teach the same curriculum and all med students take the same nationally standardized exams.
The calculus classes are required for my major (Chemistry) so I just need to stick it out. And yes, I try to make it to tutoring, study groups, office hours, you name it. And I don’t know why math is suddenly so difficult now, it used to be easy for it to just click for me, no half the time I don’t know what I’m doing.
“What should I do? I feel stuck”
If it helps, S finished first year with GPAs below 3.2. He spent next 3 years on grade repair, ECs, and still had time for a college life. He’s a MD. So okay you stumbled, but it’s definitely too early to pull plug on med school dreams. So get unstuck, seek out help you need to try to you finish semester as strong as possible. Good luck.
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the other in my Biology lab (mostly due to a harsh grading student lab instructo
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We see this a LOT. Lab TA’s can grade harshly…and students sometimes even lose points if their lab partner doesn’t fully clean up his/her own stuff.