How am I doing so far?

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motomoto

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I'm in my second year at a community college in California, and I already know that this puts me at a disadvantage. So far, I've only taken Physics 1 and I'd recieved a B. I'm currently taking Physics 2, but it's a difficult subject for me and it wouldn't surpise me if I ended with a C. Will a C kill me? How about a W?

However, my current cGPA is 3.81 (31 units) and my sGPA is 3.40 (10 units). Science doesn't seems to be my strong point which is why I'll be majoring in the humanities. What are some good strategies for raising my sGPA?

I'll be staying at my CC for a total of 3 years as I plan to finish both chem and bio here. I know it's suggested to take these classes at a 4-year uni, but how bad will it really be if I took them at a CC?

As for my ECs, I haven't much so far. I've begun volunteering at a hospital, doing about 2 hours a week and only have 8 hours so far. How many hours of hospital volunteering are recommended?

I've also done some miscellaneous volunteer work at food banks and such, but the hours are rather short and sporadic. What other ECs should I begin focusing on?

I've been doing some independant research with my city's medical examiner for the past year and a half. We've begun writing the article and we should have it submitted for publication by next summer. I will have first-person authorship.

That's all I have as of now, so how am I doing? All advice is greatly appreciated.

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For ECs, I think you're doing fine so far. The average applicant has about 150 hours of clinical experience, and additional hours of physician shadowing. Keep up the food bank work, as those hours will accumulate over the years, even though it doesn't seem like much from month to month.

Don't be so over-involved in ECs that you let your GPA dip, as that's the hardest to fix once it's broken. Don't get a C in a prerequisite unless you can retake it, especially in something as important to understand well as Physics.

If you get a high MCAT score, your CC classes will obviously have been rigorous enough to prepare you well. The problem is that some CCs will not prepare you well, thus the warning to avoid them if possible. Many schools in the US will not discriminate against CC credits if you can get As in upper-level science at the university level.

Eventually look for leadership and teaching opportunities. You have plenty of time for that before you'll apply.
 
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