Bad semester.. advice needed

[Ohitsyou]

Hey guys, my name is Cho-Hui. This is my first ever post on student doctor. I've been hiding behind the shadows, just observing, until now. I need some advice on what to do and maybe a little motivation. Freshman year in college, I made straight A's. This past fall semester (sophmore) a family member was diagnosed with head and neck tumors and multiple surgeries were needed. I missed a whole bunch of lectures for obvious reasons. The semester just ended, and I came out with straight C's. I'm pretty much devastated cause I went from a straight A student to a straight C. My GPA was dropped down to a 3.2 I feel like I could have easily made B's in those classes have I attended more lectures. I have two questions to ask.
1] Should I retake some of those classes? Or is a C not too bad. If so, which classes should I retake? I took Organic chem I with lab, calculus II, biology animals with lab, and english II.
2] I know that an upward trend is better than a downward trend but if I do better next semester and junior year, will I be OK? It'll be an up down up trend haha.


Thanks guys!
This forum is fricken awesome!

Cho-Hui

 

[Lopyswine]

Hey guys, my name is Cho-Hui. This is my first ever post on student doctor. I've been hiding behind the shadows, just observing, until now. I need some advice on what to do and maybe a little motivation. Freshman year in college, I made straight A's. This past fall semester (sophmore) a family member was diagnosed with head and neck tumors and multiple surgeries were needed. I missed a whole bunch of lectures for obvious reasons. The semester just ended, and I came out with straight C's. I'm pretty much devastated cause I went from a straight A student to a straight C. My GPA was dropped down to a 3.2 I feel like I could have easily made B's in those classes have I attended more lectures. I have two questions to ask.
1] Should I retake some of those classes? Or is a C not too bad. If so, which classes should I retake? I took Organic chem I with lab, calculus II, biology animals with lab, and english II.
2] I know that an upward trend is better than a downward trend but if I do better next semester and junior year, will I be OK? It'll be an up down up trend haha.


Thanks guys!
This forum is fricken awesome!

Cho-Hui

You're being to hard on yourself. You had some extraordinary circumstances to deal with. Take a deep breath and put the semester behind you. Go forward with your other pre-reqs as if this semester never happened. You won't need to retake Cs, however if later on you have space in your schedule you can retake them if you want.

 

[Californian]

3.2 isnt bad at all... just keep up with that GPA or and at least 20or above with DAT.

 

[Dentgirl09]

Don't worry... the adcoms will probably see that you were an A student.. and that something caused you to have a bad semester... you have room in your personal statement to explain this... and 3.2 is not bad given you do well on the DAT and apply early.

Just make sure your other semesters are OK and you'll be fine!!!!

 

[klutzy1987]

Those C's will not hurt you at all. Just gt back to being that A student again and the C's may actually strengthen your application because it will give you something to discuss at interviews and will overall give your application a little more pop, it will be remembered. The C's are obviously excusable and the schools will recognze this. IMO

 

[rockets1]

Hey guys, my name is Cho-Hui. This is my first ever post on student doctor. I've been hiding behind the shadows, just observing, until now. I need some advice on what to do and maybe a little motivation. Freshman year in college, I made straight A's. This past fall semester (sophmore) a family member was diagnosed with head and neck tumors and multiple surgeries were needed. I missed a whole bunch of lectures for obvious reasons. The semester just ended, and I came out with straight C's. I'm pretty much devastated cause I went from a straight A student to a straight C. My GPA was dropped down to a 3.2 I feel like I could have easily made B's in those classes have I attended more lectures. I have two questions to ask.
1] Should I retake some of those classes? Or is a C not too bad. If so, which classes should I retake? I took Organic chem I with lab, calculus II, biology animals with lab, and english II.
2] I know that an upward trend is better than a downward trend but if I do better next semester and junior year, will I be OK? It'll be an up down up trend haha.


Thanks guys!
This forum is fricken awesome!

Cho-Hui

I have to agree with everyone else...i think your gpa isnt bad at all. Just keep working harder and bring it up as much as you can in the remaining semesters. You still have plenty of time to recover. I don't think you should waste time in re-taking classes.

 

[Mamona]

I don't think your GPA is that bad, besides you have pleny of time to bring it up. Remembrer that it is not only numbers, so try to do your volunteer jobs, research, shadowing, etc, and you will be fine. Good luck, don't be too hard on yourself, it was a hard situation and you did very good!!!

 

[beastmode]

Repeating the words of others, do not retake the classes...it wont help you greatly in the long run. Just dominate the next two years. I agree with Klutzy, it probably will end up being a positive point on you application. For one, you have a good idea about what is going to be discussed in your interview so you can have a very good answer prepared for why you got the grades that you did. In most of my interviews a major portion has been designated to me explaining my poor academic start. I have been told several times that admissions likes to see students who have dug their way out of a hole. It shows that 1) you really want this and 2) you can deal with adversity. Good luck. No worries.

 

[klpennin]

Yup, you should see it as a good thing. Its life, it happens to all of us. Its how you recover from this semester that will make or break you. Get back to making all As and you will be fine. Its good not to have a 4.0, it shows that you know how to deal with failure and recover. Those who have a 4.0 who have never experienced failure are a question mark.

 

[JamesOSU]

This is my 2nd year applying (got in this time!) and the winter quarter when I heard back from no schools and basically knew I hadn't gotten in I bombed my exams. I was really in the dumps, and received my first C (Microbial Genetics, stupid little bugs) and a few Bs. This was not the 'upward trend' dental school adcomms are looking for. I went into Xmas break that year with my head down, but talked to my family and decided I wasn't going to go down like this. I came back for my final two quarters and kicked ass on the way towards graduation.

Did it make it a little harder now that my GPA has slipped from last cycle? Sure. Butttt... I had a story now for my personal statement. It gave me a way to tell the adcomm, "Look, I took a big hit, and I was down, but I got back up and really focused and look what I did, look how much I want this!" I retook the DAT and scored much better, and went in to this last cycle feeling like a million bucks (and got in, as I said )

As horrible as I'm sure that experience was, it can be turned into something good for your acceptance into D-school

 

[Ohitsyou]

Thanks for all the replies guys. SDN is such a strong support network.. I'm glad I stumbled upon this website.

Cho-Hui