low GPA. What are my chances?

[Optimism]

Hello. I am currently a sophomore attending a UC, and reality has finally struck me. I am currently in the coffee shop panicking because I screwed up so hard my freshman year. My cum. GPA is 2.7, in which my grades were the following:
Fall quarter
chemistry 1A: A
calculus 9A: A
English 004: B-

winter
chemistry 1B: C
Biology 5A: C+
Biology lab 5A: C
Chem lab 1B: B-
Calculus 9B: C

Spring
Chemistry1C: C
Biology 5B: C
Chem lab 1C: A-
Calculus 9C: B-

Now, honestly, what ARE my chances of getting into medical school? (Assuming that I buckle down and get my **** straight.) Winter and Spring quarter was a total mistake because I experimented with some drugs. Obviously, I straightened myself out recently, but I still have that major panick from getting such horrible grades in the MOST fundamental classes for pre-medical students. I can't even retake the courses because I didn't receive a C-. Any feedback would be appreciated.

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[Total180]

Hello. I am currently a sophomore attending a UC, and reality has finally struck me. I am currently in the coffee shop panicking because I screwed up so hard my freshman year. My cum. GPA is 2.7, in which my grades were the following:
Fall quarter
chemistry 1A: A
calculus 9A: A
English 004: B-

winter
chemistry 1B: C
Biology 5A: C+
Biology lab 5A: C
Chem lab 1B: B-
Calculus 9B: C

Spring
Chemistry1C: C
Biology 5B: C
Chem lab 1C: A-
Calculus 9C: B-

Now, honestly, what ARE my chances of getting into medical school? (Assuming that I buckle down and get my **** straight.) Winter and Spring quarter was a total mistake because I experimented with some drugs. Obviously, I straightened myself out recently, but I still have that major panick from getting such horrible grades in the MOST fundamental classes for pre-medical students. I can't even retake the courses because I didn't receive a C-. Any feedback would be appreciated.

You're going to have to show that you have really turned it around. Buckle down and make sure you get A's from here on out. If you are open to osteopathic schools they do grade replacement, so you can retake any of the classes you got a C in and it will replace the old grade. It doesn't have to be from the same university either, so if you take a year off after you graduate or retake classes during the summer somewhere else they will still count. They just have to be the same credit hours or greater than the class you originally took. A year off after your graduate to pull up your GPA might be in order, but I would just focus on getting the grades you need for now, and then see where you are at when the time comes. It isn't hopeless, but it is definitely going to require some work on your part. However, plenty of people have done it. Good luck!

 

[Optimism]

Thank you for your reply! My optimistic character is slowly repairing... Sorry but I have another question. How many hours of clinical volunteer work/shadowing do you recommend? I have a shadowing opportunity for a general doctor and I recently applied for the COPE(or as known as clinical care extenders) and I believe that I got it. Not too sure. The program requires 280 hours of commitment and they guarantee a letter of recommendation upon completion.

 

[487806]

Thank you for your reply! My optimistic character is slowly repairing... Sorry but I have another question. How many hours of clinical volunteer work/shadowing do you recommend? I have a shadowing opportunity for a general doctor and I recently applied for the COPE(or as known as clinical care extenders) and I believe that I got it. Not too sure. The program requires 280 hours of commitment and they guarantee a letter of recommendation upon completion.

280 hours of shadowing is plentiful. Generally, the minimum amount of shadowing hours is 50+ hours, so you're good.

I'm not sure about volunteering hours, but I believe it's around 300+ hours. You'll get more clinical experience in shadowing though. Good luck!

 

[Goro]

As off right now, non-existant. If you ace everything from now on, quite good.

Hello. I am currently a sophomore attending a UC, and reality has finally struck me. I am currently in the coffee shop panicking because I screwed up so hard my freshman year. My cum. GPA is 2.7, in which my grades were the following:
Fall quarter
chemistry 1A: A
calculus 9A: A
English 004: B-

winter
chemistry 1B: C
Biology 5A: C+
Biology lab 5A: C
Chem lab 1B: B-
Calculus 9B: C

Spring
Chemistry1C: C
Biology 5B: C
Chem lab 1C: A-
Calculus 9C: B-

Now, honestly, what ARE my chances of getting into medical school? (Assuming that I buckle down and get my **** straight.) Winter and Spring quarter was a total mistake because I experimented with some drugs. Obviously, I straightened myself out recently, but I still have that major panick from getting such horrible grades in the MOST fundamental classes for pre-medical students. I can't even retake the courses because I didn't receive a C-. Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[DrCaliBoy]

Im guessing your at coffee bean? You still have time to bring up those grades, I suggest you start going to the learning center and talk to you health advisors for additional resources.

 

[Optimism]

280 hours of shadowing is plentiful. Generally, the minimum amount of shadowing hours is 50+ hours, so you're good.

I'm not sure about volunteering hours, but I believe it's around 300+ hours. You'll get more clinical experience in shadowing though. Good luck!

Thank you! So thankfully, I'm not too behind in EC's.

 

[Optimism]

As off right now, non-existant. If you ace everything from now on, quite good.

Thank you for your response! However, when disregarding DO schools and how I could retake the classes to replace my old grade, isn't it extremely detrimental to my chance of getting in by the fact that I received a C in the fundamental science courses? And also, would getting A's in higher division biology courses somewhat neutralize the horrible grades I've received in chem and bio?

 

[Optimism]

Im guessing your at coffee bean? You still have time to bring up those grades, I suggest you start going to the learning center and talk to you health advisors for additional resources.

Yeah you are correct! But yeah I was going to talk to my advisors but I'm just afraid they are going to discourage me and tell me to consider other options if anything... I'm in the WAY lower end of the statistics for a pre-med student =/.

 

[MedPR]

Yeah you are correct! But yeah I was going to talk to my advisors but I'm just afraid they are going to discourage me and tell me to consider other options if anything... I'm in the WAY lower end of the statistics for a pre-med student =/.

My pre-heal advisors told me to pursue something else. I graduated with a ~2.60GPA. Raised it in post-bacc. Not the best way to go about things, but it certainly isn't impossible to get in with a low UG GPA.

 

[spen64]

Hello,
that is reassuring. My cGPA is 2.98 and I am also looking at a post bac. What are your thoughts on a high mcat score and a low sGPA about 2.8.

thank you

 

[Foreveryours91]

My pre-heal advisors told me to pursue something else. I graduated with a ~2.60GPA. Raised it in post-bacc. Not the best way to go about things, but it certainly isn't impossible to get in with a low UG GPA.

I have to give it to you, you def. have the tenacity to keep on going. I heard raising one's gpa through post bacc is not so easy, and including it eats up money faster then anything. My advisors also told me to pursue something else even though I have a 3.1 GPA and also still have a year left to raise that up slightly. Albeit I'm not going to listen to that, and do what I can to raise my gpa up even if I have to go through the SMP/post bacc route. It really sucks having to raise a gpa after a bad freshman year of C's.

 

[MedPR]

I have to give it to you, you def. have the tenacity to keep on going. I heard raising one's gpa through post bacc is not so easy, and including it eats up money faster then anything. My advisors also told me to pursue something else even though I have a 3.1 GPA and also still have a year left to raise that up slightly. Albeit I'm not going to listen to that, and do what I can to raise my gpa up even if I have to go through the SMP/post bacc route. It really sucks having to raise a gpa after a bad freshman year of C's.

Unless you're a URM you will likely need to do something to improve your GPA.

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[Optimism]

Bump and update...

I really have no excuse for this, but I stupidly did not follow through with my "straight A's from henceforth" plan (although I did do better this year) and I am now sitting with a 2.8-2.9 GPA in my last quarter of Sophomore year. I have given it a lot of thought, and I am leaning towards the less competitive health careers such as physicians assistant or physical therapy not fully due to my circumstance, but because I am genuinely interested in those fields. I am definitely aware that these careers also require a decent GPA, but I'm at a point where I am unable to change my major and I definitely want to pursue some type of health career.

Now for the advice that I am seeking from you wise, intelligent people is:

Is it necessary for me to receive excellent grades in the pre-req courses to even be considered for PA/PT/MD/DO schools? Although I know getting straight A's is much easier said than done, I'm in a situation where I will end up on the streets with a biology major that will get me no where if I really don't buckle down and get my act straightened out. Would getting A's in the upper division courses "compensate" for my low grades in biology, chemistry, etc? Sorry for the wordy excerpt.

 

[Blackxp]

I can't even retake the courses because I didn't receive a C-. Any feedback would be appreciated.

I know that many college students will request that they are given an F instead of a D or any non-desired grade so they can retake the course, but honestly I think a C- looks better than an F the first time around. It also means that you have not given into the pre-med mentality of obsessing over grades and care more about what actually matters.

One thing I could recommend is that you perhaps still retake the courses that you did not do so well in. It might not factor into your GPA at your school, but I believe it will affect your actual AMCAS GPA that they calculate. They still factor in all attempts, even if your university forgave an F (Even if you got an A the second attempt). This means your C- might be better than much of your competition that repeated a course (Which happens alot!).

Have someone else confirm that though. I am applying my first time this cycle and am unsure how exactly they factor in your previous grade. All I know is that they state in the manual that they do factor it in. This might mean you are not too poorly off too! Work on balancing your application too. GPA is not the single most important factor either. You have your MCAT that is often considered slightly more important. In addition to this you have your EC which can break even the best student (4.0 and 35+ MCAT can still fail to get into a school because they have no idea why they want to be a doctor. So Volunteer and get some shadowing experience)

Also I am unsure what you are considering either. There are MD and DO schools alike and honestly they both are fantastic programs. Its all about what you do with your degree. In the pathology department that I volunteer, the head pathologist is a DO. Many of the DO programs allow for lower GPA's too.

 

[Optimism]

Thank you for your reply! Yeah.... I guess I honestly don't have enough desire to pursue medical school because I am well aware that the GPA plays a huge factor (and it is one of the components of an application that you can't essentially "make up") and yet I still don't put in enough effort as I am supposed to. I wish you luck on your first application cycle though!