how messed up is this?

[LooKing4Ward]

maybe somebody was in a similar situation who can relate and advise.

i graduated 2000 BS in bio. i brought out my records and went over them.

college > transferred > state university.

college was not a problem, took science, good grades.

first year state was not a problem, took science, good grades.

the following years i f*cked up. i mean really bombed. it was like i couldn't get out of black hole if i tried.

an example of craziness, i did poorly in organic chem I, but did well in II and III. weird huh? i also did well in physical chem and calculus.

in evaluating my records, it seems chemistry and math were my strong suits and bio and physics were my weak points. the reason i think that was the case was because i took general chem and math (pre-cal/calculus) in college and when i came to the state university they made me take general chem and calculus (for biologist) for the bio major, the same/similar college courses didn't transfer. as a result, i did well in organic and physical chem also and state calculus.

in addition to general bio and physics, i bombed on upper science courses such as cell bio, genetics, and micro.

i dunno, i think i am capable of doing well in those science couses where i failed, something just went wrong after the first year at state. then i struggled just to graduate. i hope somewhat can relate and share their insights to their own situation. thanks.

if i could do it all over again, i should have left school, and then come back.

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[benelswick]

There has to be something more specific that you can base your new plan on than "something just went wrong."

You've done well in some very difficult material...so as to the source of your trouble in upper level bio who knows?...its hard for me to imagine cell bio being more difficult than p-chem.

People with bachelor's and pre-reqs complete but have lower gpa's have found success in smp's among other things. It seems to be increasingly competitive, however, and people who go the smp route have only slightly lower stats than med school matriculants on average, so it depends where you sit statistically speaking.

Best of luck to you1--Ben.

 

[LooKing4Ward]

The source of my trouble ... when I started noticing girls. When I fell in love I fell hard and that affected everything else self-esteem, school work, my emotions, etc. It was all about school in college and first year at state. I was aiming like a premed. I wanted to go into research to find out more about keloids (abnormal scarring). Then I wanted a girl friend like everyone else but I'm no Bradd Pitt and everything changed. The low confidence, low self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness kicked in, and grades went from something to nothing, literally, I went from good to average grades to Ds and Fs. If I could have maintained the good to average grades then at least that would given me a chance to raise my grades to above 3.0, but as it stands now even with perfect 4.0s in post-bac I can't do that. Even if get an interview, how do you explain that to adcomms, cause it seems retarted to get low grades because of girls, but that's who I was at the time. I know how to deal with those things now, after having experienced it, and not let it get the best of me.

When I graduated I went into IT which at the time was lucrative. I thought I had no other options. It also made me feel good to have been paid a lot for having graduated with a very low gpa. Well, when the IT bust happened, I got government funded retraining in IT, and I did well, 4.0's across the board for 1.5 years. I called a post-bac premed program director how that would play into my overall gpa and she said she doesn't really know. It's not undergraduate but it is part of all my academics since high school.

 

[njbmd]

Hi there,
It would seem that you face an uphill struggle with your current undergraduate GPA. This is not something novel among non-traditional applicants but you need to figure out how you can get your GPA competitive enough for medical school.

Some people have done a completely new bachelor's degree, re-taking the pre-med courses and done very well. Osteopathic medical schools will substitute your new grades for your older grades (done when you were less mature) and you can make yourself competitive in this manner.

The special masters programs with linkage might also be a viable option for you if you can get yourself more competitive. Most of these programs are expensive but require at least a 3.0 GPA for admission. If you can get yourself to that point, you might want to look into a Special Masters.

Most post bacc programs are designed for non-science majors to get the pre-med courses and apply to medical school. Again, you might have difficulty getting into one of these programs without getting your GPA higher.

Since you expressed an interest in reseach, you might also try to get into a regular graduate program, do well, do some meaningful research and apply after you have completed a master's degree.

You have some options so you should make a systematic investigation as to how you can best achieve your goal now that you have some maturity and resolve.

Good luck!
njbmd