Hey guys, so here's my situation: I'm a sophomore at a pretty well ranked state school right now. Freshman year was extremely rough for me. I ended up getting a D in gen chem and a C+ in my expository writing class. But I did fairly well in bio and calc and got a B+ in both. I decided to retake chem 1 over summer and took a break from chem for spring semester. I ended up getting a C+ in bio2 and C in physics1 and B's in the rest of my non science classes. When I took chem1 over again in summer i got a b+ and proceeded to take chem2 over fall semester of sophomore year. I ended up scraping a C in this class and also got a C in physics2. I am now taking organic chem1 and failing it. My GPA as of fall semester of sophomore year stands at 2.6. i know that if i retake orgo over summer i will be able to get a B or higher. But I am really afraid my chances for med school are slim to none. Also, I come from a south asian family (indian) and i'm beyond terrified to break it to my dad that i'm failing ochem. But since half of my family consists of over achieving 4.0 med school students, my father will never understand why i'm doing so bad. truth is, i work hard, i work really hard. I tend to have really bad nerves right before my exams and screw everything up.
So what do you guys think I should do? Should I give up on the med school dream? Is there any advice you guys can give me regarding my situation? And please be as harsh as you can. I could really use some honest opinions right now.
How many credits are you taking per semester? Sounds like you really are struggling with the sciences -- have you thought about taking advantage of the tutoring help that your college probably offers? Have you gone to the TA or professor office hours for help? Even your lab TAs will help you with lecture material if you go to their office hours.
Your chances for med school aren't shot, but you do need to start turning it around. How many credits have you accumulated right now? 45 or so on the 2.6 gpa? If you get a 3.8 gpa in the next 45 credit hours (to finish out junior year), that's a 3.2GPA. Not great, but if you also do well fall of senior year, you can bump that cumulative up to near 3.3, with a strong upward trend. Hopefully the semester that is just finishing up now has some improved grades. If you want to apply right out of college, you're going to have to kick ass in your classes all throughout your junior year. I assume you just took your spring finals to finish out your sophomore year? I wouldn't advise taking orgo over the summer. Although it's true that you get to take it in isolation, the fact that you failed it means that you need to take it at a reasonable pace. Summer is a brutal pace for organic chemistry compared to a regular 15 week semester. You've got at least 2 but probably 3 lab reports a week, compared to 1 per week in a regular semester, and that's on top of lab quizzes (definitely), lecture quizzes (maybe) and lecture exams (definitely).
So I would advise re-taking orgo 1 in the fall and plan on taking orgo 2 in the spring. Take it easy on adding too many extra science classes on top of your orgo next year -- get tutoring any way you can from the beginning of your orgo classes. If you can pull a 3.7 or 3.8 next year with a ton of work outside of class and get a good MCAT score next summer, you can still pull out of this funk. Many schools you apply to might wait to see your fall grades senior year, but if you do well on those too, you've got a shot at getting in right out of college without having to take extra undergrad classes in a post-bac or doing a special master's program to improve your chances.
Lastly, what state are you a resident of? This can make a big deal for gauging your chances at an admission to your state schools (if your state has any, most have at least one). If it's California, you've really gotta work even harder than I'm talking about. If it's South Carolina or Georgia, your road can be a lot easier.
