<p>Hi Everyone,</p>
<p>I am a sophomore in undergrad college. I really want to apply to medical school and become a physician. But I've had a rough time with my science courses. All of my science courses were taken during Freshman year. During that time, I was juggling a 2hr commute to college and the usual freshman stresses. With all of the stress, I bombed most of my science courses during those two semesters. I decided to change majors from Biology to Psychology (I love it!); and now I am considering stopping my Pre-med classes (in order to attempt to save my gpa). Since considering stopping my pre-med classes, I have began researching potential options for me to reach my goal of becoming a physician. Honestly, I am in no rush to become a physician. My parents have taught me that learning doesn't stop after college, it continues forever. And that's my motto for my education. The option that I have really considered is taking a Post-Bacc program. </p>
<p>All suggestions and replies are greatly appreciated! I honestly have no idea what to do next. Thank you again for any replies.</p>
<p>Post baccs are a fine way to complete pre med requirements. (D1 was a career changer and did an informal post bacc after graduation; D2’s high school bestie is another career changer and is doing a formal post bacc right now.)</p>
<p>However, you need to seriously consider why you had such difficulty with science. Blaming stress and freshman adjustments is all well and fine, but probably isn’t the whole story. How are your math skills? Your science background? Your study skills? Did you seek tutoring for your science classes? </p>
<p>During a post-bacc, you will be juggling 3 hard core science courses at the same time while also engaging in lab research and heavy-duty volunteering. If you have any weaknesses in science preparation, math, time management or study skills, a post bacc will eat you alive.</p>
<p>In the meantime, I’d suggest you do the following:</p>
<p>1) start volunteering–both clinical and non-clinical</p>
<p>2) do some physician shadowing to find out if medicine really appeals to you.</p>
<p>3) compute you sGPA (every bio, chem, physics & math class you’ve taken at the college level). This will tell you where you stand and how much you will need to improve your science grades to be a competitive applicant for med school. </p>
<p>If you sGPA is very low (below 3.0) , consider retaking any courses with grades below C+ for osteopathic medical school grade replacement.</p>
<p>4) determine any deficiencies you have in science and/or math preparation and remediate those</p>
<p>WOWM is right,</p>
<p>I just want to add that if you flunked all your science courses you may want to consider psychology as your carrier. After all, a psychologist is like a Doctor in the “Health Provider” profession. You may have to kiss the MD schools goodbye because they average your sGPA and will not super-score while DO schools will consider the replacement super scores from post-bacc. </p>