How do I recover from a bad freshman/sophomore year?

[georgecostanza720]

Hey everyone,
First time posting on here. I'm kind of at a loss on what I should do/what my future chances are. My freshman year was pretty terrible (2.5 cGPA), and my first semester of sophomore year has been a train wreck as well (expecting around a 2.0 for the semester). My problem isn't that I'm just not doing well, it's just that I'm not trying. I would blow off homework assignments and wait until last minute to study for exams, and just had an overall bad attitude. I've been more depressed than in the past this semester, and I feel like that just might have been why things went worse than last year. I'll be getting mostly C's or C+'s for my classes (all science classes). This semester has been a real wake up call for me, and I'm going to retake Organic 1 and Physics 1, and actually put in the effort to do well next semester and hopefully get A's in those. I have two other science classes (Human Physiology and Genetics) which I plan on re-taking eventually, once I get my schedule sorted out.

I guess my point is, will these bad two years knock me out of the running for med school entirely, or if I recover and get great grades my last two years and do a post-bacc (seems to be a general consensus on this for making up for a bad GPA) and study hard for the MCAT do I have a shot? Will it look bad that I essentially re-took an entire semester, even if I do well the second time around and then do well the first time in my upper level science classes later? Thanks!

Edit: I currently have two semesters of research with more to go, some ECs which I will build on and expand in my latter two years, and I'm going to start volunteering in a local hospital next semester, so I just messed up academically so far (which I will fix).

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[GomersGoToGround]

Do the first two years look bad? Absolutely.

Are you out of the running for medical school? Absolutely not.
Tons of people have screwed up. The ones that got their crap together and made some obvious, serious changes got the bread.

Will it look bad that you retook an entire semester? Well, you could retake and do very well, or you can choose to NOT retake and keep the horrible grades. What do you suppose is better? You can't hide your grades. You can't evade the "whoa" judgement. They'll see your screw-ups. Therefore, let them see your recovery. What are you going to do, not try anymore? Retake them and rock the **** out of them. Besides, DO programs have grade replacement for courses that you retake. Good, eh?

It's grade-trend-dependent. Rock your remaining time in undergrad, see where your GPA is come time to apply, and decide (ie go to WAMC on SDN...or maybe not) whether or not you are going to do a post-bac. With a 2.5, and this semester of 2.0, you might definitely not want to apply during your junior year, because your GPA might not be strong enough. Your GPA come applications should tell you whether you'll submit to MD or DO (or both) programs, as well.

But, you've had three semesters thus far. You have five semesters left. Now's the time to suck it up. I get that you may hate certain classes and assignments. I get that medical school seems so far away, that your current academic affairs don't even seem relevant. We've all been there. Definitely sucks. That feeling doesn't completely go away later, either. Sometimes, you need tough love, and a kick in the a**. However, I also get that sometimes, tough love doesn't really fix depression all that well. Thus, I strongly encourage you to look into student counseling services and maybe get some help for the depression. Figure out what is going on. Is it related to your personal life? Are you depressed because of your grades, leading you to perform more poorly, like a futile cycle? These are some questions you should be asking yourself. Because your grades can certainly get better, but at what cost?