Should I Pursue Medicine?

[Red Butterfly]

Hi everyone. I am a college student at a top 5 liberal arts college and am the first in my family to go to college (and was the first person in my family to graduate from high school). Ever since I was a child, I have said that I wanted to become a doctor. I have a disorder that requires me to visit the hospital often, and as a child I became enamored with how the doctors took care of sick children and the kind of leadership they showed. In high school, I decided to volunteer at a hospital. That made me decide (at the time) that I was going to be a doctor, specifically a pediatrician.

My first semester of college I took only one chemistry course. I was only allowed to take that class since there was a requirement for all other science classes that I needed to fulfill first. (I did not pass a specific exam.) The chemistry class did not have this requirement. I ended up with a B-. Next semester I took gen chem 2, but ended up dropping it. My second year of college, I dropped two science classes, then retook them and ended up making a C and C+. My first semester I was really depressed, to the point that I was going to drop out because I did not care about anything anymore. But I decided to stick it through for the spring and retake the classes. Upon seeing my grades for the spring, I became very depressed. I sought out tutoring, tried to keep a strict sleeping schedule, ate correctly, spent most of my free time in the library studying. It felt like I had put in so much effort for absolutely nothing. I attended all classes and always paid strict attention to what the professor said. But when it came for the exams, I became overwhelmed with anxiety. I wish I could take classes in my major and not have to take exams, but I know that they are in place to make sure we are paying attention and not wasting the professor’s time. I just got a heap of anxiety and it really affected me, even when I was reading the textbook. I ended up with a 2.7 GPA the end of my sophomore year.

I decided to take a leave of absence to sort things through. And I wanted to reach out to this community to see if I am simply not smart enough to be at my college or pre-med, if it is the anxiety and depression, perhaps maybe my college is not a good fit? Or maybe it is a mix of everything. My grades make it seem like I don’t care about anything because school is boring and I just want to party all day. And I see people who do that who make better grades than me. I ultimately want to do psychiatry and maybe do research in this field, because I want to help develop personalized medications to help people with depression and anxiety. What works for one person doesn’t work for the other and I want to help find the reason why and the solution. I did not decide to be pre med because my parents or family told me to do it. I do have some people who hold that expectation for me, but I don’t try to pay attention to them. I need to do what is best for me, because I am going to be the person taking the pre-med classes and not them. But I need to figure out whether I should continue this path, or look into other careers.

I apologize for how long this post is. And thank you for reading this.

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[FutureSurgical]

Long story short: No, you're not screwed out of medical school.

First off, I'm happy you're still here to write this post and have made the very mature and smart decision to take a leave of absence. A lot of people, more than you think, have mental health issues while trying to enroll into medical school. I know personally many people in medical school that repressed mental health issues; only to suffer so much in med school they had to repeat a year or drop out altogether.

What it seems like is
1. You don't know how to study properly
2. You get anxious during tests, which causes a downfall in performance.

I have had to deal with my own issues my first two years which caused my GPA to fall. The first thing I had to do during my spring semester of sophomore year was to get a strict handle on my mental health. That is the foundation for you to move forward. It's a hard road but a worth-while one. Your mental health is #1 moving forward. You need to work with someone that can take care of the depression and performance anxiety.

When you feel like you can get back into school, I'd maybe start at CC to save money and take the general courses. Get a 3.7+ GPA (A- average) from here on out and move back into a 4-year university setting. Ace the MCAT when you're ready. Show that upward trend after you get a handle on your mental health and I don't see why you can't attend an MD or DO program.

It's a long road ahead, but I'm a living proof of making a comeback and getting into an MD program with lackluster grades and a good MCAT. PM me if you need any help!

 

[Moko]

Medical school is still possible if you can turn your situation around. Get your mental health issues sorted out before taking any additional classes. Also figure out how to improve your study habits. It's not the quantity of time spent studying that matters, but the understanding of the material. While you're addressing the above, also have a plan B (i.e other career options) in place as realistically, not everyone can put together a completive application for med school. There are many ways to help others, and being a physician is just one of many. Within healthcare, nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, social work, case management, psychotherapy, etc, are examples of careers that can positively impact a patient's life (in many cases more than what a physician can accomplish). Good luck

 

[Styrene]

I failed out of college three times and have a DWI on my record. I'll be graduating from med school this May and then starting residency training in psychiatry. If I can get into medical school, you can, too.

1) See a psychiatrist and a therapist. There may be a medication that can help, either with depression, test anxiety, or both. And talk therapy is very useful, as well. Each increases the effectiveness of the other. Your self-efficacy and -esteem will not be intact until you sort out your depression and anxiety.

2) See a learning specialist. Does your school have one?

3) You can consider undergoing formal intelligence testing to see if you have a learning disability or ADHD if you think that could be a possibility. Seriously. Girls are more conscientious than boys, so, compared to boys, girls more often compensate effectively for learning and/or attention deficits up until around college. And I don't mean allowing a psychiatrist to diagnose ADHD. I'm talking about formal testing with a psychologist specializing and psychometric testing.

 

[CosmeticLeFort3]

Long story short: No, you're not screwed out of medical school.

First off, I'm happy you're still here to write this post and have made the very mature and smart decision to take a leave of absence. A lot of people, more than you think, have mental health issues while trying to enroll into medical school. I know personally many people in medical school that repressed mental health issues; only to suffer so much in med school they had to repeat a year or drop out altogether.

What it seems like is
1. You don't know how to study properly
2. You get anxious during tests, which causes a downfall in performance.

I have had to deal with my own issues my first two years which caused my GPA to fall. The first thing I had to do during my spring semester of sophomore year was to get a strict handle on my mental health. That is the foundation for you to move forward. It's a hard road but a worth-while one. Your mental health is #1 moving forward. You need to work with someone that can take care of the depression and performance anxiety.

When you feel like you can get back into school, I'd maybe start at CC to save money and take the general courses. Get a 3.7+ GPA (A- average) from here on out and move back into a 4-year university setting. Ace the MCAT when you're ready. Show that upward trend after you get a handle on your mental health and I don't see why you can't attend an MD or DO program.

It's a long road ahead, but I'm a living proof of making a comeback and getting into an MD program with lackluster grades and a good MCAT. PM me if you need any help!

How many credits in of bad gpa (low 2's) is it off the table ?

 

[Goro]

Hi everyone. I am a college student at a top 5 liberal arts college and am the first in my family to go to college (and was the first person in my family to graduate from high school). Ever since I was a child, I have said that I wanted to become a doctor. I have a disorder that requires me to visit the hospital often, and as a child I became enamored with how the doctors took care of sick children and the kind of leadership they showed. In high school, I decided to volunteer at a hospital. That made me decide (at the time) that I was going to be a doctor, specifically a pediatrician.

My first semester of college I took only one chemistry course. I was only allowed to take that class since there was a requirement for all other science classes that I needed to fulfill first. (I did not pass a specific exam.) The chemistry class did not have this requirement. I ended up with a B-. Next semester I took gen chem 2, but ended up dropping it. My second year of college, I dropped two science classes, then retook them and ended up making a C and C+. My first semester I was really depressed, to the point that I was going to drop out because I did not care about anything anymore. But I decided to stick it through for the spring and retake the classes. Upon seeing my grades for the spring, I became very depressed. I sought out tutoring, tried to keep a strict sleeping schedule, ate correctly, spent most of my free time in the library studying. It felt like I had put in so much effort for absolutely nothing. I attended all classes and always paid strict attention to what the professor said. But when it came for the exams, I became overwhelmed with anxiety. I wish I could take classes in my major and not have to take exams, but I know that they are in place to make sure we are paying attention and not wasting the professor’s time. I just got a heap of anxiety and it really affected me, even when I was reading the textbook. I ended up with a 2.7 GPA the end of my sophomore year.

I decided to take a leave of absence to sort things through. And I wanted to reach out to this community to see if I am simply not smart enough to be at my college or pre-med, if it is the anxiety and depression, perhaps maybe my college is not a good fit? Or maybe it is a mix of everything. My grades make it seem like I don’t care about anything because school is boring and I just want to party all day. And I see people who do that who make better grades than me. I ultimately want to do psychiatry and maybe do research in this field, because I want to help develop personalized medications to help people with depression and anxiety. What works for one person doesn’t work for the other and I want to help find the reason why and the solution. I did not decide to be pre med because my parents or family told me to do it. I do have some people who hold that expectation for me, but I don’t try to pay attention to them. I need to do what is best for me, because I am going to be the person taking the pre-med classes and not them. But I need to figure out whether I should continue this path, or look into other careers.

I apologize for how long this post is. And thank you for reading this.

1) Get your mental health issues under 100% control
2) Ace everything from now on
3) Read this:
Goro's advice for pre-meds who need reinvention

 

[M&L]

M1 here.
1) @Goro is right. Definitely get your mental health issues under control, - nothing to be embarrassed about. Majority of people have them (me including), but just either are not aware of them, or are not willing to admit. I personally think that it is great that you know where you stand on that. The reason why I personally recommend to handle any issues before medical school - medical school DOES push you to the limit. I have done so many things in life that everyone considered borderline impossible, I survived ridiculous situations. So I was sure that medical school would be easy compared to what ive been through. Yet, I do find it hard, especially at the beginning. You question yourself EVERY SINGLE DAY. you constantly keep thinking that you are not good enough. It takes a lot just to keep going. So, yeah. Definitely figure out your issues now.

2) find a post-bach program or do it yourself. Your story is amazing. Grades and MCAT can be fixed. Don't doubt yourself for a second. ANYTHING (except maybe serious legal stuff) can be fixed, as long as you have enough desire. The only question you need to ask yourself is if you really want it. Forget the grades, forget the MCAT, forget even your own story. take yourself out of this equation and desire "do I really want to do this?". I can see how being exposed to problems early in life probably made the medical career very tempting and incredible. But please understand, it is not a glamorous job. It is dirty, and weird, and traumatic, and incredibly hard, and exhausting on so many levels. It gets lonely often. It pushes you to the absolute limit. EVERY SINGLE DAY. You often see people on some of the worst days of their lives, vulnerable, hurt. And sometimes there is nothing you can do to help. And it is hard. Every part of it. Even as M1 - i can see how people trust us. This trust lays very heavy. You realize that this person trusts you and your supervisors to figure out what is wrong with them. Literally, they put their whole life in your hands. How to do you handle a pressure like that? How do you go from an pediatric autopsy one day to casually prepping for a weird lecture the next day? It is hard. No one ever told me on any SDN forums that it will be like that. People here talk a lot about how to get in, but rarely they talk about that happens when you are there. When this is your life. I haven't seen my family in years. I forgot what my mom smells like. I am single, I am literally looking into freezing my eggs, because natural reproduction is simply not happening for me. Medical school is hard.

But it is also incredible. I honestly think this is the most incredible job you could have. The high you get from figuring something out, and helping a person is simply not comparable to anything else. Regardless of everything I told you, I am happy. There is no other place i'd rather be at. Anyway, I do not matter. YOU DO. So, ask yourself if this is what you really want. Because there are so many ways to make a world a better place. There are so many ways to help people who are sick. Medicine is not the only answer.

Now, take your time thinking about it. Hard. The best way is to find shadowing/volunteering positions. Do not go to "glamorous" places. Go to hospice, go to a morgue, do to an addiction treatment facility, go to an ER in a difficult neighbourhood. And then think if this is what you want.

If your answer is "YES" - welcome. You just screwed yourself for life. Now, since you decided that this is what you want, don't look back and don't doubt yourself for a second. Go to the link that Goro posted - @Goro is like God here (no offense intended), what Goro says is true. Go to that thread, and read it line by line. Ask questions if you need to, - I am always open, and a lot of people are as well. We all want you to succeed - trust me. I am a non-traditional too, and I had to reinvent myself a lot. So, I know that it can be hard.

So, summary: think hard. If you decided - do not look back. You are the only person who can decide if this is the right career for you. (your grades or MCAT do not decide it). If you decided - charge forward. Fix your grades (Community college is ok), fix your MCAT, get a lot of volunteering hours, if you can - research (not necessary though). And most importantly- believe in yourself. There will be moments when you doubt yourself, but remember, - if they interviewed you, if they accepted you, you CAN do this. Because admissions ppl do not make mistakes. If they decided to give you a chance, - you are more than capable.

 

[Talldoctor96]

Just here to say lol. "top five liberal arts college". As if that means anything to anyone. We are so obsessed with rankings its insane. Thats all love you. Do amazing things.

 

[ElJamo17]

Hi everyone. I am a college student at a top 5 liberal arts college and am the first in my family to go to college (and was the first person in my family to graduate from high school). Ever since I was a child, I have said that I wanted to become a doctor. I have a disorder that requires me to visit the hospital often, and as a child I became enamored with how the doctors took care of sick children and the kind of leadership they showed. In high school, I decided to volunteer at a hospital. That made me decide (at the time) that I was going to be a doctor, specifically a pediatrician.

My first semester of college I took only one chemistry course. I was only allowed to take that class since there was a requirement for all other science classes that I needed to fulfill first. (I did not pass a specific exam.) The chemistry class did not have this requirement. I ended up with a B-. Next semester I took gen chem 2, but ended up dropping it. My second year of college, I dropped two science classes, then retook them and ended up making a C and C+. My first semester I was really depressed, to the point that I was going to drop out because I did not care about anything anymore. But I decided to stick it through for the spring and retake the classes. Upon seeing my grades for the spring, I became very depressed. I sought out tutoring, tried to keep a strict sleeping schedule, ate correctly, spent most of my free time in the library studying. It felt like I had put in so much effort for absolutely nothing. I attended all classes and always paid strict attention to what the professor said. But when it came for the exams, I became overwhelmed with anxiety. I wish I could take classes in my major and not have to take exams, but I know that they are in place to make sure we are paying attention and not wasting the professor’s time. I just got a heap of anxiety and it really affected me, even when I was reading the textbook. I ended up with a 2.7 GPA the end of my sophomore year.

I decided to take a leave of absence to sort things through. And I wanted to reach out to this community to see if I am simply not smart enough to be at my college or pre-med, if it is the anxiety and depression, perhaps maybe my college is not a good fit? Or maybe it is a mix of everything. My grades make it seem like I don’t care about anything because school is boring and I just want to party all day. And I see people who do that who make better grades than me. I ultimately want to do psychiatry and maybe do research in this field, because I want to help develop personalized medications to help people with depression and anxiety. What works for one person doesn’t work for the other and I want to help find the reason why and the solution. I did not decide to be pre med because my parents or family told me to do it. I do have some people who hold that expectation for me, but I don’t try to pay attention to them. I need to do what is best for me, because I am going to be the person taking the pre-med classes and not them. But I need to figure out whether I should continue this path, or look into other careers.

I apologize for how long this post is. And thank you for reading this.

No reason to apologize. In addition to what others have posted, consider rethinking your study strategies and how you study for things in general. It is possible you can LEARN to be a better student. However, this may take asking other students what they did and a lot of introspection. As you are at a top school I venture to assume that you may not have studied a lot in high school so that your study strategies in college were suboptimal.