Need some advice

[needadvice88]

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Hey everyone,
I am in a pretty bad situation. I started off college doing okay in my classes as a biochem major. Two semesters into school I ran into some family problems that left me depressed. Instead of taking time off to deal with my issues, I let myself continuously sign up for new classes and tank them. When I was one semester away from academic probation, I finally realized I needed to help myself. I took time off from school, received counseling, and got myself back together. At this point, I was unsure of what I really wanted to do in life. I took several career/personality assessment tests and always had the same top result, a physician. I decided that I would try to beat the odds and get all As in my upcoming classes. Due to my poor academic record, I was forced to switch my major to biology. The first 2 semester I average about 3.5gpa. Unfortunately my last semester, the hardest of all, I struggled during finals and received 3Cs and a B+. My final cumulative GPA is a 2.38, after 5.5 years of undergrad (very embarrassing). I am also scheduled to take the MCAT at the end of April. At this point I am quite uncertain what my best options are. I grew up in a family that was always discussing medicine. My father is a physician and my mother is a nurse. I always enjoyed working on things with my hands and using instruments. Today, some surgeons use robotics to conduct surgery; which I think is one of the most fascinating things. I would love to do something for the rest of my life. I also do not lack the mental capacity to excel in this field. I attended a magnet school from elementary all the way to high school which required students to have a minimum IQ of 130; so I don't lack the intelligence needed. I fear that I have dug myself into such a deep hole that it will be impossible to recover.

Rather than attend a US medical school, I have heard about medical schools in the Caribbean and Europe. I know the schools out in the Caribbean do not have a great reputation except for the few accredited universities. Another issue is if one is to graduate from one of the accredited universities, they have a difficult time finding a good residency program.

I have not found too much information about European medical schools except for the schools in Ireland. It seems there are some programs which are similar to 4 year US programs, which require a college degree and MCAT, while others are 5-6 year programs and don't require a MCAT. I am uncertain how competitive or what scores these schools require.

Another option I have thought about is taking a masters program for 2 years. If I perform extremely well in one of these and publish some work it may increase my odds of getting accepted into any medical program. The issue I have with a masters program is I fear that I will waste 2 years in a program and it wont help my situation very much.

Sorry to keep rambling on for so long, but as you can see I am in quite the predicament. Any constructive advice besides "oh your completely screwed think of another field" would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

PS - Sorry for any poor grammar. I wrote this kind of quick.

 

[ChemMed]

I'm not sure what to say. You have yourself a predicament. Your GPA is a problem. You have to ace the MCAT. You could try GPA repair but you'll be at it for a while. AACOMAS does allow grade replacement though.

Other then this I'm not sure what to suggest for medical schools outside of the USA. I have not looked into them. I wish you the best of luck on whatever decision you make.

 

[theseeker4]

Hey everyone,
I am in a pretty bad situation. I started off college doing okay in my classes as a biochem major. Two semesters into school I ran into some family problems that left me depressed. Instead of taking time off to deal with my issues, I let myself continuously sign up for new classes and tank them. When I was one semester away from academic probation, I finally realized I needed to help myself. I took time off from school, received counseling, and got myself back together. At this point, I was unsure of what I really wanted to do in life. I took several career/personality assessment tests and always had the same top result, a physician. I decided that I would try to beat the odds and get all As in my upcoming classes. Due to my poor academic record, I was forced to switch my major to biology. The first 2 semester I average about 3.5gpa. Unfortunately my last semester, the hardest of all, I struggled during finals and received 3Cs and a B+. My final cumulative GPA is a 2.38, after 5.5 years of undergrad (very embarrassing). I am also scheduled to take the MCAT at the end of April. At this point I am quite uncertain what my best options are. I grew up in a family that was always discussing medicine. My father is a physician and my mother is a nurse. I always enjoyed working on things with my hands and using instruments. Today, some surgeons use robotics to conduct surgery; which I think is one of the most fascinating things. I would love to do something for the rest of my life. I also do not lack the mental capacity to excel in this field. I attended a magnet school from elementary all the way to high school which required students to have a minimum IQ of 130; so I don't lack the intelligence needed. I fear that I have dug myself into such a deep hole that it will be impossible to recover.

Rather than attend a US medical school, I have heard about medical schools in the Caribbean and Europe. I know the schools out in the Caribbean do not have a great reputation except for the few accredited universities. Another issue is if one is to graduate from one of the accredited universities, they have a difficult time finding a good residency program.

I have not found too much information about European medical schools except for the schools in Ireland. It seems there are some programs which are similar to 4 year US programs, which require a college degree and MCAT, while others are 5-6 year programs and don't require a MCAT. I am uncertain how competitive or what scores these schools require.

Another option I have thought about is taking a masters program for 2 years. If I perform extremely well in one of these and publish some work it may increase my odds of getting accepted into any medical program. The issue I have with a masters program is I fear that I will waste 2 years in a program and it wont help my situation very much.

Sorry to keep rambling on for so long, but as you can see I am in quite the predicament. Any constructive advice besides "oh your completely screwed think of another field" would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

PS - Sorry for any poor grammar. I wrote this kind of quick.

First I will be blunt; with your current GPA and number of credits the best thing to do is to find another career. You have years of work and struggle with no room for any error to even have a chance at admission to medical school in the US. It is also not as easy as simply telling yourself "I want to be a doctor now, so of course I will get all A's from now on." See http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=11083370&postcount=3

Now what you have to do, is forget about going outside the US for medical school. It is a horrible idea unless you don't want to practice in the US. Admission is easier to these schools, but they fail out huge numbers of their students, and large numbers of the graduates fail to match to any residency that can let them practice as a doctor in the US. This trend is only going to get worse for international medical graduates (IMG's) as the number of seats in US medical schools keeps increasing. In a few years, around the time you would graduate, there will be as many US medical school graduates as there are residency spots, meaning it will be nearly impossible to match as an IMG to a residency, and failing to complete a US residency means you will never be able to practice in the US as a doctor. You will still have a huge debt burden that will never be discharged in bankruptcy court, of course, that doesn't disappear if you fail to match. To put it simply, almost everyone who gets into a US MD or DO school eventually graduates, passes the board exams, matches to a residency and practices as a doctor in the US. This is not the case by a long shot for IMG's. It is better to be denied entrance at the doors of medical school before you have a mountain of debt to pay off than to accumulate the debt and find out you can't use the degree.

If you are dead-set on being a doctor, you need to find out what went wrong. Why did you struggle with the classes you already took? Tanking early classes due to depression isn't nearly as worrisome as the last semester you described above (as long as the depression is under control and you have received professional help, of course) Why did that last semester end so poorly? The classes may have been difficult, but I would bet money they were not as hard or as much work as what you would face in medical school. What do you need to do to not repeat your mistakes that semester again? Until you can answer that question, with a detailed plan including several contingencies in case your first plan doesn't work, don't take any classes. Once you figure it out, follow DrMidlife's plan I linked above. Don't just press on if you fail to get an A, get the help you need, correct the issues, then take the next class.

DO is probably your only chance, assuming you have a handful of failing grades or D's in your early career you can quickly remediate with grade replacement. Retaking all your extremely low grades and getting A's will quickly boost your GPA, but only for DO schools. MD schools average everything, and it doesn't matter if your undergraduate school only looks at the retake of a failed class for GPA calculation, AMCAS averages them all together.

Again, the best thing to do at this point is look into something else in health care if you are interested in the field, since the road to a medical school admission is long, expensive, and doesn't have any guarantee of admission at the end of it.

 

[theseeker4]

I am also scheduled to take the MCAT at the end of April.

Missed this part in my first reply. DO NOT TAKE THE MCAT YET! There is no reason to take it when you are years and years away from applying. You have a ton of classes to take to have a real chance at admission anywhere in the US, so don't take the MCAT until your GPA is up in an acceptable range.