Feeling Hopeless, Do I still have a chance?

[Ober3]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the podiatry thread and also fairly new to SDN. I was originally leaning towards the dental field, but I have recently been reading a lot about podiatry and find it much more fascinating than dentistry! I am now thinking about it as a career, but nothing is set in stone. I still plan on doing some shadowing , volunteering, research and connecting with other pre-podiatry/podiatry students to get myself familiar with what I may be doing in the future! I have a few questions about my chances and what I can do improve.

My Academic Profile:
After High school I attended a community college in California and will now be transferring to a California State University. My GPA for the first couple of quarters was really good, but after taking Chemistry & Calculus courses my cumulative GPA is now a 2.82. Currently I am a biology major and still have 2 more years left until I finish my Biology degree. I finished the General Chemistry series (3 quarters worth) with 2 W's 2 C's & 1 B. Organic Chemistry (also 3 quarters worth) which really kicked me down with 1 D(repeated w/C) 2nd quarter C and this summer I took the last of the series in a 6 week period and have decided to drop it with a W. I have really learned my lesson. Organic Chemistry is def. not a class you take in the summer! The worst series for me was calculus with 2 D's for one of the series and repeat with a C and I still need to finish my last quarter.

By the end of this summer, I'm going to be transferring to a State University which is on the semester system. All the classes that I did not pass, I will be finishing for 1 semester there (Calculus, Bio, O.Chem). I still have 1 year of physics left and then I will be finished with my pre-reqs. I've really noticed a downward trend in my grades for quarters now (I'm sure you have too) and finally figured out what I need to do. I have decided to do what I'm best at and what makes me feel happy. I focused too much of my attention on getting the pre-reqs out of the way by majoring in biology for my first 2 years. It was not the right decision, because it was too overwhelming for me , my grades suffered, and I was in classes that I wasn't enjoying.
With my last two years ahead of me, I am now thinking about switching my major to one of the social sciences like sociology, anthro or psychology (I already have most of pre-reqs done and can take upper division courses). I feel I will do better in them and that I can still complete my pre-reqs for podiatry and have a minor in biology.

My question to everyone is, would podiatry schools even consider looking at my application with all my bad history of grades, even if I start improving in my last two years (If my GPA shot up to a 3.2-3.3 by graduation)? What my MCAT scores should be around and when should I take it? Basically all I'm asking is, do I still have a chance and if so, do people think that I have a good plan for improving my grades?

Thank you everyone for reading my long introduction. I look forward to seeing your comments being a member of this thread and connecting with future podiatrists!

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[Makaveliforever]

It is good that you are confronting your problems head and not just denying them and hoping for the best. Honestly, if you were able to get your gpa that high, that would be a drastic imporvement (meaning you should have a good chance). Realistically, you have to just do your best, maybe not take as many classes at one time or taking different classes together (possibly 1 chem and 1 bio + gen eds per semester). I think many peoples problems are that they decide to get serious about school when the classes get harder and harder. Honestly, you want to shoot for an upper 20's score no the MCAT (26-30 range) to have a good shot. If you can do that, and improve your gpa close to a 3.0, you should be okay. That is tough but you can do it if you really put your mind to it and schedule your classes correctly. Goodluck

 

[Feli]

...I think many peoples problems are that they decide to get serious about school when the classes get harder and harder...

That is very true^

It's hard to do well in upper division chem and bio courses if you didn't do very well in the general bio, chem, etc which they are based from. You could almost consider starting over when you transfer schools - especially if your new grades would completely replace the old ones. I know that sounds like too much work, but state school in Cali is cheap (I think) and your knowledge base would be much better in the end and you'd certainly perform better on the MCAT when you take it. Talking to your new advisor might help you schedule your classes to have a balance of easier and tougher courses each term so that you don't feel so overwhelmed. Your upcoming physics and calc also don't help very many people's gpa (didn't help mine even though I'm generally pretty good at math), so you really want high marks in your bio courses and lib eds to balance that out.

It's too early to say what your chances at pod school would be like because you still have 2+ years of college left and haven't taken the MCAT. Study hard and stay focused. GL