Good day! I’m 27 and I’m currently pursuing an undergrad in public health with every intent to go to medical school. I’m not worried about my grades from this point it’s my previous withdrawals that I’m concerned about. I attempted college several times in my early twenties and totally failed. I worked more than 40 hours a week while trying to go to college full time. Big fat mistake. I had no idea what I was doing, I was in a rush to get done and move on because I had bills and I knew making $10.00 an hour was not going to cut it.
Currently the only plan I’ve come up with is to just go for it and not to give up. I don’t want my past to totally destroy what I know I meant to be. Any suggestions or resources that might help me on this journey?
Welcome Brita325! Resources - well, I’d “mine” these forums as there is a wealth of information here.
Your plan should include as steps now - reviewing medical school prerequisites and ensuring that you take the needed courses for med school while pursuing your degree, and doing well in them.
Quite a bit down the road, you will be looking at applications and every course you ever took in college will be counted in your gpa and a separately calculated science gpa. If you start thinking about DO schools, their application offers “grade replacement” - the most recent grade you got in a course (not automatically the highest one) is the one which is averaged into their gpa calculations. That can help you overcome a rocky academic beginning. So…you might see if any of your previous course content that you did not do so well in is relevant to medicine and might think of retaking those subjects. I don’t suggest, for example, retaking a literature course just for the grade, but psychology would be another story. Hope that helps initially!
Old Man Dave’s diary will give you an example of success from a not very promising starting place - you might read that for inspiration!
Best wishes,
Kate
Thank you so much. I don intend to mostly pursue D.O. Schools and I’ve chosen that specific undergrad degree because it does give me the opportunity to take all of the prerequites for medical school. My previous courses were political science and those basic classes that you need for a general degree. The hardest part has been trying to talk to an advisor to get just a little bit of insight or idea of possibility. I’ve been checking applications and listening to the podcast Medical School HQ and has helped out a lot.
Once again, thank you!