Hello, I wanted to get thoughts from the SDN experts on this topic as this - thank you in advance for your input. It took me a while to write this on here...
Just to briefly introduce myself - I'm a 31 y/o with undergraduate background in film, now taking DIY post bacc pre-req classes at a top tier school. I'd like to get a status check and see if I should consider applying for SMP after finishing classes at this post bacc due to so much hiccups from undergraduate GPA. It is surprising how in undergraduate I was taking million different classes just to try them out, which resulted in some bad grades (like accounting) that hurt my grade and now I'm trying to change my career, it's coming back to hurt and deter the process.
Nearly 9-10 years ago as an undergrad, I took (just to try out and see if I liked it enough to get myself into it) the first semester general chemistry in freshmen year in college, which (very immature was I then) I was such a slacker and didn't do well at all in the class (also the professor was difficult), so I got a D. Retook the class sophomore year and ended with a B+. I had a huge chemistry phobia because of this experience. Additionally I took the first semester of Bio in sophomore year, which I ended with an A. Those are the only two classes I took (first sem of gen chem and first sem of bio).... other than one statistic class, which I got an A on. The majority of the other classes I took are film, media focused, some in psych since I minored in it (I didn't do well on cognitive psych - ended with a D with a retake... the rest of psych classes I got all As) and because I wanted to make sure I try everything or anything I wanted to see if I was interested in, I also took business management classes - entrepreneurship class and accounting. Accounting for the life of me just did not work for me. (Even to this day, I don't think I quite understand it...) In the accounting class, I got a C.
So as a result of all these hiccups (and slacking in Freshmen year and Senior year - in senior year, I got this film job I wanted early on and literally didn't work hard... (Looking back, I was really really immature and did not know what I truly wanted), my cGPA from undergraduate is 3.258. In this DIY post bacc, I took gen chem so far (first sem: A; second sem: B) now in physics and biochemistry. Things are going well so far in the semester and my study strategy, habits are completely different from while in college. I feel like academically I'm a different person (I guess it took me a while to really mature academically). I'm currently working as a scribe (got promoted to chief scribe in 5 months) and an RA (volunteer) at a hospital in the psych department. I talked to one of the advisors (in the program but I'm doing DIY) and she gave me her opinion and asked me if I truly want to pursue this change as this seems like it would take a lot of time/commitment for me to get to that path. My answer is yes and I've even tried looking away from medicine.... and it just did not work for me. So I know I do want/need to pursue this. The advisor told me that I might have to take these post-bacc DIY classes then apply to SMP to get a chance to applying to medical schools. Even though my cGPA from 10 years ago was dropped by all non-science courses, it is really hurting my career change in a sense that I'm in dilemma.... and even though I've been handling these science pre-req classes very well, I sometimes get anxious and stressed.
Thank you for reading such a long story (complicated...) but would you say that there's a chance in this situation if I do DIY post bacc then do SMP to literally change everything? I don't want to give up just because someone told me this is a long path and that why am I trying to spend my 30s to struggle through this. I'd really appreciate your honest thoughts. Thank you very much.
