Maintaining a 3.5?

[JamesJr]

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I am a senior in high-school and I received pre-acceptance to a medical school for the 2014 entering class. The requirement is that I maintain a 3.5 overall and science GPA while in college and complete all prereqs required by the end of sophomore year. I do not have to take the MCAT .

My required prereqs are:
1 English
1 General Chemistry
1 Organic Chemistry
1 General Biology
1 Physics

I will be receiving AP Credit for two english courses and satisfy that requirement. I checked with the medical school and AP credit is acceptable, as long as it appears on my transcript (which it will).

My question: How hard is it going to be to maintain a 3.5 overall and science GPA? This is like getting an A and B for every other class, nothing lower. I plan to major in Environmental Health, if that makes any difference.

 

[WildEMDoc]

There will always be some classes that are harder than others and the hardest thing for many people is O Chem.

Half A's and B's is not hard to do as long as you really apply yourself in your classes, use the professors office hours, and form study groups with other people.

But many people do have a "bump" in their college GPA, the first semester to a year that they enter college. My freshman year my total GPA ended up being a 3.0, that was because I just didn't have the study habits that I do now and I didn't know how college courses really worked. What I would recommend to you is that you develop those study habits and take advantage of tutors (many campus offer them for free) all the time, not just when you don't understand the material.

 

[Daedra22]

It's completely do-able, you just have to budget your time. Plenty of people have a 3.5 or better while balancing a family, job, volunteering and MCAT prep. College isn't as hard as they make it out to be if you put the time into it.