Messed up half of undergrad, fixable?

[LioraStar]

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I've been pre med since the second semester of my freshman year in undergrad, now on my 4th year. Everything was going pretty well until my mental illness (bipolar II + severe depression) destroyed my life. My grades slipped and I've had to drop classes for the past year and a half. Most of my drops are classified as non academic due to illness but a couple aren't because I didn't turn the paperwork for them in quickly enough. This semester was my worst one yet and I ended up having to drop everything or risk being put in a mental hospital.

Unfortunately I was an idiot and didn't get help when I needed to and thought I could just tough it out. I've been in treatment for a year now and just recently enrolled in an intensive outpatient program to try to finally move on. I can't explain how bad this really is. It got to the point where all I could think about was suicide.

My current GPA is 3.03, have no F's but two D+'s (one in ochem and one in a history class). I'm going to start retaking some classes in the fall because I actually want to learn the material and of course boost my GPA. If I retook the 4 classes that are giving me the most trouble and got A's I'd end up with a 3.4. I still have a decent amount of classes left to take due to my drops putting me behind. If I aced the classes I have left to take I'd get a 3.56.

A 3.56 isn't the worst right? Would it be worth retaking an anatomy class to get a 3.63? I haven't taken the MCAT and my volunteer work consists of working at an ER for a few months which I absolutely hated. I'll be looking for other ECs I can get involved with.

I don't even know if drops for medical reasons show up on transcripts, but do you think schools would hold them against me if I managed to create an upward trend? Would an MD program be forgiving when it comes to my retakes? Do I still have good chances of getting in?

 

[Jamisan]

I've been pre med since the second semester of my freshman year in undergrad, now on my 4th year. Everything was going pretty well until my mental illness (bipolar II + severe depression) destroyed my life. My grades slipped and I've had to drop classes for the past year and a half. Most of my drops are classified as non academic due to illness but a couple aren't because I didn't turn the paperwork for them in quickly enough. This semester was my worst one yet and I ended up having to drop everything or risk being put in a mental hospital.

Unfortunately I was an idiot and didn't get help when I needed to and thought I could just tough it out. I've been in treatment for a year now and just recently enrolled in an intensive outpatient program to try to finally move on. I can't explain how bad this really is. It got to the point where all I could think about was suicide.

My current GPA is 3.03, have no F's but two D+'s (one in ochem and one in a history class). I'm going to start retaking some classes in the fall because I actually want to learn the material and of course boost my GPA. If I retook the 4 classes that are giving me the most trouble and got A's I'd end up with a 3.4. I still have a decent amount of classes left to take due to my drops putting me behind. If I aced the classes I have left to take I'd get a 3.56.

A 3.56 isn't the worst right? Would it be worth retaking an anatomy class to get a 3.63? I haven't taken the MCAT and my volunteer work consists of working at an ER for a few months which I absolutely hated. I'll be looking for other ECs I can get involved with.

I don't even know if drops for medical reasons show up on transcripts, but do you think schools would hold them against me if I managed to create an upward trend? Would an MD program be forgiving when it comes to my retakes? Do I still have good chances of getting in?

Do you have W's? If your transcript shows W then it doesn't matter what the reason is and your transcript won't show anything other than that you withdrew. And there isn't any way to get the schools to fix the W even if you were sick. I have a W because the teacher did something that was completely inappropriate and the administrators asked me to file a report against her and she got in a lot of trouble but they still couldn't get rid of my W.

If you have to drop any more classes due to illness I would strongly suggest asking the teacher for an incomplete instead of a withdrawal so that when you are well enough to do the class you end up with one grade instead of a grade and a W.

Why did you hate working in the ER? Do you have any clinical experience that you enjoyed? If not, you might want to get more clinical experience and do some shadowing to make sure you definitely want to be in the medical field. I've known a lot of people who thought they wanted to be in the medical field because they loved learning about it but when they started working in it they found that they actually hated it, so I think you need to make absolutely sure that this is what you want to do before you put time and money into taking the MCAT.

 

[Jamisan]

I've been pre med since the second semester of my freshman year in undergrad, now on my 4th year. Everything was going pretty well until my mental illness (bipolar II + severe depression) destroyed my life. My grades slipped and I've had to drop classes for the past year and a half. Most of my drops are classified as non academic due to illness but a couple aren't because I didn't turn the paperwork for them in quickly enough. This semester was my worst one yet and I ended up having to drop everything or risk being put in a mental hospital.

Unfortunately I was an idiot and didn't get help when I needed to and thought I could just tough it out. I've been in treatment for a year now and just recently enrolled in an intensive outpatient program to try to finally move on. I can't explain how bad this really is. It got to the point where all I could think about was suicide.

My current GPA is 3.03, have no F's but two D+'s (one in ochem and one in a history class). I'm going to start retaking some classes in the fall because I actually want to learn the material and of course boost my GPA. If I retook the 4 classes that are giving me the most trouble and got A's I'd end up with a 3.4. I still have a decent amount of classes left to take due to my drops putting me behind. If I aced the classes I have left to take I'd get a 3.56.

A 3.56 isn't the worst right? Would it be worth retaking an anatomy class to get a 3.63? I haven't taken the MCAT and my volunteer work consists of working at an ER for a few months which I absolutely hated. I'll be looking for other ECs I can get involved with.

I don't even know if drops for medical reasons show up on transcripts, but do you think schools would hold them against me if I managed to create an upward trend? Would an MD program be forgiving when it comes to my retakes? Do I still have good chances of getting in?

Also are you sure about your GPA calcs? Cuz you said that taking anatomy again would take you from 3.56 to 3.63 but unless you've taken very few classes that seems very unlikely. Make sure you calculate it by dividing the quality points by the units. So if you got a B in a 5 unit class (15 QP) and an A in a 3 unit class (12 QP) it would be 27/8=3.375

 

[LioraStar]

Do you have W's? If your transcript shows W then it doesn't matter what the reason is and your transcript won't show anything other than that you withdrew. And there isn't any way to get the schools to fix the W even if you were sick. I have a W because the teacher did something that was completely inappropriate and the administrators asked me to file a report against her and she got in a lot of trouble but they still couldn't get rid of my W.

If you have to drop any more classes due to illness I would strongly suggest asking the teacher for an incomplete instead of a withdrawal so that when you are well enough to do the class you end up with one grade instead of a grade and a W.

Why did you hate working in the ER? Do you have any clinical experience that you enjoyed? If not, you might want to get more clinical experience and do some shadowing to make sure you definitely want to be in the medical field. I've known a lot of people who thought they wanted to be in the medical field because they loved learning about it but when they started working in it they found that they actually hated it, so I think you need to make absolutely sure that this is what you want to do before you put time and money into taking the MCAT.

I don't know if they'd show up as Ws but probably. Do you think with an explanation they might overlook them? Would just having too many Ws be a deal breaker?

I hated working in the ER because we didn't have any contact with the doctors and it was pretty much janitorial work. I enjoyed interacting with the patients but that's about it. I don't have any clinical experience. Definitely interested in shadowing.

 

[LioraStar]

Also are you sure about your GPA calcs? Cuz you said that taking anatomy again would take you from 3.56 to 3.63 but unless you've taken very few classes that seems very unlikely. Make sure you calculate it by dividing the quality points by the units. So if you got a B in a 5 unit class (15 QP) and an A in a 3 unit class (12 QP) it would be 27/8=3.375

I used a GPA calc online so it could be wrong.

 

[sixersfan]

Is the 3.56 AMCAS GPA or your school GPA?

 

[Jamisan]

I don't know if they'd show up as Ws but probably. Do you think with an explanation they might overlook them? Would just having too many Ws be a deal breaker?

I hated working in the ER because we didn't have any contact with the doctors and it was pretty much janitorial work. I enjoyed interacting with the patients but that's about it. I don't have any clinical experience. Definitely interested in shadowing.

I think they do give you a place in the app to explain things like too many Ws, but you want to be careful because telling them you dropped a bunch of classes because of mental illness can be a huge red flag. Even if you have everything under control now, they're going to question why it flared up to begin with cuz if it flared up because of the pressure of school then they're going to assume you can't handle medical school. Have you considered doing an SMP after undergrad? A lot of them are just as rigorous as med school so if you can do well then you can prove that you can handle med school.

I definitely think you need to get more clinical experience. You could be a scribe or get your phlebotomy license or become an emt, etc. And shadowing is a must but it definitely won't help you figure out if you love the medical field as much as actually working or volunteering in the medical field would.

I never trusted my GPA to be calculated by anybody or anything else. What you could do is make a excel spreadsheet and put in every class you've taken along with the units and the quality points and have excel do the math for you. That way every time you take another class you can just add it to the spreadsheet and it will automatically adjust your GPA for you.

 

[candbgirl]

You aren’t anywhere near ready to apply so just slow down and take a deep breath. Why are you pursuing medicine? You don’t seem to have much, if any clinical experience or shadowing. The little exposure you do have in the ER you hated.

Get yourself well. That’s the most important thing. When you are feeling better explore clinical opportunities where you can get some one on one interaction with patients and opportunities to shadow various docs, including a primary care doc. See how docs spend their days, how they interact with patients and other medical professionals. You really don’t know if you want to spend the next 30+ years dealing with the sick, injured and dying.

Don’t worry about Ws but don’t take any more classes until you are physically and emotionally well enough to handle school. Check to see if you can get a medical withdrawal retroactively for the classes that don’t have it.

Bottom line, take care of yourself. You are still recovering and you don’t need to be worrying about getting an acceptance to med school. As the wise @Goro always says “med schools aren’t going anywhere”. Good luck to you!

 

[LioraStar]

Is the 3.56 AMCAS GPA or your school GPA?

School.

 

[sixersfan]

School.

Just keep in mind that the AMCAS averages the two grades you get in classes you retake. If you have a D+ and retake and get a B+ it does not help your case very much (not to mention it would average to a C+ on the AMCAS). Also, retaking is only a good idea if you are confident you wil get an A. If you retake a class schools want to see you getting an A in them.

Also, really take into consideration what @candbgirl said. Medical schools aren't going anywhere, take your time.

Best of luck