Fresh meat here in need of help!

[SpinMeRound]

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Hey guys,

I've been lurking around SDN for months now and finally decided to register 😛. Anyways this is the same ol' same ol' story about myself then begging for advice. Any advice is welcome, as well as criticism!

I'm a 2nd semester Freshman in college at a public state school in TX. I did terribly my 1st semester, was diagnosed with MDD at the very end and am on meds now . I ended up with a 2.0, I took 12 hours of Eng I, Gen Psych, Gov't I, and Art App. Yeah, I slacked my ass off, I know.

This semester I'm taking 15 hours of Speech, Eng II, Gov't II, Population&World Cultures, and Drawing. I'll probably get 2-3 C's, then 2 B's or a B and an A.

I'm transferring next semester to UNT or UTA (any opinions of these schools?). This summer I'll take 6-9 hours of Alg and maybe my 2 histories. Then Fall semester I'll take Bio, French, idk what else yet.

So basically I have a ton of questions.

1) How long will it take to raise my GPA to a 3.0? 3.2? 3.5? How many hours and what do I need to make?

2) I'm choosing DO school over MD, just a side note. I thought for a long time I wanted to be an ND. Then I discovered the D.O.

3) Could someone summarize the sections of the MCAT for me? Like I said, fresh meat.

4) What's the deal with the Caribbean med schools? Does your degree for sure transfer? I just discovered these and am not really sure about them?

5) I've seen a lot of people talk about research as an EC, is this individual? Group? Examples?

6) Anyone know what N.D. school is like?


Ok my brain is frying. I know this post sounds incredibly naive and ignorant, but I figure I would ask anyways.

 

[Shakespeare37]

Hey guys,

I've been lurking around SDN for months now and finally decided to register 😛. Anyways this is the same ol' same ol' story about myself then begging for advice. Any advice is welcome, as well as criticism!

I'm a 2nd semester Freshman in college at a public state school in TX. I did terribly my 1st semester, was diagnosed with MDD at the very end and am on meds now . I ended up with a 2.0, I took 12 hours of Eng I, Gen Psych, Gov't I, and Art App. Yeah, I slacked my ass off, I know.

This semester I'm taking 15 hours of Speech, Eng II, Gov't II, Population&World Cultures, and Drawing. I'll probably get 2-3 C's, then 2 B's or a B and an A.

I'm transferring next semester to UNT or UTA (any opinions of these schools?). This summer I'll take 6-9 hours of Alg and maybe my 2 histories. Then Fall semester I'll take Bio, French, idk what else yet.

So basically I have a ton of questions.

1) How long will it take to raise my GPA to a 3.0? 3.2? 3.5? How many hours and what do I need to make? You will have to run the numbers on your own... 15 hours of A's will make a huge difference, 15 hours of C's will drag you down.

2) I'm choosing DO school over MD, just a side note. I thought for a long time I wanted to be an ND. Then I discovered the D.O. This will probably get moved to the DO forum.....

3) Could someone summarize the sections of the MCAT for me? Like I said, fresh meat. Section 1: Physical Science= Gen chemistry and physics 52 questions, 13 discrete and 39 passage based. 72 minutes to complete. Section 2 Verbal: 40 passage based questions, 1 hour to complete. Section 3: Writing: 2 essays, 30 min each to complete. Biological Sciences= Biology and Organic Chemistry, 52 questions, 13 discrete. 72 minutes to complete. The MCAT will be changing in 2015. I don't think anything is out there about how it will be structured, specifically. Seems like they are going to add humanities based/behavioral science based stuff. Hard to know for sure.

4) What's the deal with the Caribbean med schools? Does your degree for sure transfer? I just discovered these and am not really sure about them? Stay US and go DO. Some Caribbean med schools have specific audiences: Ponce (Spanish Speaking) Ross: A for-profit school out to make money.

5) I've seen a lot of people talk about research as an EC, is this individual? Group? Examples? Research is an EC. Research usually takes place in a group setting, ie many people take data, or do 'bench' research (in the lab) of which your work is a small part of the overall goal. This varies with experience and level of time. If you spend 3 years in a lab, you may be the senior person there working directly for the primary investigator and directing other students. Research situations are HIGHLY variable.

6) Anyone know what N.D. school is like?
No idea.

Ok my brain is frying. I know this post sounds incredibly naive and ignorant, but I figure I would ask anyways.

Best of luck. The most important thing you can do is get your grades up!

 

[SpinMeRound]

Ah, thank you! How do you get privileged to a lab for research? Do you have to have a completed B.S. to use them?

 

[Catalystik]

@Shakespeare: This area of WAMC is meant for both MD and DO aspirants and can be accessed from either PreMed Forum. And Ponce, though in the Caribbean, along with the other Puerto Rican med schools, is considered a fully accredited US med school.

@SpinMeRound: Don't worry about ECs for now. Your priority is to get high grades. With straight As this semester, your GPA will be at 3.0+. With another year of straight As, you'd go up to 3.5+.

DO schools outside of Texas have a grade forgiveness policy: if you retake a class, only the second grade is included in your application GPA calculation, so long as the credit hours are the same or greater. You can raise your do AACOMAS application GPA more rapidly by retaking the poor grades. Unfortunately, TCOM doesn't do this.