Medical Should I choose p/f?

[GoSpursGo]

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Hello, I graduated from my state school with a 3.45 gpa and 3.34 sgpa in spring of 2020 as a bio major. I had not taken the MCAT and I was really unsure of what to do during the pandemic due to no clinical or scribe positions being open so I decided to just do a 20 credit grad program. This program had advanced science classes which I thought would help me. In the Fall of 2020 I did really well because I stuck to a schedule and went to class everyday, I ended with a 3.8 gpa. The pandemic got worse in my area resulting in the entire program being online for the spring. I did very poorly due to some personal problems (lacked discipline which is the main thing in my opinion, poor time management balancing MCAT studying and schoolwork, I just became so unmotivated because there was no interaction with anybody, got sick during finals with pneumothorax, and found out a distant friend take their own life this past fall). I ended the spring semester with a 3.0 GPA because of my own fault, however, I do believe classes unexpectedly going online played a role. Should I pass/fail this semester or just keep the 3.4 grad GPA.

I have pretty good clinical experience (am getting DO shadowing within the next month), volunteering experience, leadership experience, and some research out of medicine. I feel so useless and hopeless for even applying this cycle. My MCAT is scheduled on June 19th and I currently am getting around a 503 on practice exams. I am so lost and need help, I know that this is what I want to do because I cant see myself doing anything else, and really enjoy the science and interactions behind medicine.

If the whole point of the science course is to raise your GPA and it isn't doing that, then I would go ahead and retroactively make it P/F. Yes it looks weird but not as bad as actually getting a 3.0.

You still have over a month before your MCAT. Time to re-commit yourself better than you did to your spring classes and turn things up in your prep for the MCAT. If something else is holding you back (continued personal problems, unaddressed mental health, undiagnosed ADHD, whatever) then you should seriously consider postponing your test. As you have learned this spring, the worst thing you can do is barrel ahead hoping things will work out without developing a clear plan.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

If your GPA is going to suffer, take the P/F. As long as you aren’t making that a habit, you will be fine.

Another thing...calm down. Your GPA is fine for DO schools before you even took the extra science courses. As long as you don’t bomb the MCAT and you have decent ECs, your chances at DO are still there.