What to do?

[tryin2suxede]

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I currently attend a state school in the Midwest and am thinking of transferring schools. I just started my second semester sophomore year, and am hoping to transfer to a few schools in the fall. I have started applications for a couple of schools, MSU, U-Wisconsin-Madison and UNC, which are not the cheapest schools on the block, but have extremely good programs. I, though, am having two problems with transferring and hope someone will help me here. But first (for anyone who is probably wondering) my reason for transferring:

My experience at this school has been completely dismal. I am a pre-med students with high aspirations to go to medical school, but am doubting how I will get accepted. At my current school, I have had bad experiences with both Pre-med advisors who have little to no idea of how to get their students into medical schools, and spend more time discouraging them rather than actually "advising" them. Many of the professors here also are very bad, and are more preoccupied with their research than actually teaching. Overall the administration seems to care more about their phD students and their honors students than their undergraduates, even to the extent that they are eliminating SI tutors for important classes. My chosen major (Anthropology) isn't well funded, either, so the program sucks. I want to go to a school that offers better programs. Another problem I am having is the commute to school, which takes about 40 minutes to 1 hour depending on the weather. Though this may sound weird to many people (my parents included) my bad experiences, as well as other very personal problems, contributed to me having an extremely bad GPA. In terms of good research opportunities, the college only offers them to "honors" students.

My GPA is not very competitive to transfer (3.1) and I am wondering how I can convince the colleges I am in that I am a good candidate for their school. My high school GPA was a 3.3, but I had good ACT score (32). Many of their applications don't ask for a personal statement, so is there any other way for me to prove I am "worthy"? Can I use the reasons above as an explanation? Or, should I forget about transferring, and stay here? I am active in campus activities, and have good volunteering.

Another problem is more personal. I want some tips to convince my parents to not only let me go to this school, but also pay for it (or at least a part of) As a transfer student, I am not expecting much aid, so it is difficult for me to go to these schools. One of the main reasons I went to this school was because my parents refused to pay for any other school, and taking loans is against my religious beliefs. At first, i thought that I could handle going to school here because it is cheap, but my experience convinced me that the money I am saving is not worth my sanity. Has anyone had this problem, and how did you solve it?

In conclusion (if you are still reading), does a bad experience like the one I had count as a good reason to transfer, and will my bad grades in this school affect my chances of medical school even if I did much better in another college? Feel free to criticize, or offer tips to help me fix this problem.

 

[Iliketoytles]

I'm going to do my best to be as helpful as possible... although, I don't have any personal experience with your situation.

Here's the thing... I can understand why you want to transfer... and I know it's easier for me to say than it is to do, but if I were you I'd just do my best to stick it out. Here's why:

1. If your parents are paying for your current school, you just need to stick with it. It's worth spending a couple more years just buckling down and getting through it, then facing financial issues in the future. Remember, once you're out of undergrad, you're OUT. If you have an opportunity to leave college, debt-free... then do it.

2. You're already involved on campus, so just continue what you do. People have gotten in with your GPA, and fortunately if you take a good MCAT prep class, you can still do fine despite how miserable your premed classes are and how little you may have learned in them. MCAT studying is mainly independent, so you'll be fine there if you study hard! 🙂

3. A lot of people have difficulty gathering transcripts and stuff from multiple schools if they transfer. This creates some problems when applying, in addition to figuring out which credits can transfer, and which one's can't. It's best to just stay at 1 university, have 1 transcript, and 1 set of classes. Hope that makes sense. Also, even if you do better in the new school that you transfer to, ALL your grades end up showing to medschools, since they will have BOTH of your transcripts. So again, you're better off just sticking it out at your current school.


I feel bad for you're bad experiences in undergrad... I was fortunate enough to LOVE my undergrad university, so I have a strong attachment to my teachers and science department. In your case, just simply do what you need to do to get into medical school. You're just in your sophomore year, so you still have time to study HARD and bring that GPA up. MCAT studying is independent, so you don't have to deal with your undergrad university there. Just get to know some of your professors so they can write you some decent LORs. And getting a physician LOR is independent of school as well, fortunately.

So just focus on raising your GPA, keeping up with your ECs on campus, and getting to know a couple teachers for LORs. Put your head down and try to tough it out.

That's my advice, anyway... hope it helps. Good luck man.