Advice for a fledgling Premeder

[judiciousjim]

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Hey guys, I'm Jim and I'm new to these forums:

I have decided to do premed and would like any piece of advice you guys can give me. I know it is an arduous journey and hope you guys can help me on this journey. I will greatly appreciate it!!!

btw, I'm a rising sophomore and my GPA is not that great (3.425) and I recently got a C in second semester biology. Is it possible for me to increase my GPA to be competitive for medical school?

Also, I would like any tips you guys can give on preparing for the MCAT. I don't really want to spend 1600 bucks on a prep course...are there good alternative ways of preparing?

Thanks and I look forward to meeting you guys!!!

Jim

 

[zimmie256]

Hey guys, I'm Jim and I'm new to these forums:

I have decided to do premed and would like any piece of advice you guys can give me. I know it is an arduous journey and hope you guys can help me on this journey. I will greatly appreciate it!!!

btw, I'm a rising sophomore and my GPA is not that great (3.425) and I recently got a C in second semester biology. Is it possible for me to increase my GPA to be competitive for medical school?

Also, I would like any tips you guys can give on preparing for the MCAT. I don't really want to spend 1600 bucks on a prep course...are there good alternative ways of preparing?

Thanks and I look forward to meeting you guys!!!

Jim

Hi Jim, welcome aboard. I'd advise you to look through some of the threads that have already been posted about coursework/MCAT/improving applications etc. There's a ton of information already here. Also, if you can make any questions you have about med school or applying etc. more specific, you'll probably have better luck getting helpful replies.

As for prep courses, there are many threads on this as well. My personal opinion is that if you are very strong in the subjects that are tested it's easier to get away without taking a prep course, particularly if you're disciplined enough to start studying early. I found that my prep course saved me a lot of time by helping me focus my time and efforts on high yield areas and avoid the details. So while it cost me some cash, it was well worth it in terms of time saved.

Good luck to you!

 

[Bluntman]

Hey guys, I'm Jim and I'm new to these forums:

I have decided to do premed and would like any piece of advice you guys can give me. I know it is an arduous journey and hope you guys can help me on this journey. I will greatly appreciate it!!!

btw, I'm a rising sophomore and my GPA is not that great (3.425) and I recently got a C in second semester biology. Is it possible for me to increase my GPA to be competitive for medical school?

Also, I would like any tips you guys can give on preparing for the MCAT. I don't really want to spend 1600 bucks on a prep course...are there good alternative ways of preparing?

Thanks and I look forward to meeting you guys!!!

Jim

Your GPA already is competitive. But yes it certainly is possible to increase it...just get better grades! lol As for the C, nobody will even notice it.

I'd suck it up and pay the $1600 for the prep course. It certainly couldn't hurt, and if it has the slightest chance of helping, then that $1600 will definitely be worth it. After all, you're gonna have a huge amount of debt from med school anyway, so what's another 1.5k?

As far as other advice...explore the forums cause there is a TON already on here. Then come back and ask us specific questions you have.

 

[judiciousjim]

Thanks guys for the help!!!!

 

[NonTradMed]

Your GPA is ok, but you may want to pick it up a bit. Don't worry about the C. It's not specific grades so much as the overall science GPA that counts. If you don't want to shell out money for Kaplan, then you need to instill in yourself the self discipline to sit down and study on your own and take your own practice exams. Can you do that? Many cannot, and need the Kaplan classes to keep them from slacking off.

 

[Flopotomist]

The GPA is within range - but if you can make it a bit better - go for it. Theone piece of advice I would give is to get DEPTH in an EC - something that will make you stand out and be interesting. When adcoms look at one billion applicants, they don't sit around and say "hey, remember that guy that shadowed a doc for a few months?" but they COULD say "hey, remember that guy that was a state-champion unicyclist?"

Good luck.