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Help me please! Really need it...


MDC3P

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Hello, I need help and advice.

I will spare you all the long back story - essentially, this is my situation:

I have completed only 3 university credits, with an average of 2.4. All other courses were dropped for whatever reason. I took some time off last year to stabilize myself, my situation and my goals. I am now starting a B.A in biology and psychology from square one this coming September. I have also secured a research position at my local hospital and am volunteering at an indigenous health clinic. I have all of my ducks in a row and now it is just up to me to deliver...

My questions are as follows:

- Have I screwed myself over due to all of the withdrawals and few terrible grades on my transcript?

- I know that many schools take your best two years or whatever, will that free me from my academic baggage entirely?

- If I do well in the next two years, can I apply and have a shot in my "third" year, even though I did so poorly and had such a shaky start?

- Have I disqualified myself from applying to American schools because of my shaky start?

- Does doing a B.A work against me?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

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I dont think you should focus on what happened in the past because you cant do anything about that now, it'll just give you anxiety for no reason. All that matters is you trying your hardest, also keep in mind that you dont have to rush and apply third year. If your grades are good then great go ahead. But you can apply fourth year as some med schools look at two best years or one year with a conditional offer (western), where they only take in account those years. 

Good luck!:)

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22 hours ago, MDC3P said:

Have I screwed myself over due to all of the withdrawals and few terrible grades on my transcript?

No, not at all. A bad first year like this is pretty common, and people with this sort of history still get into med school. 

The more important thing is for you to very carefully examine what led to the situation and be very honest with yourself about what you need to do to avoid it happening again.

 

22 hours ago, MDC3P said:

If I do well in the next two years, can I apply and have a shot in my "third" year, even though I did so poorly and had such a shaky start?

Depends on the school. Some take your best last two years, in which case, you’ll likely be in ok shape to apply. Some have other adjustments, like dropping your worst year, which could also help you. You should look carefully at the criteria for each school you want to apply for to see what they do and when you’ll be eligible - e.g. at ubc you need 90 credits to be eligible to drop your worst year.

22 hours ago, MDC3P said:

Have I disqualified myself from applying to American schools because of my shaky start

This I don’t know enough about to comment on. 

22 hours ago, MDC3P said:

Does doing a B.A work against me?

Nope.

I have a BA. It can make it more challenging to get the prerequisites and learn the science material for the MCAT, especially if you have to do all this as electives outside your program or on your own time.  But it also has advantages — for example,  if you do a lot of reading heavy courses and psychology you’re likely to have a much easier time with CARS and Behaviour sections of the MCAT than many people who do a BSc. And for schools that are really looking for students from diverse backgrounds, I think it can also help.

So don’t worry too much about the BA. You’re best off studying something you like and can really succeed in — that will make you the happiest and position you best for applying.

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37 minutes ago, frenchpress said:

No, not at all. A bad first year like this is pretty common, and people with this sort of history still get into med school. 

The more important thing is for you to very carefully examine what led to the situation and be very honest with yourself about what you need to do to avoid it happening again.

 

Depends on the school. Some take your best last two years, in which case, you’ll likely be in ok shape to apply. Some have other adjustments, like dropping your worst year, which could also help you. You should look carefully at the criteria for each school you want to apply for to see what they do and when you’ll be eligible - e.g. at ubc you need 90 credits to be eligible to drop your worst year.

This I don’t know enough about to comment on. 

Nope.

I have a BA. It can make it more challenging to get the prerequisites and learn the science material for the MCAT, especially if you have to do all this as electives outside your program or on your own time.  But it also has advantages — for example,  if you do a lot of reading heavy courses and psychology you’re likely to have a much easier time with CARS and Behaviour sections of the MCAT than many people who do a BSc. And for schools that are really looking for students from diverse backgrounds, I think it can also help.

So don’t worry too much about the BA. You’re best off studying something you like and can really succeed in — that will make you the happiest and position you best for applying.

Thanks very much. Greatly appreciated.

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I completely agree with the above advice. 

All I would add is that, while things may make an acceptance harder or further away, if medicine is what you want to do... you can do it. The most important thing is learning from everything you do, and don’t get caught up in absolutes. 

I have two bachelors degrees (BA in psych and then BSc in biology) and am starting med school next week. It didn’t go exactly how I’d planned, but I’m here. 

Best of luck! You’ve got this. 

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5 minutes ago, Koopatroopa said:

I completely agree with the above advice. 

All I would add is that, while things may make an acceptance harder or further away, if medicine is what you want to do... you can do it. The most important thing is learning from everything you do, and don’t get caught up in absolutes. 

I have two bachelors degrees (BA in psych and then BSc in biology) and am starting med school next week. It didn’t go exactly how I’d planned, but I’m here. 

Best of luck! You’ve got this. 

Thank you. Appreciated.

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Also have two degree, and the schools that look at last few years are gunna be key for you. I went from non competitive to super competitive with my second degree and got into queens this year. Just work your butt off, get help from profs when you’re struggling so you do well on exams/papers,  and do your best to keep up your ECs. If you do well, and do decently well on the MCAT, you should have a decent shot. And if you have to work a bit out of school like I did, that’s no issue. Save up money plus have a cool EC to talk about.

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18 hours ago, IMislove said:

Also have two degree, and the schools that look at last few years are gunna be key for you. I went from non competitive to super competitive with my second degree and got into queens this year. Just work your butt off, get help from profs when you’re struggling so you do well on exams/papers,  and do your best to keep up your ECs. If you do well, and do decently well on the MCAT, you should have a decent shot. And if you have to work a bit out of school like I did, that’s no issue. Save up money plus have a cool EC to talk about.

Congrats on your acceptance and thanks for the advice.

 

Thing is; I do not have two degrees, I literally have only done 3 courses in the past 3 years... grades were: 3.0, 2.0, 2.0.

 

If I could get these removed from my transcript, how beneficial would that be?

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2 hours ago, MDC3P said:

Congrats on your acceptance and thanks for the advice.

 

Thing is; I do not have two degrees, I literally have only done 3 courses in the past 3 years... grades were: 3.0, 2.0, 2.0.

 

If I could get these removed from my transcript, how beneficial would that be?

 

only 3 courses is not bad. I do not know how you'd remove them, but i know schools will usally want to see transcripts from all post-secondary. If you do 4 full time years and get 3.9s and 4.0 then it would barely affect you. Especially for school that take best/last two full time years, or last three with like Ottawa. I don't think your cGPA will suffer that greatly with 30 courses that are 3.9/4 (given 5 courses per semester, 4 years).

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3 hours ago, MDC3P said:

Congrats on your acceptance and thanks for the advice.

 

Thing is; I do not have two degrees, I literally have only done 3 courses in the past 3 years... grades were: 3.0, 2.0, 2.0.

 

If I could get these removed from my transcript, how beneficial would that be?

You aren’t likely going to be able to get them removed from your transcript. I have seen schools allow late withdrawals from a course because of hardship issues so that the withdrawals don’t show up on transcripts. But once a grade is recorded on the transcript that’s pretty much it, and there’s not much you can do retroactively. As @IMislove pointed out, a few credits in a degree of 120+ credits is really not going to have a huge effect on your GPA. The best thing to do is to try to focus on doing well as you go forward with your future classes — if you’re able to do that, you’ll be in good shape. Getting caught up in worrying about these few grades from the past is just going to make you miserable and won’t actually change anything!

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5 minutes ago, frenchpress said:

You aren’t likely going to be able to get them removed from your transcript. I have seen schools allow late withdrawals from a course because of hardship issues so that the withdrawals don’t show up on transcripts. But once a grade is recorded on the transcript that’s pretty much it, and there’s not much you can do retroactively. As @IMislove pointed out, a few credits in a degree of 120+ credits is really not going to have a huge effect on your GPA. The best thing to do is to try to focus on doing well as you go forward with your future classes — if you’re able to do that, you’ll be in good shape. Getting caught up in worrying about these few grades from the past is just going to make you miserable and won’t actually change anything!

Thanks very much. I do tend to get bogged down.

 

Thing is, I have doctors notes and whatnot (past and present) explaining why I was medically unable to participate adequately in the courses at the time... I am going to pursue this just in case.

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1 minute ago, MDC3P said:

Thanks very much. I do tend to get bogged down.

 

Thing is, I have doctors notes and whatnot (past and present) explaining why I was medically unable to participate adequately in the courses at the time... I am going to pursue this just in case.

It would certainly be worth talking to your university advisor’s to see if they have any options for you.Just don’t worry too much if you’re unsuccessful. In my experience with undergraduate advising at UBC, there’s a lot that they can do in the moment while you’re taking the course, but the options dwindle once you’ve written the exam / had a grade assigned. But it depends on the school and the issue. Try looking up your school’s policy on ‘academic concession’, which is what it’s typically called. That should give you more info about the process and what you’d need to succeed.

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9 minutes ago, frenchpress said:

It would certainly be worth talking to your university advisor’s to see if they have any options for you.Just don’t worry too much if you’re unsuccessful. In my experience with undergraduate advising at UBC, there’s a lot that they can do in the moment while you’re taking the course, but the options dwindle once you’ve written the exam / had a grade assigned. But it depends on the school and the issue. Try looking up your school’s policy on ‘academic concession’, which is what it’s typically called. That should give you more info about the process and what you’d need to succeed.

Thanks a lot

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54 minutes ago, MDC3P said:

Thanks very much. I do tend to get bogged down.

 

Thing is, I have doctors notes and whatnot (past and present) explaining why I was medically unable to participate adequately in the courses at the time... I am going to pursue this just in case.

 

I know people who got their grades erased (shown on transcript as "withdrawn - medical reasons" or something like that) several years after the courses were taken. Certainly give it a try but it may depend on the school and how the doctor's note was written. Good luck!

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