Am I done for MD? Or even DO?

BU Medical Sciences
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Should I continue with the class?

  • Yes (Try harder)

    Votes: 16 47.1%

  • No (Take the L)

    Votes: 18 52.9%
  • Total voters
    34
H

HopefulDO25

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So last quarter I was going through depression and stress and anxiety so I decided to drop ochem 12a (first quarter). I have around a 3.46 gpa currently an Asian undergrad at a University of California institution and i took the biggest L ever. I got a horrendous 53% on my first bio midterm exam. Anywhere from 10-20% below average(worth 20% of my grade) Lab is worth 30% Midterm 2 worth 20% and the final is worth 30%. Am I done for medical school? I do not know the average of the test but im sure it's much better than my 16/30. Should I even continue with this class or should i give up? I'm so stressed right now. Should I give up MD and go DO? I have made so many mistakes. However, Ochem is going well for me this quarter as I have a good teacher. I do however know the reason I didn't do well on my Bio exam and I fully intend to fix those mistakes but I'm not sure whether I should fix those mistakes now (by continuing with the class) or next quarter (W on transcript). That would make 2 W's on my transcript.
I'm so angry sad and confused. Please help.
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Don't give up, man, don't take the L. You just have to DO it! Take that D, take the biggest D you ever have!
 
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piii said:
Don't give up, man, don't take the L. You just have to DO it! Take that D, take the biggest D you ever have!
Click to expand...

I agree. Continue doing well and rock the MCAT and you'll be getting D from all over the place.
 
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What do you mean take the D? Just get a D in the class?
 
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One or two poor grades typically don't ruin your chances for medical school. The way I see it, a W now vs a W from a month from now look the same on the transcript so keep going! See what you can make of it! All is not lost bud. In reality, very little is.


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jesie said:
One or two poor grades typically don't ruin your chances for medical school. The way I see it, a W now vs a W from a month from now look the same on the transcript so keep going! See what you can make of it! All is not lost bud. In reality, very little is.


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Yah I guess. But isn't getting a D bad? Do I have a chance of even getting a C or B? Wouldn't a W be better?
 
I took a W last quarter for ochem 12A. But maybe there's still hope to get a B-/C+
 
If grades are curved, you need to figure out what the class average was and see where you fit percentile wise. If grades aren't curved, you've lost 10 points already and need to make an 88 and up from here on out on everything else to make a B (assuming 80 and up is a B). To make a C (75), you would need an average of 82 and up on everything and to make a D (70), you would need an average of 75 and up on everything. Of course, all of this is hogwash if the class is curved, which I hope it is.

In terms of admissions, multiple Ws or low grades in one section of curriculum could be a red flag (if this trend continues). You just have to make up for it and do very well on all your other science courses and the science section on the MCAT.
 
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So overall Continue with the class? Do I still have a shot at MD? If I get a D my GPA will go way down plus I'm a humanities major
 
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You need to figure out best case scenario what grade you could get, then most likely (say you do average or a little under, what would your grade be?). Go talk to the professor. If you're likely to get a C- or worse, drop the course. You'll have to retake it anyway.
 
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1 or 2 W's on your whole transcript is not a big deal, just don't get anymore. If you're gpa is good, it looks like you made an honest mistake. If you do it too much it starts to look like GPA padding. Take the W, and try not to get anymore ;). I'm fairly certain @gonnif will say the same thing
 
You seem pretty concerned about your chances for MD as opposed to giving up and going DO, but I don't see why that's even a factor in your decision right now. It's just an unnecessary thing to stress out about. Your immediate strategy is the same regardless, isn't it - figure out what to do with this class and how you're going to improve your grades from here on out. Don't think too far ahead, that's how you end up making a mountain out of a molehill.
 
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#1) get help for your mental health issues, or your GPAs, and more importantly, YOU will suffer from it.
#2) It's only one class. You could even fail it, and if you rebound and do much better in the rest of your classes, you'll still be very competitive.
#3) Stop thinking that poor grades are a loss of face or a reflection of you.


Dylan82318 said:
So last quarter I was going through depression and stress and anxiety so I decided to drop ochem 12a (first quarter). I have around a 3.46 gpa currently an Asian undergrad at a University of California institution and i took the biggest L ever. I got a horrendous 53% on my first bio midterm exam. Anywhere from 10-20% below average(worth 20% of my grade) Lab is worth 30% Midterm 2 worth 20% and the final is worth 30%. Am I done for medical school? I do not know the average of the test but im sure it's much better than my 16/30. Should I even continue with this class or should i give up? I'm so stressed right now. Should I give up MD and go DO? I have made so many mistakes. However, Ochem is going well for me this quarter as I have a good teacher. I do however know the reason I didn't do well on my Bio exam and I fully intend to fix those mistakes but I'm not sure whether I should fix those mistakes now (by continuing with the class) or next quarter (W on transcript). That would make 2 W's on my transcript.
I'm so angry sad and confused. Please help.
Click to expand...
 
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Goro said:
#1) get help for your mental health issues, or your GPAs, and more importantly, YOU will suffer from it.
#2) It's only one class. You could even fail it, and if you rebound and do much better in the rest of your classes, you'll still be very competitive.
#3) Stop thinking that poor grades are a loss of face or a reflection of you.
Click to expand...
But she should withdraw instead of keeping the poor grade ? ( when she approached the W deadline and hypothetically she realizes she'll get below a C) . We need an expert telling her a W is better than a D :p
 
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mwsapphire said:
But she should withdraw instead of keeping the poor grade ? ( when she approached the W deadline and hypothetically she realizes she'll get below a C) . We need an expert telling her a W is better than a D :p
Click to expand...

We just did. We all have been saying that this entire time.


Large dogs
 
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Do not take a D, don't listen to anyone saying that. Why would you have your GPA take a hit when you have an opportunity to stop that from happening and try harder next time?
 
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I don't want to sound like I'm making my situations look worse than yours (although, it kinda is) but I'm a second year student, have failed 3 of my subjects, now retaking all of them and have a current GPA well below a 2.0 (heck, its well below a 1.5)...
BUT!! I am not giving up on my dream, although I'm taking a full course load, I began going to some workshops on effective studying methods and time management skills as well as a mindful meditation sessions that our school offers to help lessen stress.

The point is this, no matter how hard you think you may have it, you must always keep going!! I learned from my mistakes and although you may currently be in a pinch with your course, I highly suggest you talk to your professor! He/she will be able to guide you on what you should do and they can help you out! They can even guide you in how you should effectively study for their course.
Just keep going!
WE CAN ALL DO THIS TOGETHER! :)



---from: a hopeful student with a dream. ---I'm too stubborn to give up on my dreams! I want to make my dreams into a reality!! Mwahaha! :p
 
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In the words of Big Sean... last night took an L but today I bounced back. Bounce back dude
 
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Please don't be angry, sad, and stressed. It's a mistake and we LEARN from them. Try to work this out before even thinking of the long term specific goals. Don't be so goal oriented bc it will do more harm. In the meantime work the numbers and see how hard you have to do from here on out to get a good grade in the class. Gl!!!


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Alright guys. Update. So apparently I scored 9% below the average. (the average was 62%) I'm now leading more towards continuing with the class. If I don't screw up anymore I should be able to get a B? At least that's what people said. And this Bio class is notoriously a weed out class and it usually is curved generously.
 
Dylan82318 said:
So last quarter I was going through depression and stress and anxiety so I decided to drop ochem 12a (first quarter). I have around a 3.46 gpa currently an Asian undergrad at a University of California institution and i took the biggest L ever. I got a horrendous 53% on my first bio midterm exam. Anywhere from 10-20% below average(worth 20% of my grade) Lab is worth 30% Midterm 2 worth 20% and the final is worth 30%. Am I done for medical school? I do not know the average of the test but im sure it's much better than my 16/30. Should I even continue with this class or should i give up? I'm so stressed right now. Should I give up MD and go DO? I have made so many mistakes. However, Ochem is going well for me this quarter as I have a good teacher. I do however know the reason I didn't do well on my Bio exam and I fully intend to fix those mistakes but I'm not sure whether I should fix those mistakes now (by continuing with the class) or next quarter (W on transcript). That would make 2 W's on my transcript.
I'm so angry sad and confused. Please help.
Click to expand...

As someone who went to UCSD, I can agree that UC courses can be tough if you happen to get a tough professor. FWIW, I had a W on my transcript when I applied a few years ago. It was never brought about on my interview.

If you do well on your MCAT, you should try to apply MD and DO so as long as you can keep your GPA at where it's at or higher when you apply. If your GPA drops below 3.25, you need to start thinking about taking additional time to take additional classes either to retake any C/D/F classes in order to bump your GPA or pursue an SMP to show that you are academic ready for medical school. The reason why I say this now is because AACOMAS and many DO schools are no longer pursuing the grade replacement policy so you need to treat your academics to applying to DO school like you would applying to MD schools.
 
AlteredScale said:
As someone who went to UCSD, I can agree that UC courses can be tough if you happen to get a tough professor. FWIW, I had a W on my transcript when I applied a few years ago. It was never brought about on my interview.

If you do well on your MCAT, you should try to apply MD and DO so as long as you can keep your GPA at where it's at or higher when you apply. If your GPA drops below 3.25, you need to start thinking about taking additional time to take additional classes either to retake any C/D/F classes in order to bump your GPA or pursue an SMP to show that you are academic ready for medical school. The reason why I say this now is because AACOMAS and many DO schools are no longer pursuing the grade replacement policy so you need to treat your academics to applying to DO school like you would applying to MD schools.
Click to expand...
Okay. The gpa I posted was my cumulative gpa not my sgpa. Tbh my science gpa is like a 3.1 right now and I'm a humanities major (2nd of 3 quarter of my Sophomore year finished) Isn't the average DO sgpa like 3.4 or 3.3?
 
AlteredScale said:
As someone who went to UCSD, I can agree that UC courses can be tough if you happen to get a tough professor. FWIW, I had a W on my transcript when I applied a few years ago. It was never brought about on my interview.

If you do well on your MCAT, you should try to apply MD and DO so as long as you can keep your GPA at where it's at or higher when you apply. If your GPA drops below 3.25, you need to start thinking about taking additional time to take additional classes either to retake any C/D/F classes in order to bump your GPA or pursue an SMP to show that you are academic ready for medical school. The reason why I say this now is because AACOMAS and many DO schools are no longer pursuing the grade replacement policy so you need to treat your academics to applying to DO school like you would applying to MD schools.
Click to expand...
Since I'm not a Bio major then it's going to be REALLY hard to get my science gpa up. I guess I could take bs courses like entomology ,math, easy bio classes to boost my science gpa but it's going to be much harder to raise it. So what would be my best way to approach this? Oh btw my overall gpa and non science gpa will be high as my humanities classes are easy.
 
Dylan82318 said:
Since I'm not a Bio major then it's going to be REALLY hard to get my science gpa up. I guess I could take bs courses like entomology ,math, easy bio classes to boost my science gpa but it's going to be much harder to raise it. So what would be my best way to approach this? Oh btw my overall gpa and non science gpa will be high as my humanities classes are easy.
Click to expand...

I would take science classes that are hard sciences like immunology, pharmacology, endocrinology, physiology if you're going to try and boost your GPA. Admissions does review the types of courses you take and can tell if you are buffering your GPA with easier classes. Balance taking the harder science courses with easier non-science courses is probably a better approach.
 
Dylan82318 said:
Since I'm not a Bio major then it's going to be REALLY hard to get my science gpa up. I guess I could take bs courses like entomology ,math, easy bio classes to boost my science gpa but it's going to be much harder to raise it. So what would be my best way to approach this? Oh btw my overall gpa and non science gpa will be high as my humanities classes are easy.
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One thing I might add is, try to balance your courseload so you take super intense courses in a semester when you don't have as much going on and can focus more on school work. Of course this doesn't mean you should drop your extracurriculars-by all means keep them up-but for example, suppose you know that in a particular semester you'll be on the board of a club, or handling more responsibilities in your research lab-then it may be a good idea to take super intense courses at another time.
 
AlteredScale said:
I would take science classes that are hard sciences like immunology, pharmacology, endocrinology, physiology if you're going to try and boost your GPA. Admissions does review the types of courses you take and can tell if you are buffering your GPA with easier classes. Balance taking the harder science courses with easier non-science courses is probably a better approach.
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Should I also take the easy ones to boost them as well? for example at my school there is bio 5A and bio 2. bio 2 is separte but easier. should i take easy ones and hard ones?
 
Dylan82318 said:
Should I also take the easy ones to boost them as well? for example at my school there is bio 5A and bio 2. bio 2 is separte but easier. should i take easy ones and hard ones?
Click to expand...
I personally think it's a good idea to take easy ones and hard ones, as you suggested. Each class will still offer unique information and it is good to have a broad knowledge base. It'll also make it easier for you to focus on the harder and more intense courses
 
Dylan82318 said:
Alright guys. Update. So apparently I scored 9% below the average. (the average was 62%) I'm now leading more towards continuing with the class. If I don't screw up anymore I should be able to get a B? At least that's what people said. And this Bio class is notoriously a weed out class and it usually is curved generously.
Click to expand...

I went to a UC too and had a similar score on my first bio midterm as you (just a couple % below the average) and thought that I could bring it up. I did average or slightly above average on the next midterms and the final and still ended with a flat C... The next quarter of bio I worked much harder and only ended with a B-. Its kind of bull**** though because A LOT of other schools don't even use intro biology as a weed out course so there's a huge discrepancy. Like seriously other schools have bio midterm averages near 80%... The majority of people that I knew that actually aced bio at my university were the ones that already took AP biology in high school and already had a head start.

I ended up with a 129 (93%) on the Bio/Biochem section of the MCAT anyway...so how you do in a weed out bio course isn't going to reflect your capacity to understand basic biology.

Honestly I would just withdraw unless you can get at least a solid B. GPA repair is a massive headache.
 
MareNostrummm said:
I went to a UC too and had a similar score on my first bio midterm as you (just a couple % below the average) and thought that I could bring it up. I did average or slightly above average on the next midterms and the final and still ended with a flat C... The next quarter of bio I worked much harder and only ended with a B-. Its kind of bull**** though because A LOT of other schools don't even use intro biology as a weed out course so there's a huge discrepancy. Like seriously other schools have bio midterm averages near 80%... The majority of people that I knew that actually aced bio at my university were the ones that already took AP biology in high school and already had a head start.

I ended up with a 129 (93%) on the Bio/Biochem section of the MCAT anyway...so how you do in a weed out bio course isn't going to reflect your capacity to understand basic biology.

Honestly I would just withdraw unless you can get at least a solid B. GPA repair is a massive headache.
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Apparently I was 4% below average not 9% if that makes any difference. Should I really withdraw? I'm a humanities major so I don't have much time to retake as I will probably not graduate on time.
 
Dylan82318 said:
Apparently I was 4% below average not 9% if that makes any difference. Should I really withdraw? I'm a humanities major so I don't have much time to retake as I will probably not graduate on time.
Click to expand...

Yes, if you can't make at least a B you should withdraw. Adoms don't think "wow this must have been a really tough Introductory Biology weeder class" they just see a C. Plus if you're a humanities major your only science GPA is going to come from the prerequisites, so that C is going to hurt even more, as opposed to bio majors that can keep taking upper division classes to compensate.

Come back next quarter and hit that class hard from day 1. Start studying replication/transcription/translation/counter current multiplier/blood buffering system/etc over the break...

Can't you finish up some prerequisites over the summer after you graduate? You'll still have your major completed.
 
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MareNostrummm said:
Yes, if you can't make at least a B you should withdraw. Adoms don't think "wow this must have been a really tough Introductory Biology weeder class" they just see a C. Plus if you're a humanities major your only science GPA is going to come from the prerequisites, so that C is going to hurt even more, as opposed to bio majors that can keep taking upper division classes to compensate.

Come back next quarter and hit that class hard from day 1. Start studying replication/transcription/translation/counter current multiplier/blood buffering system/etc over the break...

Can't you finish up some prerequisites over the summer after you graduate? You'll still have your major completed.
Click to expand...
Yah true. I'm pretty sure I can get a B in the class. Only 4% below average not that bad. I just need to do really well and I can get a B in the class. I just want to get Bio 5b (phylogeny and plants) out of the way. It was only 20% of my grade and the whole class is curved. Should I still take a W now?
 
Take the L, unless you are 100% sure you can make a B. Protect your GPA at all cost. Grade replacement is now a thing of the past.
 
Dylan82318 said:
But say I get a D. Can't I get an A next quarter and it would average to a B anyways?
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Yeah , but then it would be 6 credits of a 2.5 ( not a B, which is a 3) as opposed to 3 credits of a B. The credits get added, and the grades themselves get averaged.
I really hope orgo works out for you, I had to W orgo last semester, so I'm super nervous about doing well this time. Also, if you W, all you need to do is get above a B ( to show proficiency in the subject, so a B+, A-, or A can suffice),and your grade in that class will be above a B, instead of needing to go from a D-> A to obtain the best possible scenario, which would be 6 credit of a 2.5.
Make sense?
 
Eternal_Premed_Struggle said:
I dunno, but just do the best you can for now. You can start looking at school specific GPA averages when you get ready to apply.
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So all hope is not lost? I can still get into med school? I know it is a stupid question but I'm not a science major so I can't take all those science upper divs science majors take. I guess i have to take an L and drop the course. i need to do well in all the rest of my sciences. If you don't mind since you both got acceptances somewhere what are your stats? Thanks alot.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Don't worry about this now, right now you need to focus on getting the best grades you can.
Click to expand...
Ok thank you. I'm just worried since I'm not a science major I won't have courses to make up for my gpa. What were your stats if you don't mind me asking?
 
Dylan82318 said:
Ok thank you. I'm just worried since I'm not a science major I won't have courses to make up for my gpa. What were your stats if you don't mind me asking?
Click to expand...

~3.4 cGPA ~3.2 sGPA, I made up for it with an MCAT above the 90th percentile and good ECs. You need to get As from here on out and if your GPA stays that low then you will need to consider a DIY post-bac to take some upper division sciences.

Also taking a W is always better than a D or a C.
 
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