Many questions

[callmejoe]

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I've been considering going to medical school for several months now. In my first year of college I was doing computer science, I was unmotivated, lazy, maybe even a little depressed. I did terrible, I failed a gen ed and my first CS class. The seconded semester I did a semester withdrawal. During the summer I was going to take some summer classes, I only ended up retaking calc, I did very well in it. I decided to go into engineering and so far I'm doing pretty good so far and I believe I can maintain an A average if I put the proper time into studying.

After much thought I've been strongly considering medical school. Although it's a far out goal its something I want to achieve. My first year failure was do to lack of motivation,ambition, out of control procrastination and generally not having any "drive" for what I was doing.
So my questions are:

1.Do I have any hope or have I already shot myself in the foot? If so will post bacc help me out or should I just look for another health related career(thinking bio medical engineering)

2. If I am able to keep around an A average how will that look? Will admissions see that I've made some major changes or will the look at my overall average? I still have 3-4 years to go so my GPA will(hopefully) make a big leap but I dont think I'll be getting a 3.8+ overall.

3. I'm thinking of changing my major to something like biochem or get a BA in chem,bio or physics. This will allow me to graduate on time and have a bit more freedom in my schedule (engie class are too structured for that) if I take summer classes. What would be a better? Engineering will take longer but give me a better fallback career. What about working while in med school? Will me major make a big difference or will I just be flipping burgers on sundays at best?

4. Will summer classes interfere with time I need for research/volunteer work/clinical experience?

5. What about the mcat? When should I start studying. A year in an advance? A year and a half? I probably will have to put extra effort in it too offset my GPA but how much can I stake in it?

6.How far in math should I go? I heard more med schools want to go past integral calc and be take classes like linear algebra and diff eq. Should I take these or are these mostly for
4.0 GPA-star athlete-class president Harvard Med school prodigies?

7.Bonus: I am over thinking things?

Thanks to anyone who read my wall of text and can manage to answer some of my questions 🙂

 

[SN12357]

I'm just going to hit a few of your points, not exactly in order.

No, it's not too late.

If you maintain good grades from here on out and do well on the MCAT you can attribute your initial problems to trouble adjusting to college, which is normal and not at all something that will prevent you from going to medical school.

Regarding your major, it really does not matter what you pick as long as you do well. So pick what you WANT to do.

If you need to take a few gap years to polish up your application by adding ECs, or taking prereqs after graduation, there is nothing wrong with that.

The only program I have ever seen that wants math beyond second semester calculus is Harvard's HST. More and more programs are moving towards requiring statistics instead of or alongside intro calc. Only do the advanced math classes if you genuinely want to. They won't matter for med school.

If you can study full-time for the MCAT plan on 3-4 months at MOST, dependent on your innate test-taking abilities and comfort with the prereqs. If you study part-time on the MCAT maybe start more like 5-6 months out. Studying earlier than that is not particularly productive IMO. Part of doing well on the MCAT is practice with the specific test format, and you want to cluster that to happen close to your test date.

It's true that summer classes will cut into your ability to do other things during the summer, but not exclusively. You will need to decide what time commitments make the most sense for you, no one else can do that for you.

Good luck.

 

[callmejoe]

Thanks for the feed back. What considered full time studying for the mcat?

 

[deleted407021]

1) No. Your foot is intact. There is a thing called an upward trend in GPA which schools like to see. Not as good as a 3.5-4.0 all the way through, but it shows you buckled down and focused on what you want to do. You might need to determine if medicine is right for you by doing clinical volunteer work and shadowing some physicians.
2) See number 1. Upward trend.
3) Your major does not matter. At all. Pick something you enjoy and can get good grades in. Engineering is one of those GPA killer majors, but if you think you can do it, go ahead. I prefer not to think about fallbacks because in my mind, I'm only ever going to be a doctor. It keeps me focused.
4) it depends on how many classes you take over the summer.
5) Most successful applicants do a 3 month study schedule for the MCAT. 3 months is really all you need, but it is intensive.
6) For most schools, college algebra is enough. Some require calculus I and only Harvard, to my knowledge, requires I and II. I like your take on the super genius, athlete show off type, btw.
7) No. You are concerned about your future career and you are spending time planning and trying to understand the system. You are doing a good job in that respect.

Remember your pre requisites. Keep your GPA up. Get into some ECs you like. Don't overload yourself. Don't freak out about a C here or there in a non prereq course. If you are not already, learn to be an empathetic and caring person. Good luck!

 

[SN12357]

Thanks for the feed back. What considered full time studying for the mcat?

There's a popular study schedule in the MCAT forum (the 'SN2' plan) that I think presumes something like 8 hrs/day for 3-4 months.

Basically full-time MCAT studying means you can treat the MCAT like it's your primary responsibility during that time.

You have to judge for yourself after taking the prereqs if you need that kind of dedicated study time. Not everyone does.

 

[mvenus929]

1. You have a shot. If you do great in the next 3 years, you may even be able to pull off a top tier school. If you do well, you can still get in to some medical school. Where would be determined by your final GPA and MCAT score.

2. They will see your upward trend. They'll probably also look at your overall average initially, but if you only have a couple of failed classes early in your career, you can still have a relatively high overall GPA.

3. Do whatever interests you the most. And it's not a bad idea to look into other careers, not because you don't have a chance in medicine (you do), but you may find that you like something else better. As far as working during medical school, most people don't (as in 99% of people don't), and those who do are usually non-trads who continue doing what they were doing before med school (in my class, we had 2 paramedics--one was also a mechanic--a nurse, and a computer scientist)

4. Depends on what your course load is and what you want to do for your ECs.

5. You should worry about the MCAT after you take the prereqs for the MCAT (the 4 year equivalent of science, plus whatever is being tested on the new section).

6. I don't know where you heard that, but I don't know of any medical school that requests you study beyond basic calculus. Most want you to take stats.

7. Yes.

 

[callmejoe]

Ah, Thanks for all advice. It's a long ways off but the more I think about it the more I want to go to medical school.

 

[MrWonderful]

I've been considering going to medical school for several months now. In my first year of college I was doing computer science, I was unmotivated, lazy, maybe even a little depressed. I did terrible, I failed a gen ed and my first CS class. The seconded semester I did a semester withdrawal. During the summer I was going to take some summer classes, I only ended up retaking calc, I did very well in it. I decided to go into engineering and so far I'm doing pretty good so far and I believe I can maintain an A average if I put the proper time into studying.

After much thought I've been strongly considering medical school. Although it's a far out goal its something I want to achieve. My first year failure was do to lack of motivation,ambition, out of control procrastination and generally not having any "drive" for what I was doing.
So my questions are:

1.Do I have any hope or have I already shot myself in the foot? If so will post bacc help me out or should I just look for another health related career(thinking bio medical engineering)

2. If I am able to keep around an A average how will that look? Will admissions see that I've made some major changes or will the look at my overall average? I still have 3-4 years to go so my GPA will(hopefully) make a big leap but I dont think I'll be getting a 3.8+ overall.

3. I'm thinking of changing my major to something like biochem or get a BA in chem,bio or physics. This will allow me to graduate on time and have a bit more freedom in my schedule (engie class are too structured for that) if I take summer classes. What would be a better? Engineering will take longer but give me a better fallback career. What about working while in med school? Will me major make a big difference or will I just be flipping burgers on sundays at best?

4. Will summer classes interfere with time I need for research/volunteer work/clinical experience?

5. What about the mcat? When should I start studying. A year in an advance? A year and a half? I probably will have to put extra effort in it too offset my GPA but how much can I stake in it?

6.How far in math should I go? I heard more med schools want to go past integral calc and be take classes like linear algebra and diff eq. Should I take these or are these mostly for
4.0 GPA-star athlete-class president Harvard Med school prodigies?

7.Bonus: I am over thinking things?

Thanks to anyone who read my wall of text and can manage to answer some of my questions 🙂

1. You are still fine. A huge upward trend in GPA looks better than a consistent 3.3, or average/lower GPA. Not to mention you can explain the disparity between your GPA now and your GPA then and frame it as a learning experience.

2. Upward trend looks sexy, quite honestly

3. I chose Neuroscience because I knew if I had to end up doing research there are far more interesting Neuro applications as compared to the standard Biology major. Any type of engineering always seems to impress med schools but it is definitely only for the mathematically inclined

4. I did two summers of classes and still had time to get 150 hours of clinical shadowing from a single pre med internship. It helps if you map out a plan of each semester and identify where and when you can accumulate the ECs

5. A really strong MCAT can certainly help an average to low GPA. Id say 3 months of really intense studying is the best plan. Remember that with the beast (I call it that) the name of the game is practice practice practice. Being an engineering major will help you with physics so youd be in good hands

6. At most, many schools want two semesters of any math. Some want one and some dont require math at all. I took calc and stat and Im in the application process now and so far so good

7. Id say you are over thinking it. Its good to be organized and prepared, but dont cross the line to neurotic. My suggestion is identify the path that will lead you to med school. For me, that meant picking a major and mapping out my classes by semester, then picking semesters to look for internships/shadowing, and then junior year lining up MCAT prep and my schedule for that. At the end of the day, if you want it badly enough youll make it happen.

 

[callmejoe]

BUMPing this.
Would would meds school like more, if I take a an extra year and use the summer for more extra circulars, or that I that I use my summer for classes and graduate on time. Thanks!

 

[mvenus929]

BUMPing this.
Would would meds school like more, if I take a an extra year and use the summer for more extra circulars, or that I that I use my summer for classes and graduate on time. Thanks!

Med schools won't have any preference for one over the other. You should do whatever gives you the best looking application at the end. If you graduate on time, but don't have enough clinical experience, then you wasted your time. If you use the summers to do extracurriculars, but don't have a well rounded application, again, you wasted your time.

 

[Doctor Bob]

2. Upward trend looks sexy, quite honestly

Err.... sexy? I have never looked at a transcript in an application and thought "wow... that is one sexy GPA trend."