Do I need to give up my Medical School Dreams?

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Hey, I am currently a rising sophomore at Rice University. My GPA at the end of my freshman year was a 3.43, but I am taking 2 physics courses this summer and finished the first one which took a toll on my GPA bringing it to a 3.27. I was also currently doing research with a graduate student in a lab, but decided to leave to hopefully do better in the upcoming second course. I have a pretty bad anxiety problem which I feel hurt my freshman year as a whole and am currently working in therapy and on medications to help ease it, if not hopefully resolve it. That being said I can’t blame my gpa solely based on that alone.
Currently I plan on majoring in Psychology and minoring in Business or possibly Biochemistry. I am an EMT and plan on doing volunteer work with that throughout the upcoming years and possibly taking another advanced class.
Before coming to Rice I took General chemistry at UHD and managed to get A's there, but didn't take any true science courses during my freshman year at Rice (unless you count Psychology and an EMS course).
My biggest concern right now is my gpa. I have a pretty hefty fall semester lined up with an organic chemistry course and a BioChem course amongst other moderate courses. I am currently under the impression that the average gpa of a Rice student to get 90% acceptance rate into medical school is 3.71.
I have tried other courses and looked into other possible careers but my conclusion is that I think I would really only truly be happy as a doctor.
My current plan is to see how well I perform in the new physics course without having to work in a lab every other day, and then see how I do in the fall semester. Based off of those outcomes I think I will have an answer on whether or not to continue as a pre-med.
My biggest concern is that my GPA stays the same or possibly drops even more, which I believe would hurt me a lot when applying to medical schools.

 

[Dr panda]

Yes, you do, unless you stop being nervous OCD pre-med student and understand that you have 3 more years to fix your GPA and show an upward trend.
Almost identical thread: Do I have a chance?

 

[Moko]

Someone who is committed to pursuing medicine could theoretically recover from almost any GPA (as long as it's not completely trashed, and by that I mean <2.5, and even then I'm sure there are rarer success stories). Whether someone is willing to take the often long and arduous path of 'reinvention', well that's a whole other question. Look at the non-trad and post-bacc subforums for success stories of those who recovered from sub-3.0 GPAs.

Having said that, you are FAR from that situation. You have a ~3.3 GPA for just one year... you are not screwed by any measure. You need to start getting consistent A's now to show that the 3.3 does not reflect your true academic potential.

Before you take any more courses (especially science courses), take a step back and figure out what went wrong during your freshman year. You need to make sure that your anxiety is well managed, and that all other problems that contributed to your relatively lackluster freshman year are resolved before you resume your premed journey. If you just took on too much too soon, now would be a good time to cut back on some ECs. If you need a lighter semester to get into the swing of things, do that! Each semester of poor grades from here on out will become harder to undo, and makes it more likely that you'll need additional post-baccalaureate coursework if you are truly committed to pursuing medicine. Good luck.

 

[Goro]

Hey, I am currently a rising sophomore at Rice University. My GPA at the end of my freshman year was a 3.43, but I am taking 2 physics courses this summer and finished the first one which took a toll on my GPA bringing it to a 3.27. I was also currently doing research with a graduate student in a lab, but decided to leave to hopefully do better in the upcoming second course. I have a pretty bad anxiety problem which I feel hurt my freshman year as a whole and am currently working in therapy and on medications to help ease it, if not hopefully resolve it. That being said I can’t blame my gpa solely based on that alone.
Currently I plan on majoring in Psychology and minoring in Business or possibly Biochemistry. I am an EMT and plan on doing volunteer work with that throughout the upcoming years and possibly taking another advanced class.
Before coming to Rice I took General chemistry at UHD and managed to get A's there, but didn't take any true science courses during my freshman year at Rice (unless you count Psychology and an EMS course).
My biggest concern right now is my gpa. I have a pretty hefty fall semester lined up with an organic chemistry course and a BioChem course amongst other moderate courses. I am currently under the impression that the average gpa of a Rice student to get 90% acceptance rate into medical school is 3.71.
I have tried other courses and looked into other possible careers but my conclusion is that I think I would really only truly be happy as a doctor.
My current plan is to see how well I perform in the new physics course without having to work in a lab every other day, and then see how I do in the fall semester. Based off of those outcomes I think I will have an answer on whether or not to continue as a pre-med.
My biggest concern is that my GPA stays the same or possibly drops even more, which I believe would hurt me a lot when applying to medical schools.

U- or V- shaped GPA trends are very common.

 

[Bonne Nuit]

It's good that you're asking these questions early on. Many of my pre-med peers didn't start addressing their GPA problems until later on in their college careers. This, as you might expect, was to their detriment.

You're in good shape to repair your GPA, but you have to start now. If you know that you will only be happy as a doctor and you are intent on matriculating immediately after graduation, then you have some tough choices and commitments to make. You cannot be like other college students. Your focus needs to be on earning the highest marks possible and building the strongest application you can. You will have to work hobbies, social plans, relationships, and relaxation around your academic workload - not vice versa.

Not all pre-meds have to go through this. Some pre-meds are just so crazy talented that they can party all the time while barely studying and breezing through their coursework. But I sure wasn't one of them, and that meant many Friday and Saturday nights at the library in front of calculus problems or lab reports.

It's not all doom and gloom. You can still have a lot of fun in college, but it takes advance planning, strong organizational skills, and a good measure of discipline.

 

[907914]

U- or V- shaped GPA trends are very common.

Do you see very many GPAs shaped like a square root symbol? (start out meh, tank a quarter or two, spike straight up and maintain a high GPA later on).

 

[Goro]

Do you see very many GPAs shaped like a square root symbol? (start out meh, tank a quarter or two, spike straight up and maintain a high GPA later on).

Yes