I’m currently a sophomore in high school and hope to study pre-med for my undergraduate. My goal is to eventually go into emergency medicine.
The thing is, last year (freshman year) I had a tough time adjusting and a really, really terrible math teacher who essentially taught me nothing and his teaching style definitely did not fit my learning style at all. I got a C- in his class first semester (68.9%) and a few B’s and A’s in the rest of my classes. My overall GPA for that semester was a 4.1 weighted. The second semester I did even worse and got a D in his class (42%, but he rounded up) and A’s in the rest of my classes. I really struggled with my mental health last year due to pressure from my peers and family and whatnot, but towards the end of the semester I really made an effort in my classes and managed to get A’s in all but math. Keep in mind that this math class was typically for advanced sophomores and juniors, and I chose to take this class my freshman year, a year earlier than others who are on track to be IB diploma candidates. My overall weighted GPA for freshman year was a 4.2 weighted or so, 3.5 unweighted.
The first semester of sophomore year I got a 4.7 weighted GPA and an A in math, AP Calc AB. I got a B (87.9%) in Chemistry 1 and an 83.5% in AP US History (but this teacher has a really hard class and B’s and C’s are pretty typical in her class), and an A in the rest of my classes.
I think that my grades don’t really represent my abilities as a student because of what happened freshman year, but I’m worried that I may not be able to get into some of the colleges I want to because of this.
I’m pretty active in my community- I volunteer at a local hospital and am in my school’s National Honor Society. I’ve been playing violin for 12 years and have participated in many youth orchestras and have traveled various places to play concerts for charity, as well as playing at national music associations. I also plan to take the SAT II Math subject test this spring and took the PSAT both this and last year (1490 on the new one), as well as the ACT in 8th grade (29 composite, but keep in mind I was in 8th grade, and I plan to take it again and score higher). I’m also taking a math class online (precalc) that is a placeholder for the math class I failed freshman year. I’m on track to be an IB Diploma Candidate and throughout my high school career, have only taken Pre-IB level or AP level classes.
I’d love to apply to schools like Berkeley, Northwestern, and maybe Oxford University, but don’t know if my past grades will make this impossible.
Theres nothing strange about this situation lots of kids get screwed over by hard classes and what not.
Also, you are a sophomore so there is still plenty of time to raise your grades. You only have 3 semesters of grades + you don’t have any test scores theres no way to really gauge into if you are going to get into these colleges.
Oh and Oxford University has different tests/interviews from private colleges here so if you are serious about it search it up cause I think they have different tests you have to take any what not.
If you are serious about medical school, you want an undergraduate school where you are in the top 25% of admitted students, b/c what matters (waaaaay more than the name) is your GPA in the very courses that you are struggling with now. As others on this forum will tell you, ‘pre-med’ is just a group of classes that you have to have taken in order to get into medical school, but it is not (normally) a major in itself.
As for Oxford, you apply with APs/SAT subject tests and SAT, plus (for most courses) a subject specific course. At Oxford you would apply to study one subject, and that is all you would study. It is extremely intense, and based just on what you have posted I would not think it an obvious fit for you. Plus, getting in to a US medical school from the UK is very very challenging.
I attended an admissions info session at UC Berkeley and it was explained that their university ignores 9th grade - they expressed that it is an adjustment year.
California UC’s only consider 10-11th grades in the a-g UC course requirements. Freshman grades are not included in the UC GPA calculation but still need passing grades to fulfill the a-g course requirements. Senior grades are used to maintain your provisional admission. All grades are looked at from 9-11th, just not included in the GPA.
The UK medical school system is quite different than the US. In the UK you apply directly after high school. In the US you first need a bachelors degree.
Oxford medicine is quite competitive. Only a handful of internationals are accepted each year.
Just keep working hard and try to show your math skills are much better than he grade you got: by either scoring high on the SAT math or the AP exam.
However as you probably guessed this is the least of your worries. You need to do a lot else to impress the adcoms as premed is quite popular.
Hi I have a question but this post makes me extremely worried. I am a freshman in hs and I got my reportcard and I have a 3.85 so it comes out to about 4.1 I would guess. My principal never told us wether or not that was a weighted or unweighted grade so now I’m worried. This quarter I had all A’s and Two B’s so I just want to know wether that 3.85 was weighted or unweighted
How does a 4.2 come out to a 3.5 this concerns me about my grades
Ugh! I’m scared