Just graduated high school with a 2.5 GPA

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Fakhter

Fakhter

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Before you start judging my work habits based upon my GPA. Or think of me as a person who thinks being a doctor is easy as just saying "I want to be a doctor." Allow me to give a little insight to why my GPA is as low as it is. It all started sophomore year of High school. My dad got hurt on the job and became physically disabled. Which mean I had to work 50hours+ a week just to pay the bills. Which meant no adequate sleeping pattern which then led to poor concentration in school. My dream is still to be a doctor one day. To fulfill that dream I have another dream to fulfill, "getting into medical school." I'll be going to junior college this fall and I just wanted some advice on what to do and expect. I'm thinking I have a new clean slate to work with now that i'll be in college.
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Fakhter said:
Before you start judging my work habits based upon my GPA. Or think of me as a person who thinks being a doctor is easy as just saying "I want to be a doctor." Allow me to give a little insight to why my GPA is as low as it is. It all started sophomore year of High school. My dad got hurt on the job and became physically disabled. Which mean I had to work 50hours+ a week just to pay the bills. Which meant no adequate sleeping pattern which then led to poor concentration in school. My dream is still to be a doctor one day. To fulfill that dream I have another dream to fulfill, "getting into medical school." I'll be going to junior college this fall and I just wanted some advice on what to do and expect. I'm thinking I have a new clean slate to work with now that i'll be in college.
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Plan for DO.



Kidding. I graduated with a 3.1 from highschool. I'm not ashamed or anything and don't have a story about my dog dying causing my poor grades or anything -- I really just didn't care. I started college caring about grades and managed to graduate with a 3.7 and now I start in the fall at a MD school. No one cares about your high school grades.


The pre-med experience is different for everyone. I managed to find that I was much more intellectually gifted than I had originally perceived, so pre-med wasn't too bad. I had 3 C+'s (at the beginning) and still had over a 3.7 so I have a boatload of A's in a rigorous bs in biology. I made the correct changes and overcame. You may have a bumpy beginning - but do what you have to do to correct your errors.

Enough tooting my own horn. Do the work and you'll be fine. The only person you can blame for failure is yourself...! So get it done and make it happen!
 
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Holy FranZ said:
Plan for DO.



Kidding. I graduated with a 3.1 from highschool. I'm not ashamed or anything -- I really just didn't care. I started college caring about grades and managed to graduate with a 3.7 and now I start in the fall at a MD school. No one cares about your high school grades.
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When did you find out you wanted to become a doctor? Were you a late bloomer? Just curious
 
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Fakhter said:
When did you find out you wanted to become a doctor? Were you a late bloomer? Just curious
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I wanted to be a doctor senior year of high school. I don't really consider that late. Wanting to become a doctor prompted me to change and start caring.
 
After you get into college nobody is going to care how you did in high school. I've heard many people talk about how they had terrible grades in high school then did well in college. So just bust your tail in undergrad and you'll be fine. Good luck.
 
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Holy FranZ said:
I wanted to be a doctor senior year of high school. I don't really consider that late. Wanting to become a doctor prompted me to change and start caring.
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I'm going to have to go to a CC for undergrad...Did you also?
 
...yeah, no one really cares what you did in high school.
 
Fakhter said:
Before you start judging my work habits based upon my GPA. Or think of me as a person who thinks being a doctor is easy as just saying "I want to be a doctor." Allow me to give a little insight to why my GPA is as low as it is. It all started sophomore year of High school. My dad got hurt on the job and became physically disabled. Which mean I had to work 50hours+ a week just to pay the bills. Which meant no adequate sleeping pattern which then led to poor concentration in school. My dream is still to be a doctor one day. To fulfill that dream I have another dream to fulfill, "getting into medical school." I'll be going to junior college this fall and I just wanted some advice on what to do and expect. I'm thinking I have a new clean slate to work with now that i'll be in college.
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You beat me and I'm a doc. College is a clean slate - just do your best.
 
It will be a little more of an uphill battle if you need to do ALL your undergrad at a community college, but with a solid MCAT score and valid reasoning behind your predicament, I wouldn't knock you many rungs down the ladder.
 
Thanks "doc" for the motivation...if you don't mind can please share your gpa and mcat? Thanks.......for "the sauce"
 
Caribbean is your only hope. Unless you have 4.0 since pre-school, you are done for.

Sent from my SCH-R910 using Tapatalk
 
TriagePreMed said:
Caribbean is your only hope. Unless you have 4.0 since pre-school, you are done for.

Sent from my SCH-R910 using Tapatalk
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Omg you can't be serious? I knew i should have colored more efficently in between the lines in the first grade. Now i am done for
 
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College is a clean slate; nobody will look at your high school grades when it comes time to apply.

There are numerous members on here did poorly in high school and who were even high school drop outs who have since gone on to be successfully admitted to various MD and MD/PhD programs.
 
First of all, my respect to you sir; overcoming adversity will definitely play in your favor later on. Now to business, do your best in all the classes and that means get as many As as possible. Take it easy at the beginning with workload of classes, ECs and if you have a job, then slowly start loading yourself with activities so that you figure out a good balance between your academics, ECs and your personal life. Good luck.
 
Good news is that the High school chapter of your life is long over and nobody will care or look at it anymore. You can now start fresh and build up a new/better academic record.
 
I have a friend who graduated high school with a 2.3

Got a 4.0 in community college for two years, then transferred to Cornell.

It's possible, man. College - a new, clean slate.
 
Though not as inspiring as the other posts. I ended up doing much better in college than high school.

I did not care in my early years and so I ended up being an average student. However, I figured out I wanted to give a try at medicine and started working like a horse from 11th grade onwards. I still struggled, but by senior year my grades started to improve. Although my GPA was still pretty average, I graduated with a 3.3 high school GPA, college was a clean slate, and so I hit the ground running.

I knew I had to do my best, so I took a balanced course load, and made sure my studies took priority those first few semesters. Now I can't believe I have the GPA that I do. I think doing bad in high school, make you really appreciate good grades in college and just helps keep that fire ignited.

Make sure not to overwhelm yourself, try your best, and keep yourself healthy. I wish you all the best, and hope everything works out. 🙂
 
Thanks for all the motivation as i will use to the best of my advantage. One last thing i'm confused about is the notion of "balancing your workload". Should i take some, all, or none of my prerequisites at cc?
 
High school: ~3.0 GPA, 1500 SAT (new scale.)

I graduate from college in December with ~3.8 GPA in applied math. I haven't taken the MCAT, but verbal and physical science practice scores are 10-11 with some light studying.
 
From lurking in this forum, the general consensus is that if you can take pre-requisites at a four-year college/university, it is looked at better than taking them in a community college.

High school grades only have as much influence as you allow them to have. As long as you shape up a little in college (3.6+ is optimal) then you should be just fine.

Also- remember to shadow and volunteer! This is a crucial part of an application. Research is recommended as well, although not necessary. The only time when research becomes a stickling point is if you're applying to a Physician Scientist program (MD/PhD, usually).
 
I graduated high school with a 3.1. I have a 3.5ish now in college (tough sophomore year) but what I'm trying to say is that college is a new slate. My high school grades sucked because i didn't care at all until middle of junior year when i decided I wanted to be a doctor. Then I started to care in high school and got a 4.0 my last semesters. College is a fresh slate. Think of it this way, you start with a 4.0 just maintain it as high as possible.
 
2.5 is nothing.

I graduated high school with a 2.17. I transferred twice, but now I'm at a top 15 university. GPA is at a 3.8 right now, looking to get it to a ~3.87 by the time I apply for med school.
 
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forget your past, and kick ass in college. it's a new beginning. if your college has a free tutoring services, make sure you use it every single week-twice if necessary. you can do it.
 
Despite what your teachers tell you, high school actually doesn't mean that much. :laugh:
 
You'll be fine, like everyone before me has mentioned you're starting a fresh slate.

My dad didn't tell me he lost all my college savings in the stock market crash until after I graduated high school at which point nearly all the deadlines for cheaper state schools had passed. I had to decline my acceptance at a top 40 private university and enroll in a crappy college near home which was hardly a step up from a CC (It was a CC less than a decade before)

After 2 years I transferred to my new top choice 4 year university halfway across the country, and all that was required were my college transcripts. All that mattered was that I had my HS diploma, I wasn't required to submit my HS transcript or SAT scores.
 
I graduated high school with a 2.17
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Pshh, I graduated with a 1.7 😀 Frankly, I don't understand how I was even allowed to graduate, although I was the first person at my high school to receive a life experience credit that made up for a course (missed nearly half of my junior year due to a once in a lifetime opportunity to drum for a national touring band), so at least there was some success during those years.

Anyway OP, don't worry about your high school gpa. It means nothing. I just finished my first year at a CC with a 3.9+ GPA and will be transferring to a relatively strong school in the Spring. I'm also a chemistry/mathematics tutor and have had a stable volunteer position at a free health clinic. This isn't to toot my own horn, but to reinforce the point that your high school grades mean nothing when it comes to college and your future.
 
Fakhter said:
Omg you can't be serious? I knew i should have colored more efficently in between the lines in the first grade. Now i am done for
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😀 But seriously, High School is like the biggest waste of time and reflects 0% of your true potential into any career. I knew people who were 4.0's in High School that barely graduated in 6 years from college with 2.0s. I knew other people in your shoes with 3.8+ GPA in college. But I did also know people who were successful all throughout and people who sucked always and ended up dropping out of community college. It's really as they say, a clean slate. You can make whatever you put into now, and whatever it is you didn't learn in High School, it was probably meaningless anyway. You can catch up and can be successful, but don't forget, new beginning doesn't mean that wishing something will get it. This time you DO have to work for it. It's the stage for your entire career.
 
Seriously though, most people would be COMPLETELY ****ed overseas. Here in Korea, if you don't do well in elementary school, you don't go to the good middle schools which means you can't go to the good high schools. And if you don't go to a high level high school, you pretty much have a (ballpark) 95% chance of never going to medical school or any equivalent field.

****, the entire country shuts down during the 3rd year high schooler's college-entrance exam period.

Anyway, be glad America cares less about your high school~~~
 
As long as you can "turn it on," you'll be fine. I did well in high school but never had to put forth any effort; even though I graduated in the top 10 of my class, I had absolutely no work ethic and college was a new experience where I actually had to work. Frankly I'm somewhat surprised I got into college. Once I was there ,though, I was motivated by the fact that my performance in college was actually important and, consequently, figured out how to work hard. If you can do the same, you'll be perfectly fine.

The good news is that your high school performance is absolutely meaningless when it comes to applying to medical school. The bad news is that unless you make a deliberate effort to change your habits, you most likely won't do well and most likely won't get into medical school. It's all up to you, though.
 
NickNaylor said:
As long as you can "turn it on," you'll be fine. I did well in high school but never had to put forth any effort; even though I graduated in the top 10 of my class, I had absolutely no work ethic and college was a new experience where I actually had to work. Frankly I'm somewhat surprised I got into college. Once I was there ,though, I was motivated by the fact that my performance in college was actually important and, consequently, figured out how to work hard. If you can do the same, you'll be perfectly fine.

The good news is that your high school performance is absolutely meaningless when it comes to applying to medical school. The bad news is that unless you make a deliberate effort to change your habits, you most likely won't do well and most likely won't get into medical school. It's all up to you, though.
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This. I graduated HS with a 79. Kept this BS up for almost all of college and ended up having to get a grad degree to fix my undergrad shortcomings. So make sure you figure out what your deal is ASAP. It is good that you realized what you wanted early tho. I didnt even fully know I wanted to be a doc until AFTER college. GL.
 
bpigz said:
Pshh, I graduated with a 1.7 😀.
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I graduated with a 1.4. I WIN!

Don't ask me how; I have no idea. Anyway, college is indeed a clean slate and nobody will care about your high school grades. I started at a CC and am doing very well now, you can do the same.
 
Ha, I didn't even graduate - I dropped out a few months into my Junior year.

And before that I skipped every Wednesday - two days on, one day off, two days on, two days off - repeat.

Apparently they don't like the students setting their own schedule....
 
I didn't read through all of the replies so far, so I'm sure I'm echoing their sentiments mostly but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents.

Don't let yourself think for a second that your high school GPA suggests anything but how hard you worked during those years. It does not reflect what you are capable of, and it's great that you've set your sights high early on, that will help.

All of that being said, do not under estimate the rigor of even freshman level classes. I guarantee one day, when you're about to start med school, you'll think about all of your college courses and laugh about the difficulty/intensity, but that is not where you're at yet. My point is allow yourself time to develop sound study skills, to let yourself learn and feel what navigating a course properly feels and looks like. A year at community college would be a great place for this. I'm making the assumption that you do not yet know these things (but will certainly pick up these skills after a semester or two). The benefit would be allowing yourself to know you can and will get those A's in your science classes when you start. And starting at the CC, especially if only taking general ed requirements will never reflect poorly on you as a med school applicant down the road.

This is the same beaten path I went down heading to med school, and so have many, many other successful med applicants, as you can see from this thread.
 
climbouthole said:
I didn't read through all of the replies so far, so I'm sure I'm echoing their sentiments mostly but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents.

Don't let yourself think for a second that your high school GPA suggests anything but how hard you worked during those years. It does not reflect what you are capable of, and it's great that you've set your sights high early on, that will help.

All of that being said, do not under estimate the rigor of even freshman level classes. I guarantee one day, when you're about to start med school, you'll think about all of your college courses and laugh about the difficulty/intensity, but that is not where you're at yet. My point is allow yourself time to develop sound study skills, to let yourself learn and feel what navigating a course properly feels and looks like. A year at community college would be a great place for this. I'm making the assumption that you do not yet know these things (but will certainly pick up these skills after a semester or two). The benefit would be allowing yourself to know you can and will get those A's in your science classes when you start. And starting at the CC, especially if only taking general ed requirements will never reflect poorly on you as a med school applicant down the road.

This is the same beaten path I went down heading to med school, and so have many, many other successful med applicants, as you can see from this thread.
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. That's an abundant amount of motivation and i really appreciatete it. Did you go to community college?
 
Yeah I did so-so in high school.

3.6 GPA and 1550 SAT. But picked up in college cGPA 3.875 and JULY 14 MCAT hoping for a 33+
 
Fakhter said:
. That's an abundant amount of motivation and i really appreciatete it. Did you go to community college?
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I did. I went to a community college for one year. Not only was it a really helpful stepping stone to succeeding at the university I transferred to afterward, but I actually had some really great professors and classes that I'm glad I got to experience. Not to mention two semesters will literally save you thousands of dollars.
 
You should get your financials in order now so that you don't repeat yourself
 
HS GPA: ~2.2 GPA
Im not gonna lie, I did not give a crap about school back in the days. I totally changed when I started college however. Maybe you can do the same. It's all inside your head(how much do you want it?)
I took the CC route, and I don't see how that is a bad thing as long as you are able to keep your grades after you transfer. And frankly, I don't feel that the quality of education was any different between my CC and the UC that I'm attending. If anything, I feel that the professors at my CC are more passionate about what they do. My transfer GPA was 3.97 and my UCI GPA is 4.0 if that proves anything.
 
Paragon of inspiration in this thread.....keep it coming
 
I know of a girl who, for financial reasons, started at a CC and after two years, transferred to Harvard. I don't think they asked for her HS grades.

Just kick ass and you'll be FINE.
 
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