Foreign Languages

[JsPham]

Hey.

I know this is a pretty standard and annoying post but I'm human and hearing things from other people in reply to my own questioning will help me sleep at night.

I've taken two semesters of Korean. I'm going to add in that I did not notably work as hard as I could have in this class. That said, I had a C two semesters in a row. These 5 credit C's have done some harm on my GPA but I really, really enjoy Korean and hope to do Study Abroad once the next two summers have loaded up my bank account. (I work full-time during summers.)

This would not be a problem except for the simple fact that I have a quite a few B's from the long-warned-don't-slack-be-good-you'll-regret-it freshmen year.

This puts my current GPA under 3.0 and that will not cut it at all for a Med School.

Long story short I know that my B-average of pure humanities won't hold me back from getting my Cum GPA up and being a rock star in the sciences when I start them next year. What I am wondering is if I continue to take foreign languages and score C's or B's and potentially hold my GPA back greatly will it ruin my chances or will Med schools be reasonable?

Should I quit my foreign languages and give up hopes of Study Abroad? (I should note the program requires me to have four semesters at least of the language.)

One thing I thought about was taking it as an "audit" but then if I recall it wouldn't show up on my transcript or count for credit etc. That's likely a school specific subject I'll need to meet with my advisers about.

And BWUH, scatter brained here but I was engaged in collegiate research prior to even entering school in the fall, I am in Band, want to study abroad, and I am continuing to get things added to my resume. Any recommendations?

;]

Have a great day and thank you for reading the wall-o-text.

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[Pons Asinorum]

I don't see why it's a foregone conclusion that you can't make A's in those language classes, seeing as you admit you didn't try/perform your best. Why can't you achieve all of those things by just doing what you have to do to make A's? If you want to be an MD/DO, those 200/300 level Korean classes are not going to be the most difficult thing you have to surmount. You're going to scare off some adcomms if you can't prove that you're up to the task.

 

[JsPham]

I don't see why it's a foregone conclusion that you can't make A's in those language classes, seeing as you admit you didn't try/perform your best. Why can't you achieve all of those things by just doing what you have to do to make A's? If you want to be an MD/DO, those 200/300 level Korean classes are not going to be the most difficult thing you have to surmount. You're going to scare off some adcomms if you can't prove that you're up to the task.

Yeah, that is very true. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I should also only work in the summer if I am serious about this, least highly reduced school year hours. I worked probably too much and just didn't have the balancing skills yet. I also got dragged into a little computer game called League of Legends by my roommates granted it wasn't their fault but a lesson in self-control I learned through that experience. (I had to mature in some aspects and I've reached a pretty good spot compared to my room mates... they're dropping out officially with their 0 GPA's.)

I guess I'm mainly worried about remembering a very complicated language and all those terms from my Bio classes. I'm feeling like it'd be a big challenge, but I suppose if I make it that just speaks for my character.

Thank you for your time in replying to my thread by the way. ^.^

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Yeah, that is very true. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I should also only work in the summer if I am serious about this, least highly reduced school year hours. I worked probably too much and just didn't have the balancing skills yet. I also got dragged into a little computer game called League of Legends by my roommates granted it wasn't their fault but a lesson in self-control I learned through that experience. (I had to mature in some aspects and I've reached a pretty good spot compared to my room mates... they're dropping out officially with their 0 GPA's.)

I guess I'm mainly worried about remembering a very complicated language and all those terms from my Bio classes. I'm feeling like it'd be a big challenge, but I suppose if I make it that just speaks for my character.

Thank you for your time in replying to my thread by the way. ^.^

You already said that you were taking classes in Korean. You didn't have to say you play computer games. Redundant things are redundant

 

[JsPham]

You already said that you were taking classes in Korean. You didn't have to say you play computer games. Redundant things are redundant

xD I will not lie in saying I literally spat up my water as I read that. Good times man. My best friend growing up (and still) was Korean and I'm a Viet... our brothers and us played Starcraft and all those games till our fingers fell off. (Wow, we really did well for those stereotypes...) But those were the days of easy A's I suppose, got to man up now. Took college to hit me in the face with "your work isn't A quality" for that realization.

 

[Catalystik]

What I am wondering is if I continue to take foreign languages and score C's or B's and potentially hold my GPA back greatly will it ruin my chances or will Med schools be reasonable?

I would not expect adcomms to "be reasonable" and tolerate mediocre grades, if I were you. Start showing academic excellence.

 

[JsPham]

I would not expect adcomms to "be reasonable" and tolerate mediocre grades, if I were you. Start showing academic excellence.

I suppose so. How is one to handle the stress of being a physician if they can't handle an undergrad with stunning performance... I think I should get rid of all the distractions I can.

Thank you for your reply/time.

 

[Goro]

It's not the collection of Cs on your transcript that's going to hurt you, it the numbers. If you continue to accrue them, then you'll need more and more As in the science courses to counteract them. Keep in mind that it's not called "autoscreening" for nothing and anything below a 3.4 is pretty much a death sentence for any hope for an MD degree. You may be fine for DO programs, but if you're hovering around a 3.0, your chances are a LOT less than if it were a 3.3.

I see evidence of poor choice making in your post here. Yeah, you like the subject, but why on earth are you taking coursework that you know is problematic? This is time to start protecting your GPA, not hurting it.

Hey.

I know this is a pretty standard and annoying post but I'm human and hearing things from other people in reply to my own questioning will help me sleep at night.

I've taken two semesters of Korean. I'm going to add in that I did not notably work as hard as I could have in this class. That said, I had a C two semesters in a row. These 5 credit C's have done some harm on my GPA but I really, really enjoy Korean and hope to do Study Abroad once the next two summers have loaded up my bank account. (I work full-time during summers.)

This would not be a problem except for the simple fact that I have a quite a few B's from the long-warned-don't-slack-be-good-you'll-regret-it freshmen year.

This puts my current GPA under 3.0 and that will not cut it at all for a Med School.

Long story short I know that my B-average of pure humanities won't hold me back from getting my Cum GPA up and being a rock star in the sciences when I start them next year. What I am wondering is if I continue to take foreign languages and score C's or B's and potentially hold my GPA back greatly will it ruin my chances or will Med schools be reasonable?

Should I quit my foreign languages and give up hopes of Study Abroad? (I should note the program requires me to have four semesters at least of the language.)

One thing I thought about was taking it as an "audit" but then if I recall it wouldn't show up on my transcript or count for credit etc. That's likely a school specific subject I'll need to meet with my advisers about.

And BWUH, scatter brained here but I was engaged in collegiate research prior to even entering school in the fall, I am in Band, want to study abroad, and I am continuing to get things added to my resume. Any recommendations?

;]

Have a great day and thank you for reading the wall-o-text.

 

[JsPham]

It's not the collection of Cs on your transcript that's going to hurt you, it the numbers. If you continue to accrue them, then you'll need more and more As in the science courses to counteract them. Keep in mind that it's not called "autoscreening" for nothing and anything below a 3.4 is pretty much a death sentence for any hope for an MD degree. You may be fine for DO programs, but if you're hovering around a 3.0, your chances are a LOT less than if it were a 3.3.

I see evidence of poor choice making in your post here. Yeah, you like the subject, but why on earth are you taking coursework that you know is problematic? This is time to start protecting your GPA, not hurting it.

That is a valid point. I wanted to do Study Abroad though so that puts me in a predicament. (I've only had one C it's just that it was in a five credit course is the main issue... otherwise I'd have hopefully had a 3.0 easily first semester. Second semester I am severely gimping my grades in my calculations. I have 97-100% on almost every exam in every class... though I am losing points on a few homework assignments but that's not much. ~5% which my EC should help with. I should pull A's but because I like to calculate for the worst I set those to B's.)