<p>I am about to enter my junior year in college and I'm worried about my chances of getting into med school. I go to a state school. My overall GPA is 3.33 right now and my science GPA is really bad, like a 2.4-2.5 I am afraid that I have no chance of getting into med school now because I have 2 C's in science classes that they will see. I am taking Organic Chem and then the MCAT in spring/summer '08 and I realize that I have to do really well (>32) to even be somewhat considered. I have lots of clinical volunteer experience, school involvement, and have been working at a lab doing research for about a year already and plan to continue it but what are my chances of getting in with the grades I have now? What are my other options besides going abroad?</p>
<p>Check out some of the osteopathic schools. They are less competitive than the allopathic programs. Otherwise, if medicine is your dream, just go abroad!</p>
<p>Or do an NP or a PA degree. Significant patient care roles with better lifestyles.</p>
<p>rock junior and senior year. then apply.</p>
<p>By the way, I just verified something with an admission officer and there really is a cut off point for the science GPA. "A student that does not have a minimum of a B average (3.0) is not competitive in the applicant pool and automatically rejected"</p>
<p>Buff so your saying that any one with a below 3.0 GPA science GPA is not even considered and is automatically rejected?
Harsh!</p>
<p>In medical school, you're going to be taking the equivalent of 4-5 science courses at the same time. Why would you accept someone who couldn't even earn a 3.0 in science courses in college?</p>
<p>^^^ Exactly. That is the rational that they are using and it was put to me the same way nocarlguy is putting it.</p>
<p>I can't imagine that such a cutoff is official policy, but I also can't envision very many exceptions.</p>
<p>Is that true even for URMs?</p>
<p>A search of mdapplicants.com for science GPA's below 3.0 and any acceptances to any medical schools returns 152 hits.</p>
<p>Obviously some of these are fake, like the student who claimed to have been nominated for the Nobel Prize with an 11 MCAT, or the student who submitted a 0.00 GPA. But some of them look genuine.</p>
<p>let's not forget that this is just one admissions officer
the important thing is that there is a cutoff at some point and, as has been said, it is hard to negotiate this</p>
<p>"Is that true even for URMs?"</p>
<p>-well I wouldn't want a doctor who sucks at science regardless of what race they are.</p>
<p>Well, the fact that "there is a cutoff at some point" which is "hard to negotiate" should be pretty obvious.</p>
<p>Stated another way: "If your GPA gets low enough, you will have a hard time getting into medical school."</p>
<p>Guys, I know that some of you do like to think that the med school admission process is somewhat fluid. Well, there are "cut offs". When the process is so competitive that the most qualified applicants ALWAYS get rejected from some of the schools they apply to, you have to have some minimum standards. This is not exactly like applying to college. The admission officer i referred to has over 20 years experience and has served in several schools. These people meet with each other, talk, discuss things. There is no Memo sent out that says " Do not consider GPAs below 3.0 " but it is the "understanding" of most adcoms.</p>
<p>Does the 3.0 cut off rule also apply to DO and Caribbean schools?</p>
<p>It's not a "rule". It's an expression of the fact that a 3.0 is a bad GPA. It's more bad at Stanford than it is at Chicago, and it's worse at Chicago than Meharry, and it's (probably) worse at Meharry than it is in the Caribbean.</p>
<p>It's a continuum.</p>
<p>It's not a rule. It's just a measure of basic competency in the sciences. Even if you can get into a Caribbean med school, I doubt the pass rate on the USMLE's is very high among those with sub 3.0 science GPA's (the rate is only around 50% as it is). If you have below a 3.0, you really have to question whether you're cut out to be a doctor.</p>
<p>so its an unspoken rule. I am not really talking about me. I just started CC today. Today was my first class. My principle of biology teacher is very strict. He said he would not let us make up test if we were ever to miss them, and we are graded on 5 test thats all.</p>
<p>Do teacher have projects of there own? Because I was hoping to ask mine to let me assist him. My adviser said to do what ever it takes to stand out specially since I am going to CC before a university.</p>
<p>Uh, five tests is quite a lot.</p>
<p>And I don't know if CC profs do research.</p>
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<p>I really doubt that applicants with 3.01 do substantially better than 2.99 applicants.</p>