I ruined my first freshman quarter at my university. I got two Cs in my classes, due to some issues. The week before finals testing, I got a call from home informing me that my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then during finals week itself, I was highly stressed out and while cramming, I overdosed on caffeine and had to have emergency services come to my dorm. After refusing to go into urgent care, I took my final exams for that day without having gotten any sleep in the past two days. The finals grades were 40 of the class grade, and I ended up getting two Cs in my classes for my first quarter of freshman year.
Afterwards I got extremely depressed and stressed out over winter break, and caught some digestive disorders and sleep problems, contemplated suicide…
Do I still have a chance at going to medical school? The five classes I took were multivariable calculus, a chemistry course, a computer coding course, psychology, and a writing course. I came into university with a lot of credits and after winter quarter I will be on Junior standing for undergraduate. I will be able to graduate from undergrad about midway through my sophomore year but I am disheartened by my GPA, I heard a 3.9-4.0 is required to enter medical school…
I have previously interned at UCLA’s plasma physics lab and am currently interning under a nobel prize winning professor.
For the current quarter, I am taking differential calculus, chemistry, physics, a biology lab, and a writing course.
I m sorry to hear about difficult things you have been through. I would talk to your pre med advisor/academic advisor, but if your mental state is still fragile, I would recommend taking a short break from the pre med sequence for this quarter, but I think it’s a a bad idea to take calc + chem + physics + bio lab- that would be a difficult course load for any pre med let alone for someone in a tough personal situation. You shouldn’t feel the pressure to take those courses because everyone else in your school is taking the same sequence and esp since you will need to do better to compensate for Cs. But as long as you do well from now on, you will have a good chance of getting in since you are still very early in the process. And you definitely do not need 3.9-4.0 to get into med school…more like 3.7, it could be lower if you do really well on the mcat. Also right now your gpa looks really bad because you only have 1 quarter worth of grades, but your bad gpa will “dilute” down with a pool of grades throughout 4 years of college so don’t worry yet.
You said you have a lot of AP credits, try to cut yourself some slack, you don’t have to be in a race.
I agree, three science classes is too much.
Find out if you can do a less stressful course load and get some help with stress coping strategies from the student counseling center, these people are there to help you.
<<<<
came into university with a lot of credits and after winter quarter I will be on Junior standing for undergraduate. I will be able to graduate from undergrad about midway through my sophomore year but I am disheartened by my GPA, I heard a 3.9-4.0 is required to enter medical school…
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
Well, obviously you shouldn’t try to graduate next year, and maybe not the next year either. You’re in Calif where the med school competition is the toughest in the country. You do need a high GPA simply because of competition.
However, all is not lost. Which classes did you get the C’s in? What were your other grades?
This is not a race. Even if you had done well this quarter, med schools don’t usually like it when students graduate early. Now that you have these C’s to dilute, you need to plan on staying the full four years.
Was your family expecting you to graduate early because of money?
I’m sorry to hear about your mom’s cancer. You might want to mention to them that hearing bad news around finals or tests affects your outcomes, so could they please wait until afterwards to relay sad news, if possible.
Yet again, another freshman pre-med takes too many demanding classes in his/her freshman year, despite a boatload of AP credits, and when life interferes, ends up with a lower GPA than they wanted/needed. Why are you taking so many tough classes last quarter and then again, this quarter? Why are you interning in a lab during your freshman year when you have a killer course load? Unlike in high school, there is absolutely no prize for taking the hardest load available in college plus demanding ECs - on the contrary, if you have two tough classes, the rest should be classes that you are pretty certain you can do well in without having to stress. You don’t need to do research in your freshman year either. (S did ALL his research and medical volunteering over the summers and still got into 7 medical schools before he pulled his apps from the rest…)
As others have said, you need to be on the 4 years to graduate plan so you have time to get that GPA back up to 3.7 or higher. You need to cut back on the research ECs until your GPA is back on track. I’m very sorry about your mom - her diagnosis was a tough break for her and for you- and things are probably going to get tougher while she goes through treatment so you need to cut yourself some slack here so you don’t end up wiped out again. It does not serve you well to pretend that nothing has changed in your life from high school so make some realistic adjustments. Talk to your advisor about this and slow down!
1° Plan to stay all 4 years before you apply to med school. First, med schools really don’t like students who graduate early and second now you need to dilute those C’s.
2° When offered emergency hospital, say YES. What exactly did you think would happen? That they’d give you a medal for thinking you could do well with 2 days without sleep? This is pretty typical for teenagers, don’t worry, but DO NOT DO IT AGAIN. When you’re in bad shape and have emergency services called on your behalf, accept their help. ALL professors will offer a make up exam if you have a note from the hospital/emergency room.
3° Alter your current schedule.
"For the current quarter, I am taking differential calculus, chemistry, physics, a biology lab, and a writing course. "
Keep Calculus, Writing, Biology Lab, and take either Physics or Chemistry. If you need more credits, take a “gut”/“fun” class, one that’s known to be easy. (Med schools don’t know and don’t care about specific class reputations. They do want to see you’re able to balance your schedue.)
You’ve received some very helpful responses above. If it helps S finished first year of college with GPAs below 3.2 and is now a third year resident. So you absolutely still have a chance. Good luck.
New poster, one post. I would suggest OP work with his advisor to learn his standing and support. Graduate half way through soph year? And think you have a college record to show med schools? Not to mention, committee support? Something is off here.
I agree with lookingforward…what major are you able to complete in three semesters / six quarters along with premed reqs?