>only a 3.5 this semester I thought I did better, /sci/, I really did. How the hell am I gonna get to grad school at this rate? I'm halfway through my undergrad with a 3.54 cumulative. Do I just have to crush my GREs or what?

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Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:29:00 2013 No.6245032 [DELETED]

>only a 3.5 this semester

I thought I did better, /sci/, I really did. How the hell am I gonna get to grad school at this rate? I'm halfway through my undergrad with a 3.54 cumulative. Do I just have to crush my GREs or what?

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:31:30 2013 No.6245034 >halfway If anything you have an advantage. People like seeing you grow during your years in undergrad so its better to start low and then work your way up, it shows greater potential

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:33:29 2013 No.6245038 >>6245034 This. You have no idea how this guy is right OP. Just make sure you don't start fucking up now.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:37:29 2013 No.6245040 My GPA is was less than 1 after my first semester and I've worked it up to 3.1 in a year and a half since. You'll be fine, OP.

Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:39:29 2013 No.6245041

...Should I be worried about a 3.73 for medical school apps? I just graduated... got screwed with a 3.8 this last semester. Brofessor betrayed me.

Fuck, at least you have time to do other shit to compliment your GPA/GRE score. I'm over here with no volunteer work. They look at the whole package, OP, not just the numbers.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:40:59 2013 No.6245043 >>6245034 >>6245038 If that were true everybody would deliberately undershoot their grades freshman year.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:42:29 2013 No.6245048 >>6245043 People are too stupid to realize this fact. Just like you're most likely to get into medical school as a philosophy major and least likely to get into med school as a biology major. Wanna take a guess what the most popular pre-med major is?

Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:45:30 2013 No.6245051

>>6245043
No but he's right, ever since high school, I had a friend who always fucked up but quickly got his grades high, compared to me who had high grades on average. Can't believe we're still together now and the professors are thinking about his vast potential due to his rapid growth while I get treated like another normal piece of shit.

At least he admit that he does this shit on purpose.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:50:00 2013 No.6245057 >>6245048 Is that account for the fact that there are, presumably, a lot more biology majors applying? Damn, I did biology because I found it interesting... at least my degree isn't completely useless, r-right? Psych + math minors too fuck me

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:54:29 2013 No.6245064 gre doesnt matter much, you need research and good recs.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 21:56:29 2013 No.6245068 >>6245057 No, far more bio majors apply but the statistics are based on percentage not total number of applicants. Don't fret, I'm doing my bachelor's in chemistry which has an equally grim outlook as far as job prospects are concerned.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 22:11:29 2013 No.6245079 >>6245048 Pre-Meds generally major in Biology because they find it interesting since Biology is closely related to medicine, which is their intended field. Its not that surprising.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 22:22:29 2013 No.6245092 >>6245064 I'm covered on research as long as I actually get on my game. I've been slacking on that shit for a while now, I gotta do some work on it.

Anonymous Mon Dec 23 22:22:59 2013 No.6245093

>>6245068
Well, that statistic is easily skewed by the fact that if a philosophy major (some thing that has nothing to do with medicine/bio) is applying to medical school they most likely are more determined, motivated, and have a good reason to choose a non-traditional path for philosophy majors than than the average pre-med bio major.

>>	Anonymous Mon Dec 23 22:45:29 2013 No.6245112 >>6245068 Grad school or industry?

Anonymous Mon Dec 23 22:57:29 2013 No.6245121

>>6245048
Med school applicant here

Med schools (and grad schools or any school for that matter) do not view a rising trend in GPA as an ideal state. Just because you ended well doesn't totally negate your poor performance early on. A rising trend only helps in that adcoms will put more weight on your later years than your earlier years, so any fuck ups you had early on don't hurt you as bad as they otherwise would if it's clear that you've been improving.

Also, major doesn't matter for med school. The reason bio has the lowest acceptance rate is because it's the go-to major for anyone thinking pre-med. As a result, it catches most of the people who shouldn't be applying in the first place.

>>6245041
A 3.73 won't keep you out from anywhere. It may make Harvard, JHU, WashU, and UCSF reaches, but even those schools take people with 3.7s each year. What really matters are your activities. You need to show a commitment to helping others (no volunteer work is probably a death sentence). You need to show you've had some exposure to medicine (easy, just shadow doctors). Most schools want to see some research experience as well (~1 year), and the top schools want you to have a research record that would make you competitive for PhD admissions. Also, all schools want "diversity". That means that if you aren't black/latino, you'll need to do something to set you apart and make you "interesting". Common ways of doing that are playing an instrument or sport. Having achievements in community service is also a big help.

>>	Anonymous Tue Dec 24 22:25:52 2013 No.6246824 >>6245121 >if you aren't black/latino Good thing I'm African American master race.

>>	Anonymous Tue Dec 24 22:26:51 2013 No.6246825 >>6245041 >graduated wanting to go to med school with no volunteer work What the fuck were you thinking?

Anonymous Tue Dec 24 22:32:21 2013 No.6246833

>>6245121
>Common ways of doing that are playing an instrument or sport.
God medical school is so gay. I can understand for undergrad since high school is such a joke but FFS if the field is so fucking restrictive they can reject perfectly qualified candidates because they didn't do bullshit like play an instrument to buff up their resume there is clearly some room to work with. I don't know how anyone who doesn't directly benefit from it can still defend the AMA at this point, our entire fucking healthcare system is unsustainable and we can't address the root of the problem because doctors are greedy fucking assholes and stupid people think any reduction at all in med school standards would hurt the healthcare system instead of improving it.

Anonymous Tue Dec 24 22:38:21 2013 No.6246843
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>Do I just have to crush my GREs or what?

lol. You can't "crush" your GREs like you could with the SAT. Either you get a great score on the GRE or you are retarded. There is no middle ground. Everybody non-retarded "crushes" the GRE.

>>	Anonymous Tue Dec 24 22:38:51 2013 No.6246842 OP, that's terrible. Time to major in psychology you fucking disappointment.

>>	Anonymous Tue Dec 24 22:42:51 2013 No.6246847 >>6246833 I could kiss you

>>	Anonymous Tue Dec 24 23:30:52 2013 No.6246908 >>6246833 yup. The AMA functions as a guild. Also, check out their politics/lobbying. They're pretty evil.

>>	Anonymous Tue Dec 24 23:42:22 2013 No.6246922 >tfw i just realized that auto mechanics and plumbers will earn more than me with my biology degree

>>	Anonymous Tue Dec 24 23:54:21 2013 No.6246934 >>6246843 > not getting a perfect score on both verbal and quant > mfw (No but seriously I did that and am really interested in what fraction of people do that. Anyone have any data on that?)

Anonymous Tue Dec 24 23:55:22 2013 No.6246935
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>>6245034
>>6245051
>mfw I get good grades at the beginning and then just coast/ ride down it through the years.
Man... I did this for my BS and now doing this for my MS. Thanks for letting me know how shitty of a student I am /sci/

Fuck captcha.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 00:00:52 2013 No.6246938 >>6246922 what did you think would happen retard?

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 00:13:51 2013 No.6246951 >>6246825 Does anyone know how likely you are to be caught if you lie about volunteer work? I cant imagine admissions could realistically verify that for every applicant as long as you make it reasonable

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 00:26:21 2013 No.6246963 >tfw 4.0 but it's from a shitty university i don't have the money to go to a real university

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 00:29:51 2013 No.6246968 >College freshman >3.875 GPA >Engineering degree Good?

Anonymous Wed Dec 25 00:33:51 2013 No.6246977

How much volunteering for med school, and does it matter what kind? I'm a freshman and I'm in a lab doing research, and I plan on shadowing this summer. I'm part of a sustainability group, and we log eight hours a semester... But that's all I've been doing for volunteering. Is that okay?

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 00:38:51 2013 No.6246984 File: 71 KB, 475x300, 1387949936853.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] 1.6 GPA here in graphic design. the only thing that matters is your diploma. Not your GPA or school.

Anonymous Wed Dec 25 00:46:21 2013 No.6246992

ITT: Self depreciation, compliment fishing, humblebragging and circle jerking

LOLJK that's every thread on /sci/.

OP, stop stressing the fuck out. All your pre-med stressing makes chemistry class that much less tolerable for us people who actually want to do chemistry. Thanks for lowering the curve though.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 00:47:51 2013 No.6246994 >>6246968 >freshman just wait kid

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 01:19:51 2013 No.6247042 File: 21 KB, 200x200, 1387952391890.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6246994 >tfw 3.7, freshman engineering >tfw going to take grad classes next year and get murdered

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 01:38:22 2013 No.6247063 >>6246984 >Not your GPA or school Keep telling yourself that, pleb.

Anonymous Wed Dec 25 01:41:21 2013 No.6247067

>>6246934
im probably gonna get that
but im gonna get like a 4 on the writing because i cant fucking write a perfect 5 paragraph essay in 30 minutes
i can write a good essay in 30 minutes, i can write a perfect 5 paragraph essay, but i cant do both in 30 minutes
such fucking bullshit

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 01:42:21 2013 No.6247070 >>6246977 No you need way more than that. You should probably aim for 200+ hours total. 100 minimum might do it but it isn't going to be very impressive.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:15:51 2013 No.6247099 >>6245048 Jesus, someone clearly doesn't understand statistics.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:21:22 2013 No.6247105 >tfw I'm an EE major and fucked up calculus because I cannot into mental math and have to draw out everything.

Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:21:51 2013 No.6247104

>first quarter at uni
>got into honors (something actually significant at my school)
>also directly admitted to my program
>fucking ready to do well at uni. Let's work fucking hard.
>fuck fuck fuck this is hard.
>end up with 2.69 cumulative GPA

.... It's a learning experience, is what I keep telling myself.... I'm so angry at myself. Maybe this will fuel my motivation for winter quarter.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:26:51 2013 No.6247107 >>6247104 >getting admitted into honors before even starting freshman year I've never heard of this before... how would this work? Isn't honors usually based around doing research and a senior thesis?

Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:30:21 2013 No.6247113

>>6247107
Most universities have an undergrad honors program that is different from honors in the major, the honors program is just based on you doing well in high school and has some more support for you and more difficult and interesting gen ed classes freshman and sophomore year, honors in the major is what you're thinking of which requires a good GPA and a thesis

Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:30:52 2013 No.6247114

>>6247107
Not at my uni (UW).
There's two types of honors: interdisciplinary honors and departmental honors. Most schools have what we would consider departmental honors.
Everyone who wants to can apply for interdisciplinary honors when they apply for UW. About 300 get picked. I don't know how many attempt though, but a lot of people who could be accepted end up not trying because it's a lot of extra work.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:31:51 2013 No.6247115 >>6247113 And yes, this.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:32:51 2013 No.6247116 >>6245032 3.5: An OK grade, but by far the worst edition of D&D.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:33:22 2013 No.6247117 >>6246984 >Getting a degree in graphic design >thinks he knows what things matter.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:37:52 2013 No.6247118 >>6247113 >>6247114 Makes sense, I just never came across it when I was applying to schools.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:42:22 2013 No.6247120 >go to pretty good school >want to make everyone proud >end up settling for straight B's because laziness, non-competitiveness, and procrastination

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 02:46:51 2013 No.6247123 >>6247120 i know that feel anon >graduating next semester and my years of smoking weed instead of doing homework are already keeping me out of grad school and might even stop me from being able to get a job

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 04:14:22 2013 No.6247184 File: 35 KB, 300x226, 1387962866362.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6247120 I know that too well anon. But I don't even feel bad about it anymore.

Anonymous Wed Dec 25 04:31:52 2013 No.6247194
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>Graduate with shitty 2.93 GPA
>GRE scores are laughable Q:161 V:157
>Worked as a federal IT contractor after graduation, the same types who fucked up healthcare.gov
>Somehow got into a masters program, doing a masters in mechanical engineering

Masters programs are easier to get into but if I was able to get in there's hope for you OP!

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 25 04:34:21 2013 No.6247199 >>6247194 Glad there's still hope for me (also going for masters). 3.05, Q:157 V:164. Thankfully have research and publication.

Anonymous Wed Dec 25 04:38:51 2013 No.6247204
File: 166 KB, 400x326, 1387964331382.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>6247199
I think research and pubs are what got me in. Also my manager at my last job realized I hated my job so much so she was nice enough to write me a recommendation letter.

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