Pre-Med High School Dropout Needs Advice!!!

[DrunkleB28]

I am currently 25 years old and a senior at Cornell University in New York. I am also a high school dropout. I skipped out on high school halfway through my junior year thinking that a steady paycheck was more important than finishing my education. My parents gave me one month to get a job. I got one, and moved out promptly.

After four years of living paycheck to paycheck or on unemployment, bouncing from one apartment to another, spending my time drinking, getting high and leaving my parents in constant fear of where I was and what I was doing, I got sick of it. I signed up for the GED (which I rocked) and enrolled at the local Community College. Two years later I was a graduate with an A.S. in Science and a 3.6 GPA over 82 credits, I had extracurriculars, leadership, volunteer experience and teachers who had genuinely made a difference in my life.

I love Cornell. I appreciate the opportunity that I was given when I came here. That said, my study habits were nowhere near where they needed to be in order for me to come here and maintain Dean's List performance. I think I have also struggled with the large size of the school.

My Cornell GPA stands at 2.75 through 35 credits. I have many semesters of independent research but no publications. I don't have a single professor here who knows me well enough to write a letter of recommendation. I am taking the MCAT in September and judging from my practice tests I believe that I can score in the range of 32-35.

I'm really stuck in that I'm not sure what to do from here. My GPA will not get me into an allopathic medical school, even when my CC and Cornell GPAs are combined. Osteopathic medical school seems like a viable option. If completing this year with a nice GPA contribution and taking a year off to do some sort of domestic volunteer program would give me a reasonable shot at an allopathic medical school than that's the route I'll take.

Any suggestions would be great. Any options I've missed? Any questions for me? And thanks reading...I know its long...

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[Manyac86]

I would say take another year at school and just focus on raising your GPA and continuing in your research lab. Spend the WHOLE year studying for your MCAT and working on something clinical. Try to take the MCAT by April or May and apply ASAP. You can spend the app year continuing extracurriculars, research, and work. During the year you can send update letters to the schools you applied to about getting published or making other progress in extracurriculars.

Btw, your PI is an obvious choice for a LoR but the key to getting letters of rec from classes you're in are to speak up in class and go to office hours (getting an A in the class doesn't hurt also). If you can have more than 1 class with the professor or somehow work with the teacher on something out of class that helps.

If you can get a 3.7 or 3.8 in one additional year of classes you'll have a good enough GPA to be about average for applicants to lower ranked and state MD schools. Also a whole year studying for the MCAT will make a huge difference and hopefully give you a good hook for med schools. About D.O. schools i really don't know too well.

 

[PunkmedGirl]

Unlike MD schools, if you retake the courses you did poorly in, the grade is replaced instead of averaged which will increase your GPA significantly. I agree with the previous poster in taking another year and working to pull up your GPA and allowing enough time for studying the MCAT so you can do well on it. And don't forget to get some shadowing done also especially if your applying DO.

 

[crazydiamond]

If the environment you're in (i.e. college size) is not right for you and you can't maintain a good GPA, then I think it's crucial you resolve those issues before carrying on. Maybe Cornell just isn't a good fit for you? It doesn't matter how many opportunities there are, if it's not a good fit it just isn't. No shame in that. If it means transferring to a smaller school or one that better suits you, then perhaps that's what you need to do.

Also, what is it about your study habits? Do you party too much or don't study enough? Are you not effective at studying? Whatever it is needs to be fixed before carrying on. Just saying "I will get a 3.7 next semester" does no good if the underlying issues aren't addressed.

I know when I was in undergrad I didn't have good study habits. I was smart enough but still didn't do that great. I ended up with a 3.2 overall. I see now, years later, that a big part of my problem was immaturity. What I needed was not better study skills, though that would have helped, or more LOR opportunities, but rather time. Taking a few years away from school and now coming back to it has made all the difference. I know that you've spent considerable time working for yourself and now that you're back in action ready to kick butt, but something just isn't working. Take that year off and have fun, or go to school on a very part-time basis while filling your day with other interesting things. You're already in the "non-trad" forum, so I don't think you need to stick to any particular mold. But what you do need to do is make whatever changes are necessary to get good grades and to develop good study habits, because you'll definitely need them!