How much will college haunt me a decade out?

Started by MrSamrtGuy
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MrSamrtGuy

MrSamrtGuy

Full Member
7+ Year Member
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Listen, I'm motivated, and I'm a hard worker (didn't used to be but I am now). But at the end of the day I'm also a pragmatist. It's not worth the time and money if it's not realistic.

My fall semester freshman year of college, I bombed Gen Chem and Bio. Not after studying my ass off. I took AP Bio and Chem and for some stupid reason thought I could wing it-halfassed problem sets and labs, didn't go to lecture, didn't study for finals. And my laziness and arrogance bit me in the ass-got a D in both.

After that I bailed out of premed and set my sights elsewhere. Pulled my GPA out of the gutter to a respectable 3.4 by the end of college.

How much will the idiocy of my 18 year old self haunt me? By the time I apply to med school if I do a postbacc, those days will be over a decade past. If I did well in a postbacc how much will my college *******ery bring me down?
 
Errors of the past are the most dangerous when you do not learn from your mistakes. You went from two Ds to a 3.4 average so its obvious that you have progressed.

I am not saying its going to be easy, but it is realistic.
 
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MangoPotato said:
Errors of the past are the most dangerous when you do not learn from your mistakes. You went from two Ds to a 3.4 average so its obvious that you have progressed.

I am not saying its going to be easy, but it is realistic.
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Thing is, after that one semester, I took virtually no science classes.

I do feel as though I learned not to be an entitled, lazy jackass. I know many med school applicants were mature and hardworking at 18, but I'm applying now (or in the next few years) not then. That part of me is long long gone.

I have no qualms about going the DO route, I'm no snob, but I am curious if it would be premature to cross off MD, just to try to be realistic from the outset. I suppose that would be premature.

Thanks.
 
Looks like those are the only 2 truly bad marks and you have no science reqs. If you ace everything you take from here on out, you'll have a shot at many allopathic schools still.
 
my D's and F's from 1984 hurt me plenty when i applied in 2011. it doesn't matter, at all, how old your grades are. DO schools were actually more vicious about those ancient transcripts.

but the A's I got in a year of calc based physics, in 1988? Ka-ching! didn't bother retaking that 20 year old prereq.
 
DrMidlife said:
my D's and F's from 1984 hurt me plenty when i applied in 2011. it doesn't matter, at all, how old your grades are. DO schools were actually more vicious about those ancient transcripts.

but the A's I got in a year of calc based physics, in 1988? Ka-ching! didn't bother retaking that 20 year old prereq.
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Hurt you in what respect? Did you get into medical school? How much of an uphill battle was it?
 
you want me to quantify/qualify how the presence of D's, W's and F's on a college transcript hurt me in US medical admissions where most schools get over 5000 apps every year and 60% of applicants get rejected, most of them well-qualified?

i got in on my 4th try by spending many years and lots of money accumulating more reasons to keep me in the pile than there were reasons to throw me out of the pile. i don't recommend being that bullheaded.
 
DrMidlife said:
you want me to quantify/qualify how the presence of D's, W's and F's on a college transcript hurt me in US medical admissions where most schools get over 5000 apps every year and 60% of applicants get rejected, most of them well-qualified?

i got in on my 4th try by spending many years and lots of money accumulating more reasons to keep me in the pile than there were reasons to throw me out of the pile. i don't recommend being that bullheaded.
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No, I was just asking for more detail. Not asking for a treatise or quantification.

As for being bullheaded, not much I can do about that. The line between tenacious and just plain delusional seems to be a thin one.
 
MrSamrtGuy said:
It's not my overall GPA I'm worried about-I'm confident I can bring that up with some more classes. It's the Ds in Bio and Chemistry.
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Are you saying you don't want to retake those? You don't have a choice I'm afraid.
 
ZedsDed said:
Are you saying you don't want to retake those? You don't have a choice I'm afraid.
Click to expand...

Not at all! I'd be a certifiable ******* if I didn't retake those! I was just trying to gauge how much my youthful laziness would haunt me if I retook those and did well, and did well in many other science classes.

I suppose to some extent I'll have to find out for myself, but I was just trying to gauge what other people thought from their experience.
 
MrSamrtGuy said:
Not at all! I'd be a certifiable ******* if I didn't retake those! I was just trying to gauge how much my youthful laziness would haunt me if I retook those and did well, and did well in many other science classes.

I suppose to some extent I'll have to find out for myself, but I was just trying to gauge what other people thought from their experience.
Click to expand...
It will hurt you. I recommend calculating your GPA with the assumption that you get a 3.7 in a year's worth of classes from here on out (and yes this is a big assumption) so you can see how bad the damage will be. If you can bring your GPA up to a reasonable level with a couple years of classes, I recommend you stick to that. Otherwise, you may need to do an SMP on top of that (if you are stuck on MD that is), though I can't imagine doing an SMP with anything over a 3.55 or so.
More than anything I recommend you spend a lot of time going through the postbacc and nontrad forums. There is a wealth of knowledge to be had on this website, you just have to be willing to look for it.
Stay open to DO. Nowadays you can do all of the above and still end up going DO.
 
ZedsDed said:
It will hurt you. I recommend calculating your GPA with the assumption that you get a 3.7 in a year's worth of classes from here on out (and yes this is a big assumption) so you can see how bad the damage will be. If you can bring your GPA up to a reasonable level with a couple years of classes, I recommend you stick to that. Otherwise, you may need to do an SMP on top of that (if you are stuck on MD that is), though I can't imagine doing an SMP with anything over a 3.55 or so.
More than anything I recommend you spend a lot of time going through the postbacc and nontrad forums. There is a wealth of knowledge to be had on this website, you just have to be willing to look for it.
Stay open to DO. Nowadays you can do all of the above and still end up going DO.
Click to expand...

Thanks
 
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ZedsDed said:
It will hurt you. I recommend calculating your GPA with the assumption that you get a 3.7 in a year's worth of classes from here on out (and yes this is a big assumption) so you can see how bad the damage will be. If you can bring your GPA up to a reasonable level with a couple years of classes, I recommend you stick to that. Otherwise, you may need to do an SMP on top of that (if you are stuck on MD that is), though I can't imagine doing an SMP with anything over a 3.55 or so.
More than anything I recommend you spend a lot of time going through the postbacc and nontrad forums. There is a wealth of knowledge to be had on this website, you just have to be willing to look for it.
Stay open to DO. Nowadays you can do all of the above and still end up going DO.
Click to expand...

I suppose my silver lining is that I shadowed a neurosurgeon and urologist years ago and decided I wasn't all that into surgery. So if I'm closing off doors to myself by going DO I'm at least more interested in internal medicine and possibly doing a fellowship after that if I can. I hope this is not putting the cart before the horse, I'm just trying to think realistically here.
 
If you only have 2 science classes with D's 18 science As will leave you with a 3.7 science and 3.52ish cum which is fine
 
Hailstorm said:
If you only have 2 science classes with D's 18 science As will leave you with a 3.7 science and 3.52ish cum which is fine
Click to expand...

Actually now that I think about it, I did take some other science courses. I took Psychology of Emotion, which was sort of a neuropsychology course so I think that has to count. I doubt social psych will count.

After I became a poli sci major I took Astro 101 and a Chemistry course for humanities majors to fulfill requirements. Tried to use the search feature but found it difficult to formulate a search for that. Any insight on whether that counts?

Also, thanks everyone. You guys and gals are so much nicer and more helpful than the dbags at the law school equivalent of student doctor.
 
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