Too Late?

[Katy2004]

I'm a student going into my sophmore year of college, and after doing some soul searching this summer, I've decided I really want to persue a career in medicine. However, I'm worried it might be too late. I don't attend an Ivy League school, but I do attend a top 20 liberal arts college, where I have about a 3.2 GPA. It's not great, but I can do much better if I set my mind to it... I messed around a lot freshman year. I took a couple of biology and psychology classes that made me decide I'd like to change my major from art history to biopsychology. I also get better grades in sciences, so changing my major would probably help my GPA.

In terms of extracurriculars, I was on the varsity crew team (I was recruited, but our team is mediocre) all of freshman year, but this spring I hurt my back so badly that I won't be able to continue rowing. I also am active as a student council rep and am in a political group on campus.

I'm willing to work my ass off, take on community service and extracurriculars, and whatever I need to do to get into med school. But I only want to do it if I have a real shot of getting into a good school in the end. Do I have a chance in hell? What do I need to do to make myself more appealing to the admissions board?

Thanks for any opinions and advice you might be able to offer.

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[MoeDaMan]

HI Katy...

all I can say is don't give up...you still have a chance...

My freshman quarter I ended up getting a 3.22 gpa, 4 years later I brought up my gpa to a 3.74...granted it is not great. However, just to show that "you can improve"....

Besides, medical school looks at trends, just keep on moving up and it is a great sign....keep ur hobbies and extracurricular stuff. You will stand out..

I've also heard that some schools don't even consider freshmen year, cuz ur expected to bomb it....

CHEER UP, DONT GIVE UP, I know u could to it.....

(Believe me, after my freshmen quarter, I thought my life was over in terms of medicine....I even started seriously thinking about dentistry I am glad I came to my senses )

 

[kmy]

Katy, definitely don't worry. The first semester of my freshman year I got a 2.75 and had no interest in medicine. I pursued whatever interested me for the next few years and then the SECOND semester of my JUNIOR year I decided to stick with medicine. Luckily I was already pretty much finished with my major and minor, so I tool Calc, Phys, Chem Bio etc all my senior year with Ochem the summer after and managed to pull my cumulative gpa up to a 3.7! You have 2 years on me as far as when you decided to get started, of COURSE you will be fine. A 3.2 will be no problem to bring up and Im sure if you are as committed as you sound you will be able to get in. I certainly don't think that my late decision to do this will hurt me at all in the admissions process, if anything it gave me time to do other things completely outside of medicine and med schools love that!!!

 

[Katy2004]

Moe and kmy, thanks for the words of encouragement! Knowing that other people think I can do makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

[lilycat]

Katy, you have a great chance. A 3.2 is not that low, and if you do well the next few years, maybe take some summer school, you can definitely bring it up to a more competitive level for med school. I had a lower GPA after my freshman year, and I'm getting ready to start med school in three weeks. Also, don't worry if you feel "off-track" in terms of your premed coursework. I took the bulk of my premed classes jr. and sr. year. In my opinion, I felt that there were lots of advantages to doing my premed work later on (ie, an enhanced maturity factor), and I definitely think it made me a better applicant. Good luck.