Upward trend after a bad first year?

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seizethedaisies

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I'm currently in my first semester of my second year at a large state university.
Last year I was not focused nor was I studying as hard as I should have been. I'm not even going to make any excuses, because it was all my fault. I was lazy and refused to put in the amount of work that needed to be done. I had become the ultimate procrastinator. It didn't help having 2 8-credit "intensive" language courses that were graded Pass/Fail, so they don't affect my GPA at all, even though I passed both.
My procrastination and lack of studying and study skills landed me C's in both intro bio courses, which tanked my GPA.

However, in the summer I received A's in both intro chemistry courses.
My current overall GPA is 3.306, and my BCPM GPA is 3.085.

This semester I'm taking organic chemistry and physics as well as language and an art (required by my school). If I maintain As and Bs (hoping for a B or B+ in orgo) would this upward trend be seen by medical schools? If the semester pans out how I think/hope it will, my GPA would be 3.40 and BCPM GPA would be 3.206.


Is this a horrible situation to be in?
Should I retake those C's even though I plan on applying only MD if possible?

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you're going to need better than a B or B+ in orgo if you already bombed bio
 
You can plan to apply only md, but if your sgpa winds up staying around 3.2 then DO with grade replacement would be a much more feasible option.

But to answer your question, A's yes, B's no. You already got A's in gen chem so straight B's would be downward
 
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Shoot for A's, always...B's don't cut it when you need an upward trend.

Try to make both GPAs over a 3.5. You can bring your science GPA up to that level if you take a bunch of upper-level science courses.

I was in a similar situation, and had to commit myself mind, body and soul to making all A's. I wasn't sure I could do it at first, but it's amazing what we can do when it's our main focus.

Interviewers haven't seemed to care much about my early (significant) stumble - a couple of them have said outright that they couldn't care less. So you certainly haven't wrecked your chances, as long as you can bring up both GPAs.
 
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like the million other threads, there is still a chance. it is almost always directly proportional to the amount of work you put in (barring situations outside of your control which are slim to none and barring "natural" intelligence)

basically, just continue to work hard and shoot for a 4.0... seriously shoot for it. don't just tell yourself you'll never be able to get one so you never try hard enough to get one.
 
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