Screwed up my life, I need to recover.

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Ive messed up pretty bad, but this year has been the worst by far. I transferred to a new school with a lowly 2.8 GPA BEFORE this year. Last semester I took 6 classes, failed 3 and dropped 1 one of them. My GPA now is around a 2.4 and I have one year of school left in addition to this semester.</p>

<p>The worst part about my failure was that I can only blame myself. I was depressed, I have a history of depression and resorted to drug abuse in order to deal with my problem. Last semester has proven that I am a failure, and I have accepted that.</p>

<p>However I don’t want to give up on med school. I just can’t. I don’t know why. I know its going to take me longer than others and I am ok with that. At this point what steps can I take to recover from this? I welcome long term and short term suggestions. If you are going to say that I should give up on med school, well then I would have never posted on here in the first place.</p>

2

<p>I think your first priority should be figuring out how to cope with your depression and feelings of failure. I imagine it would be really tough to do a 180 with school if you haven’t determined how to avoid failing again in the future and how to better manage your stress and depression.</p>

<p>Otherwise, there’s really no simple or short answer. To be considered for a spot in medical school, you have to hit a set of minimum academic stats–probably to the tune of >3.6 and >30 on the MCAT (or whatever the equivalent is on the new 2015 scoring). To raise your GPA, you need to take a bunch of classes and you need to do really well (>A) in them. This will be very resource (time, money, energy) intensive. </p>

<p>You need to do great on the MCAT. You will need to study extensively (for at least a few months) and dedicate a nice portion of your academic energy to MCAT and MCAT prep. This will also be very resource intensive, but probably not as much as raising your GPA.</p>

<p>You need to cultivate a wide range of high quality extra curricular activities. You should shoot for covering a range of the following: research (bench and/or clinical), shadowing (both a broad range of specialties and a lot of time spent with one doc to really get to know him/her), clinical experience (although you can get a lot of this while shadowing an doing clinical research), volunteer work (something you’re passionate about), and hobbies (to show that you’re more than just a drone who does school). Leadership experience and employment would be great too, if possible.</p>

<p>You’ll need to form deep and meaningful relationships with professors and mentors who can attest to your character and your dedication to a career in medicine so they can write stellar recommendation letters for you.</p>

<p>Ideally, there will be an underlying theme to the work that you do, which not only resonates with you personally but also sets you up for professional success as a physician. You should be able to communicate this passion and drive–both written and verbally–superbly.</p>

<p>Once you’ve accomplished the majority of the above, then you’ll need to dedicate about another year to actually applying–researching schools, crafting a list, applying, completing secondaries, attending interviews, etc. Another huge investment of your resources.</p>

<p>Take home point: applying to medical school is a huge investment of your resources, which include time, energy, and money. It is a commendable goal, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right path for everyone. While you’re exploring whether medicine is for you (which you should be able to do by completing the above), you should also have a critical eye toward medicine and seriously consider alternative careers (if, for no other reason, than it will give you peace of mind that you chose the right thing). </p>

<p>I wholeheartedly believe that if you can accomplish most of what I just wrote, you’ll have an MD behind your name at some point in the future. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the response. My career is a physician. </p>

<p>I already have a lot of research experience including one publication</p>

<p>I have some shadowing experience but could improve on this area</p>

<p>I have done some international volunteer work</p>

<p>I have done medically related ECs already and am planning on doing more. </p>

<p>The deep and meaningful relationships with my profs can be built when I do well in their classes which is the biggest dilemma for me.</p>

<p>I have 1.5 years of school left (My UG is 5 years instead of 4 because I transferred to a new school) and even if I KILL it and show a MASSIVE upward trend, its not going to be nearly enough, which begs the question as to what I can do after I have finished my undergrad to boost my GPA?</p>

<p>How long will this take and what will the cost be?</p>

4

<p>You’ll likely need to enroll in a grade enhancing post-bacc program. These generally are master’s level programs in fields like biomedical science or physiology or something similar.</p>

<p>AAMC has searchable database of these types of programs here:</p>

<p>[Postbaccalaureate</a> Premedical Programs - Search](<a href=“http://services.aamc.org/postbac/]Postbaccalaureate”>http://services.aamc.org/postbac/)</p>

<p>Most require a minimum GPA of 3.0 to be considered for acceptance. Some also require a MCAT, DAT, PCAT or GRE. Time in the program varies from 9 months (full time) to 2 years (full time). Some programs are more successful than others. Before enrolling in a post-bacc, check the program’s success rate. (How many applied to med school. How many were accepted.)</p>

<p>Costs will depend on if you choose a public or a private university. Tuition costs start at around $10,000/9 months and go up. Available FA is likely to be unsub federal loans only.</p>

5

<p>If you get all A’s from now on and have more years in UG, then have awesome MCAT score and various EC’s just as other applicants, it shoudl do. However, you have to have very cut in stone plan for getting all of this accomplished as it will require completely different attitude, including forgetting about you ever been depressed and abusing drugs. That have to be left behind and never mentioned ever in your life. Only you can asses if you can do it. I am 100% sure that 1.5 years is NOT enough for that plan, maybe min. of 3 years or longer??? 1.5 years is simply not enough mathematically to reasonably correct your GPA. You need to show all A’s for at least 3+ years, IMO.
Do not get discouraged, just try it, it is hard work but all successful Med. School applicants are very hard workers, no exception, just join the crowd.</p>

6

<p>If you have not already done so, your first priority should to be to get professional help for your depression. Have you had a proper mental health evaluation? Many mental health issues can can be controlled with the proper medications. My be you have other issues like ADD that you are not aware of. The issues should be sorted out before you go back to school. Once these issues have been sorted out, you may consider just going to a foreign school after finishing college. This is not ideal, but better than not being a doctor at all. Once you are out in practice, you will be judged by how well you take care of your patients, not what med school you went to.</p>

7

<p>Im not going to a foreign school. My goal is a US MD school.</p>

<p>Just to reiterate on how badly I’ve messed up my life.</p>

<p>I spent three years of college at a uni in NY, then I transferred to a diff uni b/c I was unhappy at my old school and wanted a change in environment. I had a 2.7 GPA BEFORE transferring. I absolutely BOMBED my first semester at my new uni. I FAILED three classes and dropped out of one. My GPA now is a 2.45 after 3.5 years of college. This semester doesn’t seem to be that much of an improvement.</p>

<p>I have one more year of uni left, and I know that even if I magically manage to ace everything that its not going to matter. At this point what is the best course of action? Im a bio major, I’ve already taken all the pre-reqs so most post-bacs won’t even accept me. </p>

<p>How do I fix this?</p>

8

<p>The first thing you must do, no matter what your ultimate goal, is get that depression diagnosed and treated so it is not interfering with your ability to learn & participate. Depression is insidious and it seeps away your motivation on a daily basis, this is exactly what cannot happen both for the initial process of qualifying for med school, but also for the ‘drinking from a fire hose’ experience which is med school and then residency.
If you did poorly on your first few years (and flunking a term means none of those classes count, as a matter of fact any class in which you have a C- or lower does not count for med school) then it is of paramount importance that you figure out the solution before proceeding.</p>

<p>Can you take a medical leave from your school? When you later return to school you essentially need all As, you need to be ready to attack every single class. I have seen students remediate their bad transcript and be successful in grad schools via this type of history and stellar ECs, but I don’t know about medical school.</p>

<p>I think the important thing is that there is a line drawn, everything before the line is the bad stuff, everything after the line needs to be good. Don’t rush it, because once you cross that self-drawn line, it really better be all good to prove that you had a problem and you solved it. Don’t get caught up in the idea that you need to keep going straight through, it’s better to take a break and get yourself together. Do not rush the return, make sure you are ready. You might even try a summer class retake of one of your bad grades to see how you do before you jump into the full time term.</p>

9

<p>You will need to first get healthy. </p>

<p>Then you will need to raise your gpa to a 3+. That will require a couple of years of additional undergrad coursework (do the math), preferably as many upper division science courses as you can. Perhaps a 5th year at your current school, or apply as a special (adult) student to your instate public Uni? (Start out with one or two science courses per term, earn A’s, and then add more in later semesters.) Allopathic med schools will average all grades, but Osteopathic med schools will allow grade replacement. Thus, retake any course in which you earned a C; otherwise, your mastery of the material is probably not strong enough for the mcat.</p>

<p>Then you will need to apply to a Special Masters (SMP) program, and finish in the top xx of that class to have a shot at a US med school. </p>

<p>It will be a long, and expensive road against long odds. Good luck.</p>

10

<p>No one has mentioned getting help for your drug problem? Your depression is probably a result or at least greatly enhanced by your drug problem. That is the issue that needs to be addressed FIRST. All the other advice in this thread is useless until you get help with that. You won’t achieve anything until yo learn how to stop turning to drugs to (albeit unsuccessfully) manage your feelings. Ask your parents or school health counselors about treatment centers. If you cannot afford that then go to many Narcotics Anonymous or AA meetings. </p>

<p>Those issues you think will be there whether using or clean, successfull of failing will largely be resolved through recovery… Even if you don’t believe they will be.</p>

11

<p>I have one more year of undergrad left (5 years in total) and I’m sure that even if I ace everything my GPA won’t be at the 3.0 mark. </p>

<p>I just can’t stop hating myself for completely ruining my life even though I know that I shouldn’t think that way. Its hard to forgive yourself when you’ve made bad decisions. I should have been better than this. Much better.</p>

<p>Is there anything that I can do to become a doctor?</p>

12

<p>Are you trolling? You have this forums top minds (and best helpers) telling you what you could do to fix your mistakes and you keep repeating your question instead of going out and doing what is necessary.</p>

13

<p>Unless you are fishing for the answer “No, you can’t do anything to become a doctor,” I don’t see why you keep asking. This forum won’t give you that answer though because there are plenty of alternatives</p>

14

<p>DivZero,</p>

<p>Multiple people mentioned getting help for his depression.</p>

<p>I also want to say that I think Kristin may have written the best description of what it takes to be a successful MD applicant that I have seen on this website.</p>

15

<p>I know people gave me advice:</p>

<p>Get help for my depression and drug problem. Thanks, I am getting help.</p>

<p>What course of action can I take to get into a US MD school?</p>

<p>I have 1 more year of undergrad left. What should I do afterwards? I have no idea what the steps are to fix this:</p>

<p>Should I try to ace my last year and see if I can be competitive for a masters program?</p>

<p>Will I be eligible for any postbacs given my current gpa?</p>

<p>What the frack do I do? Apply to Burger King?</p>

16

<p>@AlongWay: There has been quite a lot of wonderful advice given to you as to what you can do now. Reread all the posts more carefully this time.</p>

17

<p>^ I did. The advice was pretty much extend my undergrad for another 3 years. Thanks, but I don’t want to be in undergrad forever. Nor is that financially plausible for me.</p>

<p>As for Post-bac programs, I know I need a 3.0 GPA but I only have one more year of UG left so I don’t how this is possible. Can I still be eligible to a post bac program?</p>

<p>If not then what else can I do to make this work?</p>

18

<p>In order for you to improve your GPA you need more classes of A’s.</p>

<p>That is the ONLY way mathematically you can improve your GPA.</p>

<p>I cannot see any other way to raise your GPA. More classes, with better grades, whether that is as an undergrad or post-bac. Your choice.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

19

<p>You can graduate, find a job and go to work. (It needn’t be a medically or research related job. Just something to pay rent, put groceries on the table and make minimum payments on any student loans you hold.) While working, continue with volunteering in both medically-related and community service programs.</p>

<p>In a couple of years (when there’s some distance from your current poor grades), take some coursework (full or part-time, depending on how finances look) at your nearest college/university. Once you have 4 or so courses with strong grades–then apply to post-bacc programs, writing a strong, convincing personal statement about your journey.</p>

<p>In my D1’s entering med school class, there are students aged from 22 to 47. (Last year there was a 52 year old MS1.) It really doesn’t matter if you are the oldest or the youngest student in your MS1 class. In the end, you will be a doctor. If you truly feel called to be a doctor, then another year or 3 or 5 isn’t going to matter.</p>

<p>Remember the goal is the career.</p>

20

<p>Exactly what WayOutWestMom said. If you truly want to become a doctor, a couple more years shouldn’t be a huge deal. Remember, you will need extreme motivation and passion to even get through medical school. If you truly have what it takes to get through Medical school, you can go for a couple more years of school.</p>

<p>WayOutWestMom also gave you a plausible plan on how to get back on your feet and make paying for more UG years reasonable. Get a job and try to expand your extracurriculars during that time.</p>

<p>You will actually have a VERY nice chance if you do this. You have a super interesting topic for your personal statement about your long struggles and your achievements despite your hardships. With all those extra years, you have SO MANY opportunities to volunteer, shadow, research. </p>

<p>This won’t be an easy road, though. But if you really want to become a doctor, it’s definitely doable. I wish you the best of luck.</p>