I messed up in high school, can I still be a doctor?

[etherealsolvent]

I have a 3.3 gpa and did badly in a lot of my classes. I just couldn't get myself to care and was never as focused and goal oriented as my peers who are going to get into great universities and achieve their own goals. I am confident that in college I will change and put my 100% on school as I realize its importance now. Is an MD still possible? And how hard will I have to work for this? I'm willing to put in whatever. Medicine is the only profession I am interested in. I've tried to consider "easier" options due to my low gpa but I can't. I can't imagine myself sitting at a desk from 9-5 coding. I keep coming back to medicine, but I don't know if I'm academically smart enough to get into and survive med school.

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[Camaxtli]

You can have a 3.3 gpa in college and get into medical school 🙂


HS grades don't really matter

 

[Kurk]

Yes b/c I had the same gpa two years ago

 

[eteshoe]

Couple of things:

1. You're young so you cannot be absolutely certain that you want to be a physician in the future. However, it's an admirable goal. Just remember to keep your options open during college.

2. A 3.3 GPA in HS won't preclude you from getting into med school, residency and being a physician. Yet, I have to make it clear - it will be a tough road. HS is honestly the easiest part of the journey - it allows you to explore and make mistakes w/o dinging your "real" GPA (i.e. your college sGPA and cGPA). You will have to put in close to 100% focus from the jump because the HS to college jump hurts many strong students (e.g. kids who cruised through HS w/ 3.9+).

3. The game plan is simple but the execution is tricky:
- Pick a marketable and interesting major (if you're interested, you'll tend to do better).
- Utilize your institution's learning/tutor center, TA office hrs (or whatever your school calls it), and work w/ friends that are at (or slightly above) your academic competence since this will force you to improve, study smart (don't try to cram - the more you learn, the better you do on exams)
- Keep a 3.7+ sGPA/cGPA. Don't overload w/ tough classes and don't overdo things - take the time to build good study habits and gradually increase the difficulty of your course load (spread your pre-reqs). Due to the way GPA is calculated, your first 2 yrs of courses will hold more weight than the latter 2 (so focus on doing as well as possible in the beginning)
- Don't get involved in too many clubs in the beginning - pick a club or two, sign up for clinical volunteering/shadowing opportunities, and have some fun

 

[TheBiologist]

I nearly failed out of high school; applied to 10 colleges to try and get in but didn't get a single acceptance. I think my application gpa was a 2.1

spent a year at community college and now am magna cum laude at a top 25 research

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

I did terribly in high school, similar GPA to you, just didn't really care about doing any work, barely any ECs, etc. I'm going to a top 10 med school now, shows you how much high school matters.

PS. The road will not be any tougher for you just because of bad High school grades.

 

[cyang55]

Med schools will never see your high school grades. Just make sure they are high enough to get you into a good college (subjective), and work hard in college. Med school will see your transcripts from college.
To get into med school work hard in college, get a high GPA, get a high score on the MCAT, volunteer, shadow, have good ECs, etc etc.
But don't worry about your high school grades