So, I am just beginning the path to pre-health after a long road to clarity. I want to become an amazing endocrinologist, specifically pediatrics, as I've had Hashimoto's Thyroiditis my entire life. I've struggled with depression, health problems, and am very much a late-bloomer. I wasn't even ready for high school when I was going through it, but somehow managed to graduate with a 2.85 (3.8 my senior year) and go off to college without ever really learning how to study.
Anyhoo... I attended my undergraduate degree off and on between 2000 and 2007. I managed to get down to a 1.3 my sophomore year and am really not sure why I never thought to myself, "Meow, you need to take a break. You're ruining your academic career." but that never occurred. Sadly. I finished, after several C's, a few D's, and a couple of F's, with a 2.1 GPA. Shortly after graduating, I was unable to find employment (the economy had tanked) so I attempted to work on a second bachelors at a local college outside of my alma mater. I took 4 classes and bombed that experience, sadly, and was dismissed from the school after 2 semesters. I attribute some of my struggles to something very traumatic happening prior to the start of the semester, but still own that I screwed up. I should have never registered for school when I did, but was desperate due to the employment struggles.
After being dismissed, I transferred to a community college and completed two years there. First year I studied graphic design, but realized that I preferred the coding aspect of design, so I moved to Web Programming. I really started to learn self-discipline and get better at studying during my time there. I completed the 2 year Web degree within a year, if that says something. I transferred to my original college and took some coursework, using my Web degree, toward an Information Systems degree, but eventually left due to money availability. That was in 2012. I worked for a year and eventually was hired for the same university. A benefit we get is some tuition waiver credit toward 3 courses a year, so I took a couple of graduate level classes in Information Technology and finished them both with a 4.0. I then took the GRE and applied and was accepted. I am 4 courses away from completing this degree and have a 3.62 GPA due to a couple of B's. I'm still ill about ruining my 4.0 GPA.
I realize though that this is now where my passion lies. My passion has always been health and medicine, clinging to science and anything related to the medical field from as early as I can remember. My mom is/was a nurse, so I learned a good deal from her, as well as what I could pick up from her medical and nursing texts we had around the house. Life Sciences and Biology were all rather strong subjects for me growing up. My health issues keeping me on my toes all this time has turned be into a walking encyclopedia on anything related to what I've read about and learned about my condition and other possibilities. I believe that while there has been great progress in the field since I was born, a lot is still misunderstood about how endocrine disorders affect children. Especially when these disorders are congenital. I want to help research and learn more about how the systems interact, find areas that haven't been explored yet, and try to bring more understanding and happiness to the lives of the patients that have to live with these issues for the rest of their lives. I've been trying to find my place in teh world since I began college, but never found what fit. I changed my major a lot, struggled with motivation and in persevering. I was very self-destructive. Any thought of ever pursuing medicine, which was an early goal until I really lost my self-esteem and crashed to the 1.3, was laughed off as a pipe dream. A joke.
I am very intelligent and I'm more than prepared to tackle the pre-medicine requirements and kick butt. However, due to my bad undergraduate GPA, I am a bit at a loss as to where my next steps should be. I will meet with the pre-health adviser at my university tomorrow to discuss what options she might have available, but I know that I have a long road however I go about it. Email discussions with the student office in charge for grade replacement and forgiveness basically told me I'm screwed. Since I've graduated, grade forgiveness or replacement is not an option. I was rebuffed away also because I'm in graduate school. I had 162 GPA hours in my undergraduate from pre-graduate and from the classes I did post-bac. I would have to maintain a 4.0 GPA for at least 128 hours to get my GPA to a 3.0 at this school, which is more than another degree. That's 3 times the pre-reqs for medical school. Given my history, should I really just scratch my dream of medicine and give up due to how much damage I've incurred along my journey? I need to retake Calc 1, as that was one of my F's (WF, dropped too late), which if replaced (if the dang school would allow it) would bring my GPA to almost a 2.3. Should I look at attending another school and doing 4.0 quality work there? I more or less need all the science requirements and maths needed to apply and prepare for the MCAT, so there's room to show I'm capable. Due to limited finances and since I'm employed full-time, I'm really trying to be realistic as I can, but the dream is big. If this possible, what would be the most beneficial path to doing what I need to get the shadow of my past to fade a bit? Another bachelors entirely? I'd have to fund it completely out of pocket and already have a fair bit of student debt from the previous trainwreck of an education. If I do with my tuition waiver, that's 3 courses a year. I'm already almost 33, so I need to get moving. I'm planning to finish my masters because I'm almost done. I went for this program to have a renewed GPA for whatever I decided to do after. Unfortunately, med schools aren't going to care too much about my aptitude for computers. I don't want to work with them for the rest of my life. I want to help people in a real way.
I look forward to whatever feedback you all can give me. I'm open to alternatives that would also allow me explore the field and hopefully help making changes. I'm open-minded. Hopefully, I don't come across a whining nut-bag. I realize the mess I've gotten myself into and own my past mistakes. I just need some clear-headed feedback on how I can maybe dig my way out of this hole I've dug myself into. Thanks for your time.
