Do I stand a chance?

[DanielContreras]

So to start off, my highschool GPA was horrendous. Quite frankly I had no intention to go into post secondary after highschool and generally had no interest in school; I hardly graduated. Upon doing some upgrading i got into university but my plan was software engineering. During the first year I did pretty bad because i brought my study habits from the past with me. I ended dropping out for roughly 4 years and came out with a 1.6 GPA, two F's and a few withdrawals.

Fast forward to now.. I'm at a university taking some courses to get myself back into my university of choice. So far things have been great and my GPA is climbing. Excluding my screw ups from my first year my GPA would be at a 3.9. However, my concern lies with a few things.. first off i have never done any volunteering, research, and generally haven't done any Sciences since high school, which was 6 years ago now.

In those couple of years I've been away from school i have been working in an optometry clinic and have seriously fallen in love with the industry. However, I am more interested in Opthalmology compared to optometry; this takes me to the route of medical school. Given my new found passion and inclination to do better than i ever have regarding my education i don't doubt I can graduate with top marks, however i feel that my past deeply hurts my chances at medical school.

What should i be doing to work towards my end goal? Is it even possible with my past records of education? Would switching my major from a Bsc in computer science to something else benefit me more than my current route?

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[giguerex35]

Not an expert but saw nobody had commented. What is your overall gpa and sgpa? Also have you taken the mcat? You're doing well with the 3.9 and a big part is showing that you now has grown up from the 1.6 kid. No your chances are not dead but you gotta work at it.

 

[giguerex35]

So to start off, my highschool GPA was horrendous. Quite frankly I had no intention to go into post secondary after highschool and generally had no interest in school; I hardly graduated. Upon doing some upgrading i got into university but my plan was software engineering. During the first year I did pretty bad because i brought my study habits from the past with me. I ended dropping out for roughly 4 years and came out with a 1.6 GPA, two F's and a few withdrawals.

Fast forward to now.. I'm at a university taking some courses to get myself back into my university of choice. So far things have been great and my GPA is climbing. Excluding my screw ups from my first year my GPA would be at a 3.9. However, my concern lies with a few things.. first off i have never done any volunteering, research, and generally haven't done any Sciences since high school, which was 6 years ago now.

In those couple of years I've been away from school i have been working in an optometry clinic and have seriously fallen in love with the industry. However, I am more interested in Opthalmology compared to optometry; this takes me to the route of medical school. Given my new found passion and inclination to do better than i ever have regarding my education i don't doubt I can graduate with top marks, however i feel that my past deeply hurts my chances at medical school.

What should i be doing to work towards my end goal? Is it even possible with my past records of education? Would switching my major from a Bsc in computer science to something else benefit me more than my current route?

Also nobody cares about high school

 

[DanielContreras]

Thank you for your response.

I have not taken the mcat nor have I done any volunteering or research. Essentially I'm attempting to start over again and only have a total of 6 courses taken over the last year (a winter semester and a summer semester). The overall GPA so far when you take everything into account is a 2.45 but it is climbing. It'll be very hard to finish with a stellar overall GPA considering my F's from before. But I do hope they notice the trend of my GPA increasing. My SGPA at the moment i suppose is only comprised of 3(?) math courses which are requirements through seng. So I suppose my SGPA is around 3.85 roughly.

I guess my concern is my screw-ups from my first year. I only ever hear of people with stellar grades and a ton of volunteering/research get into medical school. I don't know how much of either of those I can reasonably do before medical school. Maybe I'm just doubting myself overall.

 

[giguerex35]

Thank you for your response.

I have not taken the mcat nor have I done any volunteering or research. Essentially I'm attempting to start over again and only have a total of 6 courses taken over the last year (a winter semester and a summer semester). The overall GPA so far when you take everything into account is a 2.45 but it is climbing. It'll be very hard to finish with a stellar overall GPA considering my F's from before. But I do hope they notice the trend of my GPA increasing. My SGPA at the moment i suppose is only comprised of 3(?) math courses which are requirements through seng. So I suppose my SGPA is around 3.85 roughly.

I guess my concern is my screw-ups from my first year. I only ever hear of people with stellar grades and a ton of volunteering/research get into medical school. I don't know how much of either of those I can reasonably do before medical school. Maybe I'm just doubting myself overall.

So for DO which we'll assume for now doesn't use math in the sgpa. You will need to take all the the pre rec classes and do well in them. Also get your gpa as close to 3.0 as possible. Not sure how many credits you have but the more you have the harder it will be. Yes many who matriculate have stellar stats but some don't. Remember for an average to be an average half have to be under the value. You will need volunteer and shadowing experience tho. It's easy to get down but an upward trend is looked at and if you were to kill it from now on, possibly get over a 3.0 in cgpa and sgpa I'm sure you'd have a shot assuming a good mcat as well. You may want to seek the advice of an expert on here. I am only a fellow pre med

 

[Goro]

So to start off, my highschool GPA was horrendous. Quite frankly I had no intention to go into post secondary after highschool and generally had no interest in school; I hardly graduated. Upon doing some upgrading i got into university but my plan was software engineering. During the first year I did pretty bad because i brought my study habits from the past with me. I ended dropping out for roughly 4 years and came out with a 1.6 GPA, two F's and a few withdrawals.

Fast forward to now.. I'm at a university taking some courses to get myself back into my university of choice. So far things have been great and my GPA is climbing. Excluding my screw ups from my first year my GPA would be at a 3.9. However, my concern lies with a few things.. first off i have never done any volunteering, research, and generally haven't done any Sciences since high school, which was 6 years ago now.

In those couple of years I've been away from school i have been working in an optometry clinic and have seriously fallen in love with the industry. However, I am more interested in Opthalmology compared to optometry; this takes me to the route of medical school. Given my new found passion and inclination to do better than i ever have regarding my education i don't doubt I can graduate with top marks, however i feel that my past deeply hurts my chances at medical school.

What should i be doing to work towards my end goal? Is it even possible with my past records of education? Would switching my major from a Bsc in computer science to something else benefit me more than my current route?

There are MD schools (and all DO) that reward reinvention.

We don't care what your major is, only that you do well.

You'll need to ace the MCAT (513+).