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Hello,
My GPA took a massive nosedive and I have reached the point of exhaustion. I'd appreciate some advice.
I was born in Japan, and I am Japanese. My parents left the country in hopes for a better life when I was five, and I lived in England for four years, while my father studied on very limited funds (and avoiding the payment office) to get his masters. I came to the US when I was nine and we were about to go on the streets for a while. My father is a Ph.D candidate but he is working 80 hours a week while writing his thesis, so it's tough for him. My mother was in an car accident two months after we arrived, incapacitating her to the point she can no longer read (I mean anything. Even cooking directions). I've taken care of her since then, helping her with secretarial matters. She stays in for the most of the time, but she does need to take care of the house so any "going out" requires a driver, aka my father or me.
Anyway, I went to high school here, got excellent grades, did tons of ECs while juggling a part-time job as a model after battling a weight problem and eating disorder. Because I was on the verge of breakdown, my parents decided to send me back to England for further education. I went to med school for two years there, but living alone by myself (I'm an only child), working to alleviate financial costs on my parents, and the entirely different system of education led to me failing out by two points on the exam.
Defeated, I returned, took a gap year recuperating from my shattered dreams, three suicide attempts and interventions. I reapplied as a transfer student and started as a sophomore at a local university (Tier 1, mid-size, started off as liberal arts, e.t.c.) as a Physics major and chem/math minor. Trying to get back into studying habits after a year of fighting off another wave of anorexia took its toll, and I got C's in Organic Chemistry, and not due to lack of effort (I probably don't understand how to study for chemistry in general). The following semester was a little easier, but Physical Chemistry I still kicked me. But I still had a 3.46 GPA, despite Mondays and Wednesdays being completely gone (I'd come home around 8:30, eat dinner, then just crash due to fatigue). I was named the concertmistress of the university orchestra as well, and while this was my only way of unwinding, it was an added pressure.
Then this semester came, and my parents got notified that my grandmother passed away. My mother and she were on very bad terms, and we were not invited to the funeral, but my uncle decided to embezzle the inheritance (quite a sum of money, it seems). The war began, and due to my mother's incapacity I had to call back home almost every night for the past semester (time difference); I'd stay up until five in the morning, trying to sort out legal matters that I had very little knowledge to, get an hour of sleep, then try to function on that all day. It didn't work.
As the result, my GPA took a nose dive and it's currently at 3.2 (BCPM 2.8...). I passed all my classes, including the Math Methods in which 50% of the class dropped out, but just barely. I did pass biochem with a B+ (not stellar, but better than average). I decided not to take my MCATs in May because I knew I won't do well in it yet; I've started studying for it as soon as summer holidays hit.
Overall, I'm feeling tired, discouraged, and as if walls are closing in. I have 80 hours or so of volunteering, not to mention my hours at hospitals/clinics back when I was a medical student, and am in two research labs, with one authorship.
My professors are all puzzled. They say in unison that they can't figure out why I'm not doing well in classes I don't get A's in; evidently I'm either an intelligent person who's having a roadblock, or I'm an excellent con-woman. Either way, I know the GPA's pretty much slammed the door. But I can't give up now, after 20 years of going at it.
So, after the life-biography, my questions are the following:
1. Do I have a shot at MD/PhD (I want a PhD, MD is secondary for me), in an impossible situation of getting a high score in MCAT? My practice tests have scored over 35s. I am in my 3rd week of studying. Given that I'll average 3.7 for the next two semesters until I graduate, I can bring up my GPA to 3.4.
2. Should I go for my Ph.D first? I will probably be going back to Europe for my Ph.D, since a lot of their institutions offer free tuitions.
3. What are the benefits of DOs? I've seen polar opinions with "DOs get sneezed at" and "DOs work just like MDs", but I've never seen a DO physician in my life, even during my time working as an assistant at a university hospital. I want to do research in the end, so I'm not sure how a DO degree would work out.
I am well aware that getting an MD would be termed lucky for someone in my situation; I've started seeing a psychiatrist, neurologist and a gastroenterologist after my migraines, my eating disorder, sleeping disorder and my IBS got worse; at one point it was so bad my teeth fell out, so hopefully I'm on my way to recovery.
Thanks in advance.
My GPA took a massive nosedive and I have reached the point of exhaustion. I'd appreciate some advice.
I was born in Japan, and I am Japanese. My parents left the country in hopes for a better life when I was five, and I lived in England for four years, while my father studied on very limited funds (and avoiding the payment office) to get his masters. I came to the US when I was nine and we were about to go on the streets for a while. My father is a Ph.D candidate but he is working 80 hours a week while writing his thesis, so it's tough for him. My mother was in an car accident two months after we arrived, incapacitating her to the point she can no longer read (I mean anything. Even cooking directions). I've taken care of her since then, helping her with secretarial matters. She stays in for the most of the time, but she does need to take care of the house so any "going out" requires a driver, aka my father or me.
Anyway, I went to high school here, got excellent grades, did tons of ECs while juggling a part-time job as a model after battling a weight problem and eating disorder. Because I was on the verge of breakdown, my parents decided to send me back to England for further education. I went to med school for two years there, but living alone by myself (I'm an only child), working to alleviate financial costs on my parents, and the entirely different system of education led to me failing out by two points on the exam.
Defeated, I returned, took a gap year recuperating from my shattered dreams, three suicide attempts and interventions. I reapplied as a transfer student and started as a sophomore at a local university (Tier 1, mid-size, started off as liberal arts, e.t.c.) as a Physics major and chem/math minor. Trying to get back into studying habits after a year of fighting off another wave of anorexia took its toll, and I got C's in Organic Chemistry, and not due to lack of effort (I probably don't understand how to study for chemistry in general). The following semester was a little easier, but Physical Chemistry I still kicked me. But I still had a 3.46 GPA, despite Mondays and Wednesdays being completely gone (I'd come home around 8:30, eat dinner, then just crash due to fatigue). I was named the concertmistress of the university orchestra as well, and while this was my only way of unwinding, it was an added pressure.
Then this semester came, and my parents got notified that my grandmother passed away. My mother and she were on very bad terms, and we were not invited to the funeral, but my uncle decided to embezzle the inheritance (quite a sum of money, it seems). The war began, and due to my mother's incapacity I had to call back home almost every night for the past semester (time difference); I'd stay up until five in the morning, trying to sort out legal matters that I had very little knowledge to, get an hour of sleep, then try to function on that all day. It didn't work.
As the result, my GPA took a nose dive and it's currently at 3.2 (BCPM 2.8...). I passed all my classes, including the Math Methods in which 50% of the class dropped out, but just barely. I did pass biochem with a B+ (not stellar, but better than average). I decided not to take my MCATs in May because I knew I won't do well in it yet; I've started studying for it as soon as summer holidays hit.
Overall, I'm feeling tired, discouraged, and as if walls are closing in. I have 80 hours or so of volunteering, not to mention my hours at hospitals/clinics back when I was a medical student, and am in two research labs, with one authorship.
My professors are all puzzled. They say in unison that they can't figure out why I'm not doing well in classes I don't get A's in; evidently I'm either an intelligent person who's having a roadblock, or I'm an excellent con-woman. Either way, I know the GPA's pretty much slammed the door. But I can't give up now, after 20 years of going at it.
So, after the life-biography, my questions are the following:
1. Do I have a shot at MD/PhD (I want a PhD, MD is secondary for me), in an impossible situation of getting a high score in MCAT? My practice tests have scored over 35s. I am in my 3rd week of studying. Given that I'll average 3.7 for the next two semesters until I graduate, I can bring up my GPA to 3.4.
2. Should I go for my Ph.D first? I will probably be going back to Europe for my Ph.D, since a lot of their institutions offer free tuitions.
3. What are the benefits of DOs? I've seen polar opinions with "DOs get sneezed at" and "DOs work just like MDs", but I've never seen a DO physician in my life, even during my time working as an assistant at a university hospital. I want to do research in the end, so I'm not sure how a DO degree would work out.
I am well aware that getting an MD would be termed lucky for someone in my situation; I've started seeing a psychiatrist, neurologist and a gastroenterologist after my migraines, my eating disorder, sleeping disorder and my IBS got worse; at one point it was so bad my teeth fell out, so hopefully I'm on my way to recovery.
Thanks in advance.
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