Should I not even try? Input appreciated.

[confused1234]

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i'm sorry for babbling, but...

here's the problem, in a nutshell: my first year of college (a community college), i was having personal problems, and my first semester i came out with a 2.4 gpa. second semester, i dropped all but one class before midterms, and ended up getting an A in it. the first semester of this school year, i got all As, and plan on doing the same by the time this semester is over, bringing my gpa up to 3.4.

ANYWAY, i'm transferring to a state university next fall, and i really want to go to med school. and if that hurdle doesn't seem high enough, i want to be a dermatologist (that's what i've wanted to be ever since i was a sophomore when i had to actually go to one, so it's not for the lifestyle or money... although that's an added bonus...). i plan on busting my butt like i never have before, getting involved in school and studying like mad, etc. i haven't taken any prereqs yet (thank god, because i would've done terrible in them) because i wanted to do them at a university, but i've also changed my major a few times because i figured since i screwed up so much my freshman year i wouldn't have a snowflake's chance in hell of getting where i want to be.

after reading comments on here and various other places about getting a derm residency, let alone getting accepted to med school, i'm having some serious, serious concerns. i mean, you pretty much have to be a genius, right? i've thought about being a derm PA, but deep down that's not what i want to be; i want to be an actual dermatologist. so i guess my question is: should i just give up and stop wasting time? is there anyone out there who didn't think they could do it but did?

there is a part that's telling me to go for it and do my best, but there's another part that says it's not worth the risk. there's really nothing else i would rather be, though.

wow, i didn't mean to put you guys through all that. 😴 congrats if you made it this far. i would really appreciate some input. thanks.

 

[Ghost]

what if michael jordan decided to quit basketball when he didn't make the varsity basketball team his sophomore year of high school? it's a long hard road and there are going to be plenty of people along the way who will tell you that you can't do it. you can either listen to them or use them as motivation to get to where you want to be. lots of people screw up in the beginning. it's not how you fall, it's how you pick yourself back up.

are you dead set on derm? is any other area of medicine completely out of the picture for you? if not, then i would say focus on getting into med school first, then decide what you want to do.

 

[BMW M3]

Relax and don't buy into the hype that some members preach on the board. Med schools know there is more to an applicant than grades.

Med school is the first hurdle for all of us ... but once you get in its a level playing field as undergraduate grades do not matter for your residency.

If you want it bad enough, you'll get it. Good luck w/ all, mate!

 

[DoctorPardi]

My first semester I had a 2.75, made a D in a philosophy class and 2 B's and 1 A in a math. My second semester I only took three classes and made 2 A's and 1 B Then that summer I started taking sciences and now I am finishing my junior year and have only made one B since then and I have yet to make anything lower than an A in a math, biology or chemistry class.

When I first sat down with my pre-med advisor and I told him "I am going to be a doctor and I know it is going to be tough, but I am going to do whatever it takes." He told me, after looking over my transcript, "well medical school is really hard to get into, I might look into being a nurse or if you like biology you could be a teacher".

Now I don't know if he said that because he hears the same thing I told him numerous times to only see people fail, or if it was some kind of twisted motivation. Either way, now I have a 3.67 (if I make all A's this semester I will have a ~ 3.72 and 4.0 bcpm still), so I can't tell you if you can get into medical school because I don't know if I can lol. But if you know you can do it, you can. You are going to have to work your ass off but hey think about how much it will pay off in the end.

This would be my plan if I were you (and I kind of was):
1) GPA!! - make all A's from here out, if you graduate with a 4.0 BCPM and something like a 3.5-3.6 overall you should be fine. The big picture is an upward trend from low gpa to high, especially once you start taking pre-med classes.
2) Find some volunteer oppurtunities you find interesting and spend one day a week doing it. Maybe you could read to kids at the library or volunteer in a soup kitchen.
3) Get a job in a hospital, volunteer in a hospital and or shadow a doctor. I would suggest you get a job in a hospital, volunteer in a hospital and shadow a doctor (it is what I do).
4) Research- get some research hours in, make friends with a professor ask him/her about research oppurtunities during the summer or normal year and see if you can't get published because that always looks good.
5) Prepare to have some plan to do really well on the MCAT, you need to save money or do whatever it takes to be able to take a princeton or kaplan review class, plus be able to buy all of the books you'll need to study. Also you'll want to plan out a summer or a semester or whatever to study like crazy for the MCAT. MCAT is insanely important and I can't make this point enough, this is number 5 on my list only because you will do this about a year before going to medical school, so for the time being you may not need to worry about it directly but know it is looming in your future lol.

Ok that's all the advice I have, right now.

Maybe this will be added motivation? I work in the OR of one hospital and a pathology lab of another. I did shadow a doctor for about a year, but now I actually volunteer in his office as his assistant. During the summer on top of doing research I plan on beginning to learn sterile procedure with him so I can start scrubbing cases too. I have been working 35 hours a week for the last two years and going to school full time. Also I am going to school year round and doing research during the summers. So that sounds like a lot of work and it is, but I feel like I am so motivated by what is ahead of me it is worth it. It is like I am so happy and just enthusiastic about my career to be that sleep isn't even important lol. Maybe I need to get a life (at least a girlfriend lol) but I love it and I can't get enough "medicine". So hopefully you'll feel this way too and can be passionate about the whole process once you get into it, because I wasn't concerned about grades or college at all until I found medicine.

Hopefully this was helpful 🙂

 

[ChocolateKiss]

People on SDN tend to be really positive when responding to posts like yours. You'll always get at least one response from an applicant who got into med school with a bad GPA against the odds. However, you usually won't hear from all of the people who got rejected with bad GPAs.

That said, if you do really well in the rest of college, you can probably get in. However, there is definitely no guarantee that getting into med school will land you a derm residency. Derm is super-competitive, and you'll have to be at the top of your class with amazing test scores and tons of research to get into derm. I don't know if I'd recommend going to med school unless you think you could be satisfied with something other than derm because you might be setting yourself up for a long and expensive road that will get you nowhere.

I'm not saying you can't make it. I'm just saying to think through what you really want and what you could be happy with. Also try to figure out if you are the type of person who could be the top of your med school class. Hard work alone probably won't cut it.

 

[Shredder]

there is only one question: is it within your genetic capacity? if yes press onward. if not seek another calling, one better suited to you. everything else is superficial, in the end it comes down to this

 

[murphomatic]

I was accepted to med school with 7 F's

I'd say your chances are very good if you work hard

👍 👍

 

[Brainsucker]

Consistency. This isn't a sprint, it's long-term. If one can study consistently and work hard, any medical specialty is available to the reasonably intelligent. Studying consistently is a bitch, though.

 

[TypeA]

My first semester I had a 2.75, made a D in a philosophy class and 2 B's and 1 A in a math. My second semester I only took three classes and made 2 A's and 1 B Then that summer I started taking sciences and now I am finishing my junior year and have only made one B since then and I have yet to make anything lower than an A in a math, biology or chemistry class.

When I first sat down with my pre-med advisor and I told him "I am going to be a doctor and I know it is going to be tough, but I am going to do whatever it takes." He told me, after looking over my transcript, "well medical school is really hard to get into, I might look into being a nurse or if you like biology you could be a teacher".

Now I don't know if he said that because he hears the same thing I told him numerous times to only see people fail, or if it was some kind of twisted motivation. Either way, now I have a 3.67 (if I make all A's this semester I will have a ~ 3.72 and 4.0 bcpm still), so I can't tell you if you can get into medical school because I don't know if I can lol. But if you know you can do it, you can. You are going to have to work your ass off but hey think about how much it will pay off in the end.

This would be my plan if I were you (and I kind of was):
1) GPA!! - make all A's from here out, if you graduate with a 4.0 BCPM and something like a 3.5-3.6 overall you should be fine. The big picture is an upward trend from low gpa to high, especially once you start taking pre-med classes.
2) Find some volunteer oppurtunities you find interesting and spend one day a week doing it. Maybe you could read to kids at the library or volunteer in a soup kitchen.
3) Get a job in a hospital, volunteer in a hospital and or shadow a doctor. I would suggest you get a job in a hospital, volunteer in a hospital and shadow a doctor (it is what I do).
4) Research- get some research hours in, make friends with a professor ask him/her about research oppurtunities during the summer or normal year and see if you can't get published because that always looks good.
5) Prepare to have some plan to do really well on the MCAT, you need to save money or do whatever it takes to be able to take a princeton or kaplan review class, plus be able to buy all of the books you'll need to study. Also you'll want to plan out a summer or a semester or whatever to study like crazy for the MCAT. MCAT is insanely important and I can't make this point enough, this is number 5 on my list only because you will do this about a year before going to medical school, so for the time being you may not need to worry about it directly but know it is looming in your future lol.

Ok that's all the advice I have, right now.

Maybe this will be added motivation? I work in the OR of one hospital and a pathology lab of another. I did shadow a doctor for about a year, but now I actually volunteer in his office as his assistant. During the summer on top of doing research I plan on beginning to learn sterile procedure with him so I can start scrubbing cases too. I have been working 35 hours a week for the last two years and going to school full time. Also I am going to school year round and doing research during the summers. So that sounds like a lot of work and it is, but I feel like I am so motivated by what is ahead of me it is worth it. It is like I am so happy and just enthusiastic about my career to be that sleep isn't even important lol. Maybe I need to get a life (at least a girlfriend lol) but I love it and I can't get enough "medicine". So hopefully you'll feel this way too and can be passionate about the whole process once you get into it, because I wasn't concerned about grades or college at all until I found medicine.

Hopefully this was helpful 🙂

It was helpful to me and I didn't even know I had a question! Thanks!

 

[thatslife]

i'm sorry for babbling, but...

here's the problem, in a nutshell: my first year of college (a community college), i was having personal problems, and my first semester i came out with a 2.4 gpa. second semester, i dropped all but one class before midterms, and ended up getting an A in it. the first semester of this school year, i got all As, and plan on doing the same by the time this semester is over, bringing my gpa up to 3.4.

ANYWAY, i'm transferring to a state university next fall, and i really want to go to med school. and if that hurdle doesn't seem high enough, i want to be a dermatologist (that's what i've wanted to be ever since i was a sophomore when i had to actually go to one, so it's not for the lifestyle or money... although that's an added bonus...). i plan on busting my butt like i never have before, getting involved in school and studying like mad, etc. i haven't taken any prereqs yet (thank god, because i would've done terrible in them) because i wanted to do them at a university, but i've also changed my major a few times because i figured since i screwed up so much my freshman year i wouldn't have a snowflake's chance in hell of getting where i want to be.

after reading comments on here and various other places about getting a derm residency, let alone getting accepted to med school, i'm having some serious, serious concerns. i mean, you pretty much have to be a genius, right? i've thought about being a derm PA, but deep down that's not what i want to be; i want to be an actual dermatologist. so i guess my question is: should i just give up and stop wasting time? is there anyone out there who didn't think they could do it but did?

there is a part that's telling me to go for it and do my best, but there's another part that says it's not worth the risk. there's really nothing else i would rather be, though.

wow, i didn't mean to put you guys through all that. 😴 congrats if you made it this far. i would really appreciate some input. thanks.

Don't get to far ahead of yourself. Take it a step at a time. If you keep working hard and getting the grades you need, things will fall in place.

at the risk of sounding cheezy:
Right now you're looking at the peak of Everest saying how will I ever get to the top. It's really by putting one foot in front of the other.

 

[nikibean]

Don't get to far ahead of yourself. Take it a step at a time. If you keep working hard and getting the grades you need, things will fall in place.

at the risk of sounding cheezy:
Right now you're looking at the peak of Everest saying how will I ever get to the top. It's really by putting one foot in front of the other.

If I didn't know any better, thatslife, I'd swear you were my friend Jeff.
I'm addressing your "Cheese" factor. Confused1234, you can do it. If it's your calling, it's your calling. As far as med school goes, don't give up. I saw this post and chuckled, because a PA friend of mine in Denver who *IS* an Everest climber, and guided a BLIND man to the summit in 2001, convinced me that anything is possible. Yeah, that's some perspective. And yup, they got there by putting one foot in front of the other - think about the ice falls and the ladders and being blind and walking over huge chasms that are certain death if your foot is off by a few inches? The Hilary Step? That's tough if you've got sight. Likewise, Med school is tough for everyone, even the 4.0'ers.
You can go to med school if it's your dream. Don't let ANYONE tell you otherwise.

 

[Law2Doc]

Don't get to far ahead of yourself. Take it a step at a time. If you keep working hard and getting the grades you need, things will fall in place.

at the risk of sounding cheezy:
Right now you're looking at the peak of Everest saying how will I ever get to the top. It's really by putting one foot in front of the other.

That's a great example. If you work really hard and continue to do well, then with any luck you will make it to med school (base camp). That's a pretty attainable goal and lots of people, about half the applicants, ultimately get there. However to make it into derm requires a stellar performance from that point forward as well, in a pool of much more qualified students as competitors (fellow climbers) and only the top couple of percentage (particularly in terms of boards, clinical rotations, academic performance) have a shot at making it to the peak (for you, derm). The rest die horrible frostbitten deaths somewhere along the climb, and have to work in another specialty.

Thus is it possible to make it into that specialty, sure. Is it likely, no. In all probability, you will probably change your mind about specialties a couple of times between now and then anyhow. But it's silly to worry about what you are going to do when you get close to the top of the mountain until you find your way to the mountain (med school).

 

[JulioFly]

I'll tell you what my MAGNIFICENT premed advisor told me:
Adcomms look at TRENDS TRENDS TRENDS.
That being said...even if you got bad grades in the beginning, if you show an upwards trend, As and Bs from here on out, and end up graduating with a good gpa, I wouldn't be too concerned. Schools would more likely take someone who went from a 2.0 to a 4.0 throughout 4 years, than someone who got a 3.0 straight across the board. When you show consistent improvement, it speaks volumes and demonstrates that you are willing to make changes and work hard....

We change a lot as we grow older. By the time you start medical school, your study habits may be different, your work ethic may be stronger. Someone said earlier that when you start med school, the playing field levels out...it's true! If derm is what you want, go for it. No one ever reached their dreams by doubting them. Try to move on from the past and just do your best from here on out.