Bad Grades 16 years ago....

[MadMaxMD]

So here's my story....

Attended Boston University in Fall 1992 straight out of high school. Biomedical Engineering Major. Hated school and proceeded to BOMB. (1.23 GPA)
Returned home and went to a community college. Once again...bombed.
Got my head together and got A's and B's over the next year or two, part time, then left school in 1996 or so.

Just returned to school full time in Spring 2007, at the community college level. Immediately loved it and got straight A's (math, science, humanities) for a semester and some summer courses.

Currently enrolled at the university level. In my 3rd semester now, full time, Biology Major, Chemistry Minor. With all my transfer credit and such I'm in my Junior year. Holding down a 3.94 GPA.

Been volunteering at a major hospital since February and just got my EMT certification. Just applied for an ED Tech position.

Planning on taking the MCAT this spring and apply to 10 or so schools in June.

So, my question is...how much will my shoddy academic past (in 1992) hurt me? Most, if not all, of the classes I bombed I've retaken and aced. Also, how will the time I spent at the community college level look? Will it hold me back? I think I've proved that my A's at that level weren't a fluke. I've proceeded to do the same at the University level.

Thanks in advance.

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[bradt9881]

So, my question is...how much will my shoddy academic past (in 1992) hurt me? Most, if not all, of the classes I bombed I've retaken and aced. Also, how will the time I spent at the community college level look? Will it hold me back? I think I've proved that my A's at that level weren't a fluke. I've proceeded to do the same at the University level.

Depends on your overall GPA. if its low, it hurts, high, it hurts a lot less.

MD schools will average all your grades. DO schools will replace your low grades with the higher grade in the classes you repeated.

 

[CremasterFlash]

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[Dave_D]

Depends on your overall GPA. if its low, it hurts, high, it hurts a lot less.

MD schools will average all your grades. DO schools will replace your low grades with the higher grade in the classes you repeated.

Pretty much agree with this one. I went to BU as well starting in 89 and pretty much hated it the entire time. (Which is not a formula to do well btw. I guess the original poster was going there when John "Slots" Silber was still in charge.) Of course I made the mistake of gutting it out and getting a degree there.(I really should have left and gone to a school that I cared about and cared about me.) So when I went back to school a couple of years ago (03) to do the post bacc premed thing my old grades were still killing me even though they were pushing 15+ years when I applied. (You'd think near straight A in the past couple of years would be a big difference but it wasn't as much as I had hoped.)

So pretty much it depends on how quick you bolted. If you stayed a semester or 2 probably not much. If you gutted it out for awhile I congratulate your perseverance but it's going to hurt.

 

[MadMaxMD]

Yeah, I was only at BU for one semester. Thought that all my profs were the worst and they could'nt care less about me or any of the other students. The atmosphere was unbearable. I just went back and took my EMT cert course there. Not much has changed.

 

[Dave_D]

Yeah, I was only at BU for one semester. Thought that all my profs were the worst and they could'nt care less about me or any of the other students. The atmosphere was unbearable. I just went back and took my EMT cert course there. Not much has changed.

You've got more sense than I had at that age and that sound exactly how BU was for me. (It's as though people at BU heard the punch line to the joke "What's the difference between a college and a university?" and decided to base the school on it.)