Is it too late to get good grades and get into medical school?

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OneDayIllBeASurgeon

OneDayIllBeASurgeon

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I am 31 years old right now, I am going to start the pre med classes this Fall. Since I already have all of my general education done, I'm hoping it will only take me 3 years to finish those classes. But, the reason why I am writing this is because I wasn't focused and I have a lot of W grades and some fails. Altogether I have 63 credits.


So basically, I am looking for a brand new start. I am wondering if I get good grades from now on when I go back to school and get really good grades on the pre reqs, will I have a chance? I am starting at a new school since I moved to NY
 
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I'm also wondering if anyone would want to be my friend. I have zero friends who are interested in becoming a doctor. And I would like to meet other non traditional students.
 
I am hoping that since that transcript is old, they will focus more on the new one.
 
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Hey, one day. 1st of all welcome!! may i ask you if you have a bachelor degree ? are you just trying to get your pre-reqs only?.
 
I don't have a bachelors degree, I have an associates degree that is ancient! and then I have credits from ASU and I have quite a few semesters of excellent grades, and then I have the bad semesters . So I still need to get a bachelors degree!
 
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Yes, bachelor degree is highly desirable for admission to any medical school. how many credit hours do you have? lower/upper science courses? are you considering DO's, MD's medical school?
 
I am considering MD's medical school. I only have 63 credit hours but I am missing all my core classes. I don't have any of the pre reqs done yet, and none of the science classes. I need to look at my transcript again from ASU but I'm kind of scared to look .
 
If you have a bunch of fails, you need to look at DO grade replacement as your best odds
 
DO grade replacement is definitely your friend, but it's not your only chance.

First step is not saying you flunked out of school because you're just so darn good at math. You need to be honest about the real reasons you failed classes. You need to bang out straight A's in your prereqs, kill the MCAT, and show tangible interest in and experience with medicine starting now. That means shadowing, volunteering, etc.
 
Well, like I said that's not how I meant it to come across like that. I do have an interest in medicine. I have had an interest since I was a kid. But I need tangible interest you are right.
 
What is your GPA? Nobody can give you any real advice without that number. If you have an abysmal GPA, then you don't get to choose how you get into medical school (i.e. you may very well have to go DO.)
 
Well, since I still have so much uncompleted work to do yet. I shouldn't even be asking this question because my gpa is pretty low, but that was years ago and I am starting at a new school. So even if I have one bad transcript, I can focus on the new one that I will have when I apply.
 
OneDayIllBeASurgeon said:
Well, since I still have so much uncompleted work to do yet. I shouldn't even be asking this question because my gpa is pretty low, but that was years ago and I am starting at a new school. So even if I have one bad transcript, I can focus on the new one that I will have when I apply.
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You don't understand, you will only have one GPA. Medical schools will look at all your grades when calculating your GPA. Depending on how bad we are talking, your GPA may still be sub-par even after a year or two of 4.0 work. So, I'll say again, please calculate your GPA and update us if you want some quality advice.
 
By the way I love your avatar pic. That's my favorite show . I'm watching it right now.
 
Hey I don't know what show you guys are referring to but if you are a gymnnast, yeah! I was too, all around state champion in 1990...whoa long time ago!
 
earlier, I was talking about his captain picard picture lol.. I love that show. I wish I could be in starfleet lol
 
TNG > Others.

I'll send you a friend request. I'm a non trad at 26 y.o with 3 kids, a husky, and a fat cat. I'm applying next year and will graduate with my bachelors Fall of 2016. I'm in the thick of it.
 
There are medical schools that reward reinvention and pay attention more to the last few years rather than the early ones. That said, you'll need to be acing things. Muddling along at B level will not be good enough. Good luck!
 
That's really cool Johhnythan. You want to know the really ironic thing is that I wanted to be a doctor ever since I was a kid, but since I was homeschooled my aunt and uncle thought that I wouldn't be able to handle going to a university, so they made me do this medical assistant program, and I got all A's in medical terminology, anatomy 1,2, and 3, and other dumb classes that they offered. But I didn't finish because I wasn't interested in being a medical assistant, I ended up leaving the program and then years later I attended ASU, and then I studied mathematics. But that's when I had other issues.

Anyways, let's just say that when I finally do apply for medical school, it will be very interesting to see what my GPA will be because I literally have tons of A's but also tons of W's and some fails. 🙁 I know I am in a very bad spot right now, but I know that I can get good grades because I've done it before. I don't want to play the "I've had a hard life card" but in reality I have overcame so much in my life. I really believe I will get good grades this time around.
 
I think my gpa from that associates degree program was a 3.4 but my ASU gpa is a 2.5 🙁 I know that sucks , and its embarassing
 
Okay I will do that. I have to get my transcript from the school I attended over 10 years ago. right now all I have is my ASU transcript
 
Btw, we are not harping on you for your GPA to be annoying. How high (or low) your cumulative GPA is what will determine your next move.
 
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OneDayIllBeASurgeon said:
Thank you, I am still new to this site. I will accept the friend request right now.
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I'm fairly new too, I'm not on it much even after being around for 2 years. I'm not sure there is a "friend" function, but I've "followed" you 🙂
 
It's okay 🙂 I understand. As soon as I get my other transcript I can calculate my medical school GPA, I'm guessing as of right now it is going to be somewhat low. but I will never know until I calculate it. The school I went to 10 years ago only has official transcripts so I literally can't even calculate it until they mail it to me.
 
Where do you guys do the AMCAS/AACOMAS calculations?
 
kelslayne said:
TNG > Others.

I'll send you a friend request. I'm a non trad at 26 y.o with 3 kids, a husky, and a fat cat. I'm applying next year and will graduate with my bachelors Fall of 2016. I'm in the thick of it.
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How interesting... I'm a non-traditional student too with one kid, a fat cat and a husky. Just finished my BS, starting my Masters in the Fall while I wrap up my pre-reqs.
 
Vespasian said:
How interesting... I'm a non-traditional student too with one kid, a fat cat and a husky. Just finished my BS, starting my Masters in the Fall while I wrap up my pre-reqs.[/QUSw

Sweet! I'll follow you too 🙂
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So that GPA calculator seems pretty straight forward, but for someone who has a kind of patchy academic career like myself, it gets complicated. Do I put in every single class I've ever taken anywhere, and I had 3 classes at one institution in 2008 that transferred to my CC where I got my AA. I have no idea the grades a received and it's not listed in my CC transcripts, only the credit. I then took one class a semester for a few semesters while working to decide what I actually wanted to do with my life, the grades are fine, but it definitely doesn't follow a 1st year, 2nd year... etc. model. I have a lot of electives and am only just getting into the deep pre-med stuff.
 
Not at all! I went from Academic warning to Dean's list and honor student in 2 years. I was just immature, confused, and actually depressed for some part of that career. Long behind me now, life's lessons learned.
 
Every class you've ever taken, and you need to submit an official transcript from every institution where you have enrolled in classes.

Read the AMCAS instruction manual. It's pretty thorough and clear.
 
kelslayne said:
So that GPA calculator seems pretty straight forward, but for someone who has a kind of patchy academic career like myself, it gets complicated. Do I put in every single class I've ever taken anywhere, and I had 3 classes at one institution in 2008 that transferred to my CC where I got my AA. I have no idea the grades a received and it's not listed in my CC transcripts, only the credit. I then took one class a semester for a few semesters while working to decide what I actually wanted to do with my life, the grades are fine, but it definitely doesn't follow a 1st year, 2nd year... etc. model. I have a lot of electives and am only just getting into the deep pre-med stuff.
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According to AAMC:

Freshman (FR) 0-35 semester hours
Sophomore (SO) 36-65 semester hours
Junior (JR) 66-95 semester hours
Senior (SR) 96+ semester hours

https://www.aamc.org/students/download/182162/data/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf

Anything after getting your bachelors would be post-bacc GPA.
 
OneDayIllBeASurgeon said:
That's really cool Johhnythan. You want to know the really ironic thing is that I wanted to be a doctor ever since I was a kid, but since I was homeschooled my aunt and uncle thought that I wouldn't be able to handle going to a university, so they made me do this medical assistant program, and I got all A's in medical terminology, anatomy 1,2, and 3, and other dumb classes that they offered.
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every course you took in your medical assistant degree would count as other science GPA if you apply for DO school, not MD though.
 
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