Any advice for a still hopeful pre-med?

[vickyny]

Hello All,

I am new to this forum. I was going to make a thread on the pre-med forum, but I thought I would get better advice from people who have already successfully made it to medical school.

I am in my last year of college and will be graduating in the Spring. I was pre-med starting my first year, but I did not do well in the courses and dropped General Chemistry. I was originally planning on becoming a biology major, but it did not work out. I went back to taking general chemistry and both biology my 3rd year of college after droppiing pre-med my first year. I did no do welll again and did not continue in the courses. So I am taking general biology only this year as a fourth year and I am doing well in that . However, I still need to complete General Chemistry, Organic chemistry and physics. So I thought of doing a second bachelors in my state school in biology and study for the mcat and apply to medical school. Other than bad study habits, procrastination, and laziness, I don't really have a good excuse why I did poorly in my first 3 years of college. Even though I have developed a schedule of studying that works well for me and have been getting good grades this year, I started too late as it is my last year. I don't like my current major at all and am just doing it b/c it was the 2nd best thing I could choose aside from biology which didn't work out as I had planned.

I am not even looking forward to going to my graduation as I feel like my degree is a waste. My G.P.A. is below a 3.0, I will not be graduating with honors. It just feels like 4 years of my life has been wasted. I don't feel like going to a ceremony just to collect a worthless piece of paper.

Anyway, to get to my point, do you think if I do a 2nd bahelors and perfom well there and get a good MCAT score that I have a chance of getting into a medical school, including D.O. I am not in a position to be picky so I wiould be happy if I could get into a D.O. school. I really hate my life right now. I have looked into other careers and I am not really interested in any of them at all. I thought of becoming a P.A., but I changed my mind about that b/c I think I would be a bitter PA, b/c I would be jealous of the doctor I was working with and wishing I was in their position. Plus for P.A. school I think you need the science requirements as well, so why not just go all the way and try to become a doctor. I would really appreciate any advice, especially from non-traditional pre-meds. I don't mind if I have to take 3-4 years off to repair my credentials to become a doctor. I thought of doing and SMP for a year after doing a 2nd bachelor just to really prove to the admissions committee that I have gotten my act together and can do the work in medical school. I don't have a good explanation for my bad g.p.a. so I think I just have a lot to do prove myself.

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[ir0nsoul]

Hmm, well maybe. If you do re-do your whole bachelor's degree and do better next time, then you might be able to make it. However a couple of points. Firstly - if you are having such issues with gen chem and bio, is that an issue with the course material or the instructors? if it is the course material you will probably struggle hard in both undergrad organic chem and most likely will find med school very difficult. Also you will need to be able to explain to your interviewers what went wrong the first two times you started the courses. Hopefully they were massive personality issues or something, because most people consider freshman general chem to be rather straightforward, and your review board might view you dropping them twice as a commitment issue. If they can get someone who would not drop out, then they would pick them over you unless you can convince them otherwise.

Secondly, don't underestimate the value of going into the workforce for a couple of years. If I was in this situation, I would go to your undergrad's career advisory center and talk to them about what they think your best options are. You might also want to get in touch with whoever was your pre-med advisor your senior year and ask their opinion.

I do have to say it will probably be tough though, because you don't have a good explanation for your poor gpa, and you will have to also explain why you dropped pre-med and then decided to go back in. Probably doable, but rough.

 

[D elegans]

You will need to ace both a SMP and the MCAT, but it sounds to me like you need to take a little bit of time off and think about things. Perhaps try to get a job in the healthcare field. What are your reasons and motivation to go into medicine? If you're saying you "really hate your life" right now, you should probably take time off from academia.

 

[vickyny]

bump

 

[Catalystik]

Hello All,

I am new to this forum. I was going to make a thread on the pre-med forum, but I thought I would get better advice from people who have already successfully made it to medical school.

I am in my last year of college and will be graduating in the Spring. I was pre-med starting my first year, but I did not do well in the courses and dropped General Chemistry. I was originally planning on becoming a biology major, but it did not work out. I went back to taking general chemistry and both biology my 3rd year of college after droppiing pre-med my first year. I did no do welll again and did not continue in the courses. So I am taking general biology only this year as a fourth year and I am doing well in that . However, I still need to complete General Chemistry, Organic chemistry and physics. So I thought of doing a second bachelors in my state school in biology and study for the mcat and apply to medical school. Other than bad study habits, procrastination, and laziness, I don't really have a good excuse why I did poorly in my first 3 years of college. Even though I have developed a schedule of studying that works well for me and have been getting good grades this year, I started too late as it is my last year. I don't like my current major at all and am just doing it b/c it was the 2nd best thing I could choose aside from biology which didn't work out as I had planned.

I am not even looking forward to going to my graduation as I feel like my degree is a waste. My G.P.A. is below a 3.0, I will not be graduating with honors. It just feels like 4 years of my life has been wasted. I don't feel like going to a ceremony just to collect a worthless piece of paper.

Anyway, to get to my point, do you think if I do a 2nd bahelors and perfom well there and get a good MCAT score that I have a chance of getting into a medical school, including D.O. I am not in a position to be picky so I wiould be happy if I could get into a D.O. school. I really hate my life right now. I have looked into other careers and I am not really interested in any of them at all. I thought of becoming a P.A., but I changed my mind about that b/c I think I would be a bitter PA, b/c I would be jealous of the doctor I was working with and wishing I was in their position. Plus for P.A. school I think you need the science requirements as well, so why not just go all the way and try to become a doctor. I would really appreciate any advice, especially from non-traditional pre-meds. I don't mind if I have to take 3-4 years off to repair my credentials to become a doctor. I thought of doing and SMP for a year after doing a 2nd bachelor just to really prove to the admissions committee that I have gotten my act together and can do the work in medical school. I don't have a good explanation for my bad g.p.a. so I think I just have a lot to do prove myself.

With time, hard work, and the financial resources to stay in school, you can redeem your current position.

What will your GPA be this term, now that you have a new-found work ethic?

Would it be cost-prohibitive to stay at the same school and delay graduation?

Does the state school have the same grading system and available courses so you can easily retake your lowest grades and qualify for the AACOMAS grade replacement policy?

Do you have any of the usual and customary ECs?

 

[411309]

Hello All,

I am new to this forum. I was going to make a thread on the pre-med forum, but I thought I would get better advice from people who have already successfully made it to medical school.

I am in my last year of college and will be graduating in the Spring. I was pre-med starting my first year, but I did not do well in the courses and dropped General Chemistry. I was originally planning on becoming a biology major, but it did not work out. I went back to taking general chemistry and both biology my 3rd year of college after droppiing pre-med my first year. I did no do welll again and did not continue in the courses. So I am taking general biology only this year as a fourth year and I am doing well in that . However, I still need to complete General Chemistry, Organic chemistry and physics. So I thought of doing a second bachelors in my state school in biology and study for the mcat and apply to medical school. Other than bad study habits, procrastination, and laziness, I don't really have a good excuse why I did poorly in my first 3 years of college. Even though I have developed a schedule of studying that works well for me and have been getting good grades this year, I started too late as it is my last year. I don't like my current major at all and am just doing it b/c it was the 2nd best thing I could choose aside from biology which didn't work out as I had planned.

I am not even looking forward to going to my graduation as I feel like my degree is a waste. My G.P.A. is below a 3.0, I will not be graduating with honors. It just feels like 4 years of my life has been wasted. I don't feel like going to a ceremony just to collect a worthless piece of paper.

Anyway, to get to my point, do you think if I do a 2nd bahelors and perfom well there and get a good MCAT score that I have a chance of getting into a medical school, including D.O. I am not in a position to be picky so I wiould be happy if I could get into a D.O. school. I really hate my life right now. I have looked into other careers and I am not really interested in any of them at all. I thought of becoming a P.A., but I changed my mind about that b/c I think I would be a bitter PA, b/c I would be jealous of the doctor I was working with and wishing I was in their position. Plus for P.A. school I think you need the science requirements as well, so why not just go all the way and try to become a doctor. I would really appreciate any advice, especially from non-traditional pre-meds. I don't mind if I have to take 3-4 years off to repair my credentials to become a doctor. I thought of doing and SMP for a year after doing a 2nd bachelor just to really prove to the admissions committee that I have gotten my act together and can do the work in medical school. I don't have a good explanation for my bad g.p.a. so I think I just have a lot to do prove myself.

First off life is too short to hate it. if you want something bad enough then youll do whatever it takes to get it and you won't settle for less. Ace the mcat and try to get into a decent SMP program. It's far from impossible. Get a good score, be determined, every minute you aren't studying make yourself feel guilty. I think some SMP programs designed for DO schools have relatively low admission statistics, id look into those.

 

[Pattycake25]

Hello All,

I am new to this forum. I was going to make a thread on the pre-med forum, but I thought I would get better advice from people who have already successfully made it to medical school.

I am in my last year of college and will be graduating in the Spring. I was pre-med starting my first year, but I did not do well in the courses and dropped General Chemistry. I was originally planning on becoming a biology major, but it did not work out. I went back to taking general chemistry and both biology my 3rd year of college after droppiing pre-med my first year. I did no do welll again and did not continue in the courses. So I am taking general biology only this year as a fourth year and I am doing well in that . However, I still need to complete General Chemistry, Organic chemistry and physics. So I thought of doing a second bachelors in my state school in biology and study for the mcat and apply to medical school. Other than bad study habits, procrastination, and laziness, I don't really have a good excuse why I did poorly in my first 3 years of college. Even though I have developed a schedule of studying that works well for me and have been getting good grades this year, I started too late as it is my last year. I don't like my current major at all and am just doing it b/c it was the 2nd best thing I could choose aside from biology which didn't work out as I had planned.

I am not even looking forward to going to my graduation as I feel like my degree is a waste. My G.P.A. is below a 3.0, I will not be graduating with honors. It just feels like 4 years of my life has been wasted. I don't feel like going to a ceremony just to collect a worthless piece of paper.

Anyway, to get to my point, do you think if I do a 2nd bahelors and perfom well there and get a good MCAT score that I have a chance of getting into a medical school, including D.O. I am not in a position to be picky so I wiould be happy if I could get into a D.O. school. I really hate my life right now. I have looked into other careers and I am not really interested in any of them at all. I thought of becoming a P.A., but I changed my mind about that b/c I think I would be a bitter PA, b/c I would be jealous of the doctor I was working with and wishing I was in their position. Plus for P.A. school I think you need the science requirements as well, so why not just go all the way and try to become a doctor. I would really appreciate any advice, especially from non-traditional pre-meds. I don't mind if I have to take 3-4 years off to repair my credentials to become a doctor. I thought of doing and SMP for a year after doing a 2nd bachelor just to really prove to the admissions committee that I have gotten my act together and can do the work in medical school. I don't have a good explanation for my bad g.p.a. so I think I just have a lot to do prove myself.

What do you mean about the bio major "not working out"? I would also say that Gen. Chem. is straightforward enough that repeated trouble there predicts a substantial problem for the more conceptually challenging Orgo, as suggested by another poster. Not to mention what trouble with Biology implies about your capacity for medical school. You've barely started the necessary journey, but you're already shoulder-deep in quicksand.

I mean, you don't have a felony conviction (as far as we know), and you haven't failed out of a medical school, so it's "possible" to recover from this mess. But are you in a position to do so? "Procrastination, laziness, and poor study habits" is not an explanation for your first three years. Everyone experiences, and learns to control, the first two of those on a regular basis, and everyone is expected to develop whatever study program works best for them, largely independently, so the real question becomes - why didn't you? Do you "get" what really happened yet? Do you know, beyond all possible doubt, that you have corrected the underlying issues? And again, are those issues what is truly to blame for your poor performance in Biology and Chemistry (sorry, but after starting and dropping bio twice, I don't think even an 'A' in Bio now will count for all that much...)? If the answer to any of those questions is "no", don't even THINK about continuing your education yet. Take whatever time is necessary to really take rein of your recovery. If you are having trouble understanding your past behavior, you may want to look into counseling.

I know it's impossible to even begin to understand someone from an Internet post, but I don't even see any real evidence of passion in your pursuit of medicine. I basically read you as saying you shopped around, and everything else sucked, so you might as well stick with medicine. You even mention rejecting the P.A. route partially due to the bitterness you would feel. You need POSITIVE motivation. Rewind to high school - why did you enroll as a pre-med in the first place at university? Do those reasons still apply?

In the end, I don't really see a postbac or SMP being enough at this point (if you could even get in). You displayed a long-term commitment problem, and one-year programs aren't the answer. You're thinking on the right scale - I think starting from scratch with another bachelor's IS probably what is required at this point (likely followed THEN by a postbac or SMP, to fully refute any questions as to your potential), and that is expensive. Be really, really honest, and ask yourself - is it worth it for you? Do you love medicine enough to justify that kind of protracted battle?

I'm really sorry for the harshness, but I believe truth is better than even the most well-meaning distortion or misdirection. This is how I see it.

 

[ashleyrome]

I would suggest that you look into master's programs. my boyfriend is a current surgery resident in a DO program who said his GPA for undergrad at below a 3.0 because he was unfocused. He went on to get a MHP and an MBA and with those grades being around a 3.5 and got into UNE without difficulty. I would suggest something along these lines if you can spend the years doing the master's program. You may have to take a few more undergrad classes to get your GPA high enough to get into a master's program.

Good luck!

 

[vickyny]

Be really, really honest, and ask yourself - is it worth it for you? Do you love medicine enough to justify that kind of protracted battle?

I'm really sorry for the harshness, but I believe truth is better than even the most well-meaning distortion or misdirection. This is how I see it.

Yes it is very worth it to me. And I didn't think you were harsh. I appreciate your honesty. Honest advice is what I need at this point.

 

[vickyny]

I appreciate the feeback. I will definitely take a lot of your considerations into mind.