Emory Student Needs Help!!!!!!!!!!

[PerzinStud89]

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Ok so I'm kind of stuck in a rut.
I'm a Freshman at Emory University in Atlanta,Ga. I was you're above average student in high school. I worked hard on the weekdays and enjoyed my weekends. Now after spending a year at Emory University I'm second guessing my stay here. My first year has completely destroyed me (high school students if you have AP credits..don't turn them in!) let's just say I'm below a 3.0. And an optimistic GPA looks like 2.9-3.3 at the end of my senior year (if I try hard). I'm originally from Nashville,TN. So my options are stay at Emory University of transfer to University of Tennessee--Knoxville (no, Vanderbilt is not an option, it would be the same thing, plus I don't believe I have the GPA strength to transfer). My only tiff with UTK is that it's a somewhat terrible state school (I don't know to many people who have graduated and gone to medical school), and I've been told that unless you have >31 Mcat from a school like UTK "most" medical schools will not really give you much of a look at. I just want to know what my options are and what the best path is before I royaly **** my path to pre-medicine or make a mistake like transferring that I will regret. Your thoughts my fellow peers please!!!

 

[236116]

assuming you had a 2.5 over 30 credits, you'd only need 60 more for a 3.5

why are you freaking out? what did you do badly on and how badly?

and that's bulls hit about a statie.

ALSO what is with all the emory kids today?

 

[techie222]

Whenever I am at a crossroads in my life, I always ask myself:

"How much do I want it?"

It being a career in medicine.

Many matriculated pre-med students do "poorly" during their freshman year in college. Afterall, you were in high school just a year ago where information was spoon-fed to you, and now you are at Emory--an extremely rigorous university (I know, I go to Georgia Tech and my friends from Emory are always reminding me of this).

Back to the question of how badly you want a career in medicine. If you have that fire in your belly to become a doctor, that should be all the motivation you need to overcome the obstacles you face in life, be it your grades, your social life, your whatever.

If I were in your position, I would re-evaluate my choice of a career in medicine. From this point on, it only becomes more difficult and more challenging. There will be days during medical school and residency where you will wish you were a freshman at Emory university. What better way to prepare for such a rigorous career than to start off at a place like Emory? Also, I would not bet on an Emory education compensating for a lower than 31 MCAT score.

If you end up deciding to transfer to UTK, that will probably be something admission committees will want to look into. In fact, it is likely that they will connect the dots and realize that you opted for a less challenging place like UTK.

Good luck!

 

[funkymunkytoes]

I don't think it's impossible to get into medical school from a "crappy state school" like UTK. I go to a "crappy state school" right now, and got in to two schools. Believe me, it'll be better to have a high GPA from UTK than a low GPA from Emory (which, although a GREAT school, doesn't have the name recognition of a Harvard or Yale). If you really believe you can do much better than a 2.9 - 3.3 at UTK (like a > 3.8), I'd say transfer. Your great MCAT score will show that you know the stuff, regardless where you got your undergraduate education!

 

[BlueElmo]

Yeah what the hell is happening to Emory kids?

 

[Dookter]

Alright, I'll bite. I went to UTK. I also went to high school with a bunch of kids like you who thought they were pretty smart...definitely smarter than working class kids like me who took the full+ rides [yes, that's full PLUS] to schools like UTK. You think many people don't go to medical school from UTK? I know tons of them... and some of the ones I know best have gone on to ace medical school and get amazing matches. I'm not doing too bad for myself either.

This debate has taken place probably hundreds of times on SDN--the undergrad school prestige debate. I'm not going to get too much into that other than to say that if you average out Emory vs UTK it's a no brainer...Emory wins every time. But you're not going to be averaged into anything. You're going to be forced to stand alone when you apply with nothing more than personal accomplishments [or lack thereof] to show for yourself. If you fail you're going to have to own your own failure. It's not Emory's fault. And it won't be UTK's fault either. And if you succeed, congrats! B/c you earned it.

 

[drizzt3117]

There are a few kids from UT at my school, including MSTP students... I don't think it's a bad school by any means.

 

[jamesq]

whats wrong with emory kids?

 

[135892]

Yeah what the hell is happening to Emory kids?

What? 😕

OP, why do you want to transfer? Is it because you think it'll be easier? In my opinion, that's not a good reason to transfer. I would just stay at Emory and try to bring up that gpa. Either put in more effort, or figure out how to study more effectively, or do whatever else you need to do. Emory is a pretty good school, so if you can tough it out, you'll be in decent shape down the road. Of course, if there's another reason that you want to transfer, it may be a different story. But personally, it would take a lot for me to leave Emory to go somewhere like U Tenn.

Best of luck to you 🙂

 

[236116]

whats wrong with emory kids?

What? 😕

been a bunch of trolly posts from ~emory kids.

 

[Lauren87]

If you're a freshman, you can always retake a few of your harder classes in summer school. Some school's will allow it to completely replace the first in your gpa. It's hard to get internships freshman year anyway. If you think Emory will always be a struggle for you, I guess you should transfer. However if you think you just didn't study enough, get it together!!!

 

[NinjaWarrior]

If you decided to stay, this may be of some consolation to you. Emory is the first featured school in this newsweek article in the link below.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/211432