Do I have any chances as a Med Student?

[funkymike]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I am a student at De Anza at the moment and I wanted to ask you guys something. So I have a over all GPA of 2.33.... I know I screwed up pretty badly 🙁 ... But I really want to become a med student. Is there any chance for me? I've taken one of my math which is precalc but that doesn't really count for my requirements as a pre med student... If you guys have anything to say please give me some advice! 😀 Can you guys email me at [email protected] ? Thanks. Or you could reply to this thread.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Before I give you advice.. Can you tell us why you screwed up? You're going to need to conclude whether or not your failure at academics was due to an inability to succeed in sciences or because you fail to study and work hard enough or because of family death/medical reasons.

Now that being said. If the reason you failed is because of the latter. Then you have a chance of making it into medical school.

However I also need some more information. What science classes have you taken and what are their grades. Also tell me how many credits you have accomplished/what year you are. Also what is your science gpa. Finally I need to know if you are an URM.

 

[Catalystik]

URM=Under-represented minority.

 

[funkymike]

Well it was mostly because I failed to study hard enough... And also my mind has also been back and forth between different majors and stuff. Yeah. Sorry about that.

Well I haven't took any of my science classes yet. I plan to after i take my placement test. And I want to do well on this placement test because if I do well I could start on my sciences right away. Instead of taking time to take my pre-requisites. So far I have only taken one math class which is my pre-calc and no science. The rest of my classes are all GE's. So I don't have any science GPA's yet... So far. I think I have about 50-60 units done.

And I'm not a URM

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Well it was mostly because I failed to study hard enough... And also my mind has also been back and forth between different majors and stuff. Yeah. Sorry about that.

Well I haven't took any of my science classes yet. I plan to after i take my placement test. And I want to do well on this placement test because if I do well I could start on my sciences right away. Instead of taking time to take my pre-requisites. So far I have only taken one math class which is my pre-calc and no science. The rest of my classes are all GE's. So I don't have any science GPA's yet... So far. I think I have about 50-60 units done.

And I'm not a URM

50-60 units done... Meaning that another 60-70 units left. So basically even with a 4.0 you'll only balance out at around ~3.1. Having no science credits is good, it means you haven't done damage there. I would recommend retaking classes to get your gpa up ( DO schools have a replacement policy).


Start getting A's. You can manage to get into medical school, but you are going to need to stop the BS and work hard.

 

[funkymike]

Ok. Thanks a lot serenade.

 

[Catalystik]

First find out if you can get near straight As this current semester. If that goes well, then continue in the same manner.

For MD, you could get four years of straight As and end up with a 3.44 cGPA. With an MCAT score of 33+, you might get accepted into an allopathic program.

Or, get near-straight As until your cGPA is > 3.0 (which should take about two years if your grades stay high). With a good MCAT score (like 30+), you could either a) qualify for a Special Masters Program that would override your low GPA if your grades are excellent, which might get you into an allo school, or b) would probably get you into a DO med school, especially if you retake some of your lowest grades and take advantage of the DO grade forgiveness policy to further boost your GPA.

 

[funkymike]

Wow. Thanks for the information Catalystik. I'll try my best.

 

[Catalystik]

Read about the Special Masters Programs available in SDN's Postbaccalaureate Programs forum.

 

[Perrotfish]

Read about the Special Masters Programs available in SDN's Postbaccalaureate Programs forum.

Don't even bother. OP you're the classic candidate for DO schools: a lot of terrible grades in a very short amount of time that you could fix with grade replacement. Retake all the Ds, all the Fs, and a lot of the Cs and get good grade from here on out. It will add about a year to your college education, where going for an MD school would probably mean half a decade of GPA repair just to undo the damage you've done even if you got a 4.0 from here on out (which almost no one can do). There is no difference between DOs and MDs in terms of residency applications or practice rights.

That being said you do also need to figure out if you can handle this level of coursework. You got a 2.33 taking relatively easy (non-science) classes at a community college. Most medical students wouldn't need to study all that much to ace those courses. In the short term I think you need to reevaluate just how much you're willing to put your social life on hold to study for this, take some study skills and memory coursework, and get evaluated for a learning disability to see if meds could help. After that try out some of the harder science course work, like organic chem, physics, and cell biology. If you're throwing everything you have at the coursework and nothing is sticking maybe you should consider the possibility that your talent is not memorizing and regugitating factoids. I've seen a lot of people pour a decade and a fortune down the hole of premedicine without ending up in medical school. Don't let that be you.