Wierd Transcript?

[BEETLEVH]

Hi everyone. I think you all know what its like to stay awake all night worried about something connected with med school and your future so please read this and offer me any advice if you can. Believe me, it will be greatly appreciated. I just want to state upfront that this is not a typical "what are my chances" type thread. It is, however, something thats really bothering me and I need some good advice. I'm 22 and I'm a junior. My GPA sucks because I screwed my earlier undergrad semesters because I was a commuter, going through personal problems (who wasn't, I know...), working too much, just learned I had a mild LD, and just was downright immature and not ready for the seriousness of college. MY fault.

Anyway, I ended up withdrawing from school twice and taking only one or two classes as a non-degree seeking student hoping this would keep me in the ballgame of school. So basically, my transcript doesn't look like that of someone who "dropped out" for a while and came back. It looks like that of someone who dropped out, kept taking a couple classes here and there, and then re-enrolled. All the while getting not so great grades. Basically, my transcript is very erratic. Obviously I wish now that I hadn't done that but I did.

I have 2 years ahead of me that I plan on making the most of. Right now my GPA is a 2.6. If I do really really well I can end up with a ballpark 3.3 - 3.4 GPA which is where I'm headed now that I have my stuff together. My question: what will adcoms think of a guy who is a 24 year old graduating for the first time with a bachelors, sporting a transcript that looks like a sputtering run-on sentence? The GPA would obviously be an upward trend but even if it is, will the time it took really hurt me? Will the fact that even when I dropped out I lingered on and took classes hurt? Its KILLING me. Just so you know I have done some useful things in the meantime, i.e. volunteer EMT, tutoring just to name two.

As a final note, I haven't told any of this to anyone yet. I won't even go see my school's med school advisor because I'm scared to absolute death that he'd take one look at my diseased transcript and chase me clean off campus.

Thank you for reading this far if you have... and please do respond.

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[DAL]

All you can do is try, if this is what you really want. You'll need to hit the books, make A's to bring that GPA up as high as possible, and you'll need to do well on the MCAT. There's no guarantee that'll work, but if you end up with a 3.3-3.4 (make sure you have a solid science GPA too; science being courses in biology, chemistry, physics, and math) with a strong upward trend, and a solid MCAT score, I would say you're definitely in the running for a spot somewhere. Plenty of people around here have done it. You seem to be pretty hard on yourself, but all you do is give it your best shot. Just keep pushing forward and look to the ultimate goal. Make sure you're in it for the right reasons. Right now just concentrate on pulling that GPA up, and do some stuff outside of school to help keep you sane.

 

[Neuronix]

Beetle, if you can do really really well as your propose and get this 3.3 - 3.4, you will have an upward trend, which helps, and you will have a good shot at med school (and if not MD, DO). Your transcript to this point will always be a mark on your application, but it's not one that will always sink your chances at med school. Of course you will also have to get a good score on the MCAT to go with your upward trend.

You're never out of the game. You can almost always make up for past failures. It may take a long time, and perhaps you won't get in on the first try, but it's almost always possible.

I'm not sure it's wise for you to see your pre-med advisor either. They're probably going to heavily try to discourage you from proceeding further. No offense, but ugrads are full of people with low GPAs promising to bring it up to get to the next step. Most of them never do. This not only takes the office's advising time, but if you apply and fail it brings down the school's percentage of pre-meds getting into med school.

Good luck!

 

[KatieOConnor]

Go for it. Talk to your premed advisor. Admissions officers like to see an upward trend. I actually talked to one about this. (My friends mom is an admissions officer)

Just explain the whole story to the premed committee at your school. They will hopefully be able to give you some good advice.

 

[BEETLEVH]

Another issue is that I have retaken a couple courses that I had an F in and a W. So in reality my AMCAS GPA won't be a 3.4. I am already planning on post-bacc type of work but I'm somewhat incompletely informed on the issue of post-bacc vs masters in a case like mine. I've read the other threads but like I said before, with an erratic transcript like mine it makes it slightly different. Any ideas out there? Another thing, my school has a relatively well known and competitive formal post-bacc program with a connection to its medical school. Supposing that I could even get into the program, would it be an unwise choice to take post-bacc at the same school that I recieve my undergrad degree from? Thanks for the replies... look forward to hearing people's thoughts again.

Please take a moment to reply if you have ANY ideas or thoughts on this thread, believe me it is truly appreciated to hear everyone's perspectives.