How bad is a BC in O Chem going to look?

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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drmfslt

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I have been stressing about my grades from last semester and am looking for some advice. I got a BC in both O Chem 1 and in Genetics. My overall GPA is a 3.3. I am in my second semester of sophomore year right now. My school is known for having a tough science program, but I feel like that is true for a lot of people so I don't think vet schools would really take that into consideration. Everyone says that if I can get my grades higher later on in college it will look better, but my grades haven't improved much at all! I don't know what to do or how to get higher grades :(
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Don't sweat it. Keep doing well in everything else.
 
Ok, the usual spiel that we repeat 4523532623 times because people ask this all the time...

1. Use the search function... top right corner of the page. You can find lots of answers this way.

2. One or two C's will not kill your chances of vet school. If you are feeling like you are struggling and can't get your grades up, then you need to seek help. Tutors, professor's office hours, etc, find some help. Evaluate your study methods.

That about covers it.
 
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Not that condemning after all...I actually got a 2.5 in both of my Ochems. Saying that though, I aced biochem, genetics, and all the rest of my bio courses. So it's not all that different from what everyone else said, and don't be afraid to retake courses too.
 
DVMDream said:
Ok, the usual spiel that we repeat 4523532623 times because people ask this all the time...

1. Use the search function... top right corner of the page. You can find lots of answers this way.

2. One or two C's will not kill your chances of vet school. If you are feeling like you are struggling and can't get your grades up, then you need to seek help. Tutors, professor's office hours, etc, find some help. Evaluate your study methods.

That about covers it.
Click to expand...

I know many people ask this question but I was curious if anyone had thoughts about my overall GPA too, not just the O Chem grade
 
drmfslt said:
I have been stressing about my grades from last semester and am looking for some advice. I got a BC in both O Chem 1 and in Genetics. My overall GPA is a 3.3. I am in my second semester of sophomore year right now. My school is known for having a tough science program, but I feel like that is true for a lot of people so I don't think vet schools would really take that into consideration. Everyone says that if I can get my grades higher later on in college it will look better, but my grades haven't improved much at all! I don't know what to do or how to get higher grades :(
Click to expand...
Yeah....all science programs are "tough."

If anything, a 3.3 is on the lower end but certainly not bad. Have high grades during any point will look good. Upper level science courses tend to be a part of your last 45 credit hours, and doing well in those classes can only help you (both for cumulative GPA and last 45).

No one can tell you what you need to do to get higher grades. That's up for you to figure out. For me, it was actually loading more things onto my plate that helped me improve. I knew that the hour gap between classes was the only time I had for homework/study, so I was really focused on it. Some people need to cut down hours at work. Others need a tutor. I also sought out tutoring a few times, but was never really comfortable with it.

I'll share my experience: I have a few BC's. Five, if you really want to count. All but one in pre-reqs of course. My overall GPA is a 3.6 and some change, so that tells you that I've done very well besides those five classes that were four credits each. Last year, I applied to five schools and was outright rejected by all. Only one school told me to repeat anything that I had less than a B in (so a 3.0/3.5). All told me to amp up my experience. So I did.

This cycle, I am 3/3 for interviews (ironically, the school that told me to repeat my courses right away interviewed me without me having repeated courses). While I don't have any acceptances yet, I'd say it goes to show you that while it is very important to do well in class, experience also counts for something. My GPA stayed about the same, yet those interview invites came.
 
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meh i had lots (?) of Cs on my transcript, and i'm about to graduate from vet school in 5 months. my gpa wasnt amazing, but i got in, and my academic record in vet school is substantially prettier. all you need is for one school to accept you. is it potentially harder if you aren't perfect? sure. is it impossible? definitely not :)
 
So once you figure out what physically needs to change (as pinkpuppy said everyone has to do on their own), then what I would work on is being confident that you know the material and confident in your abilities. Weird and probably not what you were expecting, I know haha. If you are putting the work in (which takes time to figure out how-but everyone has to figure out their own groove so you're not alone in that), then just be confident that you've done what you can. Personally, when I wasn't confident in my tests, I usually scored much worst than when I was even though 9 times out of 10 I knew the material. So what I did was study in ways that made me feel confident that I knew the material. This means different study habits for different people, but I did study groups and tons of repetition, repetition, repetition. I'm also someone who uses music to get in the zone, so I actually had a test playlist I would listen to before walking into a test to drown out everyone else's voices who were nervous about the test (many of my classes wouldn't let you into the room before the test started so everyone would just congregate outside and freak out before we were allowed in-a perfect storm for someone who got nervous before tests). This reply probably sounds like a self-help novel, but I can't even describe the difference it made. I hope this helps and good luck!

And to actually answer your question, a BC won't look that bad, or be the end of the world, so just keep pushing forward. It's easy to get thrown for a loop by one grade you didn't like, but just keep your head up and eyes forward.
 
I got a C and B in my orgos and I was so upset because I knew I could do better. I used that to motivate me to buckle down and work hard to get decent grades in all of my other pre-req classes and none of the schools I got into seemed to care--so don't worry!
 
I feel like I should rant about this crazy new grading system (a BC? What the hell?) .... but man, I'm so tired.
 
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LetItSnow said:
I feel like I should rant about this crazy new grading system (a BC? What the hell?) .... but man, I'm so tired.
Click to expand...
yeah I feel like every school has their own weird system. Some foreign schools (I'm sure US schools might do this as well) actually assign your percentage as your final score. Your final grade would be 88%, 99%, 45%, whatever. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

VMCAS forces you to put in your numerical grade as letters anyways. Apparently that is the preferred system?
 
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