What should I do now?

[DerpBerry]

Hello all, glad I found this forum!

A little about my situation:

I attended undergraduate studies in 2006 and was not serious about school and I had been dismissed from the university due to my suffering grades. When I had been dismissed in 2008, I had around 80 hours with a 1.6 cumulative GPA. I recently returned to the same institution in Spring of 2013, and now my GPA stands at 2.0. I have been making decent grades since my return, but the problem is the 80 hours of bad grades that I have accumulated. This is no where close to being considered for any kind graduate school. I will probably graduate with around a 2.3. My school does not do grade replacements. I still want to get into medicine, what would you suggest I do? I was thinking about restarting everything from square 1 at another institution and stopping my studies at my current institution all together, would that be a feasible option? Completing my bachelors doesn't seem like a good idea. If I can transfer and start fresh, that would be ideal? I have no idea what or how I should approach this. I have scheduled a meeting with a health professions adviser, but that appointment is in 2 weeks. I was hoping some of you could share some words of wisdom with me or point me in the right direction.

Thank you in advance!

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[theseeker4]

Hello all, glad I found this forum!

A little about my situation:

I attended undergraduate studies in 2006 and was not serious about school and I had been dismissed from the university due to my suffering grades. When I had been dismissed in 2008, I had around 80 hours with a 1.6 cumulative GPA. I recently returned to the same institution in Spring of 2013, and now my GPA stands at 2.0. I have been making decent grades since my return, but the problem is the 80 hours of bad grades that I have accumulated. This is no where close to being considered for any kind graduate school. I will probably graduate with around a 2.3. My school does not do grade replacements. I still want to get into medicine, what would you suggest I do? I was thinking about restarting everything from square 1 at another institution and stopping my studies at my current institution all together, would that be a feasible option? Completing my bachelors doesn't seem like a good idea. If I can transfer and start fresh, that would be ideal? I have no idea what or how I should approach this. I have scheduled a meeting with a health professions adviser, but that appointment is in 2 weeks. I was hoping some of you could share some words of wisdom with me or point me in the right direction.

Thank you in advance!

Welcome to SDN! You have limited options based on what you stated above:

Move to Texas, establish residency, and work there until your old 1.6 GPA is 10 or more years old. Start from scratch and complete a bachelor's degree in anything you want, maintaining a 3.6+ GPA and getting all the pre-reqs in. Apply to med school taking advantage of Texas's Fresh start program that erases all grades over 10 years old. (look into it, you might be able to start your new Bachelors program before all the grades are 10 years old, as long as the old grades will be over 10 years old when you apply to med school, I am not sure what the policy is).

Outside of Texas, there is no such thing as starting fresh. DO schools offer grade replacement, which means if you re-take a course you took before, DO schools will only consider your most recent attempt for calculating GPA. MD schools weigh equally every class you ever took, regardless of what school it was taken at or how long ago, when calculating GPA. It doesn't matter what your undergraduate school does regarding replacing grades or how they calculate your GPA, and it doesn't matter that you transfer to a different school: you have to report every grade ever earned at any college or university, and they will all factor into your med school application GPA.

How do you define "decent" grades? If you are getting less than 4.0's, you are hurting yourself. It is impossible to truly come back from a 1.6 cGPA with 80 credit hours; the best you can do is to have a lot of recent high grades for med schools to see that your earlier grades, and your total GPA, is not indicative of your full potential. To do that, you need to show that you are in fact capable of performing as a true A student, whether you choose to go to Texas, or take advantage of DO grade replacement, or target MD schools that favor more recent grades. Good luck!

 

[deleted551990]

Hello all, glad I found this forum!

A little about my situation:

I attended undergraduate studies in 2006 and was not serious about school and I had been dismissed from the university due to my suffering grades. When I had been dismissed in 2008, I had around 80 hours with a 1.6 cumulative GPA. I recently returned to the same institution in Spring of 2013, and now my GPA stands at 2.0. I have been making decent grades since my return, but the problem is the 80 hours of bad grades that I have accumulated. This is no where close to being considered for any kind graduate school. I will probably graduate with around a 2.3. My school does not do grade replacements. I still want to get into medicine, what would you suggest I do? I was thinking about restarting everything from square 1 at another institution and stopping my studies at my current institution all together, would that be a feasible option? Completing my bachelors doesn't seem like a good idea. If I can transfer and start fresh, that would be ideal? I have no idea what or how I should approach this. I have scheduled a meeting with a health professions adviser, but that appointment is in 2 weeks. I was hoping some of you could share some words of wisdom with me or point me in the right direction.

Thank you in advance!

I was in a similar situation... Almost identical, actually.

There's no need to transfer schools or anything. When you apply to med school, they calculate your GPA using all of your credits ever attempted. Your bad grades will always be there. That's the bad news.

The good news is that you can still get in to med school. Your game plan should be to rock your courses from here on out, and show on your transcript that you are a good student-- thus distancing yourself from bad grades.

The poster above outlined the options you have. The advice I can offer is to own your mistakes, learn from them, and move on. Don't get bogged down and feel like you won't ever get in because you've ruined your chances. You haven't. You just have to go get the grades, just like everyone else who wants to go to med school. Your cumulative GPA will always suffer, just like mine did... but if you get the grades you'll be fine. I got multiple MD interviews with a 2.8 cumulative GPA, and interviews at every DO school I applied to.

Feel free to PM me with any questions, because I recently finished fighting this same battle. I am rooting for you!

 

[DerpBerry]

Welcome to SDN! You have limited options based on what you stated above:

Move to Texas, establish residency, and work there until your old 1.6 GPA is 10 or more years old. Start from scratch and complete a bachelor's degree in anything you want, maintaining a 3.6+ GPA and getting all the pre-reqs in. Apply to med school taking advantage of Texas's Fresh start program that erases all grades over 10 years old. (look into it, you might be able to start your new Bachelors program before all the grades are 10 years old, as long as the old grades will be over 10 years old when you apply to med school, I am not sure what the policy is).

Outside of Texas, there is no such thing as starting fresh. DO schools offer grade replacement, which means if you re-take a course you took before, DO schools will only consider your most recent attempt for calculating GPA. MD schools weigh equally every class you ever took, regardless of what school it was taken at or how long ago, when calculating GPA. It doesn't matter what your undergraduate school does regarding replacing grades or how they calculate your GPA, and it doesn't matter that you transfer to a different school: you have to report every grade ever earned at any college or university, and they will all factor into your med school application GPA.

How do you define "decent" grades? If you are getting less than 4.0's, you are hurting yourself. It is impossible to truly come back from a 1.6 cGPA with 80 credit hours; the best you can do is to have a lot of recent high grades for med schools to see that your earlier grades, and your total GPA, is not indicative of your full potential. To do that, you need to show that you are in fact capable of performing as a true A student, whether you choose to go to Texas, or take advantage of DO grade replacement, or target MD schools that favor more recent grades. Good luck!

I actually go to school in Texas. The problem with the academic fresh start is I'll have to wait another 4 years before I can do that, which I think I might have better options. I have about ~30 hours of F's from being young and stupid. I had a 3.2 the semester I came back (Spring 2013), and 3.5 in the Fall (2013). As of this semester, my grades are pretty bad. I might be looking at a 3.0 if I don't bust my ass and do really well on finals. I really felt hopeless about my situation until I got off my ass and started looking more into the situation. So glad I found this site!

I was in a similar situation... Almost identical, actually.

There's no need to transfer schools or anything. When you apply to med school, they calculate your GPA using all of your credits ever attempted. Your bad grades will always be there. That's the bad news.

The good news is that you can still get in to med school. Your game plan should be to rock your courses from here on out, and show on your transcript that you are a good student-- thus distancing yourself from bad grades.

The poster above outlined the options you have. The advice I can offer is to own your mistakes, learn from them, and move on. Don't get bogged down and feel like you won't ever get in because you've ruined your chances. You haven't. You just have to go get the grades, just like everyone else who wants to go to med school. Your cumulative GPA will always suffer, just like mine did... but if you get the grades you'll be fine. I got multiple MD interviews with a 2.8 cumulative GPA, and interviews at every DO school I applied to.

Feel free to PM me with any questions, because I recently finished fighting this same battle. I am rooting for you!

The reason I wanted to retake everything from ground zero is that I probably have to retake all the classes I got C/D/F's in. I feel like I am having trouble with upper division classes now because I don't have good foundations from my intro classes. Anyways, as I've mentioned as this rate my graduating GPA for my bachelors will be maybe 2.2 or 2.3. Would you suggest finishing and then doing another undergrad degree perhaps?

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

What have been your grades since you came back?

 

[jayoh]

I actually go to school in Texas. The problem with the academic fresh start is I'll have to wait another 4 years before I can do that, which I think I might have better options. I have about ~30 hours of F's from being young and stupid. I had a 3.2 the semester I came back (Spring 2013), and 3.5 in the Fall (2013). As of this semester, my grades are pretty bad. I might be looking at a 3.0 if I don't bust my ass and do really well on finals. I really felt hopeless about my situation until I got off my ass and started looking more into the situation. So glad I found this site!



The reason I wanted to retake everything from ground zero is that I probably have to retake all the classes I got C/D/F's in. I feel like I am having trouble with upper division classes now because I don't have good foundations from my intro classes. Anyways, as I've mentioned as this rate my graduating GPA for my bachelors will be maybe 2.2 or 2.3. Would you suggest finishing and then doing another undergrad degree perhaps?

I was in a similar situation too. I can definitely relate to feeling defeated before you begin, and I know it's easier said than done, but you have to stay positive. I think this was the hardest thing for me, to be honest. It was hard not to feel like I didn't even stand a chance. But as I kept getting good grades, I started believing that I could get in. Then after more good grades, and some good EC's, I knew I could get in. I know that in my mind, the DO grade replacement was a HUGE motivator. Because at the end of the day, you know that you can literally replace every bad grade if you have to. It allows for complete redemption from your past grades.

I think that you shouldn't worry about your cGPA yet, or worry about doing another bachelors yet. I would just focus on rocking your courses. Know that you can get in to med school, and start accumulating good grades. And by good grades, a 4.0 would be best to show that you've truly changed from your old ways. Once you have a couple of semesters of 3.8+, you know you're on the right track. Then you can start working on volunteering and shadowing. Become one of the many people who have turned their grades around and gotten themselves into med school. There are a lot of us.