Hello… I have a general question, whose answer probably won’t affect anything, but I’m just curious about people’s opinions. I graduated a year ago from a very good liberal arts school, with a degree in philosophy and a horrible GPA (2.5). My intentions have always been to go to med school, but my attempts at pre-med in college were easily thwarted with other distractions (which is why I made my major philosohpy and tried to rectify my mistakes). In other words, my science GPA SUCKED!
Now, having graduated a year ago, I am going either to Hunter or CCNY to redo those nasty science classes, this time with 4.0’s across the board (better be). I’m a pretty smart guy, I know I can do this if I work at it, but what nags at the back of my head is do I have any reasonable expectation of getting into med school down the line with such a bad undergraduate GPA? Are there people here who would tell me that I have no chance no matter how well I do in postbac courses?
No matter what I plan to be involved in medicine, as it’s become a passion of mine. I’ve been a medic, both volunteer and full-time paid, for the last 3 years, and plan to continue that into postbac classes on the side (to the level of distraction, no more). But I’m obviously plagued with whether or not I’m wasting 2 years of my life, and my potential for income, by making a meaningful go at this postbac thing? Advice? I’m sure you guys have run across this kind of thing before, but thanks for anything you have to say!
Your situation is NOT unique to anyone on this board. Do a search and you will find out.
Read Old Man Dave’s bio. I am sure that you will find it inspirational
Welcome aboard and good luck
having come from a first attempt at college with a bad gpa and a later try in college with a great gpa (which still combined overall to 2.7! EKK!) you will have to make amends for that earlier gpa. There are lots of those “nasty science” courses, and you’ll conitnue with them the first year of medical school. I do not consider myself a “scientist” in the sense that I hunger for all the theoretical details and mechanisms in my classes (I have a classmate who reads and re-reads her Biochem texts, for example) but I don’t think that keeps you from being a good doctor if you learn the concepts and do well.