Terrible Freshmen grades

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dreghsSC

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I have a 2.6 GPA for my freshman year. I guess I had a little too much fun this year... I was calculating my scores and realized I would have to get near a 3.8 for the next three years to get my GPA up to a 3.6. I go to a very good and chalenging school so I can tell you right now that that is not going to happen. I didn't study this year so im thinking if I actually put in a good effort I could easily get about an average of 3.6-3.7 for the next three years (I had a 3.8 in highschool). The problem with this is that that will leave me with a graduating GPA of about 3.3-3.4 (if I took about 13 or 14 hours each semester). I am a South Carolina resident and want to go to MUSC. I really don't know what to do. I feel like I have already killed my chances and I just finished my Freshman year of college. Any suggestions? Any suggestions for starting MCAT review (I have a feeling I'm going to have to get at least over a 32 so I might as well start now).

thanks,
EGHS 😎
 
dreghsSC said:
(I have a feeling I'm going to have to get at least over a 32 so I might as well start now).
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I don't think you can start now, you need to learn the stuff first, then learn how to take the MCAT.
 
Forget about your freshman grades for now. What's done is done. Just swear up and down that you'll ace your other prerequisites for med schools, and you'll be fine.

Many many of us have screwed up freshman year. I think I had what you had and proceeded to do better every year.

It took me a year to figure out that partying is for weekends. 😳
Good luck!
 
Transfer to an easier school, get the 3.8+, and then in your personal statement write that you were having a difficult time transitioning from high school to college at your first school.
 
bad grades freshman year won't ruin your chances for med school. that said, they will be an additional obstacle to overcome. it's too early to start studying for the mcat. the mcat is a test best studied for intensively over a couple months, after the proper preparation in school. at this point, just try your best from now on and take the time to reflect on whether this is what you really want to do. i'm sure you've heard it before, but you might change your mind quite a bit during college. keep checking in with yourself about what makes you happy. if it is medicine, keep trying your hardest. once you get closer to application time, take a good hard look at your application and decide whether you should just go for it or take some extra time to improve your resume/make up for bad grades early on. your chances are by no means ruined, but this is not an easy path.

best of luck to you. :luck:
 
The same thing happened to me, except not just freshman but also sophmore years. What I did was draw a line between myself and my 2 years of bad grades. Make it a point to figure out the things that went wrong, and fix them before you go on. Lighten your course load for a semester if you have to, or even take a break from school if you need time to get serious. Every one has reasons for their mishaps, but it takes some guts to put these things behind you, and keep going!

Best of luck! NEVER GIVE UP!!!
 
Try to do really well on the MCAT. I did the same thing you did, only I thought I had to a get a 3.7 and I had a 2.4. Oh yes and I had also dropped out twice already. I had to get a 4.0 for the rest of my undergrad to do this. In the end I decided to wait to apply until after my senior year and I'm actually going to go an extra year to finish a double major.

My first year of trying to do better I got a 3.1 which didn't really help much. Over the summer I managed to get my GPA up to a 3.0 and I decided that the next year was make or break for me. I deleted all of my video games and I got a 3.8 that year. I then had a 3.3 or so. I decided to wait and take the mcat the following year and double major in biochem. The following year (last year) I got a 4.0. I now have a 3.44 and I did well on my MCAT.

I'm pretty close to the average GPA of most schools now and I'm in reasonable shape overall now missing a few EC's unfortunetly (it's hard to focus on them when you are trying to do GPA necromancy). Anyways hope that helps.
 
Same here, video games were my downfall. What's killing me right now is the F i got in a 4 hour calc class in a community college. I was stupid back then and had just quit showing up to the class after the first week, and never even bothered to drop it! Now I don't know what to do with it 🙁 So any F is enough mar your GPA so bad it's not funny. Are you sure you did the GPA-averaging, and not replacing when projecting your gpa's?
 
Yeah but you can retake an F. My worst grade was a C and it was in Bio. You can't retake C's. I would have almost rather gotten an F because you can always retake it and just have a reason for why you did bad in your class. Yes I averaged my GPA. I have a 2.7 for the first two semesters (Freshmen year). and if i get a 3.6 for the rest of the semesters (thats 6) then I would say (3.6(6*13.5)+2.7(28))/109 which is about 3.336 final average. (I multiplied 6 by 13.5 because I am assuming I will take about 13-14 classes per semester. The 28 is the hours I took this past year. 109 is total hours.)

-EGHS 😎
 
also keep in mind that schools will look at trends in the gpa as well. Having a bad frosh year doesnt mean u should just drop out and forget the whole med school thing. Just keep working hard and change your study habits.
 
whats a good GPA to shoot for for in state MUSC?
 
I had a 2.03 my freshman year. you can overcome it. just work hard from hereon out.
 
Yeah video games killed me too. I wiped them all and put 'em in a box in my closet and didn't touch them until winter. Worked for me.

Just improve every semester, even if you don't get a 4.0 every semester a strong upward trend will smooth things out. And at the same time make sure you don't neglect the other parts of your app, like ECs and LORs (start collecting these early if you can!). The MCAT comes later, focus on raising your GPA first.
 
exmike said:
just work hard from hereon out.
Click to expand...
make sure you work the heroin out of your system, too.
 
Don't sweat it. There are lots of examples of people who bagged their freshman years and still gotten into med schools. The adcoms look at your grades year by year, so a 3.3-3.4 with a solid trend isn't disasterous at all. Also, your science GPA will be important. Don't worry about the MCAT yet, there's plenty of time for worrying about that later. Just throw yourself into your books and get A's from here on out. Okay starting... now.
 
haha ok starting now I'm getting only A's at Wake Forest... easier said than done, but it is possible! Time to actually start studying and maybe cut down a little on week night partys... 🙄

-EGHS
 
dreghsSC said:
haha ok starting now I'm getting only A's at Wake Forest... easier said than done, but it is possible! Time to actually start studying and maybe cut down a little on week night partys... 🙄

-EGHS
Click to expand...

Cut out video games entirely if they are involved. Cut out internet time too.
 
Medikit said:
Cut out video games entirely if they are involved. Cut out internet time too.
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the only way is to delete the game and destroy the CD. that's tough. Also severing your ethernet cord is a relatively permanent solution. Unplugging doesnt work, it is too easy to plug back in.
 
Cut out video games entirely if they are involved. Cut out internet time too.
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hahah!! Speaking of cutting off, what finally got me to think about stoping w/ the computer games were these bible verses:

"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." -Matthew 5:29-30

Uninstalling videogames was not sufficient enough - i proceeded to dissassemble my computer and box the components. Then, the voices in my head stopped calling to me 😀 (jk no voices!)
 
damn the video games 😀. Ruined my summer before freshman year with an F and 2 Ws. My gpa back up to a 3.6 and hopefully a 3.7 by the time i apply. Seriously get rid of the video games for one! Oh and SDN is the devil too so cut that down =D
 
TheProwler said:
Man, to get my GPA from a 3.93 to a 3.95 would require 28 credits of 4.0 (I have 70 credits now)........that's such a pain in the ass.
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YES BUT THINK OF WHAT AMAZING EFFECTS IT WOULD HAVE ON YOUR ACCEPTANCE RATE
 
TheProwler said:
Man, to get my GPA from a 3.93 to a 3.95 would require 28 credits of 4.0 (I have 70 credits now)........that's such a pain in the ass.
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If I were you, I would DEFINITELY wait another year and try to get that GPA up.
 
are you kidding??? 3.93 or 3.95..... hmm I think your ok
 
Join the "we partied freshmen yr" club. We had more fun, didn't we?

Kidding aside, as long as you improve greatly and rock the MCATs, you will be fine. I had a similar situation and was never asked about that black yr.

And if they do ask, just be honest about it. They were young once too.

b
 
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