Hi, I’m in need of some guidance here please
I have recieved an academic suspension after my first year of undergrad. I know what I did wrong and I know that I can change and raise my GPA and academic standing. However, I dont know how much having an academic suspension on my transcript will affect me. I would still like to pursue my goal and go to med school however, I dont know if that will even be possible. If I’m able to raise my gpa to at least a 3.4, and do decently well on the MCAT’s, what are the chances that I can get into med school? Is that going to be enough to show that I won’t fall back to my old habits?
An academic suspension is a strike against you. But a lot will depend on whether or not you can change your bad habits successfully starting this September. That may not be as easy as you may think without help.
If you have an academic suspension then it would seem your GPA is under 2.0?
I am not sure it is the suspension itself or the low grades that will do you in.
To get a 3.4, you would have to get all A’s, I assume.
How are you going to be able to do that? You have not been doing well …what will change?
Have you looked in to DO medical schools instead of MD? What you can do with them is grade replacement. So if you got a D in Biology, and take it again and get a B, then the B is what is counted in your GPA.
But what you should worry about is:
- Why did you get poor grades?
- What classes did you do well in?
- What classes did you not do well in?
- Did you change your behavior between semesters? Did you do better second semester?
- What do you have to do to get out of academic suspension? Is it possible?
- Have you talked to your Dean of Students about what to do?
For example, can you take classes at a Community College for a semester/year and then reapply or apply somewhere else?
In general, here are things you should be doing:
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GO TO CLASS
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Make sure you read the chapters /do the homework.
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Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester. Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
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If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
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Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
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Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
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Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
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If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
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Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
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Withdraw from a class (probably too late now) and focus on classes that you can do well in (while staying full time) if things are going badly
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Drop other activities that are not academic
Just to clarify: academic suspension means you’ve gotten in trouble for having really bad grades, or it means you’ve gotten in trouble for an academic violation like cheating? I always thought the former was called academic probation?
@iwannabe_Brown I think academic suspension happens if grades aren’t pulled up after the student is put on academic probation.
I’m sure there are people that have applied after an academic suspension, especially if they use the time productively and can show an upward trend in grades after that. Since it’s your first year, I’d more likely equate that with a rough transition to college than something that one can “relapse” into.
I’d take bopper’s advice and look into DO; getting a 4.0 every semester is possible but very difficult and not guaranteed.