Freshman losing hope

[Iamnumber24]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi everybody, I am a freshman in one of the very top public Universities in the city of new york (CUNY). I'm in my schools pre-med programs and I'm taking English, Chemistry, Spanish, and calculus. I'm doing okay so far in college but i'm way behind my goals and expectations. In English i'm at about an A or A+, in Spanish im at an A- or B+, In chemistry im at about a B+ or maybe a B-, but calculus is where im struggling. I have failed both of the 2 tests given and that almost if not guarentees me failing calculus but if i get 100 on the the next test and get a pefect score on the final the most i can get is a D+. yes I know thats very bad. I have about a week to drop the class if i want to and get a "W" but if I do that I will lose about 90 percent of my financial aid and have to pay back money. If I do decide to not withdraw I can ask my professor for a "NC" or "NP" as it is commonly known. if I get the NC I wont lose any of my financial aid. but if my professor does not agree im guarenteed an F in calculus. that will really hurt my first semester gpa and thats really going to suck. I'm feeling really down about my whole sitation and i feel as if that F is going to hurt me alot down the road. But no matter what way everything goes with math im definitely going to take pre-calculus next semester and take calculus over next fall or i might take the first semester of calculus in the summer and do the second part of it in the fall of '08.

So thats my situation. can anyone please give me some advice and their opinion on my situation. will one F in calculus one during my freshman year look really bad? shud I also take statistics after calculus? HELP

Thank you

 

[146233]

An incomplete (NC/NP) or a Withdraw is better than an F. Talk to your professor and your academic advisor (pre-health office, if you have one). It's not too late, but it sounds like you need to act quickly. Your other grades are strong, so do what you can to prevent this blemish -- trust me, it makes a difference. Good luck!

 

[Aesculapius]

An F would be very bad for your overall GPA in the long run, as well as being something that might look troublesome on its own. I would ask the professor ASAP if you can get the NC to begin with, so you at least know what your options are. However, I would guess that an NC, though I don't know how it goes into the AMCAS calculated GPA, would also be a big red flag.

If you can suck up the financial aid loss, taking the W might be your best bet.

 

[pakbabydoll]

I would talk to the professor, MONDAY as soon as possible.

 

[smq123]

However, I would guess that an NC, though I don't know how it goes into the AMCAS calculated GPA, would also be a big red flag.

The OP is a freshman. An incomplete (or even a W) for a first-semester college freshman is not a "big red flag" when s(he) applies for med school. (Assuming that the OP still wants to go to med school 3 years from now.)

Honestly, I'd even say that an F in calculus, given that the OP's other grades in that semester are fine, is not a kiss of death for most med schools. Most med school adcoms realize that the first semester of freshman year is tough for everyone.

OP - Talk to your professor and let him know how you're struggling. Don't worry too much about med school now - just survive the first couple years of undergrad with good grades. Calc is not a huge deal for med school, and not even on the MCAT.

 

[Adradr]

An F would just be painful in the OP's GPA. I'd say either the cost of the W or the hassle of getting the NC is TOTALLY worth it.

I'd take Pakbabydoll's advice... Talk to your prof on MONDAY. Good luck!

 

[Crazy4F1]

i dropped out of calc first semester of freshman year too, and took the W. you will be ok! good luck! 🙂

 

[smuwillobrien]

I dropped out of my first year of University, so I have five withdraws - it wasn't mentioned once at my interviews.

 

[Aesculapius]

I believe there is a difference between an NC and a W. At my school, at least, a W just means that you have withdrawn from the course after a certain deadline for dropping courses has passed. An NC is more what you get if you take a class P/F. The W would not be a big deal, from what I know. The NC might be somewhat more so, though I am not an admissions committee member and I do not know how they would look at it.

 

[Chris Knight]

ok, the NC is far far better than the F, or the D for that matter. Yes your a freshman and as others have said it will be overlooked, but thats only overlooked in the sense that you won't be badgered about that in interviews etc, but even a single F will hurt your GPA, and they most definitely care about that. Its far easier to come up with a good excuse for an NC than and F.

And for the future, you don't need to take calculus (unless its some college requirement for graduation). Med schools don't care what math you take, and honestly statistics is far more useful. I went all the way to diff eq in an effort to make myself look good etc, and now I'm in med school and I've had to learn statistics on my own time and time again throughout. I don't think anyone gave a damn how much math I took.

 

[NonTradMed]

Honestly, I'd even say that an F in calculus, given that the OP's other grades in that semester are fine, is not a kiss of death for most med schools. Most med school adcoms realize that the first semester of freshman year is tough for everyone.

I would strongly advise against taking the F simply because of what it would do to the OP's GPA. The forums are filled with students who 'screwed up' their first semester and ended up with a blemish on their application which influenced the outcome of their med school acceptance.

Also remember that AMCAS will average your grade out if you retake. So if you received an 'F' for this class and retake it, even an 'A' won't pull your GPA up that much.

Plus, since it's a math course, it will count towards the BCPM GPA. From personal experience, I will say that a C can hurt your science GPA if your other stuff aren't completely up to snuff. 🙁

Your best bet is to talk to your adviser and see about withdrawing. Good luck!

 

[solsek]

Hey, I am having troubles in calculus also. Calculus 2 is probably the hardest of all the calculus courses for me, but me being the smart person I am (NOT!) decided to take calculus 2 my first quarter of college. I think I failed the midterm that I just took earlier this week. All I have to say is calculus is a bitch!

Good luck in your decision.

 

[smq123]

I would strongly advise against taking the F simply because of what it would do to the OP's GPA. The forums are filled with students who 'screwed up' their first semester and ended up with a blemish on their application which influenced the outcome of their med school acceptance.

Plus, since it's a math course, it will count towards the BCPM GPA. From personal experience, I will say that a C can hurt your science GPA if your other stuff aren't completely up to snuff. 🙁

I know - and if I were the OP I'd rather not take the F. But, given the circumstances with financial aid, if I had to, the F wouldn't totally kill my chances of getting into med school. My point was that if the OP feels that s/he should just take the F, rather than lose out on financial aid, it can still be okay in the long run.

And I know what you mean about crappy BCPM GPAs - mine was slightly under a 3.2 when I applied, thanks to a couple of Cs. Still got in (first try). (And no, I didn't go to Africa to save any babies, and my MCAT was only a 30 or 31.) So there's hope for everyone. 🙂

 

[premedmind]

I saw take the W but since it is a non major class a C would maybe look better than the W.....but since you already failed two midterms DEFINETLY take the W....

An F is never going to look good, try to take out a loan for the financial aid...

 

[Iamnumber24]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. On monday I'm going to talk to my professor and see what happens.

I guess my other question would be that lets say for example I get an NC or an F but for the rest of my academic career until I apply to medical school I keep my gpa really high and dont get any bad grades. would the F still look bad or would it be somewhat overlooked or not taken as seriously because it was in my very first semester of college?

Thanks again everybody

 

[Isoprop]

W > Nc/np > D > F

 

[premedmind]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. On monday I'm going to talk to my professor and see what happens.

I guess my other question would be that lets say for example I get an NC or an F but for the rest of my academic career until I apply to medical school I keep my gpa really high and dont get any bad grades. would the F still look bad or would it be somewhat overlooked or not taken as seriously because it was in my very first semester of college?

Thanks again everybody

An F is an F...doesn't matter what other grades you get. If the financial aid is worrying you definetly go talk to an advisor.