Failing Orgo I

[blahblahblagh]

Ok so right now I've already taken the tests and did below avg on both of them!! I have about 154 pts and there are 300 pts in the class so far. I will have another hour exam and the final....

Should I drop with a W? I think I can get a C and its slightly possible for me to get a B- since I can expect a ~15% curve. But I don't know if I will be able to score high enough on the next 2 tests if I haven't even gotten avg yet.

What should I do?!?!?! I'm a second semester freshman and had a 4.0 last semester and am getting A's in all of my classes (hopefully!) besides this one.

If I retake it in the summer I might be able to do better.

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[apumic]

umm...you're failing at mid-semester w/ about a 50%. Yes, you should withdraw while you have the chance. You don't want a C on your transcript and even a B- in ochem could require some 'xplainin' at interviews and/or raise a few eyebrows. You don't want that. Withdraw and retake. I might suggest still attending the class, though, for the remainder of the semester and doing the homework (probably should skip test days). That way you'll be more familiar with the material the second time around.

 

[rxnfiend]

Definitely retake. You probably took the class too early in your college career to understand how to study for it.

 

[mdbound1987]

umm...you're failing at mid-semester w/ about a 50%. Yes, you should withdraw while you have the chance. You don't want a C on your transcript and even a B- in ochem could require some 'xplainin' at interviews and/or raise a few eyebrows. You don't want that. Withdraw and retake. I might suggest still attending the class, though, for the remainder of the semester and doing the homework (probably should skip test days). That way you'll be more familiar with the material the second time around.

I dont know if I 100% agree with this. This is a tough situation though. From one standpoint (a.k.a. the one i quoted above), a withdraw and a retake will help your science GPA the most, but at the same time W's on your transcript look horrible. You will have to do a lot of explanation for this W and you would not have to explain why you got a B- in orgo 1. I got all A's in my pre-reqs except Physics 2 where I got a C. One of my interviewers (at a top 30, big name school) asked what happened, I told him it was a tough class for me, and he said, "well that's definitely understandable." If you do well in your other pre-reqs, a B- will not hurt you in the least especially considering you are a freshman. If you really think you can pull a B- out of the class (which you really need to think about considering you have had trouble all semester), it would be better for you to keep that B- and keep it moving. A lot of people on SDN will give you the impression that anything less than an A in any pre-req will get you rejected. You can def get into top 25 schools with a B- in orgo 1. Obviously you should strive for A's but don't freak out over a B-. If you are able to get a C this semester, I would say stick with it through the rest of the semester, retake it, get an A, and AMCAS will average those two grades to a B. Just remember, if you withdraw, be prepared to have a good explanation, and a good explanation for a W tends to be that you had a struggle outside of academics or a crazy courseload, not that you knew you would fail if you didn't withdraw.

 

[apumic]

I dont know if I 100% agree with this. This is a tough situation though. From one standpoint (a.k.a. the one i quoted above), a withdraw and a retake will help your science GPA the most, but at the same time W's on your transcript look horrible. You will have to do a lot of explanation for this W and you would not have to explain why you got a B- in orgo 1. I got all A's in my pre-reqs except Physics 2 where I got a C. One of my interviewers (at a top 30, big name school) asked what happened, I told him it was a tough class for me, and he said, "well that's definitely understandable." If you do well in your other pre-reqs, a B- will not hurt you in the least especially considering you are a freshman. If you really think you can pull a B- out of the class (which you really need to think about considering you have had trouble all semester), it would be better for you to keep that B- and keep it moving. A lot of people on SDN will give you the impression that anything less than an A in any pre-req will get you rejected. You can def get into top 25 schools with a B- in orgo 1. Obviously you should strive for A's but don't freak out over a B-. If you are able to get a C this semester, I would say stick with it through the rest of the semester, retake it, get an A, and AMCAS will average those two grades to a B. Just remember, if you withdraw, be prepared to have a good explanation, and a good explanation for a W tends to be that you had a struggle outside of academics or a crazy courseload, not that you knew you would fail if you didn't withdraw.

A+C=A+C. AMCAS does NOT average. People like to call it "averaging" to make themselves feel better but all it really is is simply counting the 2 courses as individual courses (i.e., 3 units A + 3 units C is equivalent to 6 units of Bs). 1 W will not require much (any) explaining whereas a B- will result in fairly significant damage to a person's sGPA (i.e., a 2.7 in a 3-5 unit class is going to do noticeable damage to the OP's record, esp. if s/he is not a science/math major). A track record of Ws is what will get questions, but so will a track record of Cs.

 

[jboz]

I dont know if I 100% agree with this. This is a tough situation though. From one standpoint (a.k.a. the one i quoted above), a withdraw and a retake will help your science GPA the most, but at the same time W's on your transcript look horrible. You will have to do a lot of explanation for this W and you would not have to explain why you got a B- in orgo 1. I got all A's in my pre-reqs except Physics 2 where I got a C. One of my interviewers (at a top 30, big name school) asked what happened, I told him it was a tough class for me, and he said, "well that's definitely understandable." If you do well in your other pre-reqs, a B- will not hurt you in the least especially considering you are a freshman. If you really think you can pull a B- out of the class (which you really need to think about considering you have had trouble all semester), it would be better for you to keep that B- and keep it moving. A lot of people on SDN will give you the impression that anything less than an A in any pre-req will get you rejected. You can def get into top 25 schools with a B- in orgo 1. Obviously you should strive for A's but don't freak out over a B-. If you are able to get a C this semester, I would say stick with it through the rest of the semester, retake it, get an A, and AMCAS will average those two grades to a B. Just remember, if you withdraw, be prepared to have a good explanation, and a good explanation for a W tends to be that you had a struggle outside of academics or a crazy courseload, not that you knew you would fail if you didn't withdraw.

in short, your post sucks. I'd rather have a W than a C on my transcript, especially in a prereq

 

[unhappytnt]

in short, your post sucks. I'd rather have a W than a C on my transcript, especially in a prereq

One C or W isn't going to kill anyone's chances, so preferring one over another doesn't really make sense.

 

[jboz]

One C or W isn't going to kill anyone's chances, so preferring one over another doesn't really make sense.

depending on someone's GPA, it sure as hell does. I don't see how you'd think otherwise...especially if you're not a science major.

 

[mdbound1987]

A shorter version of my post above: a C/B- or a W won't kill you, but I feel a W requires more explanation. Like SU1989 said, a C or W will not kill your chances if you do well in the rest of your pre-reqs whether or not you are a science major. With one C and all A's (assuming you work your butt off to achieve this feat) in the other pre-reqs, the only thing that will get you rejected is lack of quality extracurriculars, community service, leadership, research, clinical experience, or crappy LORs, secondary essays, and personal statement. Don't let people give you the impression that one grade will kill your chances. I know someone who got an D+ in a pre-req, retook and got an A, and got accepted to a top 30 school. I'm not saying you should slack and know you can still get accepted, but just don't freak out over a bad grade.