Need help on deciding next steps....

[gabbMD]

**I am reposting this from the premed forums on reddit. so if you've already seen this.....fyi

Hello all,

As the title says, I am currently not doing well and would like some input on what to do next.

I am a 32 year old first generation Mexican American non-trad currently taking pre-reqs for med school. I have an undergrad in philosophy and religious studies (3.3 cGPA), but never took any core science classes at my liberal arts college. Hence why I am taking them now.

I currently have:

College Alg: A
Trig: B
Calc I: B
Gen Bio 1: B
Chem Prep: B
Gen Chem 1: B

I am currently taking the second sequence in the Bio series (repeat - the first time i got a D); it has been a really tough semester. I took my second mid term this week and got a D, the first was a C. Pretty likely to get my first C here. I am doing much better in the second sequence of gen chem and if I bust my ass, pretty sure i can get an A. I got a 90 on my first midterm. the second is this Tuesday.

I currently work nights and go to school during the day. Needless to say this has been a pretty rough year. My sleep quality has gone down hill, my eating habits are sub par and I am generally pretty tired. I think i have worked pretty hard to get those Bs (but maybe not??) and am worried that I might not get the grades I need moving forward seeing as I have not been able to get an A since trig. Am I panicking here??

My question is this:

Should I continue taking pre reqs with my current schedule of working nights, figure out some way to get As (study strategies??) or....stop taking classes for a year and Work full time nights/part time scribe (for experience). I can save as much money as I can, quit my job in a year from now and continue with pre-reqs to ensure success.

During this year I can either apply for a full time 1 year post bacc pre med program (what are my chances of getting in??) or continue at university full time.

Thoughts??

I have been feeling so down about this process lately. Where's the hope?

Thanks for all your input fellow pre-meds!

Anyone in a similar situation?

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[deleted915763]

There is no point in continuing to take classes if you aren't going to do well in them... you're only digging yourself into a deeper hole. You are taking relatively easy classes and there should be no reason you can't perform well in them (how do you expect to do well in medical school, where it gets much harder).

Maybe take some time off of school, figure out what you need to change so you can do well in all the rest of your classes. Or if you really think that you're doing poorly only because you have so much other stuff, such as work, then you need to somehow reduce your overall workload. There is no point in continuing doing the same thing because you are not doing too well in school and it seems as though you are seriously overworked!

edit: Do well on the rest of the prereq's, maybe do some sort of post-bacc to get that gpa up, do well on the mcat, apply broadly to DO and MD, you can do it!!!!

 

[ucsdfootball]

Agreed with everything @isopropylhexene said. You're just digging a hole for yourself and those are easy classes; you should not be getting B's. At your age, it doesn't really matter if you take an extra year to just work and save up money or not, since medical schools will lump you in with the old nontrads anyway (and schools are either friendly to that demographic or they're not at all, check MSAR). Better to get your finances in order so that you can focus on this 100%. Definitely get some volunteering on the side though, since the tenure of such activities is almost as important as how many hours total you rack up (like 150 hours in the clinic in a semester is impressive, but 300 hours over 2 years shows longer commitment/dedication).

PS I understand where you're coming from on the physical breakdown. My first year postbacc was Gen Bio, Gen Chem Physics, labs for all 3, plus working full-time as a software engineer on a project I didn't understand. I used to do triathlons and centuries for fun but now I'm slowly working off all the weight I put on these last two years lol. It's really not ideal and if you can avoid abusing your body by taking things slower I would.