Sorry for the length of the post!
Hello SDN! I have a few questions for the people of these boards, most about what path I should take. Well my journey into the medical field has been different than many; I graduated from high school and went into a CC, for multiple reasons including funding, and the fact that I never took the SAT. Throughout high school I had wanted to be a fireman, and didn't really need to go to a university to accomplish that goal, so it was never a big priority for me, though I did excel in H.S. I did 3 semesters in CC 2 of which were just general ed. classes, math, earth science, speech, psyche 1a, and a few others. I got A's in all of those classes for a GPA of 4.0 in those 2 semesters, then my third semester was a I got into a fire academy which was 28 semester units, which I also got an A in, continuing my 4.0 GPA. However that is where the good news ends. The following semester I enrolled in 4 fire science classes, but before the semester started I was hired by a fire department on the other side of the state. So I went to my local office (which was a satellite campus from the CC's main campus) and filled out my paperwork to drop the classes. Fast forward 6 years and I decided I wanted to go back to school to become a doctor. A lot of thinking has gone into this, it wasn't just a drop of the hat idea, two of the guys I work with have brothers that were paramedics who are now ER doctors, and I spent a great deal of time with both of them, shadowing, and just talking to them about the crossover from firefighting to becoming a doctor. In addition I confided in three good friends, one was just matched the other day in plastics in Cincinnati, another who was matched to an emergency medicine program in Nor Cal and the last who is in his second year at Touro, about the decision and sacrifices. So I ordered up transcripts from the CC that I had attended, happy to get them and show the guidance counselor at the local CC my 4.0 average and what not, however when I received them I noticed a large discrepancy. The 4 fire science classes I thought I had dropped, apparently the person working at the satellite campus had neglected to input my dropped classes and I received 4 F's. When I contacted the school they told me there was nothing that could be done because it was past 2 years, which is their deadline to appeal grades. So my main question to everyone is, am I screwed? Or can this be overcome and explained when I get to the point in time that I will be applying to medical schools. I have no doubt my GPA will remain high, as even with the 12 units of f my GPA is still around 3.3, and I have another 75 to 100 units that I will need to take before I apply, so best case scenario if I can ace all of those, my GPA would be around 3.6. If I couple that with low to mid 30's MCAT, can those F's be overcome?
If they can, what would be the best way to go as far a degree? I have no real direction as of yet, with half my units being general ed, and the other half being fire science. I fire science degree is pretty useless so I don't want to go that route. I was thinking about just getting a general science degree or biology, as right now, science isn't my strongest subject, because I've never really taken many science classes, and I feel if I do it this way I might better prepare myself for the MCAT's, as I believe with my small amount of knowledge of the process that an excellent MCAT will probably be the only way I can overcome the black marks on my record.
Another thing that was brought up by a different friend was just to start over completely. Start at a new CC from scratch and retake all my classes; however I don't know if I have to present all of my transcripts from all schools or if this would be allowed?
Anyone's thoughts, advice, and or suggestions would be much appreciated. And I thank you in advance and apologize again for the lengthiness of this post!
Hello SDN! I have a few questions for the people of these boards, most about what path I should take. Well my journey into the medical field has been different than many; I graduated from high school and went into a CC, for multiple reasons including funding, and the fact that I never took the SAT. Throughout high school I had wanted to be a fireman, and didn't really need to go to a university to accomplish that goal, so it was never a big priority for me, though I did excel in H.S. I did 3 semesters in CC 2 of which were just general ed. classes, math, earth science, speech, psyche 1a, and a few others. I got A's in all of those classes for a GPA of 4.0 in those 2 semesters, then my third semester was a I got into a fire academy which was 28 semester units, which I also got an A in, continuing my 4.0 GPA. However that is where the good news ends. The following semester I enrolled in 4 fire science classes, but before the semester started I was hired by a fire department on the other side of the state. So I went to my local office (which was a satellite campus from the CC's main campus) and filled out my paperwork to drop the classes. Fast forward 6 years and I decided I wanted to go back to school to become a doctor. A lot of thinking has gone into this, it wasn't just a drop of the hat idea, two of the guys I work with have brothers that were paramedics who are now ER doctors, and I spent a great deal of time with both of them, shadowing, and just talking to them about the crossover from firefighting to becoming a doctor. In addition I confided in three good friends, one was just matched the other day in plastics in Cincinnati, another who was matched to an emergency medicine program in Nor Cal and the last who is in his second year at Touro, about the decision and sacrifices. So I ordered up transcripts from the CC that I had attended, happy to get them and show the guidance counselor at the local CC my 4.0 average and what not, however when I received them I noticed a large discrepancy. The 4 fire science classes I thought I had dropped, apparently the person working at the satellite campus had neglected to input my dropped classes and I received 4 F's. When I contacted the school they told me there was nothing that could be done because it was past 2 years, which is their deadline to appeal grades. So my main question to everyone is, am I screwed? Or can this be overcome and explained when I get to the point in time that I will be applying to medical schools. I have no doubt my GPA will remain high, as even with the 12 units of f my GPA is still around 3.3, and I have another 75 to 100 units that I will need to take before I apply, so best case scenario if I can ace all of those, my GPA would be around 3.6. If I couple that with low to mid 30's MCAT, can those F's be overcome?
If they can, what would be the best way to go as far a degree? I have no real direction as of yet, with half my units being general ed, and the other half being fire science. I fire science degree is pretty useless so I don't want to go that route. I was thinking about just getting a general science degree or biology, as right now, science isn't my strongest subject, because I've never really taken many science classes, and I feel if I do it this way I might better prepare myself for the MCAT's, as I believe with my small amount of knowledge of the process that an excellent MCAT will probably be the only way I can overcome the black marks on my record.
Another thing that was brought up by a different friend was just to start over completely. Start at a new CC from scratch and retake all my classes; however I don't know if I have to present all of my transcripts from all schools or if this would be allowed?
Anyone's thoughts, advice, and or suggestions would be much appreciated. And I thank you in advance and apologize again for the lengthiness of this post!
