I'm a new member to these forums, but have been lurking around for the past year unregistered. I thank you in advance for reading this lengthy post and responding to my concerns as a high school student aiming to attend medical school.
I'm currently a high school junior attending a private school here in California. Beginning in about the seventh grade, my academic performance diminished when my mother was diagnosed with Metastatic Stage 4 Colon Cancer. I was always closest to my mother as a child and I decided early on to help her as much as possible through her struggle with this horrible disease that afflicted an otherwise totally healthy woman. She was a devoted stay-at-home mother who retired from working as an attorney to raise me and my brother. Then her behavior began to change, and everyone knew something was wrong. Suddenly she was hospitalized after being told she was anemic, and then she finally learned of her cancer.
Throughout her struggle she experienced complications and countless issues, and she was in and out of hospitals. When she wasn't hospitalized with unbearable pain she was confined to her bed at home for most of the day. My social life evaporated as I found myself not wanting to leave my mother at home. I managed her medications, took and recorded her blood pressure, and kept her company for many hours of every day she was at home. To say that her debilitating illness also destroyed my life would be an understatement. I was catapulted into a deep depression which I still struggle with today.
Anyways, to make a long story short, she died a slow and painful death that I witnessed for many years. It was in ninth grade that she went, and I'm still bitter that no one told me her death was imminent when she was hospitalized that last time. I remember visiting her one evening in the hospital, having a brief but meaningful conversation with her as I held her weak hand, and then telling her I loved her before being taken back home simply because I had a tutor coming. Little did I know that the next night I visited her she would be so heavily medicated that she was not conscious, and every subsequent visit her condition only got worse. Finally it clicked in my head that she was going to die, especially when my dad told me it's probably best I not visit her because she was so obviously weak and on her death bed (as if that mattered, dad? she's my mother). My last visit was horrible. Knowing that hearing is last to go, I told her I loved her and had to accept that I would never hear her voice again. About a week after that visit, on the day of her death, I had stayed home from school and was the one to receive the call that she had died. I was the first to know of anyone in my family.
Aside from watching my mother's battle with cancer, I also watched my grandmother slowly die of lung cancer. This was a very short time after my mother died, and she was hospitalized while in her vacation home near us on the west coast. We spent a few days with her and it was clear, no matter how defiant she was, that her days were limited.
So, now to my concerns. Having seen all this bull**** at such a young age, my grades were and still are not stellar. Last quarter I managed a 3.61 GPA, certainly my highest in a while, but now I've found myself slacking again. It's hard for me to maintain respectable grades, even in my current course load of all regular classes, but I have made some improvements. I cringe when I read college admission requirements or recommendations of being in the top whatever of your class, and having whatever cumulative high school GPA. I have an interest in BS or BA/MD programs, but my academic history is less than impressive. I go to an excellent private school, I consider myself intelligent, and I have a burning desire to become a physician. I'm obviously worried about the admissions process to colleges and universities because I don't feel as if they examine the whole person. They seem to be so concerned with numbers and that doesn't work in my favor.
My question: Assuming I perform well on the SAT or ACT [w/ writing], take and do well in college courses over the summer and remain active in extra-curricular activities and community service, do I have any chance of gaining admission to a decent BS or BA/MD program?
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to this post.
I'm currently a high school junior attending a private school here in California. Beginning in about the seventh grade, my academic performance diminished when my mother was diagnosed with Metastatic Stage 4 Colon Cancer. I was always closest to my mother as a child and I decided early on to help her as much as possible through her struggle with this horrible disease that afflicted an otherwise totally healthy woman. She was a devoted stay-at-home mother who retired from working as an attorney to raise me and my brother. Then her behavior began to change, and everyone knew something was wrong. Suddenly she was hospitalized after being told she was anemic, and then she finally learned of her cancer.
Throughout her struggle she experienced complications and countless issues, and she was in and out of hospitals. When she wasn't hospitalized with unbearable pain she was confined to her bed at home for most of the day. My social life evaporated as I found myself not wanting to leave my mother at home. I managed her medications, took and recorded her blood pressure, and kept her company for many hours of every day she was at home. To say that her debilitating illness also destroyed my life would be an understatement. I was catapulted into a deep depression which I still struggle with today.
Anyways, to make a long story short, she died a slow and painful death that I witnessed for many years. It was in ninth grade that she went, and I'm still bitter that no one told me her death was imminent when she was hospitalized that last time. I remember visiting her one evening in the hospital, having a brief but meaningful conversation with her as I held her weak hand, and then telling her I loved her before being taken back home simply because I had a tutor coming. Little did I know that the next night I visited her she would be so heavily medicated that she was not conscious, and every subsequent visit her condition only got worse. Finally it clicked in my head that she was going to die, especially when my dad told me it's probably best I not visit her because she was so obviously weak and on her death bed (as if that mattered, dad? she's my mother). My last visit was horrible. Knowing that hearing is last to go, I told her I loved her and had to accept that I would never hear her voice again. About a week after that visit, on the day of her death, I had stayed home from school and was the one to receive the call that she had died. I was the first to know of anyone in my family.
Aside from watching my mother's battle with cancer, I also watched my grandmother slowly die of lung cancer. This was a very short time after my mother died, and she was hospitalized while in her vacation home near us on the west coast. We spent a few days with her and it was clear, no matter how defiant she was, that her days were limited.
So, now to my concerns. Having seen all this bull**** at such a young age, my grades were and still are not stellar. Last quarter I managed a 3.61 GPA, certainly my highest in a while, but now I've found myself slacking again. It's hard for me to maintain respectable grades, even in my current course load of all regular classes, but I have made some improvements. I cringe when I read college admission requirements or recommendations of being in the top whatever of your class, and having whatever cumulative high school GPA. I have an interest in BS or BA/MD programs, but my academic history is less than impressive. I go to an excellent private school, I consider myself intelligent, and I have a burning desire to become a physician. I'm obviously worried about the admissions process to colleges and universities because I don't feel as if they examine the whole person. They seem to be so concerned with numbers and that doesn't work in my favor.
My question: Assuming I perform well on the SAT or ACT [w/ writing], take and do well in college courses over the summer and remain active in extra-curricular activities and community service, do I have any chance of gaining admission to a decent BS or BA/MD program?
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to this post.
