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- Joined
- Oct 23, 2017
- Messages
- 97
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- 177
OP, I'll just throw some random bits of advice out there and I'm sure others will add more as well.
First and foremost: mental health. You should focus on yourself and making sure you have your anxiety/depression under control. It's going to be harder when you have an ochem exam, physics exam, and a due date for some other assignment all in the same week (or day). And it's going to be even worse in medical school when the quantity of material you're supposed to memorize and be able to apply is increased by an order of magnitude. Cant stress the importance of mental health enough. Make sure you have a good friend group, activities you enjoy outside of school/research, and time to enjoy these things. In pre-med life, you really do need healthy ways to cope with the stress that come along with the schooling. Also, mental health is not something to feel embarrassed about. Plenty of people struggle with issues similar to yours and 1 in 5 people will have a diagnosable mental illness at some point in their lives. Don't be afraid to use your school's counseling services--they're there to help you!
Second: You can likely recover from that gpa as long as you do well from here on out. What is your actual current gpa? I'm no adcom, but it's possible that it actually looks worse to have a W on your transcript than one bad semester in your first year. Keep all of the next semesters with gpa > 3.75 and you'll likely make a good applicant. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure you'll be competitive for the top med schools. Maybe because they weren't science courses it won't matter as much? Idk. What I do know is that it sounds like your studying skills aren't up to par. If you thought humanities and econ were tough, just wait until chemistry, physics, ochem, immunology, biochem, etc. Figure out which study methods work for you and be willing to adapt/change them to different classes. And the very second you start falling behind, get help. Professor/TA office hours, tutoring, supplemental instruction, etc. Go to these resources even if you don't need to just so that it forces you to study. You really do need near perfect gpa and mcat to get into the top top schools. But you have plenty of time to make yourself competitive for really good schools. Set aside a few months to study for the mcat. It's really, really hard for most people. Lots of applicants take 3-4 months to study for the exam and do nothing else.
Third: the "soft stuff" is pretty dang important, so do not wait to start this later on. (Unless you really do take multiple gap years after graduation then I guess you could). Start shadowing, volunteering, doing some sort of research, etc. but start it now! You'll look even better if you can show adcoms that you remained committed to a volunteering position for 4+ years. Continuity matters, and commitment will often lead to great letters of recommendation when you apply. And honestly, shadowing and clinical volunteering were the only things that kept me motivated to keep studying through all the crappy times. I thoroughly enjoyed my extracurricular experiences.
Lastly: you can go to medical school with practically any major. Given that you now want to speed up the process after having lost a semester, I might suggest taking a science major. It just seems like too much to cram a bunch of extra science pre-reqs on top of a full schedule of completely unrelated classes for your major. Additionally, earning a science major will benefit you when it comes to the mcat where much of the questions come directly from scientific papers. Talk to your school's pre-med advisors and get their input, just be sure to take it with some salt. Worry about taking a post-bac or SMP only if you need to way down the road. For now, just rock your classes and have fun.
Best of luck OP! Hope this helps!
First and foremost: mental health. You should focus on yourself and making sure you have your anxiety/depression under control. It's going to be harder when you have an ochem exam, physics exam, and a due date for some other assignment all in the same week (or day). And it's going to be even worse in medical school when the quantity of material you're supposed to memorize and be able to apply is increased by an order of magnitude. Cant stress the importance of mental health enough. Make sure you have a good friend group, activities you enjoy outside of school/research, and time to enjoy these things. In pre-med life, you really do need healthy ways to cope with the stress that come along with the schooling. Also, mental health is not something to feel embarrassed about. Plenty of people struggle with issues similar to yours and 1 in 5 people will have a diagnosable mental illness at some point in their lives. Don't be afraid to use your school's counseling services--they're there to help you!
Second: You can likely recover from that gpa as long as you do well from here on out. What is your actual current gpa? I'm no adcom, but it's possible that it actually looks worse to have a W on your transcript than one bad semester in your first year. Keep all of the next semesters with gpa > 3.75 and you'll likely make a good applicant. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure you'll be competitive for the top med schools. Maybe because they weren't science courses it won't matter as much? Idk. What I do know is that it sounds like your studying skills aren't up to par. If you thought humanities and econ were tough, just wait until chemistry, physics, ochem, immunology, biochem, etc. Figure out which study methods work for you and be willing to adapt/change them to different classes. And the very second you start falling behind, get help. Professor/TA office hours, tutoring, supplemental instruction, etc. Go to these resources even if you don't need to just so that it forces you to study. You really do need near perfect gpa and mcat to get into the top top schools. But you have plenty of time to make yourself competitive for really good schools. Set aside a few months to study for the mcat. It's really, really hard for most people. Lots of applicants take 3-4 months to study for the exam and do nothing else.
Third: the "soft stuff" is pretty dang important, so do not wait to start this later on. (Unless you really do take multiple gap years after graduation then I guess you could). Start shadowing, volunteering, doing some sort of research, etc. but start it now! You'll look even better if you can show adcoms that you remained committed to a volunteering position for 4+ years. Continuity matters, and commitment will often lead to great letters of recommendation when you apply. And honestly, shadowing and clinical volunteering were the only things that kept me motivated to keep studying through all the crappy times. I thoroughly enjoyed my extracurricular experiences.
Lastly: you can go to medical school with practically any major. Given that you now want to speed up the process after having lost a semester, I might suggest taking a science major. It just seems like too much to cram a bunch of extra science pre-reqs on top of a full schedule of completely unrelated classes for your major. Additionally, earning a science major will benefit you when it comes to the mcat where much of the questions come directly from scientific papers. Talk to your school's pre-med advisors and get their input, just be sure to take it with some salt. Worry about taking a post-bac or SMP only if you need to way down the road. For now, just rock your classes and have fun.
Best of luck OP! Hope this helps!
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2017
- Messages
- 97
- Reaction score
- 177
It's great to hear you've identified the reasons behind why you felt the way you did and why you are now better off. Motivation is hard for everyone at times. Having balance with other things you truly enjoy should help keep you feeling refreshed and ready to study at scheduled times. Discipline is a trait that will become hugely beneficial as times goes on and things get tougher. Also, very glad to hear you're working with a therapist who's helping you!
I would definitely write your second semester up as medical leave of absence. If you search around on past forums here on SDN you should find at least a few on how best to explain a medical leave of absence and mental health struggles in your PS and secondaries when it's time to apply. They will have better advice from adcoms who're also on this site and can speak to whether or not this could hurt you. Remember: resilience is a quality they are looking for. If you can bounce back from this with great grades, you'll look really strong.
For now, just focus on getting the best grades you possibly can for the remainder of your academic career. After that, kick the crap out of the MCAT. Only then should you really start to consider schools you'd want to attend. You are at an Ivy so that'll benefit you in the admissions process. If you're really interested you can purchase a copy of the MSAR (like $20 i think?) and look at all the accepted gpa's and MCAT scores from every MD school in the country. And as long as you go to a US MD school you should be able to get into any residency provided you perform well in med school and on the step exams. US DO schools are also pretty solid, but graduates experience a slight disadvantage in matching into certain residencies.
I would definitely write your second semester up as medical leave of absence. If you search around on past forums here on SDN you should find at least a few on how best to explain a medical leave of absence and mental health struggles in your PS and secondaries when it's time to apply. They will have better advice from adcoms who're also on this site and can speak to whether or not this could hurt you. Remember: resilience is a quality they are looking for. If you can bounce back from this with great grades, you'll look really strong.
For now, just focus on getting the best grades you possibly can for the remainder of your academic career. After that, kick the crap out of the MCAT. Only then should you really start to consider schools you'd want to attend. You are at an Ivy so that'll benefit you in the admissions process. If you're really interested you can purchase a copy of the MSAR (like $20 i think?) and look at all the accepted gpa's and MCAT scores from every MD school in the country. And as long as you go to a US MD school you should be able to get into any residency provided you perform well in med school and on the step exams. US DO schools are also pretty solid, but graduates experience a slight disadvantage in matching into certain residencies.
