Hi! I'm a sophomore at UC Berkeley. I've recently declared legal studies as a major, mostly because it didn't seem competitive to get into, and I failed most of the classes I took my freshman year. I've always really wanted to be a doctor, but there's no way I see myself taking the medical school prerequisites at Berkeley. I've looked at various forums on post bacc premed programs, but I'm wondering if someone could give a sense of how competitive they are to get into. I'm trying to graduate early from Berkeley by taking classes at my local community college. I have a 2.5 GPA currently, my SAT score was 2070, my ACT 31.
-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
Struggling Premed
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
2.5 GPA as a just starting sophomore isn't the end of the world, but you need to make adjustments quickly and aggressively.
What caused you to fail? You have decent college entrance scores, so you may have breezed through high school. If that's the case, you should go talk to your academic advisor and find resources for improving your study skills. If it's something else, you need to identify and fix it before you make a serious plan to get back in the premed game.
It's waaaaaay too early for you to be thinking about post-bacc programs. You have 3 years to improve your grades at Berkeley. To put it to you more directly, any medical school will be harder than Berkeley. If you can find a way to make it work there you'll be more prepared for a future in medicine.
What caused you to fail? You have decent college entrance scores, so you may have breezed through high school. If that's the case, you should go talk to your academic advisor and find resources for improving your study skills. If it's something else, you need to identify and fix it before you make a serious plan to get back in the premed game.
It's waaaaaay too early for you to be thinking about post-bacc programs. You have 3 years to improve your grades at Berkeley. To put it to you more directly, any medical school will be harder than Berkeley. If you can find a way to make it work there you'll be more prepared for a future in medicine.
A few things. First - good job on coming here early. Being a sophomore, you have a lot of time to fix your problems before you graduate. That being said, I personally don't see why you need to graduate early other than you want to get into medical school faster. If you have the time and financial capabilities, take your time and take your premed reqs at Berkeley because the other commentators are right - if you can't succeed in a premed req at Berkeley due to difficulty how can you handle medical school?
I understand you have a bad GPA but Medical schools reward reinvention. You mess up and get a bad GPA? Okay, then recognize your problems and FIX IT. Maybe easier said than done but you can do it. And if not, maybe you don't really want to be a doctor. And that's not me saying it to chide you but trying to make you be realistic. Do you really want to be a doctor? If so are you willing to put the time and effort in to fix your problems and get that GPA it takes to get into medical school.
You're a long time away from considering post-baccs. Maybe you continue your path and then your 4th year your passion finally strikes (that's honestly what happened to me) but if you can, try to fix it now before the damage becomes worse. I believe in you! Now go re-evaluate yourself and if you need to cut back on extracurriculars and focus on schoolwork because 50% of your medical school app is GPA and MCAT so definitely work on those 1st and THEN get the clinical hours, volunteer hours, shadowing, leadership, etc!
I understand you have a bad GPA but Medical schools reward reinvention. You mess up and get a bad GPA? Okay, then recognize your problems and FIX IT. Maybe easier said than done but you can do it. And if not, maybe you don't really want to be a doctor. And that's not me saying it to chide you but trying to make you be realistic. Do you really want to be a doctor? If so are you willing to put the time and effort in to fix your problems and get that GPA it takes to get into medical school.
You're a long time away from considering post-baccs. Maybe you continue your path and then your 4th year your passion finally strikes (that's honestly what happened to me) but if you can, try to fix it now before the damage becomes worse. I believe in you! Now go re-evaluate yourself and if you need to cut back on extracurriculars and focus on schoolwork because 50% of your medical school app is GPA and MCAT so definitely work on those 1st and THEN get the clinical hours, volunteer hours, shadowing, leadership, etc!
Also I graduated from UVA so I know what it feels like to be stressed in a highly competitive atmosphere. Just understand that if you really want to be a doctor, you'll get into medical school eventually. You only get out what you put in. I'm in a post-bacc now because I didn't fix my study habits and yes I'm having to pay for it (literally with $$ and figuratively) by grinding here. You have time. Based off of your SAT and ACT, it seems like you test well and I'm sure you're smart (one of the hardest things to realize when you're at a top public school full of genius individuals) but you need to couple that intelligence with hardwork to really get the results you desire. There is no shortcut for hard work.
