Recovering from Low GPA

[Catherine18]

I am a biology major and have just completed my sophomore year of college. I want to attend med school and know to get accepted they look at GPA, MCAT, extracurriculars, experience, etc. Due to poor work ethic and family issues I have failed seven courses. I plan on retaking all the classes I failed, and by the time I complete my bachelor's degree, I have calculated that I can still maintain an okay GPA (somewhere around or higher than a 3.0). What I am wondering is if I recover from this, is there any way that med schools would still consider my application having failed this many courses? I understand that there is more to the application process than just GPA, but if I were to excel and do outstanding in all of the other areas, would med schools still consider me?

Also, would double majoring in chemistry be a smart option, if I were to make sure that I performed well in all of my courses? Or would med schools see my initial bad grades and just disregard the rest of the (I am hoping) straight A's I made in the second half of my degree?

Additionally, would getting my master's degree help in any of this? If I were to get my master's degree and then apply to med school with what would be a much higher GPA?

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[Thatsnotmyname.]

MD schools will likely give you trouble, but with DO schools your class retake grades can replace your old Fs and your gpa for DO schools is calculated using these replaced grades

 

[Catalystik]

I am a biology major and have just completed my sophomore year of college. I want to attend med school and know to get accepted they look at GPA, MCAT, extracurriculars, experience, etc. Due to poor work ethic and family issues I have failed seven courses. I plan on retaking all the classes I failed, and by the time I complete my bachelor's degree, I have calculated that I can still maintain an okay GPA (somewhere around or higher than a 3.0). What I am wondering is if I recover from this, is there any way that med schools would still consider my application having failed this many courses? I understand that there is more to the application process than just GPA, but if I were to excel and do outstanding in all of the other areas, would med schools still consider me?

Also, would double majoring in chemistry be a smart option, if I were to make sure that I performed well in all of my courses? Or would med schools see my initial bad grades and just disregard the rest of the (I am hoping) straight A's I made in the second half of my degree?

Additionally, would getting my master's degree help in any of this? If I were to get my master's degree and then apply to med school with what would be a much higher GPA?

A double major doesn't help or hurt. Excellent academic performance is what counts. Adding another major later might, however, allow you to stay in college longer/maintain loan eligibility, if that's an issue.

A traditional masters would help at only a few schools. The vast majority of allopathic med schools judge one by undergrad GPAs.

While you might potentially redeem your GPA so it's in a range for consideration by allopathic (MD) schools, it will take far more time and money than applying to AACOMAS DO (osteopathic) schools, which only include the most recent grade (when one retakes) in their application GPA.

 

[candbgirl]

Slow down. You are putting the cart before the horse. What is your current cGPA? How about your sGPA? Seven failures is just awful. And obviously this all didn't happen in one semester. When you started failing the first time why didn't you do something about it, like withdraw? But now you are faced with trying to repair the damage. My first suggestion is to visit your college resource center and get help developing a plan for studying etc.. They may also help you determine what went wrong. You need to research DO schools. They have the grade replacement option. MD school do not have this option. A 3.0 is not an"okay GPA" for any med school so don't think it is. And I imagine that 3.0 would be if you got all As from this point on. And actually you do need to do this. You would be auto screened at almost all MD schools and many DO schools. The current average GPA for MD students is ~3.6+ and for DO ~ 3.4+. Don't try to double major when you are having a hard time handling one major and a Masters won't help with your undergrad GPA for MD schools. You have to focus solely on your grades at this point and gradually start adding ECs when you feel ready to do them. But you should also have a Plan B .


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