IS there any hope at all left for me?

[Intrepidation]

I know what is needed to be a doctor. I am fully aware of the academic dedication needed.

The sad irony is that as i prophesized about my life as a doctor, I screwed up my first year of college so bad I am doubt if there is any chance left for me.

Heres the straight dope:

Failed two classes my first semester: a computer class and english. Got a C in biology, a D in algebra, a C in nutrition, and a B in my biology lab.

All classes that were *easy* to me, further compounded by my lack of willpower to succeed.

First semester GPA: 1.0 (roughly)

Second semester, things were going much better. Until spring break. After the vacation, I fell into my old habits. Because of miscommunication, I failed to show up for my chemistry final, and my bio lab final. Two classes I had a high-B average in failed instantly.

I got an A in my Chemistry Lab, a B in Bio2, withdrew from english 2, and got a b in a humanities class.

Overall GPA for year one: 1.7 (roughly).

Horrible, aint it?

Here comes *some* hope.

Took all 6 hours of history at a community college. 4.0'd it.

Took 6 hours of EMT-B training. 4.0'd it.

Unfortunately, neither of the GPA's get factored in by my actual college- DO medical schools factor it in?

This summer after completing my EMT courses while working 65 hours a week, I learned that hard work is actually necessary, and that I am capable of doing it.

My plans:

I am going to retake the failed english, chemestry, and biolab courses this fall. My school will replace the GPA of any class you fail as a freshman.

Will medical schools even care after seeing me fail a simple bio2lab and chem1?

This fall in college I will be working as an ER Tech to boot.

My question is this:

Do I have any hope at all, and if so what?

I understand the obvious- like actually working and getting the 4.0 that i deserve in the coming years, but even if I had a perfect 4.0 for the next 3 years, I would still only have a ~3.4 max gpa IF the medical schools don't average in the ones I failed and the university replaced. If they do, I would only have a 3.2 or so.

And this is considering a straight 4.0 for the next 6 semesters, which is hardly an easy task in its own right considering im looking at a full year of calc and ochem.

Next years tentative schedule:

Chem I- 3 hours
Physics I- 3 hours
Physics I Lab- 1 hour
English I- 3 hours
Microbio- 3 hours
Microlab- 1 hour
(Either The other english or the computer class i failed as the last class)= 18 hours.

In addition, I will take 6 hours of us gov't correspondance this semester. GOOD or BAD idea?

And yes, I realize what I did wrong this last year, so I don't need any lectures regarding being a good student, or not being cut out for it.

My overal plan: obtain a 3.1overall 3.3sci GPA, score real high on the mcat,and load my app with EC's like being a certified EMT for 3 years.

Edit-

I forgot to mention that I don't have to worry too much about MCAT's, I am a natural pro at standardized testing, scoring a 27 already on the princeton review tests, and got a 32 on the last practice test administered by kaplan at my college.

Thank you for your help/support/realism/understanding/empathy of my situation.

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[racergirl]

Is there any hope left for you? YES.

You messed up one year, and you realize that. All you have to do is spend the next three years making up for it. If you do very well from here on out (no more lapses into "old habits"), you really will be fine. Adcomms really do look at grade TRENDS--I'm living proof!

One thing FYI--Amcas will count your F's into your GPA, despite what your college does. Don't despair though. When I applied last year my AMCAS GPA was only 3.06 because of F's! My grade trend was very strong though, as was my MCAT score. In the end, I was accepted by 2 very good MD schools.

All is not lost. Just show what you can do for the rest of your college career. The EMT experience will be great too. GOOD LUCK!

 

[Intrepidation]

Thanks. Luckily, I live in the state of texas, so I will only apply to a select few amcas schools. After reading of the horror-that-is amcas, I am glad that texas schools have their own system!

I hate to pry, but would you be so kind as to describe the struggle you had to go through?

Seeing is believing in my case, and I want to know how you were able to pull yourself out of a hole similar to the one I seem to be in

Oh!

Does AMCAS/ Medschools count classes that don't really factor in to your B.S.?

Aftering working EMT continuing education into the equation, I will have a good 20+ hours of 4.0 grades in classes from a community college; albeit EMT education classes.

 

[imtiaz]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Intrepidation:
•

Oh!

Does AMCAS/ Medschools count classes that don't really factor in to your B.S.?

Aftering working EMT continuing education into the equation, I will have a good 20+ hours of 4.0 grades in classes from a community college; albeit EMT education classes.•••••on the amcas application, you list all courses youve taken at any college whether its the institution you got your degree from or a place you took swimming 101 just for the fun of it. sometimes people dont put those grades, but if you put them in and send the transcripts, they will count. good luck!

 

[relatively prime]

There's hope... but you're going to more or less pull off a miracle. Just do your best. If at the end of the 6 semesters you find yourself with only a 3.1, I would suggest doing a masters. It's really hard to get into medical school with less than a 3.3 gpa.

Good luck

 

[silvercholla]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Intrepidation:
•I know what is needed to be a doctor. I am fully aware of the academic dedication needed.

The sad irony is that as i prophesized about my life as a doctor, I screwed up my first year of college so bad I am doubt if there is any chance left for me.•••••UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU ROCK!!!!! finally someone who is going through something very very similar! GO FOR IT! And if the nice people in this forum say that you can do then you can do it... And me too!!!!

 

[MaggieD]

I know exactly how you feel..I'm sweating bullets over whether or not an adcom will even look at my application. I screwed up majorly at a community college 6 years ago...4 semesters, 1.7 cum GPA. After I spent 4 years in the Army, I went back to undergrad (now a rising junior) and I have a 3.85 GPA, NOT counting the community college fiasco. When that is added to the mix, I get a 2.25 or something close. Granted, the more classes I take, the more it will come up, but I think the max I could raise it to is like 2.7 by the time I finish undergrad. So don't feel like you are the only one to ever be in this situation. I just hope my app will get looked at. I plan on applying to a WIDE range of schools, DO and MD. Best of luck to you.

 

[relatively prime]

One suggestion for you guys who screwed up early on but then pulled everything together later... write a letter to the medical schools explaining everything!! (I would say put it in the PS statement... but a lot of people disagree over that issue)

For instance, Maggie, make sure that the medical schools know that your post-army gpa is a 3.85. If you don't point that out, they may just look at your gpa as a 2.25. Maybe you could even talk about how the army helped make you more disciplined... stuff like that.

You have probably heard this before... but just in case I'd thought I mention it again.

Good luck everyone

 

[Intrepidation]

Thanks for the support you guys.

Basically I am going to try and make the minimum cut-off for most schools, and then in application describe what happened in between my fresh.-soph. year.

Should I or should I not persuade the writers of recommendation letters to touch on the fact that I changed?

Also- and you're going to love this:

To keep up a constant reminder that I need to do well, and work hard, I printed out a good 30 little careds that say nothing but '4.0=MD' on them. I posted them EVERYWHERE. There's one on my monitor, one on the mirror in the bathroom, one on the fridge, one on the tv, one on my dashboard, one on the alarm clock...and so on.

It helps big time.

 

[silvercholla]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Intrepidation:
•Thanks for the support you guys.

To keep up a constant reminder that I need to do well, and work hard, I printed out a good 30 little careds that say nothing but '4.0=MD' on them. I posted them EVERYWHERE. There's one on my monitor, one on the mirror in the bathroom, one on the fridge, one on the tv, one on my dashboard, one on the alarm clock...and so on.

It helps big time.•••••That's a good idea I am going to do the same thing I hope you don't mind.

 

[Toejam]

I responded to a similar note yesterday.

Perseverance and dedication WILL pay off.

I'm a 40 year old podiatrist and I just took the April MCAT (again) to attempt to become a full-fledged physician, which is what my goal was 20 years ago.

I finished high school with a 1.89, did a miserable two year stint in a junior college (2.2), failed several classes, withdrew more than 10, eventually got my feces together and transferred to UCLA (after 6 years in the j.c system), finished UCLA with a 3.2, had to return to finish my pre-med junk (I was a Japanese major), did mediocre (mix of A's, B's and C's), got into podiatry school (which, by the way, is incredibly easy to get into these days), did a one year medical residency, been practicing for 3 years, realized that I still want to be an MD/DO and I'm now looking to go back to take 4 more years.

I had an equally rough start, but now realize that if you put enough time and effort into it, you really can achieve anything.

Find yourself.