Worried about undergrad

[young2sj]

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Hello everyone.
I've been feeling stuck and disheartened recently due to my current GPA/status in my undergrad, and was hoping for some advice.

I am a biology major and about to finish my third quarter of my freshman year at the University of Cincinnati. My first quarter, which began in the summer, started off great, and ended up with a 3.9 cGPA. When the fall quarter began, it was tougher than I had anticipated. I never really had to study much in high school and my summer quarter classes were cake, so I was feeling very confident going into my fall quarter classes. well, one thing led to another and I ended up with a 1.7 quarter gpa, dragging my cGPA to around 2.4. The material itself wasn't too difficult, but I never took the time to actually learn the material.

after attending multiple tutoring and academic help sessions, i'm feeling better about what my winter quarter grades will be (providing I do well on finals next week.)

Since its still early in my college career, I know I can bring it up to a decent GPA, but will medical schools look down on me because I didn't do well in my freshman bio/chem courses?

 

[enTropeeeeeeeee]

Hello everyone.
I've been feeling stuck and disheartened recently due to my current GPA/status in my undergrad, and was hoping for some advice.

I am a biology major and about to finish my third quarter of my freshman year at the University of Cincinnati. My first quarter, which began in the summer, started off great, and ended up with a 3.9 cGPA. When the fall quarter began, it was tougher than I had anticipated. I never really had to study much in high school and my summer quarter classes were cake, so I was feeling very confident going into my fall quarter classes. well, one thing led to another and I ended up with a 1.7 quarter gpa, dragging my cGPA to around 2.4. The material itself wasn't too difficult, but I never took the time to actually learn the material.

after attending multiple tutoring and academic help sessions, i'm feeling better about what my winter quarter grades will be (providing I do well on finals next week.)

Since its still early in my college career, I know I can bring it up to a decent GPA, but will medical schools look down on me because I didn't do well in my freshman bio/chem courses?

When I try to imagine the application process, I take a couple different approaches. (1) The objective perspective is that there will always been students with higher GPAs than you, unless you have a 4.0. Even if that's the case, there will always be students from more prestigious schools. If you think you're good, there's always someone better. In your situation, you'll be competing with students that had high marks when you didn't. To tangentially answer your question...yes med schools will have many applicants in similar situations, but with better grades. (2) However, from my experiences as a pre-med, as a person, and a member of society, it would seem that admission into med school is not just a numbers game. Not to minimize the importance of numbers, but it is literally not everything. In my mind, it only makes sense that ADCOMs will take into account other variables. Upward trends, MCAT scores, ECs, interviews, etc. If you drop the attitude you have from high school (which as gone and passed), and do everything you can do start estabishing that upward trend...I think you'll still be okay.

But then again, I've never applied to med school before so I could be talking nonsense!

 

[Barcu]

An upward trend is your friend in the admissions game.

Struggling at first sucks because your cumulative gpa is what med schools see first.

However, gpa in AMCAS is broken down by year, so med schools will also see that your gpa was dragged down due to a bad first year.

Don't give up. Figure out what you are doing wrong, fix it, and then profit.

 

[ShayanMoosa]

This will hurt a bit, but med schools understand that students can have difficulties during certain semesters. If you do well from now on, this will show that you were able to adapt and overcome adversity. If you performed very poorly in your premed requirements, I would consider retaking those classes if you can.

 

[Torr]

an upward trend is your friend in the admissions game.

Struggling at first sucks because your cumulative gpa is what med schools see first.

However, gpa in amcas is broken down by year, so med schools will also see that your gpa was dragged down due to a bad first year.

Don't give up. Figure out what you are doing wrong, fix it, and then profit.

+1

 

[young2sj]

Thank you all for the replies, I appreciate the helpful comments.

What kind of grades should I be reaching for, bare minimum? I know A's are ideal, but I keep reading about people who are dropping classes left and right if they might get a B or C. I'm worried that If I don't get really amazing grades from here on out, i'll just keep taking steps backward instead of forward and med school will eventually be out of the question.

I've also expressed this concern to my advisor and pre-professional advisor, but all they keep saying is "everyone is different when it comes to school" and "you just have to stick with it and get it over with." its frustrating.

 

[Torr]

What kind of grades should I be reaching for, bare minimum? I know A's are ideal, but I keep reading about people who are dropping classes left and right if they might get a B or C. I'm worried that If I don't get really amazing grades from here on out, i'll just keep taking steps backward instead of forward and med school will eventually be out of the question.

First of all you don't want to be "dropping classes left and right" because lots of W's on your transcript look bad. Dropping 1 class is fine.

As you said, you should be aiming for A's and you need to avoid C's. The best thing to do if you're struggling in a class is to either find a tutor or go to office hours and ask questions.

Don't be a pessimist. Just aim high and work hard.

 

[fullset]

One semester of bad grade isn't going to hurt...think about it if it was all just numbers, people in the adm office can just make an excel sheet and sort in a descending order and accept the top 200. That would probably take 2 days at most, but no, the freakin' admission process lasts ~12 months, so obviously numbers is not the most important thing, but fairly important.

 

[rhcarolina]

i had a dismal freshman year. my first semester grades got me so discouraged, i did even worse the second semester, particularly in science courses--a slew of c's. taking a few more humanities and focusing less on completing a science major early helped me do considerably better the following years of undergrad. and keep in mind that you do not need to be a biology major to be premed--you should major in what you enjoy.

 

[Sesom]

I think that it is all about what you got out of your experiences. You can have mundane experiences that you learned a lot from or spectacular ones that you came away without much. The numbers to me are kind of a cut off. For example, they probably have a system where under 3.5 is usually an automatic throw away app. So keep the GPA up!

 

[ClandestineStar]

This will hurt a bit, but med schools understand that students can have difficulties during certain semesters. If you do well from now on, this will show that you were able to adapt and overcome adversity. If you performed very poorly in your premed requirements, I would consider retaking those classes if you can.

👍

 

[sgtbrushes]

Many students overcome a year of bad grades. You have less than that - you have less than a semester - a mere quarter of bad grades. You definitely need to avoid the sub-2 GPAs. Strive for a 3.5-3.75 each quarter. It is far, far better to take your time in undergrad (or take a course or two in the summers), than try to graduate in 3- 3.5 years and hurt yourself.

You haven't hurt your chances much, if at all, as long as you learn from your mistake.

 

[SoyRicoSuave]

Nice thing is that it is a quarter not a semester, which means you can boost it pretty fast, and hopefully most the classes were non-science, so your sGPA can still be high.

I did bad my 1st quarter of college and read my signature 🙂

 

[JustMeditate]

Luckily for you, a lot of freshmen have the same problem their first year. They got straight A's in high school with almost no effort and learn that not only is college more difficult---less HW to cushion your grade, more concepts to learn, actual critical thinking skills required, etc.---but you actually have to wok at it 😱, in part because some professors just can't teach and in part because you can no longer get away with a half-ass understanding during tests. So, med schools typically give less weight to poor grades gained during the first semester, as long as you learn your lesson and get your act together.

That being said, you still need to prove to adcoms that you can handle a science heavy, med school curriculum. That means retaking any science courses you got C's/D's/F's in and getting A's OR taking upper level sciences and getting A's. You'll also have to do really well from now on to bring that 2.4 up. You'll need a minimum of 3.0 to be considered, a 3.5 to be in the acceptable/average range, and a 3.7 or higher to be competitive. It isn't over yet, not by a long shot, but you've pretty much wasted all your "get out of jail free" cards during freshman year. You need mostly A's from now on, but don't drop a course over a B. B's are okay too. C's not so much. So be super careful not to overload on courses...better to take a small course load and do well than a heavy course load and just do okay. At the first sign of trouble, work out a study schedule and start visiting your prof's office hours each week (Way better than tutors in my opinion).

 

[Ignatius M.D.]

Reminds me of the valedictorians that then attend my school and start out freshman year with 15 credits and 3 pre-med classes. They look like they are going to have a breakdown by about 2 months into the semester. College is much different. High schools give way too much credit for hw and busy work, and I knew not-so-stellar students that had a 4.0 nevertheless. Make sure to perfect your study habits. It sounds like you have plenty of potential, and I would simply work hard & smart, and stay confident. I had a dip in GPA after getting 3.75 & 4.0, so I know how it goes. Almost no admissions committee looks "blindly" at your GPA. They are more than willing to take the circumstances into account, and if you learned and improved most will have no qualms accepting you granted your other attributes fit what they desire. I'd also recommend taking 2 classes each summer (one each session) and acing those to help bump your GPA up. Also, take one pre-req at a time if you have to. Who cares if it takes an extra semester or two to finish the pre-reqs if your app looks great? I'm just helping you to learn from MY mistakes. Good luck!