I did it! Mind you this all occurred in the mid-80's, but I hope my story is inspiring. I'm sorry it is long, but it spanned years, and lots of twists and turns.
Since I'm reasonably bright, high school was super easy for me, even Honors classes. I was no valedictorian, but had no desire to be. I was a coolio. I did homework during study hall, never studied for anything, worked and partied all the time, and finished with a B average. But I shredded the SAT with a total score of 1350 so that helped counteract my lackluster grades when applying to college. I wasn't considered by really top, ivy league schools, but my parents would not pay for those anyway.
I had never developed any decent study habits and was unprepared for college. The combo of heavy workload and soooo many fun distractions (i skipped about 40% of all my classes, and got two incompletes, what a dummy) resulted in me being placed on academic probation by sophomore year. What a humiliation. I finished that year with a GPA of under 2 (I FAILED POLITICAL SCIENCE - the only way to do that is just never, ever go, and never take the final, in case you wondered). I was the sheepish recipient of a written guarantee from the dean, that if my GPA remained in the hole for one more semester, I was out.
next step, Wal-Mart cashier.
Since I realized I'd never get into medical school being such a screwup, I wanted to change to something more likely to lead to an actual job. I changed my major from pre-med/Liberal Arts (biology) to medical technology in the University's School of Allied Health (specifically cytogenetic technology). I then went to summer school, which was actually fun since the UConn basketball players go to school then, and we all lived in the one big high rise dorm that was open). I re-took Physics and Organic Chem lab, which i'd either never completed or made a D- on. I killed 'em! Something about taking just one class full time for 5-6 weeks worked for me. Those first two A's somehow taught me something about how to be an actual student, not just a bystander. AND that you can still have a great time. I grew up.
My med tech classes were so much fun! I got to learn how to do little procedures like phlebotomy and how to run tests. Microbiology was so cool. I actually showed up for my classes! The ball got rolling in my brain and I started getting A's without much agita, because I'd figured out I had to attend class, how to take notes, how to study, what extra work to do and not to do, etc.
My clinical rotation in a hospital cytogenetics lab was the motivational cherry on top. I worked with doctors, saw how interesting their work was, and now I REALLY wanted to be one. (Specifically a Medical Geneticist). I worked all alone on Saturdays because I was doing a project on a special project about fluorescent chromosome stains. So I got a chance to have adventures with the occasional physician wanting my help (!) with something, usually a baby born with anomolies. So interesting!
Even a year of excellent grades wasn't enough to pull my GPA into the 3 range, though. So, I resolved to do a 5 year plan and get my B.S. in Cytogenetics followed by a B.S. in biology. I finished spring semester of Junior year and went back to summer school for Biochemistry and Economics (liberal arts requirement). I met my pre-med advisor for the second time ever (I'd blown him off as a Freshman!) and applied to do the double major, which was kind of hard because Liberal Arts was dubious about me. But they let me.
I finished up my B.S. in cytogenetics after one more year, while working as a TA in the lab. I underwent so many first-time venipunctures with me talking the students through it, that my left antecubital vein is scarred up forever, lol. At the same time, I restarted my biology major and the liberal science requirements I still had left. That year was exhausting. My credit load was up around 18 but it was worth it. I got the Allied Health BS with a cum laude, which correlated to a GPA of just over 3. I took the MCAT and just plain did horribly. I'd grown overconfident and really didn't prepare. I thought it would be natural for me, like the SAT (what a dummy).
My 5th year I carried 21 credits both semesters, some of which was doing self-directed molecular biology lab research with a lab advisor (reco letters yay) resulting in a thesis in chicken embryologic cartilage DNA mutations. I took some master's level journal club seminars (reco letters yay). I also retook Calculus II which I'd incompleted the first time. I managed a D+ because I went to the professor's office sessions every time he held them, and was clearly giving it a great effort. Big improvement from never going to class and making stuff up on the tests, lol. I just have no neuro-intellectual ability to understand calculus.
never have, never will. Face time was the key on that one.
I got A's on everything else, most importantly the high credit-weighted thesis. My GPA improved to the point that I got my Liberal Arts B.S. summa cum laude (i think GPA around 3.3) and won an award from the Biology department for my thesis. I had already applied to medical school with my bad MCATS and without my 5th year grades, and had been rejected everywhere without interviews, unsurprisingly.
I moved to the Big City (Boston) and went to work as a cytogenetic technologist (which helped to further convince me that I could NOT do that for the rest of my life - I wanted to be the one seeing the patients, ordering the tests, counseling the patients). I'm not sure, but I think most of the work I did is now done my computers. I volunteered in the Pediatric inpatient ward at Boston City Hospital, about 15 hours a week. That was NOT work. My job was to hold and comfort essentially abandoned babies and toddlers.
(This was during the whole "crack" thing).
I took a Kaplan review for the MCAT, took the MCAT again, and improved my scores a LOT. like from 8's and 9's to 11's and 13's. So I reapplied to medical school, really only wanting my state university because of $$$. At every interview, I had to swallow my pride, and explain that F and all those incompletes (I was immature and not serious about school, I have no good excuse), and how I improved my grades.
Most interviewers were very positive about how I'd grown and improved. A few were wackos that seemed fixated on my low-ish GPA and my old, old mistakes.I got lots of wait lists, and a couple of acceptances, including the one I wanted. Of course, I never became a geneticist, but that's a different story.
So, for me, it had a great deal to do with growing up and losing my bad teenage habits, learning for the first time what it REALLY means to be a student and how to study. And if I can pull myself out of college academic probation to successfully and smoothly completing medical school, so can anybody. I mean it! I was a serious screw up!
(I can't wait to start school). I will also absolutely plan to spend time with my baby boy as much as I can in school. Do well, but also try to balance school and family. I know I'm lucky to have a great support system. Let's hope everything will go smoothly as planned, as it has always been.
