Entering college next year and need a lot of help (horror story included)

[Ryder]

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hi. this fall I am heading to the University of the Pacific in Stockton. I also got accepted to UC Davis and UC Irvine. I am going to UOP b/c of their pharmacy program. My goal is to become a doctor but I would like to enter the UOP pharmacy school as backup just in case I don't get into medical school

my question concerns the requirement of taking calculus. I am in AP Calculus but I do not plan to take the AP test. Why? I am getting an F although the class is audited so that I will get a letter grade but no credits. This means it will not affect my high school gpa. my first semester grade for AP Cal was a C.

Because i am not planning to take the AP because I know I will not pass, do I have to take 2 semesters of Calculus in college if i want to go to med school. Or can I just take Statistics? Or can I just avoid math altogether and still go to med school. i plan to apply to only california/oregon/nevada medical schools.

The reason I am asking this is b/c I am doing really horrible right now in Calculus and am just generally frustrated. I am a decent student with a 3.72 unweighted GPA and 4.01 weighted GPA. I am getting A's in the rest of my classes. If you're wondering how I am gettting an F here is what happened.

In December 2001 my dermatologist Dr. S gave me some pills thioguinine (not sure on the spelling) to stop my eczema. He said there would no dangerous effects. he was wrong. within 2 weeks i began noticing side affects. i became really tired and weak, even when I got enough sleep. so i decided to stop taking the medicine. anyways strange things began to happen. i had a bloody nose that lasted almost 2 hours one day, i threw up, and had severe stomach pains at night. i had to constantly go to the bathroom and i diarria. and then something weird happened. my hair started falling out. i would wash it or gently pull on it and a whole bunch came out. this was when i got worried. on dec 31 i went to the hospital and soon became even more weak and tired. i was dizzy, nauseated and could not even stand up or walk alone without support/help. anyways i stayed in the hospital 16 days jan 1-16 and found out i had a blood infection resulting from the drug. it lowered my white blood count to .5 and my platelets and red blood cells. I lost like 20 pounds and all my hair fell out. so i was really behind in school. when i came back i had to finish my 1st semester finals and keep up with 2nd semester

(sorry for venting and getting off topic. but i am really upset at Dr. S. i trusted him, and this horrible thing happened to me. i dont know if it is his fault or what. he gave me two blood tests but never called or said there were any problems. i dont know if i was at fault. i took the thiogugine like he prescribed. i think the thing that really makes me upset/bitter is that he didn't seem to care at all. when i came back from the hospital to get a check up from him, he was so fake. he had a big gesture planned out with i was so worried and stayed up nights thinking about you. he said it's no one's fault that this happened, it just happened. i waited like 40 minutes for him to meet me. while he was talking to me i smelled new cigarette smoke in his breath and the way he was acting just wasnt sincere. so i am little upset about this)

anyways....back to my question

i fell behind in calculus and have not recovered since then. i am not a great math student and never was but the illness set me back a great deal. i am at a point where i hate math and do not want to ever deal with calculus again. i don't really understand the material and don't really want to take it in college and end up with a C,D, F because i feel like i am going to struggle. is there any way i can end up a ca, or, nevada med school and not take 2 semesters of calculus? maybe i can do statistics instead?
what exactly are the normal math requirements?

also what is a good schedule to get the med-school requirements done in 3 years? what classes should i take freshmen, sophmore, junior years? what do i need to take and how do i balance out the classes so i get the requirements done and at the same time not feel overwhelmed with # of hard classes. please help.

thanks.

 

[Angel_Eyes]

Wow, I am really sorry to hear about what happened. However, it doesn't sound like you are flunking calc because you don't understand it...you had a rough patch. Your other grades seem good and you have to consider the fact that when you get to college you will have a different calc professor and may be able to relate to his/her teaching style better. I say stick in there. Usually, at least all the schools I've looked into require calc 1 and that is it. But, you should go online to the schools to which you plan to apply and check it out.
As for your college courses....do the opposite of what I had to do and try to get a good mix of "GPA boosting" courses and your core classes in the same semester. I am on scholarship for softball and was at the mercy of my softball schedule to plan my classes. I ended up having to take organic, molecular cell biology and physics plus all the labs in the same semester. Don't recommend you do that!! Anyway, I would say take your math...get it out of the way early along with your general chem courses.
Try to take some summer school courses to free up your time for the harder classes (organic!) in the following semesters. Try to have your physics, organic done by your junior year so that you can take the MCAT in April and apply that fall!! Good Luck, hope I helped...if not, sorry!

 

[Scooby Doo]

I am really sorry about your story. I think most UC's require 1 year of calculus and UCLA for sure requires a semester of stat.
Like the above poster, I don't think it is your lack of understanding but rather other issues surrounding the situation that caused you to not do well in the class.
As for mentioning the doctor's name on the board, you might want to make it more anonymous (ie. Dr. S) or something. I once said something about a doctor on a different forum and got threatened with a law suit.

 

[megkudos]

Sorry to hear about your problems, that's a really scary experience.

I think many schools do require Calc 1 but check online. You can go to <a href="http://www.aamc.org," target="_blank">www.aamc.org,</a> look on the left of the page and click on "medical schools".
There will be links for all us medical schools.

Are you sure you are not required to take Calc for pharmacy? I think you may have to, at least I my undergrad I think you do. Well good luck 🙂

 

[none]

You are VERY far off from the application cycle, but do not under ANY circumstances limit yourself to California, Nevada and Oregon schools as you proposed!! It is likely doomed to failure. You MUST include schools like Finch, George Washington and Albany...schools that are actually possible to get in to! Nevada, BTW, requires Nevada residency and Oregon strongly prefers it (especially over a Californian!) Did you know the average California applicant applies to 25 schools?