Greetings, SDN (Input and Advice Please)

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TTURaider16

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Hi everyone,

I am a current student at Texas Tech University pursuing a degree in Business with a Pre-Med concentration. My freshman year was a complete success. I achieved Dean's List and joined an honor's society and ended with a c3.7. It was all good up until I was unable to afford to return the fall of my sophomore year. I worked two jobs and managed to return the following semester. Unfortunately, I seems as if the break in school hurt me as my GPA really sank. In both Gen Chem courses, I received C's (high C's, but why pity myself even more). The most ironic part about these poor grades was that I actually was interested in the material and enjoyed studying it all, yet performed terribly on the tests. I also worked this previous spring semester and volunteered at a medical clinic so I feel as if my adjustment to new time management took a toll on my performance in school. Now unlike the majority of Pre-Med students that end up changing majors after the daunting Gen Chem madness, I have actually spent this summer trying to question if the juice is worth the squeeze. My childhood dream was always to be a doctor. Helping people has always filled that void of happiness that I lacked. I spent long nights thinking if this is something I wanted to do, and researched many other jobs, and even took an internship at an office with my friend's dad who is the CEO of a big grocery chain during the beginning of this summer and quit it a week ago. As cool as that sounded, I was miserable. I do not want to be a businessman in a job where profit, exploitation, and negotiations were the goals and being a puppet of a giant corporate ladder. I want to help people, not exploit them for my own interests. That's when I realized that this is my comfort zone. Now this may sound ironic due to the fact that I am majoring in Business. The reason I chose this degree is because it is so versatile and figured this could help me properly run a practice if I was a part of one. Medicine is something I actually have a passion for and could not see myself in any other profession. I have such an interest in how the human body functions and nothing would make me happier in my life than to be a doctor for my community. Back to reality and I'm stuck with the knowledge that I got a 3.1 this semester. It almost brings tears to my eyes that my lifelong dream could be drifting away because I did not do as well as I thought I could. I refuse to do any other career. This is my pursuit of happiness. I gave it my all and gave it my best this semester but on paper it looks like I was nothing more than a lazy student. I have nobody to turn to as my parents criticize me and keep telling me to just give up, so I ended up here. Now I am reaching out and asking you guys, the community of SDN, to give me any advice as to what I need to do to really wow these medical schools. This upcoming fall, I am taking OChem, Biology, and Physics and plan on taking the second parts of those courses. Reason being is that I plan on taking my MCAT next summer before it changes to the new one and want to take a shot at it with the knowledge I'd get from these 3 courses. Is there any hope for me? My determination is strong, and it will never go away. I've tried other options and see myself in a different profession and it does nothing but make me run back to medicine again. Please do not put anything rude or discouraging on here. I hear enough of it from my family and I am simply reaching out for advice, not comfort. Thank you and I am sorry for typing up a novel.
 
After taking the appropriate courses bio, physics, orgo, and gen chem and feel good about the subject material (be careful with those Cs in gen chem though) you really need adequate preparation and a good amount of dedicated study time before you can take the MCAT. I wouldn't just "take my chance before the MCAT changes" because it's really not an exam where you can take the pre recs and feel prepared. I took many supplementary courses in addition to the pre-med requirements and it still took me 4 months of studying to retain all the material. My advice, do not take the MCAT for the sake of taking it. Take your time, prepare, focus on your own goals and if you work hard enough it's still possible.

Even when the exam does change, they aren't going to make it impossible.
 
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