Non-Trad with an awful first freshman year. Am I screwed?

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Bad_Wolf

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Hello everyone,

My first freshman year was embarrassingly awful, I was irresponsible and partied way too hard. During the second semester I decided I was going to enlist because i saw what I was becoming and needed some discipline.

I enlisted, served for 5 years, and separated with an honorable discharge. Then, decided I was finally ready to pursue my dream and went back to school. I'm currently in my second year of undergrad, and since coming back to school I've gotten nothing less than a 3.5, my cgpa is~3.7 and my science gpa is around a 3.8 (Ochem 1 ruined the 4.0 i had going lol). Now that I'm in my groove and have figured out how I study best, I'm on track for my first 4.0 semester. I qualified for the academic forgiveness program offered by my university, so my first freshman year was erased from my transcript, or so i thought.

I recently found out that AMCAS doesn't recognize the academic forgiveness and that I will have to list them with the grades earned on my applications when the time comes.

Be brutally honest, am I screwed, or can showing drastic improvement + great MCAT save my dream?

Also, I've been doing as much shadowing and volunteering as I can fit into my schedule, work as a phlebotomist/lab tech, TA for biology, tutored for biology, and soon I also start working in a cancer research lab where I will have free reign to design, conduct, and (hopefully) present my own experiments/research.

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Dude, you're fine. With this much time between your freshman year and now + your military service and honorable discharge, no adcom is going to even look at your freshman grades except to say "wow, he improved a lot."

Not that you should aim low, but with your upward trend and military service you could do not-so-great on the MCAT and still get several IIs.
 
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First, thank you for your service to our country.

Second, you will be just fine. as already mentioned you are so far removed from your freshmen grades that add coms won't even really look at them. You have been doing a fantastic job showing the you of now is not the you of then and really your excellent performance shows you can handle medical school. Keep up the good work! Make sure you give the MCAT the study time it deserves and you should be fine.
 
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Are the GPAs you provided including your scores from freshman year?


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Thank you, that means more than you know to us!

And also thank you for the reassurance, I've been stressing about this since I found out they calculate those in. I am a completely different person than my 18 y/o self, and really don't want to be punished for those actions when I've worked my ass off to come thus far. I'm doing an Altius program in the fall to prep for the MCAT, so hopefully that'll help.

I guess what I'm really worried about is having two semesters of bad grades lower my new gpa down to the point of auto rejection.

@Forever Geebs, the gpa posted is does not include my 2009 grades.
 
Thank you, that means more than you know to us!

And also thank you for the reassurance, I've been stressing about this since I found out they calculate those in. I am a completely different person than my 18 y/o self, and really don't want to be punished for those actions when I've worked my ass off to come thus far. I'm doing an Altius program in the fall to prep for the MCAT, so hopefully that'll help.

I guess what I'm really worried about is having two semesters of bad grades lower my new gpa down to the point of auto rejection.

@Forever Geebs, the gpa posted is does not include my 2009 grades.

What’s your GPA breakdown with your old grades factored in? Also, do you happen to be a TX resident?


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Thank you, that means more than you know to us!

And also thank you for the reassurance, I've been stressing about this since I found out they calculate those in. I am a completely different person than my 18 y/o self, and really don't want to be punished for those actions when I've worked my ass off to come thus far. I'm doing an Altius program in the fall to prep for the MCAT, so hopefully that'll help.

I guess what I'm really worried about is having two semesters of bad grades lower my new gpa down to the point of auto rejection.

@Forever Geebs, the gpa posted is does not include my 2009 grades.
Even if your sGPA went down to a 3.2 or so, adcoms will definitely look at your upward trend and military service and all of that will immensely mitigate the mistakes you made while young (what 18 year old hasn't made mistakes like yours??). You clearly learned from them and made up for them in spades and that's what adcoms want to see. As I've said before in another thread, America loves a comeback story. Med schools don't want perfect (well, most schools), they want someone teachable and humble and able to relate to patients. At any rate, would you want to go to a school that neither saw your vast improvements nor cared? I wouldn't.
 
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Some schools do have GPA cut offs when deciding who to give interviews too but that is usually at a 3.0 for low to mid tier schools (sometimes even lower) the upper tier schools most likely have a higher cut off as well. However, from what I have heard even for schools that screen apps they have slightly more lenient screens for people with unique backgrounds (URM, Military Service background, come from low SES). Additionally, even for those that do get screened out they usually have at least one pair of eyes look at the app before completely rejecting ( specifically for people in your situation that have one or two bad semester bring down an other wise spotless GPA).
 
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I've got 23 hours at a whopping 1.2 gpa against me, 9 of those hours being science f's. And unfortunately I am not in Texas, I wish Kansas had a similar program. Really wishing time travel was a thing so I could go back and kick 18 y/o me square in the face lol.

Just did some mildly disheartening calculations with my gpa, if i get a 4.0 for this semester and the remaining two years, the highest cGPA I can have is ~ 3.35, and if I get an A in every STEM class remaining, maximum of a 3.5 sGPA. Which as you all know can be extremely difficult to do.

Definitely not giving up! I've learned anything is possible with enough effort.

@curbsideconsult I definitely agree! We all make mistakes, mine have ultimately made me a better person and deeply infatuated with science and medicine. They're just adding a little more incline to my hill climb. And you're right, I definitely want them to see my "diamond in the rough" story.

Thank you all for the reassuring input! I'm really going to have to put my nose to the grindstone and keep my grades as high as possible so I'm not under the auto-reject line. Then crush the MCAT.
 
Let me add my 2c worth. I also went through a rough time academically my first go in college. Experienced some really rough personal losses. Had some years away from school...and grew up. When I returned to school, eventually realized that I wanted to pursue medicine. My advisor took one look at my gpa (similar to yours in your bad year, except for more than one year) and said it was in no way possible. Today, I'm holding acceptances to 4 medical schools and trying to decide where to go. So, the upshot of my story is this; it's not whether you fell down, it's whether you proved you could get back up. Some schools love underdogs, and are interested in hearing how having past struggles may make you a better physician as well as a better human being. When you are ready to apply...tag Goro for a full list of where you should apply, and tag me for encouragement. Good luck
 
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