- Joined
- Sep 6, 2008
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
Hello, i desperately need advice. I will appreciate anyone who has suggestions. Sorry If this post is a little long, but I wanted who ever read this to understand where I am coming from with all this.
Ok first off i am a non-traditional student. I started college back in '97. I was born here but lived and studied from 1st grade to (graduating from) high school in South America. All my classes were taught in Spanish. I decided to come back to the U.S for college. Even though I spoke English pretty well, taking classes in English again since 1st grade was a challenge. In spite of that, my first two years of college at community college went very well and I graduated with an Associates in Science with a 3.8 GPA.
I then transferred to a higher and very prestigious university (where my classes were pre-selected) so my semester consisted of:
Organic Chem 1
Organic Chem 1 lab
Molecular and Cell Biology
Calculus
and a A history class
Need less to say this was 18 credits in one semester, which I was capable of handling had it not being that the school was so expensive I figured i would start a part-time job because the loan did not cover my living expenses and my parents were not financially able to help me. Since this was my first time ever having a job and living alone in the big city, I did not really know how to juggle classes and work the most productive way and eventually my grades began to take a turn for the worst. As it turned out I started to miss class more and more as work demanded more hours from me and as the semester progressed my grades were decreasing drastically. When I tried to appeal for a W it was already too late and I ended up with 2 F's, a W, and 2 C-. Needless to say I was put on academic dismissal and was devastated.
I did not want to take a semester off and figured I was a failure for losing out on an opportunity in a great school like that and so I applied to another college. I started off well and then in the middle somehow had to stop attending classes because of a major depression i was going through (being alone and the previous circumstances and other personal issues) and I recieved 2Wu's and 2 D's (2 semesters). This was the 2nd time I was put on probation and was dismissed.
After taking some time off, and overcoming many personal issues, I felt I had reached a new level of maturity in my life and for the first time I knew what it was like to reach stability in my life. I moved to another city, got an apartment, new job and decided to start taking undergrad classes again to finish up my Bachelors in Science and possible pursue medicine again.
I started taking classes again and did very well never receiving mostly A's and a few B's. (nothing less). It was such a different experience for me to come back to school after those few years off and be able to rock those classes with awesome grades. I felt I had matured so much since I started my first year of college. My interest in medicine was intact and I knew this is what I wanted to do still. So I finally graduated last year with my Bachelors in Science (after doing part-time school and part time-work).
When I calculate all my grades from all schools my Gpa comes out to be
2.88 cumulative
2.57 science and
3.56 non-science.
I have tons of extracurricular. shadowing, volunteer and employment to show on my application. I did 2 summer medical programs, one that included medical school classes and shadowing and the other an intensive research program. I did very well in both programs. ALso I have very awesome LOR's as I got to know my professors very well. My main concern is how to overcome those past grades that are haunting my GPA. I was thinking of applying for retroactive withdrawal from the classes i recieved a WU in but being that I took those classes back in 2001. I doubt that I still have that opportunity, but it would help increase my GPA.
I was wondering if anyone can give me advice as to what I can do in this situation.
I would like to do MD and I am not hesitant apply to the caribbean. I just wanted to know what were my chances of the caribbean schools even considering me seeing my past history.
On another note, I was researching and found out that to apply for DO they only take the repeated (better) grade. Since most of those classes I repeated already and have improved those grades, it would be a great help to me because if I was not to include the classes I got an WU and F's in then my Gpa will boost to a:
Science: 3.23 ( huge increase as most of my past F's and WU's were in science classes)
Non Science: 3.62
Cumulative: 3.38
I took the Mcat last year and did bad, did not give myself time to study and so I am studying hard and repeating this July. What score should I be aiming for to boost the rest of my application?
So , what do u think are my chances given these circumstances?
I will appreciate any advice good or bad!!!! Say what you gotta say!!!
Thanks....
Ok first off i am a non-traditional student. I started college back in '97. I was born here but lived and studied from 1st grade to (graduating from) high school in South America. All my classes were taught in Spanish. I decided to come back to the U.S for college. Even though I spoke English pretty well, taking classes in English again since 1st grade was a challenge. In spite of that, my first two years of college at community college went very well and I graduated with an Associates in Science with a 3.8 GPA.
I then transferred to a higher and very prestigious university (where my classes were pre-selected) so my semester consisted of:
Organic Chem 1
Organic Chem 1 lab
Molecular and Cell Biology
Calculus
and a A history class
Need less to say this was 18 credits in one semester, which I was capable of handling had it not being that the school was so expensive I figured i would start a part-time job because the loan did not cover my living expenses and my parents were not financially able to help me. Since this was my first time ever having a job and living alone in the big city, I did not really know how to juggle classes and work the most productive way and eventually my grades began to take a turn for the worst. As it turned out I started to miss class more and more as work demanded more hours from me and as the semester progressed my grades were decreasing drastically. When I tried to appeal for a W it was already too late and I ended up with 2 F's, a W, and 2 C-. Needless to say I was put on academic dismissal and was devastated.
I did not want to take a semester off and figured I was a failure for losing out on an opportunity in a great school like that and so I applied to another college. I started off well and then in the middle somehow had to stop attending classes because of a major depression i was going through (being alone and the previous circumstances and other personal issues) and I recieved 2Wu's and 2 D's (2 semesters). This was the 2nd time I was put on probation and was dismissed.
After taking some time off, and overcoming many personal issues, I felt I had reached a new level of maturity in my life and for the first time I knew what it was like to reach stability in my life. I moved to another city, got an apartment, new job and decided to start taking undergrad classes again to finish up my Bachelors in Science and possible pursue medicine again.
I started taking classes again and did very well never receiving mostly A's and a few B's. (nothing less). It was such a different experience for me to come back to school after those few years off and be able to rock those classes with awesome grades. I felt I had matured so much since I started my first year of college. My interest in medicine was intact and I knew this is what I wanted to do still. So I finally graduated last year with my Bachelors in Science (after doing part-time school and part time-work).
When I calculate all my grades from all schools my Gpa comes out to be
2.88 cumulative
2.57 science and
3.56 non-science.
I have tons of extracurricular. shadowing, volunteer and employment to show on my application. I did 2 summer medical programs, one that included medical school classes and shadowing and the other an intensive research program. I did very well in both programs. ALso I have very awesome LOR's as I got to know my professors very well. My main concern is how to overcome those past grades that are haunting my GPA. I was thinking of applying for retroactive withdrawal from the classes i recieved a WU in but being that I took those classes back in 2001. I doubt that I still have that opportunity, but it would help increase my GPA.
I was wondering if anyone can give me advice as to what I can do in this situation.
I would like to do MD and I am not hesitant apply to the caribbean. I just wanted to know what were my chances of the caribbean schools even considering me seeing my past history.
On another note, I was researching and found out that to apply for DO they only take the repeated (better) grade. Since most of those classes I repeated already and have improved those grades, it would be a great help to me because if I was not to include the classes I got an WU and F's in then my Gpa will boost to a:
Science: 3.23 ( huge increase as most of my past F's and WU's were in science classes)
Non Science: 3.62
Cumulative: 3.38
I took the Mcat last year and did bad, did not give myself time to study and so I am studying hard and repeating this July. What score should I be aiming for to boost the rest of my application?
So , what do u think are my chances given these circumstances?
I will appreciate any advice good or bad!!!! Say what you gotta say!!!
Thanks....
