Recovering from Low GPA

[Catherine18]

I am a biology major and have just completed my sophomore year of college. I want to attend med school and know to get accepted they look at GPA, MCAT, extracurriculars, experience, etc. Due to poor work ethic and family issues I have failed seven courses. I plan on retaking all the classes I failed, and by the time I complete my bachelor's degree, I have calculated that I can still maintain an okay GPA (somewhere around or higher than a 3.0). What I am wondering is if I recover from this, is there any way that med schools would still consider my application having failed this many courses? I understand that there is more to the application process than just GPA, but if I were to excel and do outstanding in all of the other areas, would med schools still consider me?

Also, would double majoring in chemistry be a smart option, if I were to make sure that I performed well in all of my courses? Or would med schools see my initial bad grades and just disregard the rest of the (I am hoping) straight A's I made in the second half of my degree?

Additionally, would getting my master's degree help in any of this? If I were to get my master's degree and then apply to med school with what would be a much higher GPA?

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[hallowmann]

You would probably get more responses in the pre-osteo forum. That said, if you demonstrate that you can do well and those 7 courses were an anomaly, and combine that with good ECs, LORs, and a high MCAT, it's certainly possible that you will be able to be accepted into medical school.

No one can tell you how likely it'll be, because we can't predict what competition will be like in 3-4 years. We also can't predict whether you'd get in right away, or you'd have to do a post-bac or something to further improve your stats/chances.

The bottomline is that it's certainly possible that if you turn things around, it'll be enough to get accepted into medical school. The American education system and DO schools in general give second chances all the time if you put in the effort and demonstrate success.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

The grade replacement policy is your best friend. Retake as many of those D's and F's and even C's as you can. Make sure to get A's on the retakes. The admission committee loves redemption stories.

I retook 13 courses and brought my GPA from 3.1 to 3.4. This got me tons of interviews.

Good luck

 

[group_theory]

Moving from osteo forum to pre osteo

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

I think if you retake those 7 classes (for great grades), do well on your MCAT, and start building up your ECs little by little each year you'll be good. Make sure to keep focused and do not overwhelm yourself. You need to get A's, so if that means taking lighter semesters (still full time though) and moving certain classes to your summers so that you can dedicate the time needed to get A's to those science classes, then do it.

Also, I too was considering a masters program for a while, but was advised against it because it is looked at as an easy version of an SMP. If you're going to do some kind of post-bach, retake classes to capitalize on the DO school retake policy or do an SMP. But you've got time to fix things, it may be early to start thinking about post-bach work now.

 

[AzizImSorry]

I think if you retake those 7 classes (for great grades), do well on your MCAT, and start building up your ECs little by little each year you'll be good. Make sure to keep focused and do not overwhelm yourself. You need to get A's, so if that means taking lighter semesters (still full time though) and moving certain classes to your summers so that you can dedicate the time needed to get A's to those science classes, then do it.

Also, I too was considering a masters program for a while, but was advised against it because it is looked at as an easy version of an SMP. If you're going to do some kind of post-bach, retake classes to capitalize on the DO school retake policy or do an SMP. But you've got time to fix things, it may be early to start thinking about post-bach work now.

Everytime someone says "post-bach" I feel like they're referring to music in the era after Bach's death. Agree with what you're saying though ^