8 years undergrad Advice!

[PsiquiatraDO]

Well to get right to the point, I was 16 years old when i got accepted into college very immature and without a single clue as to what to do with my life. I was raised by my grandmother and my great grandmother who didn't go to college so when the decision of choosing my I relied on an advisor which i regret deeply.

She basically told me that if I didn't have 200k that I shouldn't bother looking into medschool. Naive 16 year old me took her advice and enrolled in a 6 year computer engineering program.
My first year i did great All A's but fast forward 4 years I was miserable and highly unmotivated. Sitting in my Java class googled how to become a doctor and stumbled across a reddit post that explained everything. That same day I took the train and went to my nearest VA and signed up to be a volunteer. I stopped going to class and didn't even bothered dropping out I was really excited and motivated just beeing there that I completely forgot about dropping the classes a big mistake that will come to bite me in the ass anytime soon.

Between volunteering , shadowing and a lot of clinical experience and exposure I know that this is what I want to do. Now I'm moving with my parents to Florida to start a Psychology degree and a biology minor to fulfill the med school pre reqs.

This will mean that I'm going to be an 8 years long undergrad I've never heard of anyone taking this long,I have not taken any of the prerequisites and my gpa is around 3.30 i have Fs and W's due to me not caring enough all the F's Ive gotten i replaced them with A's since they were all due to me simply not attending class because I thought it was boring.

Im looking for general advice and just some support on to what i should be doing as of now.

Tl;dr : Screwed up by not knowing what to do in college and its gonna take me 8 years to get an undergrad degree.

Apologies for any grammar mistakes not a native speaker. Oh yeah sorry for the WoT.

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[PassThePropofol]

Well to get right to the point, I was 16 years old when i got accepted into college very immature and without a single clue as to what to do with my life. I was raised by my grandmother and my great grandmother who didn't go to college so when the decision of choosing my I relied on an advisor which i regret deeply.

She basically told me that if I didn't have 200k that I shouldn't bother looking into medschool. Naive 16 year old me took her advice and enrolled in a 6 year computer engineering program.
My first year i did great All A's but fast forward 4 years I was miserable and highly unmotivated. Sitting in my Java class googled how to become a doctor and stumbled across a reddit post that explained everything. That same day I took the train and went to my nearest VA and signed up to be a volunteer. I stopped going to class and didn't even bothered dropping out I was really excited and motivated just beeing there that I completely forgot about dropping the classes a big mistake that will come to bite me in the ass anytime soon.

Between volunteering , shadowing and a lot of clinical experience and exposure I know that this is what I want to do. Now I'm moving with my parents to Florida to start a Psychology degree and a biology minor to fulfill the med school pre reqs.

This will mean that I'm going to be an 8 years long undergrad I've never heard of anyone taking this long,I have not taken any of the prerequisites and my gpa is around 3.30 i have Fs and W's due to me not caring enough all the F's Ive gotten i replaced them with A's since they were all due to me simply not attending class because I thought it was boring.

Im looking for general advice and just some support on to what i should be doing as of now.

Tl;dr : Screwed up by not knowing what to do in college and its gonna take me 8 years to get an undergrad degree.

Apologies for any grammar mistakes not a native speaker. Oh yeah sorry for the WoT.

I took a long and winding road too. I went to college at 16 too! I feel the same about not having the right guidance but I probably didn't have the gumption back then to become a doc.

The only thing I can say is you have to push forward. Yeah, the F's and W's are not going to make your app shine but the 'new' you will hopefully be a nice contrast to the 'old' you.

No one can really say what your chances are. You haven't completed your degree yet. Get all A's and do really well on the MCAT. No one can argue with that. If this is your true desire you will work hard to be that new you.

I thought I'd never be accepted. I had many people try to steer me away but I wanted it so badly that I kept pushing forward. If you get sweaty thinking that if you don't get accepted you'll just crawl in a hole and there is nothing else you want to do with your life then you may be on the right track. You gotta really want it. If so 8 years will be nothing because you will have realized your dream. I wish it only took me 8 years to come to this. I have two degrees and a family. Took me a lot longer than that to finally apply. Don't sweat the time. It's not as bad as you think. What you need to sweat is getting good grades and a good MCAT score. Show them you've really changed.

 

[PsiquiatraDO]

I took a long and winding road too. I went to college at 16 too! I feel the same about not having the right guidance but I probably didn't have the gumption back then to become a doc.

The only thing I can say is you have to push forward. Yeah, the F's and W's are not going to make your app shine but the 'new' you will hopefully be a nice contrast to the 'old' you.

No one can really say what your chances are. You haven't completed your degree yet. Get all A's and do really well on the MCAT. No one can argue with that. If this is your true desire you will work hard to be that new you.

I thought I'd never be accepted. I had many people try to steer me away but I wanted it so badly that I kept pushing forward. If you get sweaty thinking that if you don't get accepted you'll just crawl in a hole and there is nothing else you want to do with your life then you may be on the right track. You gotta really want it. If so 8 years will be nothing because you will have realized your dream. I wish it only took me 8 years to come to this. I have two degrees and a family. Took me a lot longer than that to finally apply. Don't sweat the time. It's not as bad as you think. What you need to sweat is getting good grades and a good MCAT score. Show them you've really changed.

thank you a lot i appreciate your kind words.

 

[Eccesignum]

You sound a little like me. I started college strong (liberal arts) in 1998 and went off the focus rails about 3/4ths of the way in. Should have finished in 2002 but never did (I had a 2.71 cGPA, even lower than yours). Got an associate's later. In 2012 when I committed to medical school I went back and completely started over with a Biology degree, which I'll complete this semester.

So technically it's taken me 18 years to get a bachelor's. What's more, since I never got that original bachelor's, AMCAS considers all time from 2002 to 2016 as my senior year, hah. It looks very odd on paper. I was convinced in the beginning that nobody could possibly give me a chance with a history like that. But my grades in my "second" degree are very strong, I did well on the MCAT, and I was able to tell my life story in a coherent way that demonstrated a clear path to medicine. That was the key.

You will not be dead in the water just because it took you longer. You will be if you don't do well, and if you don't present yourself as someone who's learned from the past and grown into a mature adult who will be a strong physician. Ace your classes, whatever it takes. Work on polishing your English; you'll need it. Rock the MCAT. Keep your ECs as strong as possible. Reassess yourself frequently while on this long road, it's not easy.

Good luck to you.

 

[AnotherLawyer]

I'll just add that you should try to retroactively withdraw from college the semester you stopped going to class and got all F's. You will need a compelling reason. Perhaps you were suffering from depression or some other condition that you can get documented to support your request. It's by no means a sure thing, but why not try. I know people who have done it.

 

[RxStudentatUB]

You sound a little like me. I started college strong (liberal arts) in 1998 and went off the focus rails about 3/4ths of the way in. Should have finished in 2002 but never did (I had a 2.71 cGPA, even lower than yours). Got an associate's later. In 2012 when I committed to medical school I went back and completely started over with a Biology degree, which I'll complete this semester.

So technically it's taken me 18 years to get a bachelor's. What's more, since I never got that original bachelor's, AMCAS considers all time from 2002 to 2016 as my senior year, hah. It looks very odd on paper. I was convinced in the beginning that nobody could possibly give me a chance with a history like that. But my grades in my "second" degree are very strong, I did well on the MCAT, and I was able to tell my life story in a coherent way that demonstrated a clear path to medicine. That was the key.

You will not be dead in the water just because it took you longer. You will be if you don't do well, and if you don't present yourself as someone who's learned from the past and grown into a mature adult who will be a strong physician. Ace your classes, whatever it takes. Work on polishing your English; you'll need it. Rock the MCAT. Keep your ECs as strong as possible. Reassess yourself frequently while on this long road, it's not easy.

Good luck to you.

Dang now this is what you call commitment. Congrats!