if you were me what would you do?

[tercisima1]

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i am a junior, but i switched from premed to something else back to premed, so i am taking chem 102, and the first part of org. chem together, along with a 4 cr. animal phys class and another easy nonscience class. the thing is, i have b in organic right now, but it's b/c i had an a on the first test by blowing off studying for chem 102 and only studying org and anim phys. so i had an a on the org test, a b on the animal phys, and a 70 on the first chem 102 test. we just got back our 2nd org test and i had a 66 percent. We get to drop one test. But i feel like i am always robbing peter to pay paul- my chem 102 grade is a c, my animal phys is a b, and organic is a b right now, but i am afraid that if they get worse i won't get into med school. Yet, if i were to drop something, i would have too few credits to make a med school think i could handle the workload. I could drop something and spend an extra semester and get away with telling a medschool- with switching so late in college i had to spend an extra semester. However, my mother is dying of cancer and she has said that all she wants is to see me graduate before she dies, and if i took that extra semester she probably wouldn't, and i just couldn't dissapoint her like that. so now i am left with dropping or not and seeing if i could hang in there. My professor in organic thinks i can handle it, but i am not so sure. What do you all think?

 

[abw]

Wow, you have a lot going on this semester. First of all, my prayers are with your mother. Remember the most important things above school is your family and your health. This includes your mental/emotional health too! If you push yourself too far, you might feel it's all too much (and mom's hate seeing their kids upset - i'm sure she'd rather have you healthy than see you graduate this semester) Next, I know its hard to do, but relax. Medical schools understand (although we like to think they don't). My situation was similar to yours - i came out of h.s. as pre-med, changed my mind, then changed it back jr. year. I had a semester similar to yours with my workload/e.c.'s where i wound up getting c's and b's bc i just didn't have the time for every class. Out of my four interviews, only one school asked about the semester and one school complemented me in handling everything i was doing. You can explain it away and just know not to take that tough a schedule next semester. Don't worry about proving how rigorous a schedule you can handle, taking 2 sciences in a semester is considered fine. So just keep up what you're doing, try to get the most out of your time with your mom and your time in each class, and sometimes, if it gets too much, take a step back and take a breather. You'll do great 🙂

 

[tercisima1]

thank you; i guess i am more worried because i am not used to those types of grades, and really feel like a horrible student when i get them, but it was very insightful of you to notice that it was that worry more than the work/grades that was bothering me. Assuming I do try to get by, what will a med school accept? i had a 4.0 last year but how low will they overlook this semester? not to mention, i see lots of other people in situations like this, how do they all handle med school if this is hard for them....or do they? i am equally afraid of getting in and not being able to handle it as i am of not getting in. Oh and umm, which schools did you interview at that were willing to overlook that, hehe?

 

[DrZippy2b]

Originally posted by tercisima1
i However, my mother is dying of cancer and she has said that all she wants is to see me graduate before she dies, and if i took that extra semester she probably wouldn't, and i just couldn't dissapoint her like that. so now i am left with dropping or not and seeing if i could hang in there.

I was/am in a very similar situation. I was a "don't worry you'll never have any more children" baby when my parents were well into their 40s. My father found out he had cancer my senior year of high school (which the docs "totally removed"). My freshman/soph year of college, my mom had a heart attack and two strokes. Needless to say, my grades were crap. I had never had a C in my entire life and now I had a whole crop of them. I brought my grades up my final two years of college. I applied this year and got into my first choice. I figured the ADCOM isn't really looking for perfect grades. But if they aren't perfect you should be able to explain them. In my/your case, they wouldn't expect you to have perfect grades while dealing with sick parents. On my application, I explained that I had a really hard time those years struggling to juggle all my commitments (mom, full time work , full time courses, Air Force commitments).

BTW, my mom's stable now but my dad's totally removed cancer came back with a vengence. He's since then had his voice box removed (two weeks ago) . The only difference this time is that I am in the Air Force (getting out next Aug to go to school) and am stationed in California and the fams in the midwest. So now, I need to learn sign language, too!

Go give your mother a hug and tell her that you love her and HEAR IT BACK FROM HER. You will graduate and get into medical school in your own time, but you may never have another chance to hear she loves you. Take it from someone who knows. I would give my right arm to hear my father say anything.

 

[s42brown]

I am really sorry to hear about your situation. Not to sound like everyone else repling but I had the same situation my freshman year, I dropped chem II so I could come home more to see my dying grandfather and give my mom some moral support.

That being said I now teach chemistry at a community college, and I tutor org chemistry so I may be the best person to reply to this thread. I would say drop the org chem class, trust me its only going to get worse and take org chem next semester. Then maybe you could take Org chem II over the summer. If you get a couple of C's I suppose its not fatal to your application, but It's got to suck taking chem II and org I together. Both classes absorb a lot of time, just a thought😉