Tried everything, please help.....

[Trytryagn]

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[Law2Doc]

I have the worst record of anyone trying to persue medicine. My GPA is near a 2.0. I tried graduate school to boost my grades, but got an F in a physiology grad course and had to leave the program. I thought the course was just for graduate students until I found out that it was a MEDICAL SCHOOL CLASS! I later applied to a post-bac program to improve chances at getting into medical school, and got invited to an interview. I got rejected because, according to the program, my grades were below their accepted GPA, and I got an F in a med school course. The committe though said that those who re-apply to the post-bac program have 3-4 times better chance of getting in. They suggested that the best thing I should do is re-take Org. Chem (which I got D's and F's in), and I did, and got A's and a B. I re-applied to the post-bac program. This time, I did not get invited to an interview.

I'm a bit depressed and upset, and I really need help on getting on the right path towards medical school. I've been working in the lab since I graduated from college. Had I known that the grad school course was mainly for med students, I wouldn't have enrolled. But I did, and its too late to change. Does anyone have any advice or support?

Sounds like you got some bad advice early on -- grad school cannot boost grades because med schools are going to look at undergrad GPA plus undergrad level postbac GPA -- graduate grades are in a separate column. Taking med school caliber courses is a good tactic only if you are close to the minimum GPA for med school and want to prove you can handle the work. Since you weren't near the minimum GPA for med school and actually proved with your med school course that you couldn't handle the work, I agree with you that you were at a horrible starting point. Can you get back in the game? Sure, but it is going to take many years from your current starting point. If that's okay with you, then you probably want to continue taking additional undergrad courses (through any open enrollment undergraduate institution (needn't be a formal postbac; you won't get those anyhow) -- the equivalent of another degree, and then probably have to do an SMP again, because you have to now prove you can handle the courses at the med school level you couldn't previously. So we are talking many many years before you are ready to apply.
I don't usually recommend Caribbean options, but from your starting point, where the odds of getting into a US med school are really not that good, it might be something to look into. Good luck.

 

[Trytryagn]

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[Percival]

I agree with Law2Doc,

Only I'm going to go out on a limb and say that medical school may not be for you. I know you hate to hear this, but it could be something you should consider. In my opinion, success at undergraduate school and/or medical school is more a function of diligence than it is intelligence. It sounds to me like you haven't been putting the work in. I can't see how you can fail medical physiology (it's a lot of information, but no difficult concepts such as are in calculus II or general chemistry even). You could have really hit the books hard and at least got a B.

This is coming from a fellow non-trad student. I went back to undergraduate school after 6 years out of college and really worked hard -- and the grades came too.

I doubt anyone else in this forum will be so harsh, and for that I apologize, but it could be that you are not assessing yourself honestly.

 

[Nasem]

hmm... "sounds like your in a pickle, dick"... sorry that quote poped in my mind lol

honestly, your GPA is pretty bad, taking a grad course that was intended for med students and getting an F is just as bad......

HOWEVER.... there is a way out of this (and I think its the fastest way), but you need to consider the fact that it might take you anywhere from 2-4 years from today (minimum just 2 years, max 4 years) and I'll explain why:

1) first, there is no way in hell your going to bring up that 2.0 GPA to something thats worth even considering (like a 3.0 ~ which by the way its still crappy).... so for the TIME being, forget post-bacc (it woun't help your cause)

2) your working in the lab right now, which means, you have ALOT of free time on your hands when you get home.... STUDY YOUR *** OFF for the MCATS, I dunno for how long, but Im guessing to spend the next 6 months studying 4-6 hrs A DAY just on the MCAT, learn everything inside out.... and litterally take the test and SMASH it....... In my opinion, if you score a 35+, your going to really demonstrate that your not a ***** who can't handle science, in fact, its going to show alot of schools your resiliency to stay on the medical route........

3) however.... there still might be issues, medical schools (most of them, MD & DO) do have GPA cut-offs (I think minimum is 2.75 or something like that).... At this point, you have a few choices to do:
a) - contact a bunch of lower-stat medical schools (most of those are going to be DOs), tell them your situation, tell them EVERYTHING, including your MCAT score (im hoping its something in the 35+ range), and see what they tell you, some of them might make an exception to the GPA cutoff point JUST for you
b) - I know I don't like to say this, but its one of your options.... ever considered Caribbean MDs ?
c) - This is the worst one of them (cause its going to take the longest time), you go back and enroll into a university as a post-bacc student (NOT GRADUATE, it woun't help your undergrad GPA) and try to push that 2.0 to something like a 2.8+..... This post-bacc doesn't have to be a formal one, it can be an informal post-bacc



Summer of my post: In my opinion, for the time being, forget everything and ONLY focus on destroying the MCAT.

Good luck

 

[Trytryagn]

****

 

[Nasem]

well... it depends on what your mostly applying for...

For MD schools, retaking a course doesn't help your GPA awhole lot...example, if you took Orgo and got a D (first time), retook it and got an A(2nd time), MD application will average the two out, so your averaged grade is a C (which totally sucks)

however, for DO schools, you don't have this problem, they will only consider the most recent attempt at a class (so for the Orgo example, they will only count the A)... which is very nice, it helps bump that GPA

 

[QofQuimica]

I'm a bit depressed and upset, and I really need help on getting on the right path towards medical school. I've been working in the lab since I graduated from college. Had I known that the grad school course was mainly for med students, I wouldn't have enrolled. But I did, and its too late to change. Does anyone have any advice or support?

If I were you, I'd start by stopping. You're jumping around like a chicken with no head from plan to plan, and you're not succeeding at any of them. What you need to do now is take a step back, and really think long and hard about what you want to do with your life. If you have a realistic, firm goal, then it's a lot easier to figure out how you are going to get there.

First, why do you want to go to medical school? Getting into an American medical school is going to be a herculean effort for you, and that's the *best* case scenario. So, is a medical degree even necessary for what you want to do? Could you accomplish your goals with another degree that will not entail so many doors slamming in your face from the getgo? If you enjoy the research you are doing, what about applying to graduate school? What about other health-related fields such as nursing, PA, social work, clinical psychology, etc.?

If you decide that no, you must have a medical degree, then you must research your options. You basically have three choices: going to an American allopathic school, an American osteopathic school, or an overseas school. American allopathic schools will likely be the least willing to consider a student with your academic record. As someone else already mentioned, osteopathic schools will allow you to replace your previous poor grades with new, better grades. However, this will still require a few years of coursework, then retaking the MCAT. Do you want/need a medical degree badly enough that it's worth this kind of time, money, and effort? Going overseas (ex. Caribbean) is always an option, but it's a risky one, and particularly for a student like you with a poor track record.

Finally, do not believe the hype on this website that a 35+ MCAT will make up for a subpar GPA. Even if you are fortunate enough to achieve such a score (which the vast majority of test-takers will not), it most certainly will not make your poor transcripts go away. Medical schools have literally thousands of highly qualified applicants vying for at most a couple of hundred seats. The average GPA of matriculants is 3.5+ at nearly all schools. Adcoms expect those kinds of numbers from applicants, and most successful applicants will have them. Even the handful of applicants who get in with GPAs that are slightly lower will usually be expected to show an "upward trend" where they had some old bad grades followed by a recent year or two of straight As (or close to it).

Whatever you wind up deciding to do, you must have a strong sense of purpose, and you must play to win. Best of to you. 🙂

 

[Trytryagn]

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[Nasem]

here is some motivation for you:

there is a fellow member here at SND (TexasTriathlete), he spends alot of his time in the pre-DO thread, he reminds me alot of you...

Here is his application:
http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=8735

Based on what I have heard from him (Im sorry if I miss something), but he started the whole pre-med process when he was 25, his GPA at that time was around 2.0 (very much like yourself), started doing post-bacc for... I think 4 to 5 years until about 2-3 months ago where he got accepted into GA-COM.... If you notice something, he did very well on the MCAT (which I agree with Q, it DOESN'T make up for a poor undergrad performance, however, it still gives you an edge esspecially in showing that your not an idiot who can't handle sciences)

you should send him a PM, see what he says to you.

 

[njbmd]

I have the worst record of anyone trying to persue medicine. My GPA is near a 2.0. I tried graduate school to boost my grades, but got an F in a physiology grad course and had to leave the program. I thought the course was just for graduate students until I found out that it was a MEDICAL SCHOOL CLASS! I later applied to a post-bac program to improve chances at getting into medical school, and got invited to an interview. I got rejected because, according to the program, my grades were below their accepted GPA, and I got an F in a med school course. The committe though said that those who re-apply to the post-bac program have 3-4 times better chance of getting in. They suggested that the best thing I should do is re-take Org. Chem (which I got D's and F's in), and I did, and got A's and a B. I re-applied to the post-bac program. This time, I did not get invited to an interview.

I'm a bit depressed and upset, and I really need help on getting on the right path towards medical school. I've been working in the lab since I graduated from college. Had I known that the grad school course was mainly for med students, I wouldn't have enrolled. But I did, and its too late to change. Does anyone have any advice or support?

You have a couple of issues that need to be separated:

First, your uGPA is very low because you have some failures/poor course performance in your past. The best way to take care of this is to do some post bacc work and do well (no grade less than B+) period. Be aware that doing undergraduate GPA 'damage control' is a long and expensive process so you need to be very, very patient and very, very disciplined with a source of money to pay for your course re-takes.

It's your poor undergraduate performance that is likely going to keep you out of a formal post bacc program. With this being said, you can look into informal post bacc work which can help you. This again will be lengthy and expensive.

Your next issue is to take a long an objective look at medicine and other careers that are allied to medicine. You need to be aware, as others have said, that getting into medical school is going to be a long and difficult road for you. Your best shot is going to be osteopathic medical school but be aware that osteopathic medical school admission for you is not going to be easy. You have a huge hole to "dig out of" here.

Other careers: Physician assistant comes to mind but these programs are quite competitive and you are well below average in terms of uGPA for them. Most PA programs also require some previous experience in health care which takes some time to achieve in addition to a uGPA of greater than 3.0 minimally. This is a very popular (and competitive) career at present because of huge professional satisfaction and may be something that you might want to investigate. It is not a career for "med school wannabes" or "also rans" but a great career that takes less time than medicine and offers many of the same experiences as medicine.

Respiratory therapy also comes to mind and would provide good clinical exposure and patient care experience along with a source of income while you are doing your 'uGPA damage control'. You can likely get into a respiratory therapy program with your 2.0 and get some uGPA boost from the coursework. RT also uses the physician model of patient assessment which is why many RTs become attractive to both Physician Assistant and medical schools.

Investigating other health care careers does not negate your interest in medicine but will likely broaden your options. You also need to take a long and objective look at why you have not achieved a high academic level. Anything that is holding you back in terms of academics needs to be corrected before you spend another cent in tuition dollars. Good luck!

 

[Vihsadas]

Finally, do not believe the hype on this website that a 35+ MCAT will make up for a subpar GPA. Even if you are fortunate enough to achieve such a score (which the vast majority of test-takers will not), it most certainly will not make your poor transcripts go away.

I want to emphasize this. It's not going to make your low GPA go away. That being said, you definitely NEED the 35+ on the MCAT to even have a shot at DO schools. I think that if you are looking to stay in the US, the DO schools are going to be your only option. MD schools will be more or less out of the question unless you demonstrated some very fundamental and long lasting changes in your core behaviors. Even then it may not be good enough. When I started in this process I made a pact that I would do whatever it took to reach my goal. I was (and still am) willing to go overseas, willing to go to ireland, willing to do an SMP, willing to do whatever I have to, to reach my goal.

Do you have that kind of drive? Really...are you willing to do whatever it takes? If you slack off for even one day, then don't fool yourself. "Whatever it takes" means committing every fibre of your being to accomplishing the task at hand; having tunnel vision until you have your goal in your grasp. Can you honestly say that you are willing to do that? To stay the course with that level of focus?

It's going to be hard for you. I have the fullest confidence that you can reach your goals. I really, really do. I believe that you have what it takes...but you must also be realistic. Are you willing to work as hard as you are going to have to, to even have a slim shot at reaching your aspirations?

 

[gman33]

US MD schools are really not an option with your starting GPA.
You need to bascially redo all your UG courses and then follow it up with a SMP to even have a shot.

DO schools are possible. Retake every course in which you got less than a B. Get your GPA up (with retakes) around 3.3 or better. This will take a few years. You will also need a good MCAT score in the 30 range.

That being said, you will need to figure out why you did poorly in the past and correct those problems. Start out taking one class at a time and make sure you get an A no matter how much work you need to put in. Only start taking more classes once you can prove to yourself that you can do well.
You may be 4-5 years away from starting med school. Make sure you are willing to put in this time and effort before you start down this path. There are many of other career options which may be a better option for you.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

That being said, you will need to figure out why you did poorly in the past and correct those problems.

I think this is critical. The fact that you failed the medical school physiology class says to me that you're not currently up to making it in medical school either in the US or overseas. You've got to make sure you can do better in these science classes before continuing on this path. So yeah, as the others have suggested, retake those tougher ugrad courses that you did poorly in and do well in them. If you can't do well in them, then you're going to have to find something else to do.

And since this is going to be such a long path even if you can make it, you've got to work on making a life for yourself now, too, instead of putting everything on hold for this medical school thing.

 

[8744]

I have thought about other careers, and in the end, I still dream of becoming a doctor (unfortunately) ;-)

Seriously though, I will look further into informal post-bacs, and someone had suggested. I have no plans of applying directly to medical school again.

If there are any people who have gone through such post-bac programs to boost their GPA, or who have gone through so many obstacles before reaching their dream of becomg a med student, I'd love to know.

As for that earlier statement about failiing the med school physiology course, interesting you should mention that. About half of the first-year students (including myself) left the program because of low grades in the program overall. Also, the average grade in that physiology class among med and grad students was a C+.

Until such a time as the paradigm of medicine changes and we decide that no special qualities of intellect are required to be a doctor, or that the training is going to be on a junior college level, you are wasting your time applying to medical school. Maybe you're not smart enough or maybe you lack self-discipline but for whatever reason, you have about as much chance of getting into medical school as I have of being one of the finalists on American Idol because you are consistently demonstrating that you don't have the stuff to handle medical school.

I had a low GPA and had failed out of college once but that was a decade or so before I applied to medical school and in the meantime I had gotten my **** in one bag. About the only hope you have is to quietly drop out of the application process, quit beating yourself against the rocks, lay low for a decade or so, and then once you have decided to apply yourself and stop making excuses about how everybody else in the class sucked as hard as you did, irrelevant because that's why classes like that are considered weed-out courses for medical school hopefuls (you were weeded out, you understand), once you have regrouped you can try again, maybe with a second degree in which you get good grades.

As for your dream of becoming a doctor, I understand completely that it is often only the irrational obsession with it that sustains people through the dfficult and often humiliating application process but being a doctor is not the magical multi-orgasmic event you may believe it to be. I like it well enough but I can see now that if I had done something else it would have been fine too. You'd be surprised how eager doctors are to go home and how they appreciate their days off where they don't have to think about their work at all, or how snappy and resentful they can get when they have to spend time on the job that they hadn't anticipated. This is true for every career but there are very few other careers where people expect so much of you but are completely oblivious to how you feel about it, or where you have such a responsibility that you pretty much are a hostage to your customers (patients, I mean).

In many respects, it is more fun to pretend to be a doctor than to actually be one.

 

[wisconsindoctor]

I have the worst record of anyone trying to persue medicine. My GPA is near a 2.0. I tried graduate school to boost my grades, but got an F in a physiology grad course and had to leave the program. I thought the course was just for graduate students until I found out that it was a MEDICAL SCHOOL CLASS! I later applied to a post-bac program to improve chances at getting into medical school, and got invited to an interview. I got rejected because, according to the program, my grades were below their accepted GPA, and I got an F in a med school course. The committe though said that those who re-apply to the post-bac program have 3-4 times better chance of getting in. They suggested that the best thing I should do is re-take Org. Chem (which I got D's and F's in), and I did, and got A's and a B. I re-applied to the post-bac program. This time, I did not get invited to an interview.

I'm a bit depressed and upset, and I really need help on getting on the right path towards medical school. I've been working in the lab since I graduated from college. Had I known that the grad school course was mainly for med students, I wouldn't have enrolled. But I did, and its too late to change. Does anyone have any advice or support?

Dude, just give it up. Millions of Americans have a dream of wanting to be someone or something. Heck, I always have a dream of being an NFL player. I was a decent high school player, but I had to tell myself that I just didn't have what it took to be an NFL player. So I gave up on that hope and took time to find what I love the most.

Become a nurse, health care promoter, health educator, lab tech, physical therapist, or some other health care career.

Being a doctor is the MOST OVERRATED CAREER in the world. Most patients you see are the same patients you have seen twice in the last year. Trust me, it is true!!!!!!! It's almost always the same people comming in to see their doctor.

Half of the people I see everyday are not actually sick, but they think they are. So I give them medication and they are gone. Then 6 months later they are back with the same symptoms. I just want to scream in their ears and tell them to stop drinking, paryting all Friday and Saturday night, stop smoking, SLEEP, and eat some health food. Then maybe y ou won't be feeling sick all of the time. It also helps to shower and brush the teeth everyday.

I'm leaving the field of medicine in the next year to be a health care promoter. Someone needs to get out in the community I live in and get all of these fat people to get out and exercise.

If the only thing you can do with your life is become a doctor, then start over with everything. Go to a new university and take all of the classes over AND GET A REAL DEGREE IN THE PROCESS.

 

[hollywoodfl]

I'm in a somewhat similar boat in that I had a 2.57 GPA when I first attempted school. Years later I decided that I wanted to go to grad school in a field other than Philosophy, namely psychology. This was the end result of having volunteered in a substance abuse detox center. I later got a job there as a tech, which is the lowest job you can have besides toilet cleaner and even then you have to crub scrotums and clean vomit (YECH!)

Up until that point I had been basically directionless, waiting tables, playing in bands, working at a transmission shop, valet, etc. I went back to school at a junior college and took a bunch of classes over a few years and got my GPA up to a whopping 2.8-something. This was lengthy and painful.

I still couldent get into an MS program at a local public school. After I was denied I went in to see the admissions dean and I aked her 'What do I need to do to get into this program?' I had fantastic reccomendations and four years work experience. I also had picked up a low level certification in addiction counseling. She said to take more classes, continue to get A's and take the GRE and kill the GRE.

That's exactly what I did, and I ended up getting into a better, cheaper program. Along the way I realized that I wanted to do way more than a mid-level service provider in mental health or medicine could ever do. I wanted more autonomy and I started to believe that diagnostically and in regards to treatment decisions, M.D. was the way to go.

I am in the same boat as you are, except that I have been taking classes at the UG level for almost seven years since I graduated and have gotten all A's and two B's over many classes. I am just now looking at getting over the 3.0 hump, once I finish these pre-reqs.

I am planning on destroying the MCAT and begging my way into an interview. I feel that one of the advantages to being an older person in this setting is that we are generally more settled and more able to articulate the life experiences that make us believe that we want to pursue this dream.

If I dont get in for the 2010 class, I imagine I will just have to try again the following year. I will just take more science classes and get A's in them and thats all I can do. I volunteer in the ER once a week, and I have an interview next Friday for a part-time research position.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

As mentioned before, what you are trying to do is going to take a lot of time and a lot of patience. When I graduated from college I had a 2.56 GPA. That was 10 years ago. I spent the next 10 years taking high level graduate classes, earning a Masters degree, having a career and a family. It took me 2.5 years to study for the MCAT to relearn the material that was being tested.

I graduated from graduate school with a 3.7 GPA. However, this did not make up for the poor performance in undergrad. But it showed that I can do the work.

Now what you are about to start is NOT a sprint. It is a rather long marathon. One that may take 10 years. I do not know what your plan is, but you need a plan. You must have a plan. You need to be focused and you need to have a goal in mind.

check out www.oldpremeds.com and you will see that there are plenty of people out there in a similar situation.

Good Luck.

 

[Bouncingboy]

As for that earlier statement about failiing the med school physiology course, interesting you should mention that. About half of the first-year students (including myself) left the program because of low grades in the program overall. Also, the average grade in that physiology class among med and grad students was a C+.

Note: A C+ class average is normal at my undergrad for pre-med weeders.

If you retook that physiology class, can you put in the all of the extra time and effort required to get an A or A+ in that class with the same professor and the same C+ weeder class GPA? Can you guarantee that A or A+ grade?

It's time to concede defeat until you can answer with a definite "yes" to both questions with a straight face. With a B in orgo, you're definitely not ready to do this.

For most people in a similar position such as yours, it usually takes around 7-15 years before they've turned from a partying student or otherwise mediocre student into a older pre-med gunner from the added maturity and street smarts people gain as they age. You can't go from a barely passing student to a pre-med gunner in just one year.

Also, you need to put some distance between your big cluster of failures (2.0 undergrad/0.0 grad GPA) and the next attempt at med school. In 10 years, you can tell interviewers that your 2.0 GPA/grad school dropout was an isolated incident of failure and that your 4.0 postbacc/38MCAT proves you have lifetime success written all over your face. Even then, many med schools won't believe you or have too many outstanding applicants to take a chance on you but hopefully one school will.

So for a variety of good reasons, the only reasonable thing to do is to put your dreams on hold for 10 years. When you come back to SDN in 10 years, I hope you get that 4.0 GPA and rock the MCAT. Good luck.

 

[AlaskaHopeful]

I agree with the other postings and also want to encourage you to explore other options and just have some fun for awhile until you KNOW what you want.

I had below a 2.0 GPA when I started my LONG journey to med-school, but getting my uGPA up to a barely respectable level meant ALOT of work and long days -for 3.5 years including a summer! If you're not ready for that, then just have fun for a few years. I had the drive to outwork everyone in my class - if you don't, then don't beat yourself up, just enjoy what life brings.

 

[hollywoodfl]

I agree with the other postings and also want to encourage you to explore other options and just have some fun for awhile until you KNOW what you want.

I had below a 2.0 GPA when I started my LONG journey to med-school, but getting my uGPA up to a barely respectable level meant ALOT of work and long days -for 3.5 years including a summer! If you're not ready for that, then just have fun for a few years. I had the drive to outwork everyone in my class - if you don't, then don't beat yourself up, just enjoy what life brings.

You are right where I hope to be in two years. I am basically in a very similar boat.

 

[Luxian]

I tried graduate school to boost my grades, but got an F in a physiology grad course and had to leave the program. I thought the course was just for graduate students until I found out that it was a MEDICAL SCHOOL CLASS! ?

I hate to tell you, but there's not some magical transition between undergrad and med school. Medical school is just the same people a year older (or several years, depending). Since you already failed a med school class, the best thing you could do is take and excel at one to show that you actually can do it.

But I'd echo the others here. Take some time off. Decide if this is really what you want to do. By 'this' I mean, seven grueling years of work (4 in school and 3 in residency), which includes not just one med school class but several at once for the first two years. You'll need to show academic excellence, even if only for a year, in order to be considred.

 

[Instatewaiter]

If you honestly put in a good effort into the physiology class STOP. Give up. Seriously. Some people do not have the brains to be a doctor and if you put in a good effort but still failed, that is probably you. Nothing wrong with that, but it will save you a bundle of time and a ton of money. I did a similar program where around 1/3 of the class had to withdraw due to poor grades. They werent cut out to be doctors either but they learned pretty quickly and went on their way to other carreers.

I am not tryign to be an a$$ but physio is by no means the most difficult med school course. If you were eaten up by it you will have almost no praywer to make it through the more difficult courses.

Now if you only half assed it, there are a couple things you need to do.
1) Take time off, get your head in the right place
2) Do well on the MCAT. You dont need a 35 but you need a 30.
3) Take multiple years of post-bac coursework and get very good grades.
4) After the post-bac do an SMP. Believe it or not, that F in physio is by far the worst part of your application. The SMP will prove that you can handle the work.
5) Apply DO
6) Do something truly remarkable. Go to Tibet and help the children there for a year, volunteer replanting the rainforrest, cure cancer. Something that will set you apart will go a long way. It also will help you get your head in the right place


I would recommend you not apply to the carribean, especially no time soon. There are so many people who just arent prepared for med school and go down there. Unlike the states, the weed out process is during school so upwards of 1/3 of them drop out. Those who succeed are very self motivated (probably not you at this point).

 

[Nasem]

I agree with the other postings and also want to encourage you to explore other options and just have some fun for awhile until you KNOW what you want.

I had below a 2.0 GPA when I started my LONG journey to med-school, but getting my uGPA up to a barely respectable level meant ALOT of work and long days -for 3.5 years including a summer! If you're not ready for that, then just have fun for a few years. I had the drive to outwork everyone in my class - if you don't, then don't beat yourself up, just enjoy what life brings.

thats impressive, I saw your application... you brought a 2.0 overall to a 3.2.... what is your total credits? I bet you have over 250+

 

[nlax30]

Lots of good things have been said... (off topic: nice to see Panda on, HUGE fan)

I do agree though that it'd be a good idea to just stop, step back, and take some time off. Not sure (or may have skipped over it) how old you are or you're currently working on a degree or already have one, etc... BUT, you aren't going to do yourself any favors by bouncing around trying to pick the pieces up without seriously changing something with your approach. Study habits? Time management? Maturity?

I messed up my first 2 years of undergrad, was around a low 2.0 GPA. Finally one semester I just got fed up, probably was becoming depressed, and just decided to withdraw and stop the bleeding. Took a couple years off, worked in a non-health field, and just lived life. Then after some time I gave it a lot of thought and still decided that I wanted to become a physician (and ruled out any other career that'd possibly involve less headache and money/time involvement) and made the decision that I'd take the steps necessary to get there. So started back part time at local community college, got my AA, then transferred back to my University and finished my degree and did an extra year of just regular post-bacc type sciences to help the GPA a little, did well on the MCAT and it worked.

 

[Skymastre]

Why is medicine your dream, and what do you want out of a career? Is it to help people, feel satisfied at the end of the day in that you know you make a difference in lives? Is it for prestige, fortune and fame?

I echo the other posts in that it's good to have a dream, but some point along the way that dream has to be well definined. You may find that, when you think about it, there are other fields that would allow you to accomplish your goals.

Have you ever thought about public health?

 

[puchi]

I am in no position to tell people not to follow their dreams, if I listened to what people told me in terms of not to follow my dreams I would be 22 with 3 kids and working at the stop and shop. LOL.

Anywhoo, I think its best that you take a break from school and come back later in life. I've never taken physio but I can guess that its a wealth of info that just takes dedication to master (as for most pre-med/med classes). I am a member of the low GPA club and I know my reasons for getting those grades (lets say life-crisis), and I know that there are different reasons as to why people get low grades. For myself I had a lot of personal issues and could not handle school in general. However if you got an F in a med school class that raises concern as well. I say take a break, really think about it and then if you really want it... do the damn thing. Use the time to analyze your academic habits (it may be a real problem), or even your drive. Good luck to you.