<p>I hope you guys can help me. Freshman year in college, I was a CSE major (T25 school). I dreaded programming, and I did it because I could finish in 2.3ish years. At the end of the year, I ended up with a 2.28 (passing all my classes at the bear minimum since I was taking 5 classes each time). Then that summer, it hit me, I thought I wanted to go to Law School. I changed my major to Psychology (just because I enjoyed it, and it was really nice to my GPA). I got all A's and even some A+'s except for my stupid acting class(b+) and writing class(b) sophomore year. For law, I would be graduating my third year as a psychology major and then taking a year off to work until law school apps. Suddenly, I want to do pre-med. Ever since some people said, you MIGHT have a chance, I considered it. But as a freshman with a 2.28, I didn't even think about it. Now with a 3.0ish, I am trying to determine if next year I should start taking the pre-med route or if I should continue pursuing law.</p>
<p>Please feel free to ask questions, I know I haven't covered everything.
Thanks so much! I haven't used this source in such a long time and I'm happy to be back!</p>
<p>1) Medicine probably isn’t a field that works well with the whole “I might want to do it” attitude. It’s simply a very demanding and time consuming route that requires a lot of perseverance, academic excellence, and outside commitments while an undergrad in clinical roles, campus involvement/leadership, and frequently research. Unlike a JD, it’s also limiting in your career options once you’re finished. If you graduate medical school, you’re either a doctor, or something not related to your $150k (or more) degree. Meanwhile with a JD, there are many more options for putting your degree to use.</p>
<p>2) Your situation with a GPA of 3.0 is going to make an already hard journey even rougher.</p>
<p>My advice, really explore why you want to do medicine. Do you need to be a physician to fulfill your goals or would some other form of healthcare profession be satisfying. Could you excel as a nurse or a Physicians’ Assistant? What about some form of advanced practice nursing like Neonatal Nurse Practioner or a Nurse Anesthetist? If you think about it fully, and healthcare field or more specifically being a doctor is the answer, then do some shadowing to get a chance to experience what a doctor’s day is really like. Can you handle dealing with sick, miserable patients all day (many people can’t)? If after that, you’re convinced that medicine is right for you, you’ll need to meet with your schools pre-med advisor and work out a plan. </p>
<p>Your GPA is a problem, but if you’ve not taken many of the pre-med requirements (1 year each of bio, general chem, organic, and physics with labs) you might be able to make the distinction in your personal statement that your overall GPA is low, and even your science/math GPA is low (depending on how your CSE grades get reported) but in the medical school requirements you’ve excelled. That would need to be followed up with a strong performance on the MCAT. </p>
<p>So bottom line, make sure you really want to do this, get some experiences to validate that, then perform well in the pre-med requirements, but remembering you have an uphill battle because of your prior grades.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your reply!</p>
<p>When I first entered college, I really only thought about money.<br>
For some reason now, I don’t really care that much about the money.</p>
<p>I have actually done some shadowing since my uncle is a cardiologist surgeon and although it seems tough, feels more rewarding than what my other uncle (a lawyer) goes through.</p>
<p>Although this is looking to the future, do you feel like this
“Your GPA is a problem, but if you’ve not taken many of the pre-med requirements (1 year each of bio, general chem, organic, and physics with labs) you might be able to make the distinction in your personal statement that your overall GPA is low, and even your science/math GPA is low (depending on how your CSE grades get reported) but in the medical school requirements you’ve excelled. That would need to be followed up with a strong performance on the MCAT.”
will really work? (not to be sarcastic or anything)
I would be really happy if I had a chance!</p>
<p>No matter what it’s an uphill battle. Very little is guaranteed even with above average stats in terms of MCAT and GPA. And you’re of course going to be below average no matter what.</p>
<p>But you’ve got a slightly different path to medicine, and particularly if you’ve avoided most of the sciences after your poor showing, the sudden influx of high grades could demonstrate you can handle medical school. The thing is that you’ve completely removed your margin for error, and depending on what your final GPA’s end up being, there will likely be schools that reject you just because of your GPA being below 3.5 (especially if you have just an average MCAT score).</p>
<p>To narrow down the possibilities, an MCAT score is needed.</p>
<p>Bottom line, you’re not completely sunk, and I think there’s a window of opportunity, but it’s going to take a lot of work on your end, a good MCAT score, a well written personal statement that explains your previous academic difficulty and why that shouldn’t be a concern, plus a wise application strategy that places you in the best positions possible to explain your situation. It’s by no means going to be easy, but there’s a chance it could work out.</p>