Too Late to Recover?

[Algophiliac]

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Is it too late for me to recover my GPA? I'm guessing I have (or at least, will have by the end of the semester, if I can't get my **** together) around a 3.14, but this is PURE speculation...as none of my grades are official or well calculated yet. I'm taking 17 credits this semester, and I'm guessing at these being my final scores:

3 x 2.67
3 x 3.00
3 x 3.00
1 x 3.33
4 x 3.00
3 x 4.00

So does that make my average GPA = 3.14?

What makes this situation WORSE is that most of the courses are medical school pre-reqs...except, you guessed it, the 4.0 credits. How screwed am I? Do I have enough time to recover this GPA? Also, how is GPA calculated for the following semesters...is it just all recalculated again, or added on, or...?

I'm afraid that I'm only NOW beginning to understand how much time and effort I should have been putting into studying, and although my scores are going up NOW, it's bad to have that rocky start. 🙁 Am I done for?

Also, for those of you with skills in math, what do I need to make in the 15 or 17 credits (depending on how my scheduling works out, ugh) I will be taking next semester to get a 3.5 GPA? Will it even be possible? By my calculations, I'd pretty much have to have a straight 4.0 GPA for the following semester to get that 3.5 average. 🙁

 

[armybound]

What year are you?

 

[Algophiliac]

What year are you?

I'm a freshman, and this is my first semester. But I'm mainly asking if it's too late to recover in a semester. I need to maintain a 3.5 for a program in which I wish to participate for my sophomore year. 🙁

 

[Global Warming]

what year are you?

+1

 

[MexicanDr]

I'm afraid that I'm only NOW beginning to understand how much time and effort I should have been putting into studying, and although my scores are going up NOW, it's bad to have that rocky start. 🙁 Am I done for?
🙁

What year are you? If you are barely starting, try and learn from this experience.

Also, there is your answer to future courses, put more time and effort into these classes.

Stop stressing so much, there is nothing you can do about the past weeks, but from now on be more prepared and organized!

I wish you the best of lucks!

 

[sgtbrushes]

I promise it's not too late to recover? I'm 23 years old and have 17 college credits. Take a lighter courseload, maybe 8 credits, get a 4.0. Do this for 3 or 4 semesters. Presto. Good grades, and you're still a few years ahead of me.

 

[Algophiliac]

I promise it's not too late to recover? I'm 23 years old and have 17 college credits. Take a lighter courseload, maybe 8 credits, get a 4.0. Do this for 3 or 4 semesters. Presto. Good grades, and you're still a few years ahead of me.

Unfortunately my degree plan requires that I take at least 15 credit hours if I want to finish in four years. My problem is not lack of time, but lack of focus, which I have been working and improving upon. The time is and was always there, but I was not using it wisely. I have completely altered my study habits since then, but we'll see how far that gets me. 🙁 I can't believe it's taking me THIS long to adjust...everyone else already has their perfect GPAs and happy little pre-med ducklings all in a row. And here I am, struggling. I just hate myself sometimes.

 

[armybound]

I'm a freshman, and this is my first semester. But I'm mainly asking if it's too late to recover in a semester. I need to maintain a 3.5 for a program in which I wish to participate for my sophomore year. 🙁

is it too late to drop anything?

so you end up with a 3.137 (my school never rounded up). to end up with a 3.5 at the end of the year, you need at least 13 hours at 4.0

it's not impossible, but you need to work hard

 

[ksmi117]

As for the math part, if you want a 3.5 for the overall year, you'd need to get a 3.86 if you took 17 hours, a 3.89 if you took 16, and a 3.91 if you took 15. There's still a lot of time in the semester though. Work hard to bring up those B's.

 

[Algophiliac]

is it too late to drop anything?

so you end up with a 3.137 (my school never rounded up). to end up with a 3.5 at the end of the year, you need at least 13 hours at 4.0

it's not impossible, but you need to work hard

It is too late to drop. 🙁 My main worry is that these classes are pre-req classes, and those grades are pathetic for pre-req classes. But if I nail the second semester of those pre-req classes AND nail the MCAT, would I really have to retake? Not to mention I'll have to nail the upper division science classes as well, to raise my GPA.

Of course this is all hypothetically speaking, but I am working hard now, and I seem to be considerably more focused than before. Maybe that's because I've just recently realized that no other profession would make me as happy, and that no matter what it takes--it's worth it.

 

[armybound]

no, you don't need to retake.

a lot of people do poorly their freshman year, and 17 hours is a large load for a freshman. honestly, 3.13 isn't that bad. I had a 2.5 my first semester (15 hours) and a 2.62 my second semester (12 hours). I didn't have a semester above 3.2 until second semester junior year 😳 of course that's probably why I applied 3 times 😉

either way, you have plenty of time to rock other classes and prove that you can earn the grades necessary to get accepted.

 

[Algophiliac]

As for the math part, if you want a 3.5 for the overall year, you'd need to get a 3.86 if you took 17 hours, a 3.89 if you took 16, and a 3.91 if you took 15. There's still a lot of time in the semester though. Work hard to bring up those B's.

I only have one test left for each class (with the exception of one class) and the final. Could I reasonably raise my scores by an entire letter grade with just those left?

Thank you for the calculations. Wow. 🙁

 

[ksmi117]

It is too late to drop. 🙁 My main worry is that these classes are pre-req classes, and those grades are pathetic for pre-req classes. But if I nail the second semester of those pre-req classes AND nail the MCAT, would I really have to retake? Not to mention I'll have to nail the upper division science classes as well, to raise my GPA.

Of course this is all hypothetically speaking, but I am working hard now, and I seem to be considerably more focused than before. Maybe that's because I've just recently realized that no other profession would make me as happy, and that no matter what it takes--it's worth it.

B's are not bad. Never retake a B.

 

[ksmi117]

I only have one test left for each class (with the exception of one class) and the final. Could I reasonably raise my scores by an entire letter grade with just those left?

Thank you for the calculations. Wow. 🙁

Without knowing how your teachers grade, I have not a clue. But generally the final counts more than the other tests. I'm sure most people here have had B's at midterms and worked to bring them up. It just takes effort.

 

[Algophiliac]

no, you don't need to retake.

a lot of people do poorly their freshman year, and 17 hours is a large load for a freshman. honestly, 3.13 isn't that bad. I had a 2.5 my first semester (15 hours) and a 2.62 my second semester (12 hours). I didn't have a semester above 3.2 until second semester junior year 😳 of course that's probably why I applied 3 times 😉

either way, you have plenty of time to rock other classes and prove that you can earn the grades necessary to get accepted.

🙂 Thanks for the inspirational personal story. I assumed 17 hours would not be too much, as I was basically retaking the AP classes I took the previous year. But wow was I wrong about the difficulty levels being anywhere close to each other...I am studying much much much more now than I ever thought I would end up studying in college. And the sad part is that this is an ordinary state university...so my horrible GPA is not the fault of the school's difficulty, but of my inability to adjust quickly to change. How can medical schools view that positively?

 

[greatnt249]

Is it too late for me to recover my GPA? I'm guessing I have (or at least, will have by the end of the semester, if I can't get my **** together) around a 3.14, but this is PURE speculation...as none of my grades are official or well calculated yet. I'm taking 17 credits this semester, and I'm guessing at these being my final scores:

3 x 2.67
3 x 3.00
3 x 3.00
1 x 3.33
4 x 3.00
3 x 4.00

So does that make my average GPA = 3.14?

What makes this situation WORSE is that most of the courses are medical school pre-reqs...except, you guessed it, the 4.0 credits. How screwed am I? Do I have enough time to recover this GPA? Also, how is GPA calculated for the following semesters...is it just all recalculated again, or added on, or...?

I'm afraid that I'm only NOW beginning to understand how much time and effort I should have been putting into studying, and although my scores are going up NOW, it's bad to have that rocky start. 🙁 Am I done for?

Also, for those of you with skills in math, what do I need to make in the 15 or 17 credits (depending on how my scheduling works out, ugh) I will be taking next semester to get a 3.5 GPA? Will it even be possible? By my calculations, I'd pretty much have to have a straight 4.0 GPA for the following semester to get that 3.5 average. 🙁

Assuming you take a 15-credit courseload, with 3 credits for each class, you can afford one A- if you want to wind up with around a cGPA of 3.5 at the end of your spring semester. It'll be tough, but it's doable.

 

[armybound]

🙂 Thanks for the inspirational personal story. I assumed 17 hours would not be too much, as I was basically retaking the AP classes I took the previous year. But wow was I wrong about the difficulty levels being anywhere close to each other...I am studying much much much more now than I ever thought I would end up studying in college. And the sad part is that this is an ordinary state university...so my horrible GPA is not the fault of the school's difficulty, but of my inability to adjust quickly to change. How can medical schools view that positively?

It's not that they'll view it positively, but that they'll understand/forgive it. It's all about what you take from it. If they ask you about your freshman GPA, explain how you matured in your willingness to accept responsibility, how it sharpened your determination to do well, honed your study skills, etc. You grew a lot because of this.