blues

[blike]

Premed students suck: well, most of them. They are sadistic robots who take pleasure in eradicating all my hopes of medical school. Seems like my feelings about my chances of going to medical school come in waves of depression, then optimism, back into depression; wash, rinse, repeat. Sometimes I wonder why I stress so much over grades, when my terrible freshman year could have already outset me from the race. My "peers" make me so angry, while simultaneously sending my hopes crashing to earth like a satellite. I wish you all were my classmates, rather than the a**hats I am stuck with.

Sorry, I know this post is kinda pointless, but I need to vent. I'm going to go listen to some radiohead.

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[tBw]

Originally posted by blike
I wish you all were my classmates, rather than the a**hats I am stuck with.

don't worry...in med school we will be

keep smiling. These people are sent to test us !

 

[Fenrezz]

Don't sweat it, man. Most pre-meds are full of shyt. You can tell the ones who are; they'll sit there and tell you everything you need to get in despite never having gone through the process of applying. They "heard" this and that. Everyone has that story: they heard from someone who heard about a guy who got rejected from 40 schools with a 42 MCAT and a 3.9 GPA. What you don't hear is that the guy has 3 felony convictions.

Believe me, however bad your situation is, it wasn't worse than mine. My transcripts were an absolute mess. When I finally dropped out of school, my GPA was atrocious. From the time I finally went back I had to put in a stellar performance for the last three years just to show adcoms I was worth at least an interview. The whole time I didn't think any school would accept me. Yet I'm typing this from my med school computer lab (instead of doing what I should be - studying).

Steer clear of the 4.0 pre-meds. Best thing you can do is what I did. Find a couple of slacker pre-meds in the same boat as you. That way you don't have to hear someone crying because they think a 3.85 might be too low to be accepted.

If you want to go to DO school, just replace the classes that you received bad grades. Do you best, apply, and when you get accepted, walk through the school and flip all the pre-meds off.

 

[San_Juan_Sun]

In my (limited) experience I have rarely found a pre-med who hasn't admitted to feelings of "not-making-it". And I think that is really a good thing. Humility is such a valuable trait for a person to posess, especially for a future physician.

Now, many "pre-meds" do everything possible to deny that they have feelings of self-doubt. It just doesn't jive in a culture of competition and confidence. And when one is in that culture, and secretly admits to feeling some doubt, it can be really depressing. The trick is to realize that everyone feels this way at some point, and that such feelings will eventually make you a better whatever-you-want-to-be.

Speaking for myself, I really don't like the term "pre-med", and I never refer to myself that way. To me, a "pre-med" is a freshman (or maybe still in high school) who is absolutely convinced they want to be an orthopedic surgeon (despite have no idea what an orthopedic surgeon actually does). Many throw around the term "pre-med" much in the same way that they anticipate throwing around the term "doctor" in the future. Sadly, most never make it to organic chemistry, and find some other rewarding course of study to pursue. In the end, we all just grow up (myself included).

Stepping off of soapbox now....

 

[Mire]

Dude I can sympathize!

I had an atrocious freshman year 7 years ago. My GPA for that year was a whopping 2.19. I left school for several years, and worked as a paramedic. When I returned to school, I got all A's. However my GPA is still mediocre: 3.12 science, 3.26 overall. Despite getting A's in all of my premed and other courses, and doing fine on the MCAT, I have still been passed over by some schools. Nova told me they would interview me, but because I had a C- instead of a C in Into to Biology, I didn't meet the requirements. Because I can't repeat intro to Biology this fall, I am out of the application cycle. I get soo angry sometimes, because I screwed up my freshman year. I know that it was my fault, but I feel like the schools don't always look at the person. Anyway, I still hold out hope. I got an interview at AZCOM...so if it can happen for me it can happen for anyone. I just pray that I get in.

 

[princesamariposa]

Nova told me they would interview me, but because I had a C- instead of a C in Into to Biology, I didn't meet the requirements.

I did not know that Nova had such a requirement. Nova is one of my top choice schools and I just realized that I am in the same position. I received a C- in general chemistry my freshman year. I never repeated the course and followed up by getting A's in Organic Chem I and II my senior year.
Does every school have this policy concerning C-'s??

 

[rpames]

I believe it is an issue if the C- is in a pre-req. Because you received it in gen. chem I would say that it could cause you trouble. Most school req. a 2.00 in all pre-reqs. A C- is below that.

Sorry

 

[Mire]

Princess- That is what I was told by Lynn Cawley at nova. All my other science courses were A's too, but she said Nova has a 2.0 minimum requirement. Since a C- is below a 2.0, she said I would have to retake the course. I wish I had retaken the class.

 

[Toejam]

I understand when you say that pre-meds suck, but don't a lot of them become medical students?? I can tell you as a former podiatry student that their attitudes don't change.

 

[chem01]

"their attitudes don't change"

Couldn't agree with you more on that point!!!

 

[MaggieD]

Hey there,
We're in the same boat, hombre. If anything, you are a little better off than me...I went to a community college and got academically dismissed! I took 4 years off to straighten my life out and now I'm sweating the same things you are. My grades today are fine, but every now and then I think that no adcom on the face of the earth will ever let someone in who got academically dismissed once. Maybe they won't, who knows. My point is that you are not alone in your youthful indiscrections.
And don't let the gunners get to you. Man, I need to take some of my own advice!

Best of luck.

 

[Fenrezz]

Originally posted by MaggieD
I went to a community college and got academically dismissed! I took 4 years off to straighten my life out and now I'm sweating the same things you are. My grades today are fine, but every now and then I think that no adcom on the face of the earth will ever let someone in who got academically dismissed once. Maybe they won't, who knows.

Your situation sounds like a carbon copy of mine. Although it happened 10 years ago, I got academically dismissed from a community college as well.

In your case, as in mine when I was undergrad, I would suggest getting no C's and as few B's as possible. I got the impression from my interviewers that they wanted to make sure I wasn't the same person from 10 years ago who got dismissed from a community college. Getting plenty of A's will let them know you've matured and that you're ready for the rigors of med school. Make sure you replace all those bad grades that got you dismissed, if you can.

Good luck!

 

[blike]

I understand when you say that pre-meds suck, but don't a lot of them become medical students??

I was overgeneralizing. I'm involved with a group of wonderful future physicians who have great character. I was kinda flustered at the time, and I tend to overgeneralize when my nerves are rattled. It was more directed at a specific group, rather than the mass.

Speaking for myself, I really don't like the term "pre-med",

I'm with you on that one. Although I referred to us as "premed" in the post, I don't usually use the term. You're right, every college freshman thinks they're majoring in "premed".


Thanks for the encouragement, especially from those who can identify with me. The thing that worries me a bit is that you guys (who had bad starts) have distanced yourself from them with time. My bad start was last year. I don't really have a huge "maturing" time in between my lackluster start and the rest of my to-be undergraduate career. I have one summer. Yet within that summer I've changed 180. I just hope I can convince the adcoms not to judge my character and abilities by my freshman year.

Good luck to you all, thanks for the encouragement.

 

[princesamariposa]

Originally posted by Mire
Princess- That is what I was told by Lynn Cawley at nova. All my other science courses were A's too, but she said Nova has a 2.0 minimum requirement. Since a C- is below a 2.0, she said I would have to retake the course. I wish I had retaken the class.

I called Nova today and spoke with Admissions. The woman said that as long as your overall sci. GPA is over a 3.0 then you are fine. I wonder if they calculate the lab grade with the course grade...
Isn't this strange? Maybe she was confused, but I hope not!

 

[rpames]

My biggest compaint about "pre-meds" is the whole, "What is your major"...."Pre-med". No one majors in pre-med! You're either biology, biochem, or chem (usually). It seems like those that are pre-med have this over-rideing urge for everyone around them to know. My school has a pharm.D program so pretty much the only time I mention it is if someone asks me if I'm a pharm student.

To those of you who say it when ever you can...NO ONE CARES

 

[Fenrezz]

What's the big deal about saying "pre-med"? When people ask your major, it's not only because they're curious as to what you're studying, but also what you plan on being when you get out of college.

I was a chemistry major. I hate chemistry, it's the last thing I would have ever done with my career. So I told people I was pre-med, because I want to be a doctor, not a chemist.

Besides, you never know. The person asking you might have a doctor in the family. Telling them you're interested in medicine could get you an opportunity to shadow a doctor. Maybe a letter of recommendation down the road.

I know what you're saying, though. There are some students that like being pre-med because they think it sounds impressive. Those are the students who, after getting rocked in organic chemistry, don't care much how it sounds. However there are a lot of students who are pre-med because they want to be doctors, not because they think it sounds cool saying it to a girl.

 

[princesamariposa]

Hey guys,
Well you guys were right. I just spoke to Lynn Crawley and she confirmed the bad news, my C- in chemistry disqualifies me from an interview even though my overall science gpa is over a 3.0.

Does anyone know which other D.O. schools share this policy?

I am in the process of filling out my secondaries and wouldn't want to waste my time and money!!

I would really appreciate your responses.

 

[MaggieD]

Pre-calc is not considered a requirement, is it? In the math sect? I took requirement to mean the standard bio, chem, physics, orgo line. I only ask b/c I got a C- in pre-calc.
I hope I'm right.