Call it quits after 1 semester?

[StripedTie]

Hello SDN,

I am a new member to this forum and decided to join after weeks of going on and finals were complete.

I am a freshman at a small, private university in California. I just received my grades for my first semester. Needless to say, I did very, very poorly.

Gen Chem I: C-
Gen Chem I Lab: A-

Bio I: A-
Bio Research Lab: A-

Precalc: C
Writing: B

Which leaves me at a 2.88 in my first semester in college and 2 C's.

I know exactly what I did wrong: poor physical shape during my precalc final and didn't review for chem enough, although my writing grade was a shocker (I'm not a party animal). I don't intend on making the same mistakes in my future semesters, but I have to say, my confidence has been shot.

I'm currently doing year-round research program at my school, have an on-campus job, play on a club team, and am about to begin shadowing a well-known physician at a large and nationally recognized hospital.

I'm very determined and motivated to still become a doctor, but with my current grades, would you say I'm already out of the game for an MD Med School admittance? A lot of other pre-meds I know are getting 3.0+'s, 3.5+'s and it makes me panic about not being adequate enough.
Is there any advice anyone can give me (i.e. retaking classes) ?
Any success stories?

I'd appreciate any feedback. Thank you for reading this, I apologize for it being lengthy.

Happy Holidays SDN!

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[LilKangaroo]

No, you are not out of the running. Fix your mistakes, continue your EC's, and I'll see you in med school!

 

[dreamweaver1988]

I'm pretty sure neither AMCAS nor AACOMAS cares about your pluses and minuses. Recalculate your GPA with the standard scale and it will increase slightly (to a 3.1 according to my numbers).

I would only care about two of your six grades.

First, your C- in Chem I. You have the second inorganic chemistry class coming up this semester. Make you sure you study extra hard and do well. Looking to the future, this material will be on the MCAT, so learn it now.

Second, your C in pre-calc. I'm guessing this means you will take calculus next, so make sure you study hard. There's only basic math on the MCAT and most med schools don't require calculus as a pre-req. Math factors into your sGPA for MD schools, too, fyi.

Also, you will likely have a second writing course (unless you transferred in AP or IB credit) in the spring. Honestly, you should be able to kill the non-science pre-reqs, so go get an A!

Good luck!

 

[sliceofbread136]

I'm pretty sure neither AMCAS nor AACOMAS cares about your pluses and minuses. Recalculate your GPA with the standard scale and it will increase slightly (to a 3.1 according to my numbers).

I would only care about two of your six grades.

First, your C- in Chem I. You have the second inorganic chemistry class coming up this semester. Make you sure you study extra hard and do well. Looking to the future, this material will be on the MCAT, so learn it now.

Second, your C in pre-calc. I'm guessing this means you will take calculus next, so make sure you study hard. There's only basic math on the MCAT and most med schools don't require calculus as a pre-req. Math factors into your sGPA for MD schools, too, fyi.

Also, you will likely have a second writing course (unless you transferred in AP or IB credit) in the spring. Honestly, you should be able to kill the non-science pre-reqs, so go get an A!

Good luck!

AMCAs count minus grades with .25 lower I believe (example A- is a 3.75). TMDAs does not do +/- if you happen to live in Texas.

 

[Thego2guy]

Your bio grades are definitely sufficient. Keep up the good work! Focus more on Gen Chem 2, and Calc next semester. You shouldn't have any problems when applying to most US med schools.
Just keep in mind that you have to sustain an upward grade trend. Don't mess up again.

 

[Panda247]

please don't lose hope. my first semester was almost EXACTLY the same, except probably a little worse. I ended up killing my sophomore and junior years(I retook Gen Chem 2) and replaced a couple grades. Med schools love an upwards trend. Just learn how to study in college(at least that was my problem) and kill your courses in the future.
Good luck!

 

[plumhill]

You're definitely not out of the running. Adcoms love an upward trend Just make sure you actually get an upward trend from here on out

 

[StripedTie]

please don't lose hope. my first semester was almost EXACTLY the same, except probably a little worse. I ended up killing my sophomore and junior years(I retook Gen Chem 2) and replaced a couple grades. Med schools love an upwards trend. Just learn how to study in college(at least that was my problem) and kill your courses in the future.
Good luck!

It's just so frustrating...I thought I was doing alright. I had more C's in one semester than I did my whole high school career and never had my GPA drop below a 3.5.

Do you know how med schools view classes that were retaken? Aside from the fact that they average out grades.

Thank you for your response

 

[DrOhan]

Your still definitely in the running, im from a Cali school also (UC) and my first quarter of college was worse than that. Now im a 2nd year going in my 2nd quarter of college and I my gpa is starting to head towards competitive range. Im very confident that by the time you are a 4th year you can still have a great gpa if you have a huge upward trend.

 

[StripedTie]

Your still definitely in the running, im from a Cali school also (UC) and my first quarter of college was worse than that. Now im a 2nd year going in my 2nd quarter of college and I my gpa is starting to head towards competitive range. Im very confident that by the time you are a 4th year you can still have a great gpa if you have a huge upward trend.

Which UC, if you don't mind me asking?

How did you manage to recover from a 'worse' quarter?

Thanks for your support

 

[luke587]

I'm the opposite I started out pretty strong, ended freshman year with a 3.5ish but made a 2.9 one semester which tanked my GPA, following it up with a 3.8+ semester takes away any "mess ups" plus your a freshman, I'd only start to worry if you had a GPA below a 3.0 after your first semester junior year probably

 

[DrCaliBoy]

You definitely still have a chance, there are many people who dont do well their first semester including me. I had a worse gpa than you at first and with hard work and an upward trend I have brought it up within a somewhat competitive range. I still have a long way to go though.

 

[StripedTie]

I'm pretty sure neither AMCAS nor AACOMAS cares about your pluses and minuses. Recalculate your GPA with the standard scale and it will increase slightly (to a 3.1 according to my numbers).

I would only care about two of your six grades.

First, your C- in Chem I. You have the second inorganic chemistry class coming up this semester. Make you sure you study extra hard and do well. Looking to the future, this material will be on the MCAT, so learn it now.

Second, your C in pre-calc. I'm guessing this means you will take calculus next, so make sure you study hard. There's only basic math on the MCAT and most med schools don't require calculus as a pre-req. Math factors into your sGPA for MD schools, too, fyi.

Also, you will likely have a second writing course (unless you transferred in AP or IB credit) in the spring. Honestly, you should be able to kill the non-science pre-reqs, so go get an A!

Good luck!

Would you recommend retaking Chem I or PreCalc?
It's only offered at my school in the first semester, and taking it the first semester of my second year would be really difficult (as I would be taking O-chem I, Physics II, Calc II). With that, the most feasible option I can see is taking it the first semester of my third year or just leaving it as is.

I haven't found a source that says that AMCAS doesn't look at +/-, and when I recalculated it using AMCAS tables, my GPA actually went down .05 :/

 

[ur2l8]

Looks pretty good, man. I had a bad 1st semester too

 

[PsP for real]

If this is what you really want then you have to make changes. I had a terrible first year with a 2.8 sgpa and 3.3 cum. I made changes and moved it up to a 3.7 by the time I applied. I also started with 100 premeds initially and only 5 are going to med school as of now. If you want it bad enough then do it. If not then I am sure you can find something else and be happy as well.

 

[StripedTie]

If this is what you really want then you have to make changes. I had a terrible first year with a 2.8 sgpa and 3.3 cum. I made changes and moved it up to a 3.7 by the time I applied. I also started with 100 premeds initially and only 5 are going to med school as of now. If you want it bad enough then do it. If not then I am sure you can find something else and be happy as well.

If you don't mind me asking, what made things terrible and how did you improve?

I'm actually a bit of a perfectionist so as devastating as this is to me, I know I'll improve because going to an allopathic school is something I'm really striving for.