Give Up Medicine

[Guest shitty life]

after 2 yrs of undergrads...now i've decided to give up wanting to be a doctor although i still really want to be.

b/c there is no way i can make it a GPA > 3.0..

i've been trying working hard to work my ass off..........

 

now, i lost my direction and goals...........

cuz i've been working hard...but it never works out

[Guest BC guy]

Hey, don't give up. There are schools that seemed to place less emphasis on your GPA or make some exceptions for applicants, try UBC, Mac, UO, Manitoba; as least this is the impression I got from reading this message board. You could also change faculties, but don't forget to have a backup plan in case things do not work out.

[Guest shitty life]

but the point is...they'll not even bother to take a look of ur application if u have less than 3.0 GPA........

 

dont think even 3.3 would work either.....

maybe i'm not like those smart ppl ....sigh..

reading this board is so much pressure cuz everyone seems to get high GPA like drinking water..~~

for me it's not easy..........

[Guest kosmo14]

If being a doctor is really what you want then don't give up. As was said above there are universities that only look at your most recent years. Check out USask it only looks at your two best years regardless of the previous GPA. If I were you I would sit down and choose a program that you will enjoy in undergrad, forget the people who tell you that you need to be a lifesci, biochem, biology, anatomy, micro major, they are wrong. Most medical schools look for a wide diversity of people coming from all backgrounds. You need the pre-reqs and then take what you enjoy, then the GPA should come. If you enjoy what you are taking it is much easier to understand it and do well in it. I don't believe that being smart is as important as knowing yourself and your prof. You need to find what studying style works for you. Play around with different methods of studying until you find one that allows you to understand and recall the material you have learned. By knowing your prof. I mean try to determine what he/she emphasizes (as most likely that will be important on the exam) also watch the amount of time that is spent on a particular topic (this will be generally tested more in depth), and ask around, find others who have had a class with that prof. find out what types of questions, styles (ie. pure memorization or integration), and what they like to see in answers. Although knowing your prof. doesn't always work (there are some who are out for blood) it does make a difference most of the time.

 

I hope this helps. Next year is another year, a chance to start over.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Don't give up just yet - the same goes for UWO. They take your two best years (well, best year and last year) in deciding GPA minimums. If you can manage to get better than a 3.6-3.7 GPA in third and 4th year, you're fine. They won't even look at your first two years at all. And you don't need to beat everyone else's GPA to get in - people do get in with the minimum.

 

Also - don't think medicine is the only worthy career in health care. There are a lot of interesting careers within the health care field - paramedicine, nursing, nurse practitioner, nutrition, medical equipment (ie X-ray) technologists, hospital administration. . . the list goes on. Many of these careers give you even more patient contact than medicine and if money is a concern, many of them pay quite well (I believe paramedics in London make around $30-$35/hr, but I'm not positive.)

[Guest Liana]

You should sit down and ask yourself why you want to be a doctor. As UWOMed suggested, there are other careers in the healthcare field that may be equally (or more fulfilling) and don't require such high marks to gain admission.

 

However, if you're convinced you really want to be a doctor, there are other options you can look into, but these may require sacrifice in other areas. If you *really* want to be a doctor, you could look into getting a medical education outside of Canada, where the competition is less stiff. The US may not necessarily be your best option, because they tend to look at marks and MCAT over and above anything else; however, Carribean and UK schools may be a viable option. The drawback to this route is that you may not be able to come back to Canada to practice (if you're not totally convinced you need to live in Canada, then living in the UK, or the Carribean, or even the US or Australia might not necessarily be so bad..). The other problem is that these schools charage a LOT of money in tuition.

 

However, there are other ways to pump up your GPA to gain entrance to Canadian schools. Consider what is causing you to get your lower marks. Are you majoring in a program you're not especially interested in? Look at the classes where you have the highest and lowest marks. You might be better off majoring in an area in which you have attained your highest marks. Your university probably offers a host of programs for you to improve your study skills - this is definitely something you should look into. Also, consider the province in which you are attending school. Many provinces have residency requirements for their medical schools. Although I would not recommend designing your life around getting into medical school, you might want to consider transferring to a school in a province that has a low application to admission ratio for medical schools, or that has a school that looks more at extracurriculars rather than academics. I wouldn't recommend Ontario, since the only school that will look at you with a GPA below 3.57 is McMaster, and even then, you'd have to be superhuman (not to mention the 30:1 application/admission ratio). However, with a somewhat lower GPA, you will seriously have to work on developing your non-academic aspects, since you'll have to be stronger in this area than applicants with higher GPAs in order to stand out.

 

Getting into medical school can be attainable if you're self-critical enough to understand how you can improve yourself. However, make sure this is what you really want to do before you go investing all of your efforts into getting in. If you're taking courses similar to what you will be learning in medical school right now, and you're not getting a 3.0, you should ask yourself why you're performing at the level you are. If you're not interested in the course material, or if you're not capable of memorizing large amounts of information, then you need to realize that medical school is just going to be more of the same.

 

I'm not sure what year of study you're in, but give it some time. Stop worrying about medical school, and just focus on enjoying your courses and getting involved in extracurriculars. Wait until you've finished third year (or even fourth) before you make up your mind. First and second year of study in any program (but especially the sciences) can be disheartening, because the courses may not seem to be applicable to what you want to do. It is good to do well academically in the first two years, because this information will form the foundation of all later courses, but it's usually not until 3rd or 4th year that most programs become interesting to some students. If you're studying in the biomedical sciences area, 3rd and 4th year are the years that are most like what you will be learning in medical school, so you can always gauge how well you will perform in the academic area of medical school by how well you enjoy these courses.

 

The bottom line is, have some patience, relax, get involved in non-academic things, but also think about why it is you want to be a doctor. You can always talk to a career counsellor at your school to see if this is the best area of study for you. However, don't dismiss the other healthcare fields so easily. When it comes down to it, the difference between being a doctor vs being a nurse is having more academic challenge and responsibility, but less free time. If academic challenge is not an aspect you hope to have in your career, then you need to ask yourself if you're not closing your eyes to a host of other healthcare-related fields that you might enjoy much more.

[Guest Melissa13]

Don't do it!!!! It took me a long time to get to where I am now...which is waiting to hear if I've been accepted. My UG degree in Science was crap...average GPA of 2.something or other, I had to go back to school and work thru a second degree to get the kind of marks that are acceptable to get in, you on the other hand still have a chance to pull up your last two years in order to make the cut for at least three of the five Ontario schools. Work hard, keep your eyes on your dream, never let anyone take it away from you. If being a doctor is what you really truly want then go for it....It's hard work and "I can't do it" will never cut it, so listen to all of the good advice and encouragement that everyone has given you and resolve to give it your all because only you can get you where you want to go, nobody can do it for you. Good luck, work hard, no GPA worth being proud of comes like drinking water.

[Guest ThugJaan]

You might want to consider Caribean Med schools...I havea few friens over there now and they had very low GPAs/Mcats and they are goign to be doctors before I am.

[Guest Laura Secord]

You're quite correct in that you'll never get in with your poor GPA. The kiss of death is that you claim to be working your ass off. If you were partying too much then you would know that you would have to buckle-down etc. So this leaves 4 possibilities:

 

1. You picked too hard of a major.

Solution: Switch to basketweaving.

2. You picked too hard of a school.

Solution: Transfer to York or some other joke school.

3. You are an idiot.

Solution: Explore alternative career paths.

4. Any combination of the above.

Solution: See 3.

 

You have nothing to be ashamed of if you truly worked your ass off. There is no sense in wasting more time (supposedly the best years of your life that you'll never get back) and money. It is absolutely suicidal to continue in your downward spiral. If you consider some of my suggestions you will still have a shot at Western as some others have pointed out. Don't get mad at me. I'm the only one here who is offering you sensible advice. I commend your realization that you are indeed having a shitty life and that you are getting fed up. Who wouldn't be? That's a good sign of mental health and common sense.

 

Remember, you worked your ass off. Simply working "harder" is not going to get you anywhere. It's time to make some changes.

 

"If you keep doin' what you're doin', you'll keep gettin' what you're gettin'."

 

I also recommed listening to Kenny Roger's "The Gambler." Download it, turn off all the lights, close the drapes and play it on repeat until you come up with a solution. I took the liberty of enclosing the lyrics of this classic:

 

Kenny Rogers - "The Gambler"

 

On a warm summer's evenin' on a train bound for nowhere,

I met up with the gambler; we were both too tired to sleep.

So we took turns a starin' out the window at the darkness

'Til boredom overtook us, and he began to speak.

 

He said, "Son, I've made a life out of readin' people's faces,

And knowin' what their cards were by the way they held their eyes.

And if you don't mind my sayin', I can see you're out of aces.

For a taste of your whiskey I'll give you some advice."

 

So I handed him my bottle and he drank down my last swallow.

Then he bummed a cigarette and asked me for a light.

And the night got deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression.

Said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right.

 

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.

There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

 

Ev'ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin'

Is knowin' what to throw away and knowing what to keep.

'Cause ev'ry hand's a winner and ev'ry hand's a loser,

And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep."

 

And when he'd finished speakin', he turned back towards the window,

Crushed out his cigarette and faded off to sleep.

And somewhere in the darkness the gambler, he broke even.

But in his final words I found an ace that I could keep.

 

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.

There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

 

----------------------------

 

Good luck with your decisions.

[Guest shitty life]

thanx for the replies from all of ya...

just to quick answering ur possiblilities.

 

yes, i picked a hard major - Pre-optometry.health

yes, i picked a hard school - Waterloo

yes, i may be an idiot..

 

but i am really serious about it since it's my only goal since Grade 9..and i worked my ass off in high school just want to go to a top university..; yet..now i'm totally out of my mine...and questioning myself "is it really what i want? the answer is still, yes"...however i realize the reality is

" what u want doesn't equal to what u can achieve "....

 

i just get really disappointed and frustrated after 2 yrs of schooling..~~i may take other advices from previous replies..switching majors....or something..~~ but dont know if it'll work out since i'm not interested in other faculties..and probably even internal transfer will not be accepted since they require pretty good average to get internal transfered..and same as transferring to another University such as York..u probably need at least 80% to get accepted ?.( i assume )...so.....i'm just lost here.~

 

another thing is there are only several schools will take me since i'm an international applicant...so probably only Mac, UT, UBC, UA, McGill may take me..however they do evaluate a bit higher as higher standard comparing to Canadian applicants.. (although they said they evoluate the same standard )...~~ so.i guess i am out of choices..here.......

[Guest tommygirl]

Hey,

 

Some of the things I am going to say may be repetition from previous posts but hear me out:

 

1) Don't give up. You are only 2nd year undergrad. That's leaves tons of time to do a serious salvalge effort.

 

I recommend transferring out of your program ASAP into something you can manage. Find a program you are interested in-- Arts or Science. Maybe a science psych? Like Laura Secord said-- take basket weaving if you have to-- after all, your goal is medicine and you need to show the adcom these last 2 years are NOT reflective of your academic ability.

Remember a 4.0 is a 4.0 is a 4.0.

 

2) You may need to do a Masters. Grad School is a great way to show committment to health care/ med science and to bulk up you CV.

 

3) You are not stupid. It seems to me that you have just made a few common undergrad mistakes. Besides-- who is to say there aren't stupid people in medicine? It's like any other program. My boyfriend is a Neurosurg resident and there are a few "characters" in his dept. There were even more in his med class-- I am sure you won't be one of them....

 

* 4)International student: Honestly, I think this is your biggest obstacle. Most Canadian schools reserve spots for Canadian students exclusively. You may have to apply to UA schools or International schools-- definitely look into the red tape surrounding this one.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

"Shittylife" Don't pay too much attention to "Laura Secord." That person logs in from time to time and seems to post only to tick people off.

 

Unfortunately tommygirl is correct, BTW. . . being an international student can be a fairly significant barrier for Canadian Medical Schools. With the current shortage of doctors in the country, and the fact even many of the Canadian born doctors are heading to the US, Canadian medical schools seem to be reluctant to take on international medical students who may or may not stay in Canada. Here at Western we have one international student this year, and I believe she has ties to Canada (ie lots of family here, etc.). . . The exception, at least as I understand it, is McGill - they'll accept somewhere in the range of 20-25 international students a year (but almost noone from Canada outside Quebec. . . grr.) And I think McGill looks at more than 2 years. There's also the possibility of applying as a landed resident (I'm not sure of the details of that). . . one of my classmates (not the same one as I mentioned before) became a Canadian citizen during this school year.

 

And you don't have to give up if medicine is what you always wanted. You can still get into some schools in the US/Carribean (I don't know the details,) and also the schools in the UK (particularly Ireland) often look at High School marks only - that's a route my friend is taking, though that option is fairly expensive. I think there are some links to info on that elsewhere on this board (ie the "Applying to International Schools" and "Applying to US Schools" threads.)

[Guest Ian Wong]

Guys, no need to encourage the trolls. LS's first post above is perhaps vaguely useful, which is why it's staying. Everything else afterwards really isn't helping the original poster out any. If you ignore the inflammatory posts, and just allow myself or another moderator to delete them, things settle down. Everything else just throws more gasoline on the fire.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest PeterHill0501]

Sorry Ian...it's just so much fun...

 

Peter