One bad grade.. will it hurt?

[rockmed]

I just started doing my pre-req's for med school. This summer I plan to complete the MATH & ENGL courses at a CC and then go to a 4 yr Univ for the science courses. One thing that has started to concern me is that almost 4 - 5 yrs back I did a 'Java Programming' course at a CC. I didn't bother to do well in the course at that time and got an 'F'. How bad am I going to be hurt with this?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Joannavr]

Don't sweat it. Keep up the A's and it wont do you any harm. It's completely unrelated to your major and will easily be balanced out in your GPA by the time you finish.

 

[Blade28]

...or if your GPA is later below average, you can always retake the class as a last resort.

 

[Seneca20]

OP don't worry about the one F. Hit it hard now, manage a decent GPA and you should be fine. I had 3 F's my freshman year (didn't withdraw correctly), managed to bounce my GPA back some, and made the rest up in extra curricular's/work exp. You're gonna be just fine.

 

[rockmed]

Seneca, My one F and a combination of B's and C's made it to 2.5 GPA. I'm hitting hard now.. can I ask what was your GPA and if you can recommend the extra curricular's. I'm currently doing hospital volunteer & library volunteer. Anything else I should be doing to cover it up?

 

[Seneca20]

Seneca, My one F and a combination of B's and C's made it to 2.5 GPA. I'm hitting hard now.. can I ask what was your GPA and if you can recommend the extra curricular's. I'm currently doing hospital volunteer & library volunteer. Anything else I should be doing to cover it up?

GPA was a 2.9 overall, not great, but I was almost 10 years out of school, so I think they put a little more weight on my MCAT, work exp, and EC's. There are numerous threads that have a ton of EC ideas, I would search the system for ideas that will give you more than the normal shadowing, hospital volunteering, etc. I worked as a healthcare consultant for 6 years, so I was around hospitals constantly. I really think that international research/travel/medical missions stand out to ADCOM's, if you have the chance to take part in one of those programs it would certainly broaden your application. The NIH has a lot of great programs, check out this link
http://www.fic.nih.gov/programs/index.htm

I had the opportunity to conduct research in The Dominican Republic through one of their programs, and get published. Mine was more of a long term grant, but I'm sure they have programs that are only a few weeks or so.

I hope thats a bit a start for you, don't hesitate to PM me if you have any other Q's. Good Luck!!