Can I recover from this?

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lildog

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I need some advice. I just finished up my sophomore year of college and currently have a 2.97 gpa. My freshman year I had health problems which are slowly getting better and somewhat are the cause of my bad grades as well as not having any motivation due to depression which is being treated and I'm now very motivated. I started off this semester badly and did much better with my improving physical and mental health at the end of the semester but it couldn't save me.

My freshman year I got a c- in calc 2, a d- in general chem and b-'s/b's/b+s/a-s in everything else. I just got a c- in my retake of chem (I know I'm really stupid) and a c in genetics which is really difficult at my school and about half the class usually fails so even though it's a bad grade a prereq I'm okay with it. My other two classes this semester I recess A-s.

My school only has one semester of general chem so I was going to have to retake general chem I and II at a community college anyway for vet school (I've been told this by two schools) but retaking it three times will look so bad. From now on for my degree I'm taking classes I know I can get as in especially if I work as hard as I'm intending to. But I'm worried the chem and retake will screw me over. I was was already planning on applying a couple years after I graduate but will I need to do a postbac/a masters in a science now to prove myself?

I think I can still get a 3.3-3.4 if I work my butt off. I'm planning on taking the general chem sequence at a community college this summer and will work really hard to get as. I'm going to take organic chem after I graduate and possibly physics too. My school is known for being grade deflationary but I don't think that means anything in the process and even at another school I don't think I'd have gotten as in chem with the effort I put in. But should I start planning for even more classes than organic and physics after college to save my gpa or if I get pretty much all As from now on will that not be necessary? I know no one here is in admissions and can't say for sure but I'm looking more for advice from personal experience.

In short I have as and bs except for calculus II with a C-, general chem with a D- and C-, and genetics with a C. I have a B+ in intro bio and a 5 on that ap test since it's only one semester and an A in my other science class I've taken. The rest of my classes were general requirements or social sciences/humanities.

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Well, if you can get up to a 3.3-3.4, then you're in the range that many/most vet schools will accept. Certainly not the top end of the range, but still in the range. So at that point it becomes a matter of how well you write your application, what your references say about you, how much experience you have, what your community service/activities/involvement look like, etc. But the very short answer is that yes, if you can get to 3.3-3.4, you have a chance to be competitive.

You're fortunate in that you have more than 45 credits left to go. There are a number of schools that use (among other GPAs) a 'most recent credits' GPA. If that's a 4.0 you've gone a long ways toward restoring your competitiveness.

And yes, there is a chance you'll have to do more work to 'prove' yourself. What else would you expect? It's up to you to make yourself competitive; it's not the job of the school to gamble on someone. But if you're only halfway through ... you've got time to make changes and fix it. You may find that whereas some people are applying next cycle and whatnot it may take you an extra year while you finish up and get your GPA up. But big deal....

Good luck!! Don't give up hope; you can still do it.
 
Please don't say you're stupid. Lots of us have gotten C's in some course or other and have retaken classes. Try to think of that as determination to succeed, not something that looks bad.

You're going to have to work very hard, but we all do. You have plenty of time to pull your GPA up, don't throw in the towel now.

P.S. My cumulative GPA was 2.97. I just finished my first semester of vet school. You can do it!
 
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Thanks y'all for your support and encouragement! I was saying I'm dumb mostly for retaking a class and doing poorly in it again when you're supposed to get a really good grade when you retake. My chem prof didn't think I should retake it so soon but my school made it so my only option was to retake it right away since they changed the curriculum and are only letting freshmen into general chem classes now.mom definitely going to keep working hard and I guess I'll ask back in a few years if I should do a science masters to help out!
 
you can recover, but you really need to start doing well from here on because the more credits you stack onto your GPA, the harder it becomes to change that GPA. its amazing how it can become so difficult to budge a GPA in any direction once you're in deep. for example, i'm 106 credits into vet school at the moment. much to my surprise and amusement, my individual GPA from this fall did not change my overall GPA at all. when a grade was entered in wrong and i received less points for it, it brought my GPA down by 0.01 points. crazy!!
 
I agree with what's been said above (also that you're not stupid)! Make sure that the schools you're applying to accept credits from community college because I ran into issues with that despite the fact that my pre-health advisers told me it would be okay and now I am taking those courses at different, 4-year colleges at the behest of some of the places I applied this year. I think you have a good plan and you know you want to work hard so that should help. It stinks that a lot of schools view you as just a number (and stinks more that they don't take into account how hard or grade-deflationary your school might be compared to other schools... it always seems unfair especially if you feel strongly that the courses you took were harder than courses at a lot of other schools) but definitely make a point on your application that you were having health issues. VMCAS and many supplemental apps give you the opportunity to talk about things like that which negatively affected your academic performance, and schools like Illinois even give you the option to petition to delete bad grades if you give a satisfactory explanation for why there were bad. And also if you started out with lower grades and then get better grades the next three years you have a pretty solid argument for saying that it had to do with whatever was going on freshman year and now you're better and can do the work well. And also don't be nervous because you clearly have a good plan going forward and know what you want, and I think a lot of us are not necessarily applying with 3.9 GPAs. Good luck!!
 
I would be absolutely certain that you've got your health issues under control before proceeding with your pre-reqs since you haven't had a full "healthy" semester yet. You'll want to be able to show schools there is a big difference between your semesters with health problems and your "healthy" semesters so they can feel confident that poor grades really only were due to health. (Like this semester, you've got a mixed bag of grades - they may wonder why you can get As in some courses but get Cs in others.) If you haven't got them addressed, I would suggest taking time off or at least delaying your pre-reqs until you do. (It sounds like you have everything under control now, so if that's the case, please ignore!) That way, when you take your pre-reqs you have the best chance to do well in them.

I'm not sure how schools would view switching to CC just for pre-reqs when the rest of your courses were at a four year university (and you don't have an appreciable gap between graduating and taking pre-reqs). Maybe someone with CC experience can give their perspective on that.

It's completely do-able to bring your GPA up with hard work and dedication. Good luck :luck:
 
I took some pre-reqs at a community college during my senior year of high school. I also took the second half of physics there during the summer to save myself time/money. I haven't come across any problems; I've already been accepted to Michigan and invited to interview at Ohio State.
 
I took some pre-reqs at a community college during my senior year of high school. I also took the second half of physics there during the summer to save myself time/money. I haven't come across any problems; I've already been accepted to Michigan and invited to interview at Ohio State.

My question is more in regard to having all of her other credits at a four year university and her pre-reqs at a CC. I think CC courses aren't a problem on their own :)
 
I would be absolutely certain that you've got your health issues under control before proceeding with your pre-reqs since you haven't had a full "healthy" semester yet. You'll want to be able to show schools there is a big difference between your semesters with health problems and your "healthy" semesters so they can feel confident that poor grades really only were due to health. (Like this semester, you've got a mixed bag of grades - they may wonder why you can get As in some courses but get Cs in others.) If you haven't got them addressed, I would suggest taking time off or at least delaying your pre-reqs until you do. (It sounds like you have everything under control now, so if that's the case, please ignore!) That way, when you take your pre-reqs you have the best chance to do well in them.

I'm not sure how schools would view switching to CC just for pre-reqs when the rest of your courses were at a four year university (and you don't have an appreciable gap between graduating and taking pre-reqs). Maybe someone with CC experience can give their perspective on that.

It's completely do-able to bring your GPA up with hard work and dedication. Good luck :luck:

Thanks for your advice! I'm not taking any prereqs next semester (just a plant biology class and three classes for my anthro major) and next year I'll be taking microbiology and animal physiology at my school and statistics too and my health condition is chronic but I'm hoping that since my new meds already are working pretty well I'll be pretty much completely better then. I won't be taking physics and organic and biochem until at least the summer after my junior year, senior year, or graduation. I know it sounds bad but the reason I did well in two classes was since they're super easy; a class where you write two papers in a semester and have your grade based on that is a lot easier to do well in when you're sick than ones you're expected to study 14 hours a week for and have tests every other week! I was also worried if the vet schools would ask that when I explained the situation because it does look weird so I'll have to think of a better way to explain it than saying they're easy classes haha.

I will ask the schools about that then! The reason I was taking another gen chem semester at a cc is since my school only has one semester and I don't want to pay tons of money to take a class I've already taken (our gen chem is two semesters condensed into one but you still need two for the prereqs) and I know davis suggested it rather than taking it at an expensive four year but I'll check with other schools about I am thinking of applying to too! I'd only be taking organic and physics 1-2 years after graduating (although I might take organic my summer after junior year and it would be at a four year so I could take biochem at my school). I was originally planning on taking them at a four year during the summers so I could still graduate with a bs in bio but I think I'm just going for a ba now so I can take them whenever and was thinking if I'm working after graduation a cc would be more flexible (also cheaper) since they have night classes. But I'll ask the schools what they think now!
 
I need some advice. I just finished up my sophomore year of college and currently have a 2.97 gpa. My freshman year I had health problems which are slowly getting better and somewhat are the cause of my bad grades as well as not having any motivation due to depression which is being treated and I'm now very motivated. I started off this semester badly and did much better with my improving physical and mental health at the end of the semester but it couldn't save me.

My freshman year I got a c- in calc 2, a d- in general chem and b-'s/b's/b+s/a-s in everything else. I just got a c- in my retake of chem (I know I'm really stupid) and a c in genetics which is really difficult at my school and about half the class usually fails so even though it's a bad grade a prereq I'm okay with it. My other two classes this semester I recess A-s.

My school only has one semester of general chem so I was going to have to retake general chem I and II at a community college anyway for vet school (I've been told this by two schools) but retaking it three times will look so bad. From now on for my degree I'm taking classes I know I can get as in especially if I work as hard as I'm intending to. But I'm worried the chem and retake will screw me over. I was was already planning on applying a couple years after I graduate but will I need to do a postbac/a masters in a science now to prove myself?

I think I can still get a 3.3-3.4 if I work my butt off. I'm planning on taking the general chem sequence at a community college this summer and will work really hard to get as. I'm going to take organic chem after I graduate and possibly physics too. My school is known for being grade deflationary but I don't think that means anything in the process and even at another school I don't think I'd have gotten as in chem with the effort I put in. But should I start planning for even more classes than organic and physics after college to save my gpa or if I get pretty much all As from now on will that not be necessary? I know no one here is in admissions and can't say for sure but I'm looking more for advice from personal experience.

In short I have as and bs except for calculus II with a C-, general chem with a D- and C-, and genetics with a C. I have a B+ in intro bio and a 5 on that ap test since it's only one semester and an A in my other science class I've taken. The rest of my classes were general requirements or social sciences/humanities.
Hi,
I just applied this summer with only a overall 2.79 GPA....My grades from 10 years ago hurt me...and a 2.9 last 45 (Got a D+ in 1 class) The thing That I think caught their eye was the fact I have to work full time while taking 17 credits my science GPA ranged from 2.6 (grades 10 years ago included)-3.5 depending on the school. I have tons of life experience though including a learning disability. I have tons of vet experience, volunteer work, animals and not and did research in Costa Rica. I have a horse and ride as a past time. I also did not score well on the GRE. I have a B.A. in Business Admin and am 34. There is still hope for you! I am not going to lie a lot of schools didn't look at my full application. I got an interview at LMU which I am really excited about. Not every school looks only at grades. I will say My lower grades were in non-science classes but my higher grades are in the upper division science classes(A's and B's) I got a C in the first gen chem after returning to school after 10 years but most of my pre-reqs are B and A's. That C really brought my GPA down. Do well and do something that makes you stand out from the rest in your experience. Get good recommendations! I hope that helps. It takes a lot of work there were many semesters I had to volunteer to get experience and work full time as well. Just show them somehow you can handle the academic rigor. If you got a low grade in 1 science take a higher one and get an A. Sounds like you do have to take gen chem again though. I hope this was help! Keep Positive and that will get you far!
 
Don't call yourself stupid! I just finished my first semester of college with a 2.94, with an A, an AB, and 2 C's. I am confident that I can boost my grades and you should be confident in yourself! I agree, if your later credits are really good you should be fine. Good luck!
 
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