A Little About Me
Hello everyone. My name is Nathaniel. I would just like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and provide a little information about myself and my background. I have a couple questions that will be asked at the end of my intro.
Firstly, I am 22 years old. Filipino/Chinese (not really a URM). I went to the U of New Mexico on a Marine Corps NROTC scholarship out of high school. I ended up excelling in NROTC but with the new found freedoms I had (no parents, pocket cash, access to girl and alcohol) my academics suffered IMMENSELY! So bad that I left that school, and my scholarship, with a 1.4 G.P.A.
The following couple years I attended a junior college in California. Aimlessly going about school not knowing what I wanted (all I wanted in high school was to join the military). I was seriously lost. I changed majors maybe 4 or 5 times before buckling down and finishing an A.A. in Business Administration and, now, transferring to Cal State San Bernardino to finish my Bachelor's in Business with a conectration in Information Technology.
As with everyone on this DO forum, I am very motivated to become a physician. Now, I cannot say that I have ALWAYS wanted to be a doctor. I've wanted to be many things (a police officer, business-man, miliatary man, business-owner, race car driver), including a doctor, but it was never really #1 on my list until I was injured at my grocery stocking job.
I was injured at work last year (stupidly crawled into the ceiling to access a locked room on the other side of a wall). I ended up severely bruising both my heels and was in a wheelchair for a month, crutches for 2 weeks, and limping for another 1 week after that.
My experience with the doctors at the urgent care (one of which was a D.O., another a P.A., and the rest were M.D.s. One was a Podiatrist that saw me during the end stages of my treatment) as well as the physical therapy team caused me to really admire, respect, and, to be honest, OBSESS about becoming a part of the good things that they do for people in need.
Because this event happened later in my college career I never really had the motivation to earn more than a C in my classes. In fact, I count about 6-8 classes that are C's, excluding the ones I failed in New Mexico. My current G.P.A. is 2.6. That is everything I have done so far (New Mexico + Junior College).
My Questions:
1. I am finishing my B.A. I have been contemplating enrolling at another Junior College and take one extra class in order to kick start either retaking courses I received Cs in or starting pre-med courses.
My thinking is that: A) Not a good idea to take pre-med courses at J/C. So don't do it. Focus on getting good grades in my B.A.
B) I shouldn't overload myself and risk a low upper-division gpa in my Bachelor's program.
2. Regarding retakes and pre-med courses, which should I do first? Should I try to knock my pre-meds out of the way since I am already at an actual University? Or should I retake classes at the J/C and then go back to University to do premed courses/post-bacc? Or should I simply take everything at the University (retakes + premed)? Minor in Biology?
NOTE: My J/C is semester and my University is quarter system.
I believe those are all the questions I have for now. Thank you for your attention and your replies!
-Nate
