Seeking Advice (Change of Major -- Stressed)

[CG37387n]

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Hello All,

Currently I am a Sophomore attending Pace University in NYC, for Accounting and Taxation. Well that's a big NO-NO for me. I have truly fell in love with the field of medicine, since longer than I can remember. I don't understand why I didn't change sooner.

A little about me, I attended a Community College called TC3 which is near Cortland where I got a GPA of a 2.53, which is absolutely terrible. The reason for this was I was attacked and put in the hospital for about a month. Which heavily influenced me attending school obviously, and in return I got a 'C-' in Chemistry. The beginning one that is..

Not to get too personal and everything, well.. I then transferred to Pace for Accounting and Taxation, which I got a 3.27 for my first semester. Which was pretty good as I was transitioning to a big city, and had to deal with the police case from up north. I am not exactly proud of that GPA either. This semester I currently am not doing too bad, I believe I have an 'A' in Statistics, Accounting, and Microeconomics. The only thing is my school requires that we take a learning community which is 6 credits. I'm not doing too good in it, and literally aiming for a 'C.' Not to make excuses but of recent my family and I have been dealing with a situation, that is completely inevitable. My cousin, who is now only 16 years old was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 10. (It is now taken a toll on the body, and his brain is shutting down, and the doctors say he has only 4-6 weeks).

Besides all the personal story (I apologize), I am transferring to my local community college, Orange County Community College, where I am hopefully trying to get into the Nursing program. I have no expectations as of yet, and I am just hoping for the best. I obviously need to do good with my prerequisites, but I cannot help to be bothered by my past GPA. It will definitely weigh everything down.

I ultimately am wondering if I could get any advice. Is it smart for me to actually get into Nursing, and then transition to Med-School if I actually have a chance at this point. Should I only pursue Nursing? Should I pursue DO or MD school, and could anyone actually give me advice on what I should do..

What led me to this decision, was my grandma was a nurse, and my aunt just became a nurse. I am also going to be trying to get my RN license as well. After my attack up north, which concluded with a metal plate under my eye, and most of my left side of my face was left broken, I have decided that I'm too good of a guy to be sitting behind a desk my whole life. I want to help the community, and I ultimately want to SUCCEED.

I want to thank anyone who responds, and your time is greatly appreciated.

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

Hello All,

Currently I am a Sophomore attending Pace University in NYC, for Accounting and Taxation. Well that's a big NO-NO for me. I have truly fell in love with the field of medicine, since longer than I can remember. I don't understand why I didn't change sooner.

A little about me, I attended a Community College called TC3 which is near Cortland where I got a GPA of a 2.53, which is absolutely terrible. The reason for this was I was attacked and put in the hospital for about a month. Which heavily influenced me attending school obviously, and in return I got a 'C-' in Chemistry. The beginning one that is..

Not to get too personal and everything, well.. I then transferred to Pace for Accounting and Taxation, which I got a 3.27 for my first semester. Which was pretty good as I was transitioning to a big city, and had to deal with the police case from up north. I am not exactly proud of that GPA either. This semester I currently am not doing too bad, I believe I have an 'A' in Statistics, Accounting, and Microeconomics. The only thing is my school requires that we take a learning community which is 6 credits. I'm not doing too good in it, and literally aiming for a 'C.' Not to make excuses but of recent my family and I have been dealing with a situation, that is completely inevitable. My cousin, who is now only 16 years old was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 10. (It is now taken a toll on the body, and his brain is shutting down, and the doctors say he has only 4-6 weeks).

Besides all the personal story (I apologize), I am transferring to my local community college, Orange County Community College, where I am hopefully trying to get into the Nursing program. I have no expectations as of yet, and I am just hoping for the best. I obviously need to do good with my prerequisites, but I cannot help to be bothered by my past GPA. It will definitely weigh everything down.

I ultimately am wondering if I could get any advice. Is it smart for me to actually get into Nursing, and then transition to Med-School if I actually have a chance at this point. Should I only pursue Nursing? Should I pursue DO or MD school, and could anyone actually give me advice on what I should do..

What led me to this decision, was my grandma was a nurse, and my aunt just became a nurse. I am also going to be trying to get my RN license as well. After my attack up north, which concluded with a metal plate under my eye, and most of my left side of my face was left broken, I have decided that I'm too good of a guy to be sitting behind a desk my whole life. I want to help the community, and I ultimately want to SUCCEED.

I want to thank anyone who responds, and your time is greatly appreciated.

I can't speak for the nursing or DO path, but with a very low GPA and coming from a community college, not to mention that you don't seem to have gotten into some of the harder science classes yet, I think that an MD is going to be a stretch. In my opinion, a story is important and can help entice a committee, but it can't be the only thing.

However, what I think the bottom line to consider is that you're only a sophomore. Work hard to get that GPA up, study hard for the MCAT, and get some experience in the field (either through unique volunteer opportunity or research, etc), and revisit this in a bit when you have more concrete metrics by which to judge your application.

 

[Catalystik]

I ultimately am wondering if I could get any advice. Is it smart for me to actually get into Nursing, and then transition to Med-School if I actually have a chance at this point. Should I only pursue Nursing? Should I pursue DO or MD school, and could anyone actually give me advice on what I should do.

If you want to be a nurse, take courses that will head you in that direction. You might ultimately decide to become a nurse practioner and go into practice if your grades are competitive.

If you want to be a physician, the necesssary rigor of the prerequisites is generally very different. You might start with some tough Biology and a Chem course retake and see how you click with them.

To help you decide on your path, consider volunteering in a healthcare setting and/or shadowing docs, NPs, and RNs to see what role you are most drawn to. Your current GPA is not a bar to success yet, but you do need to start producing mainly A work to raise your GPA and become competitive for any postgraduate program you may wish to apply to in the future.

 

[CG37387n]

I know that I need to turn my grades around, and obviously like I said, I'm not proud of my grades. There was also no avoiding them because that's the way the cards played, and how life took me. I am honestly turning it around this semester, and really trying, but it's quite hard especially with the family. Being the first to go to school in the whole family is a whole new pressure as well. I am transferring to my CC, to do well, and so I'm not bothered by people I don't want to be around, and have a space where I can study, and be re-energized in learning again.

I wasn't looking for a ChanceMe, I was looking more advice for what I should do..

 

[karayaa]

I wasn't looking for a ChanceMe, I was looking more advice for what I should do..

Take tough science classes, get As. Get healthcare experience and confirm interest in nursing/doctoring.
It's pretty generic advice because it applies to everyone.
There's no much you can do about the past, but you can do something now and in the future.

 

[Longshot6]

At this point, the only thing left for you to do is to concentrate on your grades. Take hard science classes, get A's in all of them and get clinical experience.
With your story, if you get good grades, I think anything is possible.

 

[Mr Roboto]

If you're set on being a doctor, you can retake the classes you did poorly in and replace the grades. Then apply for DO programs.