I hope I am not repeating a thread. I didn't see something particularly similar to my question. Anyway...
I recently graduated, literally 2 days ago. My grades have come in and they are looking mediocre as usual. I had a VERY bad start to undergrad, 2.8. I had somewhat of an upward trend going and managed to get to 3.2 but with my senior year again I managed to sink back down to a 3.1. I have a pattern of doing well once then doing poorly the next. My science GPA should be about the same because I've only taken science courses basically.
I don't want to make excuses or explain why I did bad. In the end, my grades lie mostly on my mistakes and inability to handle things correctly. I had a lot of things going on with my family which I'm hoping I can finally get away from now that I'm graduated, and just have a somewhat of a fresh start.
I was wondering what your advice would be for the next step. I delayed my MCAT to this summer. I took a practice exam and got a 32 w/o much practice. Knowing myself I could probably bring that up to a 34/35 with some more practice and covering the topics I'm weak at.
I know it is pretty late for a lot of things but the reason I haven't applied to an SMP is bc I wasn't sure if mentally, the current me could handle it.
Other info that might help:
Volunteered at hospitals
Shadowed at different hospitals, in nice and not so nice areas
Learned a new language and went to that country for a year, a lot of English teaching experiences on the side
Worked, not much, but it ties back to the language thing
While abroad (I went to Korea) I spent maybe 600 hours in a cancer research lab
Technically, for my physiology class, our final paper is published... but it is the professor's journal so I don't really see how it matters
Not a URM
tl;dr My GPA sucks, my MCAT is potentially decent, my ECs are average, what should I do for this coming year to become better??
(btw my parents are requesting I apply this year even tho I told them there's no use, I'm hoping to bank my chances more on applying in summer 2015, so have only 2 years in between, if possible, please let me know if it's still reasonable for me to think like that >_<)
Edit: I thought letters of rec was something I'm lacking but turns out not to be the case. But still.
I recently graduated, literally 2 days ago. My grades have come in and they are looking mediocre as usual. I had a VERY bad start to undergrad, 2.8. I had somewhat of an upward trend going and managed to get to 3.2 but with my senior year again I managed to sink back down to a 3.1. I have a pattern of doing well once then doing poorly the next. My science GPA should be about the same because I've only taken science courses basically.
I don't want to make excuses or explain why I did bad. In the end, my grades lie mostly on my mistakes and inability to handle things correctly. I had a lot of things going on with my family which I'm hoping I can finally get away from now that I'm graduated, and just have a somewhat of a fresh start.
I was wondering what your advice would be for the next step. I delayed my MCAT to this summer. I took a practice exam and got a 32 w/o much practice. Knowing myself I could probably bring that up to a 34/35 with some more practice and covering the topics I'm weak at.
I know it is pretty late for a lot of things but the reason I haven't applied to an SMP is bc I wasn't sure if mentally, the current me could handle it.
Other info that might help:
Volunteered at hospitals
Shadowed at different hospitals, in nice and not so nice areas
Learned a new language and went to that country for a year, a lot of English teaching experiences on the side
Worked, not much, but it ties back to the language thing
While abroad (I went to Korea) I spent maybe 600 hours in a cancer research lab
Technically, for my physiology class, our final paper is published... but it is the professor's journal so I don't really see how it matters
Not a URM
tl;dr My GPA sucks, my MCAT is potentially decent, my ECs are average, what should I do for this coming year to become better??
(btw my parents are requesting I apply this year even tho I told them there's no use, I'm hoping to bank my chances more on applying in summer 2015, so have only 2 years in between, if possible, please let me know if it's still reasonable for me to think like that >_<)
Edit: I thought letters of rec was something I'm lacking but turns out not to be the case. But still.
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