I said I'd take some time to reflect on how things were going, but classes are starting up again tomorrow before I've even had a chance to do much of that. It feels like thinks just ended the other day, really, and like this whole week hardly happened. Refreshed, I am not.
But we can still take a moment to try and look at things objectively. The worst (hopefully), is now over, and my GPA for this post-college adventure is still above a 3.60. I'll have to take some time to really calculate it, but I think it's closer to a 3.70. It's not awful, despite the fact that my B- was awful, since I've managed to keep pretty much everything else to a 4.00. Assuming Physics is the hardest course I have, that means my overall GPA will likely end up somewhere above 3.70, which is pretty respectable. How far above depends, but it should end up nicely.
I can't drop the ball. I need a 4.00 in every course where I can realistically get one, and I need to do the best I can everywhere else to keep my GPA going back up. But as long as I stay on top of my game, up is the most likely direction for it to go. It's also extra important that I do well now because 1) I'll need to find teachers to give me letters of recommendation in short order and 2) I need to be ready for the MCAT in ~18 months. With a decent GPA, my admissions chances are going to come down almost entirely to that entrance exam. If I do badly, and my 4.00's are revealed to be shams, I'm sunk. If I do well, I'm in (at least, in "somewhere").
I'd like to spend more MCAT study time working on Physics (which will be more like learning than reviewing), so it's imperative that I turn my next few courses into MCAT review courses.
Overall, I'm disappointed in how the last semester went. I did fine in Chemistry, but Physics was awful. Not only did I do badly in it (although I managed to avoid a C, at least) - I also gave up. The whole thing was very disheartening, and revealed a negative aspect of my character. Not getting the job I was after, on top of that, is just icing.
All disappointment aside, the semester wasn't an unmitigated disaster.
This summer is going to be pretty important. I need to take advantage of it to get back in things, and get a good step under my feet. I want to end up confident of a 4.00 in my course both sessions, so I can walk into the harder stuff at the end of this with some solid self-confidence (not to mention a boosted GPA). I also need to find something to do work/internship/volunteer-wise, /and/ I need to start worrying about the MCAT. I know I've said I need to worry about the MCAT before, but it's more true now than ever. And I've failed to really get involved with it so far, other than gaining an increasing appreciation for its value in the admissions process.
