Advice from here..?

[ClassyCoffee]

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Hey Guys,
I'm currently a freshman (rising sophomore). Double Major in Neuroscience & Biology and planning to minor in spanish / english & biochemistry. I am currently undertaking two summer courses (Theology Requirement & Psychology) hoping to redeem myself from my current GPA and giving it a slight boost from my disappointing first year ending around a 3.0 GPA. I plan on applying to several Allopathic schools (MD / PhD or MD) ranging from Drexel, Temple, Jefferson, NYU, UMDNJ, Penn, Chicago, Hopkins, Emery, Loyola, etc. I plan on really working off what I lost from my first year.
My first year grades were as follows:
Bio 1 - C / Lab 1 - B
Bio 2 - B- / Lab 2 - B-
Chem 1 - C+ / Lab 1 - A
Chem 2 - B- / Lab 2 - B+
Latin - C+
Theo 1 - B+
Writing 1 - B-
Writing 2 - A
EDUC 1 - A
COMM 1 - A-
As a result of this disappointment, I plan to do whatever it takes to maintain a 3.9 / 4.0 for the remainder of the next 3 years year taking easy GPA boosts and gen ed classes winter / summer classes in between. Given that I receive 2 A's from my summer classes my GPA will bump up to a good average of a ~ 3.2c. The following year I will be taking Organic 1 & 2, 2 psych electives, stats, some gen eds, etc. Can anyone give me some advice as to whether retake classes from the 1st year and what to do according to other classes and assignments. I have several clinical & volunteer experience. Almost 200+ hours of volunteering at local hospital and almost 200+ hours working as a teacher and also as well have a part time job as a medical assistant receiving plenty of clinical experience. All I need to do is a way to manage my grades and everything else will fall into place. I just need some advice on what to do and what other endeavors to undertake during my next stay during undergrad for the following 3 years. Taking courses such as bio chem, physics, calculus, etc.
Thank you for your time and patience and I hope to hear from you guys shortly.

 

[akademiks1989]

I never retook a course, so I can't give you advice on that point.

I will, however, tell you to slow down on your extracurricular commitments. You obviously know that you need to focus all your efforts on drastically improving your GPA.

Have you determined what caused these grades? Do you need to fix your study habits? Perhaps get a tutor or academic support? TAKE ADVANTAGE of all services available to you. You're in college to learn, and if you're transcript reads this way, you need to do everything in your power to fix it.

Don't think of specific schools at this point. You should pick schools that fit your stats AFTER you know you've done your VERY BEST. Always do your sincere best and then pick the programs you like.

 

[Ismet]

Hey Guys,
I'm currently a freshman (rising sophomore). Double Major in Neuroscience & Biology and planning to minor in spanish / english & biochemistry. I am currently undertaking two summer courses (Theology Requirement & Psychology) hoping to redeem myself from my current GPA and giving it a slight boost from my disappointing first year ending around a 3.0 GPA. I plan on applying to several Allopathic schools (MD / PhD or MD) ranging from Drexel, Temple, Jefferson, NYU, UMDNJ, Penn, Chicago, Hopkins, Emery, Loyola, etc. I plan on really working off what I lost from my first year.
My first year grades were as follows:
Bio 1 - C / Lab 1 - B
Bio 2 - B- / Lab 2 - B-
Chem 1 - C+ / Lab 1 - A
Chem 2 - B- / Lab 2 - B+
Latin - C+
Theo 1 - B+
Writing 1 - B-
Writing 2 - A
EDUC 1 - A
COMM 1 - A-
As a result of this disappointment, I plan to do whatever it takes to maintain a 3.9 / 4.0 for the remainder of the next 3 years year taking easy GPA boosts and gen ed classes winter / summer classes in between. Given that I receive 2 A's from my summer classes my GPA will bump up to a good average of a ~ 3.2c. The following year I will be taking Organic 1 & 2, 2 psych electives, stats, some gen eds, etc. Can anyone give me some advice as to whether retake classes from the 1st year and what to do according to other classes and assignments. I have several clinical & volunteer experience. Almost 200+ hours of volunteering at local hospital and almost 200+ hours working as a teacher and also as well have a part time job as a medical assistant receiving plenty of clinical experience. All I need to do is a way to manage my grades and everything else will fall into place. I just need some advice on what to do and what other endeavors to undertake during my next stay during undergrad for the following 3 years. Taking courses such as bio chem, physics, calculus, etc.
Thank you for your time and patience and I hope to hear from you guys shortly.

Why double major and 3 minors? Double majoring in 2 sciences will require you to double up or even triple up on science classes, and I can guarantee you that the upper level science courses are going to be way harder than balancing gen chem + bio. You calculated your cGPA, but your science GPA is also extremely important, and currently yours is well below a 3.0. Neither of the summer classes are science, so they will not raise the sGPA.

You are a rising sophomore, there's no need to be thinking of the schools you're going to apply to. Think about that in 2 years. You need to step back and evaluate why you struggled in the sciences so that you don't struggle the same way in the future. Maybe seek out academic resources on campus to help you with study skills or something, unless you know the reason. As for retakes, it's usually not recommended to retake something that is a C or above, because if you're applying to MD schools, they average your two scores, and getting an A the second time around won't change the GPA that much. Just figure out what went wrong and improve from there.

 

[ClassyCoffee]

Why double major and 3 minors? Double majoring in 2 sciences will require you to double up or even triple up on science classes, and I can guarantee you that the upper level science courses are going to be way harder than balancing gen chem + bio. You calculated your cGPA, but your science GPA is also extremely important, and currently yours is well below a 3.0. Neither of the summer classes are science, so they will not raise the sGPA.

Actually.. I was thinking either English or Spanish Minor, that's what I meant by it and will there be a possibility I can manage to get into an MD school?

 

[akademiks1989]

How about you just pick your major and stick with it? No double major, and certainly NO minors. There really is no point. You are trying to get into medical school, not enrich yourself educationally. lol

 

[mmmcdowe]

Moving to WAMC.

 

[tewpac]

Actually.. I was thinking either English or Spanish Minor, that's what I meant by it and will there be a possibility I can manage to get into an MD school?

Of course there's a chance but it's all on you, take the advice that's been given above. You had a bad first year, put it behind you and focus on what you need to do now. Figure out where you went wrong because soon you'll be taking upper level science courses that will be more intense then gen chem/bio.

Also, in my opinion, it's way too early to be thinking about schools. Yeah, your goal is to become a physician, but before you can get there, there are other steps you need to climb first--right now, it's figure out why you struggled and how you can improve to get your sGPA up.