I had a really bad freshmen year semester, can this ruin my med school chances?

[pshere]

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I had a bunch of issues happening in my family etc and that's why I lost complete focus in school. I am a first-year student and I'm ending my first semester(fall) with a 2.1 GPA. I failed 2 courses but I'm going to retake them during winter. I also took a summer course coming into my first year and I had a 3.7 GPA but with this terrible semester, I'm down to a 2.1 with 2 F's and 2 A's, and 2 B+. I'm worried that this can really ruin my chances of getting into med school. Now that I have full focus, I know I will have a really good spring semester and get 3.5+. If I get really good grades from here on throughout undergrad, is it possible to get to a 3.5 GPA? This was just one bad semester and it's my first college semester.

 

[Goro]

It's not lethal.

 

[deleted1040417]

Some schools are more holistic than staring at one semester and judging you based on that. You have what? 7 more semesters to prove your capabilities? Focus on an upward trend. Goro has an amazing thread about reinvention in the forums as well. If it comes down to it, a gap year isn't the worst thing ever it really reduces stress on the process.

 

[baewon]

You can bring it up. Upwards trends also look good!

 

[VaultArmitage]

Here’s a handy tool to calculate how many semesters and what grades you need to hit your goal. GPA Tool

 

[candbgirl]

With hard work you can bring it up. I read in another thread that you have taken a job in a hospital as a screener. While this is fine be very careful. You have to focus on your grades if you hope to go to med school. No matter how many amazing ECs you have, if you don’t have the grades it won’t matter. So focus on your classes.

 

[LindaAccepted]

I had a bunch of issues happening in my family etc and that's why I lost complete focus in school. I am a first-year student and I'm ending my first semester(fall) with a 2.1 GPA. I failed 2 courses but I'm going to retake them during winter. I also took a summer course coming into my first year and I had a 3.7 GPA but with this terrible semester, I'm down to a 2.1 with 2 F's and 2 A's, and 2 B+. I'm worried that this can really ruin my chances of getting into med school. Now that I have full focus, I know I will have a really good spring semester and get 3.5+. If I get really good grades from here on throughout undergrad, is it possible to get to a 3.5 GPA? This was just one bad semester and it's my first college semester.

Take a deep breath. Yes, if you bring your grades up, you can still go to medical school.

The person I interviewed here failed pre-calc in her freshman year and is today a doctor. There are others too.

Good luck!