Ivy League Grad school?
I go to McGill and i had a really terrible freshman year academically. Ive straightened that out and Im doing well now. I want to go to medical school but how badly do you think freshman year has hurt my chances of getting into any of the Ivy Leagues? (I know that many excellent schools exist that are not Ivy League Stanford etc but you get the gist of my question..) I participate in extra curricular activities but as far as academics go, have I really effed things up? Have any Ivy Leaguers here come from universities where they had lousy starts? thanks!
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If you do very, very well from this point forward, and if you do very well in all your med school pre-req classes, do the physician shadowing, do health-related volunteer work and etc., then your one poor year will not kill your chances for a top US med school.
However, if you took, and bombed, any of your med school pre-req classes in your freshman year, then you need to do something about that. I'd recommend that you then take an extra, upper division class in that subject, and ace it. That'll help make up for your poor performance in the pre-req class.
You know the US med school pre-req classes, right? They tend to be:
- 1 year bio w. lab
- 1 year gen chem w. lab
- 1 year organic chem w. lab
- 1 year physics w. lab
- college level math, at least stats, although some med schools want calc
- college level English
- some med schools want biochem
So, for example, if you took Bio 1 and got a C or worse, take Bio 2 and ace it, and you've just completed the 1 year of bio for your med school pre-reqs. However, because you got a C in bio 1, also take an advanced level Bio class and ace it. That'll help make up for the so-so grade you got in Bio 1.
It'll hurt but if you have performed well in the other 3 years you should be fine. good luck.