Need advice/encouragement

[gibs3851]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm going to give you the fast run down of my situation...

I started college in 2004 as pre-med. I fell in love blah blah and things kind of went down hill from there. I have also had some health issues that have required surgery 6 semesters. No excuses, but it has greatly effected me. I also got pregnant after I got married because my old doctor told me I would need IVF (medical problems.) This all hurt my GPA and transcript. I'm 23 and have wanted nothing more than to be a doctor. After all of this, I finally grasped that it wouldn't happen. My cumulative GPA is about 2.7, retention 3.0.

I will get an associates in May, then go back to the university for a bachelors in probably liberal studies. I started thinking about my options when the man I fell in love with that started my down hill spiral decided he didn't want to be married anymore. This was 6 months ago when our son was 6-months-old. I have a lot of stuff going on and will have to work while going to school, but is there any hope out there? I can have a darn good personal statement after all of this. It will take me some time to get pre-reqs and a bachelors, so by the time I'm ready my son will be in school, leaving me with some extra time not devoted to him.

My worry is my transcript. I have many I's, W's, AW's, and a few F's. Some are in pre-req classes that I have repeated many times. I just got caught up in the medical drama, and then my husband leaving has torn me up pretty bad. I still pray he is just having a hard time and realizes what he's doing, but who knows. I'll have a lot of explaining to do on the app. I'm a youngish mom, so I'm worried about the time commitment with my son. He's so young right now that I feel guilty not paying attention to him. Any parents with advice on that too? Thanks!

 

[ChairmanMao]

I'm going to give you the fast run down of my situation...

I started college in 2004 as pre-med. I fell in love blah blah and things kind of went down hill from there. I have also had some health issues that have required surgery 6 semesters. No excuses, but it has greatly effected me. I also got pregnant after I got married because my old doctor told me I would need IVF (medical problems.) This all hurt my GPA and transcript. I'm 23 and have wanted nothing more than to be a doctor. After all of this, I finally grasped that it wouldn't happen. My cumulative GPA is about 2.7, retention 3.0.

I will get an associates in May, then go back to the university for a bachelors in probably liberal studies. I started thinking about my options when the man I fell in love with that started my down hill spiral decided he didn't want to be married anymore. This was 6 months ago when our son was 6-months-old. I have a lot of stuff going on and will have to work while going to school, but is there any hope out there? I can have a darn good personal statement after all of this. It will take me some time to get pre-reqs and a bachelors, so by the time I'm ready my son will be in school, leaving me with some extra time not devoted to him.

My worry is my transcript. I have many I's, W's, AW's, and a few F's. Some are in pre-req classes that I have repeated many times. I just got caught up in the medical drama, and then my husband leaving has torn me up pretty bad. I still pray he is just having a hard time and realizes what he's doing, but who knows. I'll have a lot of explaining to do on the app. I'm a youngish mom, so I'm worried about the time commitment with my son. He's so young right now that I feel guilty not paying attention to him. Any parents with advice on that too? Thanks!

Based on your current situation, I would advise you to get your personal problems under control first before attempting to recover your GPA, grades, and medical pre-requisites. From what I'm hearing, it sounds as though you went through a very rough period in your life over the past 5 years - and right now, you are in no shape to go to medical school. First, get your personal situation taken care of. Go to the doctor, seek treatment for your current health problems, and recover from your surgery.

Second, work things out with your husband/fiance. While there are a lot of people who took college classes and completed medical school while raising a kid, almost all of them had the support of their spouse. It is almost unheard of for a single parent to raise a child and go through medical school without the support of his/her family. As you can imagine, medical school and residency are extremely time consuming and it would leave you very little time to raise your children. Arrange counseling, marriage therapy, etc with your husband. You need to work this out with him before you proceed.

Once you work your personal problems out, you can start taking undergrad courses to complete your bachelor's and pre-requisite classes. While you have a very profound story to tell, it will not matter to the admissions committee unless you can reliably demonstrate to them that you've recovered and are capable of doing the class work required from you. You will need a cumulative GPA of at least a 3.0 (preferably a 3.4) and a high MCAT score (>85th percentile) in order to be a viable medical school candidate. Plan on getting a GPA of at least a 3.5+ from now on when you go back and start school again.

In conclusion, I would suggest that you work out your personal problems first. Get your medical situation taken care of. Work out your differences with your husband (stop blaming him for your "downhill spiral" - you're the one who married him!). Figure out who's going to share in taking care of your child, and start taking classes only once everything's under control in your life. Take classes only when everything is under control in your life (because if your GPA keeps dropping after you begin taking classes again, you're really digging yourself into a deeper hole - a downward GPA trend is the kiss of death for admissions to a medical school).

 

[DrJosephKim]

Personal problems aside, it sounds like you may have a very difficult time unless you really do well on the MCATs because of your academic history. Have you ever taken any MCAT practice exams? Do you have any idea how you would score on it?

 

[sindadel]

I agree with ChairmanMao's advice. Do NOT take any classes for now.

Take care of yourself and your baby and get your life on an even keel. By all means, find places to volunteer and get clinical exposure as that will only help your eventual goals. But taking more classes before you are certain that things are stable will only harm you. I know 23 doesn't feel young compared to 18, but it's REALLY young for all of this.

Good luck with straightening your personal life out. And enjoy the baby years. 🙂

 

[CogitoA1]

There is a lot of hope here. You're very young, and you have a lot of time.

I cannot comment on what you should do about your husband. Sometimes it is best for us not to be with someone.

But I agree fully with the advice that you will want to work on other areas of your life before returning to your academic studies. Your grades, going forward, are going to be very, very important. To get good grades, you will need to work steadily at the classes, which means studying regularly, attending regularly, etc. So you will want to be in a place, mentally, where that kind of habit is a reasonable achievement. With a one-year old child, and no other means of support mentioned, this will be extremely difficult.

So, hold on to the goal of getting into medical school. You're not done. But school is a grades-game, so far as medical admissions is concerned. Get yourself in good shape before you start playing again. Get organized before you start playing again. You can do both things, and you and your child will be better and happier for it. Once you've got those things figured out, then go for it; you'll be ready for the game.