Low First Year GPA: Found Success?

[MDwadup]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey guys,
So basically I've had a rough first year. Theres been a lot of stuff going on in my life like two of my best friends and my uncle passing away within 7 months. I handled it pretty poorly and my grades dropped as a result. My cGPA will be about a 3.3 and my sGPA will be about a 2.4. I've taken 4 sciences so far. Have any of you guys made it to medical school with first year states like these?

Thanks for your input.

 

[LabMonster]

Yes - but it wasn't my first year. However, you need to correct your mistakes by dominating the rest of your college experience.

 

[raab32]

You'll be fine if you buckle down and do well in the rest of your classes. Upward trends are definitely a plus. Rock the MCAT too. You're fine, just stay focused but remember to have fun too.

 

[organdonor]

Many med schools won't take less than a C in any pre req. Your sGPA indicates that might be a problem. If so you need to retake.

You will want to read up and apply to DO schools when the time comes as you can retake classes and the lower grade gets replaced, as opposed to MD schools where both are reported.

You will need to do very well for the next 2 years to have a good chance to get into an MD school. You may want to do some independent study if you feel like you didn't learn much from the science classes you took this year, especially the pre reqs, because that material is likely to show itself on the MCAT.

 

[fahimaz7]

2.7 to medical school ftw.

 

[MDwadup]

Fahimaz7,
Was 2.7 your first year gpa, final gpa, science gpa?
Well thats awesome! congrats!
Any advice on how to bounce back? Also, what was your major and MCAT?
Thanks!

 

[motomed]

I finished a bachelor's degree with basically those stats, psych degree, very little science thankfully. you're fine. do well going forward. don't let the big picture overwhelm you, do what you need to do one day at a time and you'll be fine.

 

[Ignatius M.D.]

2.7 to medical school ftw.

If you didn't do a post-bac I will eat a poop popsicle.

 

[orthomyxo]

If you didn't do a post-bac I will eat a poop popsicle.

See: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=767712

 

[DrHouse579]

I heard from a friend that the average first year GPA of accepted undergrads is a 2.9. Not totally sure how accurate this is but I'd say you're far from hopeless.

 

[Evil_Abed]

As I mentioned in another recent thread, I went from around a 1.7 GPA after freshman year, getting an academic dismissal (that was successfully appealed) due to poor performance, to working my butt off and applying MD only after senior year (so I'm taking a year off between college and med school). After 2.5 years of ridiculously hard work after the disastrous freshman year (plus first semester of sophomore year), I pulled my GPA up to a 3.56. I've gotten 11 interview offers this cycle, went to 5, and have been accepted at 2 (including one of my top choices).

So, getting into med school after a rough freshman year (and I would definitely categorize mine as rough considering the poor GPA, the academic probation and dismissal that I had to mention on AMCAS, etc) is definitely doable. How likely it is depends on how well you respond to the situation you find yourself in: will you continue to do average-to-decent or will you take it upon yourself to take heavy courseloads and pull off straight A's for the next few years to get back to a competitive GPA? In my experience, the latter is what makes for a great story and piques adcoms' interest in your app. Best of luck.

Edit: It looks like you're ending freshman year with a much higher GPA than what I had, so your road will likely not be as difficult as mine was. Don't stress out too much and work hard to do well in your classes over the next few years and I doubt you'll experience much trouble when it comes to applying for med school.

Edit 2: Also, I didn't do a post-bacc or an SMP or anything like that. I'll be waiting for Vandy Premed to report back on how that poop popsicle tastes. 🙂