Hey guys,
I'm new to SDN and was wondering if you could address a couple of questions for me. I would really appreciate it.
So, I'm a freshman at Duke (actually just got done with freshman year) and I have had some pretty disastrous science grades as of this early stage in the med school application process. Frankly, I don't even have any legitimate excuses for doing badly. I was just complacent and lazy, and I know that has to change. I am also very reluctant to ask for help, which again is a concern that I seek to address.
So lets get down to it. As of now I have a 3.0 freshman GPA (with two classes still to be counted both of which I should have done pretty well in).
So my first semester was about average or slightly below (I was told it was average by my dean). I had a 3.175 with a C+ in Calc 1 (took it in spite of having math credit, and I kinda regret that) and a B in general chem. I also had A minuses in a mandatory writing class, and a political science class.
Second semester, I got an A in my foreign language class, and my Biology seminar and evolutionary anthropology class are still being graded (I am cautiously optimistic). However, the BIG problem is my D+ in orgo 1. I just did not apply myself at all. Having done a non trivial amount of orgo in high school (I didn't do particularly well then either but it was not a significant portion of my chem grade) I thought I would be able to just breeze through the class, and I even did pretty well on the 1st test. Unfortunately, it all went south from there. I tried to withdraw but it was past the deadline. I am retaking the class this semester and am shooting for an A (will try to make optimum use of the resources at my disposal) but I am just really worried that having these poor freshman grades on my transcript is going to be very very detrimental to my application. To compound matters, I am an international (although I will manage to procure the money to attend med school from my home country) and I am told that that makes it significantly harder to be admitted to med school. If I do well when I retake orgo this semester, do you think that will go a long way in mitigating the damage that this grade has caused? Will med schools view it as a mere anomaly if I start to really hit the books and do well? Its not like I cant comprehend the matter, I am pretty good at grasping concepts (2350 SAT without studying, I'm not boasting just putting things in perspective), the problems arise because I am inordinately lazy! I am doing my best to remedy my shortcomings and rectify the situation, but I would really appreciate some advice, or even just some moral support.
Thanks so much.
I'm new to SDN and was wondering if you could address a couple of questions for me. I would really appreciate it.
So, I'm a freshman at Duke (actually just got done with freshman year) and I have had some pretty disastrous science grades as of this early stage in the med school application process. Frankly, I don't even have any legitimate excuses for doing badly. I was just complacent and lazy, and I know that has to change. I am also very reluctant to ask for help, which again is a concern that I seek to address.
So lets get down to it. As of now I have a 3.0 freshman GPA (with two classes still to be counted both of which I should have done pretty well in).
So my first semester was about average or slightly below (I was told it was average by my dean). I had a 3.175 with a C+ in Calc 1 (took it in spite of having math credit, and I kinda regret that) and a B in general chem. I also had A minuses in a mandatory writing class, and a political science class.
Second semester, I got an A in my foreign language class, and my Biology seminar and evolutionary anthropology class are still being graded (I am cautiously optimistic). However, the BIG problem is my D+ in orgo 1. I just did not apply myself at all. Having done a non trivial amount of orgo in high school (I didn't do particularly well then either but it was not a significant portion of my chem grade) I thought I would be able to just breeze through the class, and I even did pretty well on the 1st test. Unfortunately, it all went south from there. I tried to withdraw but it was past the deadline. I am retaking the class this semester and am shooting for an A (will try to make optimum use of the resources at my disposal) but I am just really worried that having these poor freshman grades on my transcript is going to be very very detrimental to my application. To compound matters, I am an international (although I will manage to procure the money to attend med school from my home country) and I am told that that makes it significantly harder to be admitted to med school. If I do well when I retake orgo this semester, do you think that will go a long way in mitigating the damage that this grade has caused? Will med schools view it as a mere anomaly if I start to really hit the books and do well? Its not like I cant comprehend the matter, I am pretty good at grasping concepts (2350 SAT without studying, I'm not boasting just putting things in perspective), the problems arise because I am inordinately lazy! I am doing my best to remedy my shortcomings and rectify the situation, but I would really appreciate some advice, or even just some moral support.
Thanks so much.
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