Honest opinions welcome

[ArizonaVet480]

First off thanks to anyone who reads this and has any input! So nearly ten years ago when i was around 19 years old I decided i was finally going to pursue a lifelong up to that point dream of trying to reach medical school and ultimately becoming a physician little did I know all the things that would derail this dream for me. I was a new father when the time came and I was ready to start the journey. School came and my sons mother was diagnosed as BiPolar. A year later she left our lives and we have not really seen her since.I was young and new at the parent thing so a lot of times things seemed to get out of control for me. At this point school was really out of the question for me. I enrolled in classes dropped classes for two semesters. I had a high amount of W's. In order to support my son because i was now a single parent I enlisted in the military. I served my time honorably and was discharged. I got out and worked for a while took some CC courses here and there and then I met my current wife who has really pushed me to pursue this dream once again. I am currently in my sophmore year with a 3.4 GPA I would be considered a URM. My question is with my previous failure at school would this put an end to any hope of going to med school? It has been years since I first set out on this mission and not a day has went by that I have regretted not being able to achieve this dream. I am now 29 and i feel the weight of the world on my shoulders because not only was I the one in the family with a bright future with 2 parents who didn't make it out of jr high I am trying to break the cycle and show my son that your dreams can be acheived if you are willing to put in the work and make the sacrafices. Thank you again for any input.

I forgot to add i was academically disqual'd from my state school but was readmitted after attending cc

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[cabinbuilder]

all is not lost. You have a good story to back up your previous academic issues. You need to do the pre-req's required. Take advantage of the DO schools grade replacement, do well on the MCAT, get some shadowing in to learn what a doctor's life is all about and apply early when you are ready. Be sure not to be short sighted and apply everywhere you can. You will not have the luxury of being picky and you will need to have the mindset that you will likely have to move more than once for medical school and then residency. Your wife and family will need to be on board with that.

I say this from experience, had issues with school/family/kids/surgery/divorce when I was young. Did my post-bacc at 29. Applied 3 times in 2 years and started med school at 32. You just have to be flexible and go where you get an acceptance and be happy with the chance of being a doctor.

 

[Eccesignum]

Many of us older applicants had rough academic starts, for whatever reason. I'm in my mid-thirties now. Never finished college my first go-around for various reasons (left in 2002) and had a 2.71 GPA at that point. Did an associate's and then re-did a bachelor's from scratch (different major) almost ten years later. Ended with a 3.28 cGPA at time of application. I was terrified I was going to end up in a complete shutout due to that earlier stumbling. Thankfully that was not the case, and I was accepted this cycle. And you're starting with a higher GPA than I did

There are other details to my story, as there are to anyone's -- importantly, there are other factors along my life path which made my application very strong. The solid "whole package" is very important...as above poster said it includes not just GPA, but also how you tell your story and how well you can communicate that a) you know you're getting into and b) that you can handle it. If you do well on the pre-reqs and MCAT you're halfway there.

Nothing is guaranteed. But if you can put together a strong app then that initial low GPA is unlikely to be the factor that keeps you out. Good luck to you.

(BTW for future reference, don't post identical threads in two different forums or one will likely end up locked )