<p>when it comes to numbers, higher is always better. A 3.37 needs a 33+ to have a 50% chance at med school, according to the chart (Table 24) dwalker posted.</p>
<p>*when it comes to numbers, higher is always better. A 3.37 needs a 33+ to have a 50% chance at med school, according to the chart (Table 24) dwalker posted. *</p>
<p>Right, which should stand as a “wake up” call to those who are just starting college. it’s much better to have the high GPA that maybe won’t require such a high MCAT in order to have a good chance of acceptance.</p>
<p>I know it’s easy for kids to just assume that they can ''study hard" and kill the MCAT and get a 35+…but in reality, we’ve seen here on CC some VERY smart kids with great grades who’ve studied for the MCAT and got a very respectable 30/31. With their 3.8+ GPAs and their 30/31 MCATs, their chances were 82%. :)</p>
<p>So…for those who will be incoming frosh in the next couple of months…heed the messages here…don’t slack and let your grades slide…because then you’re in a situation where everything else needs to be perfect/near perfect from then on. :(</p>
<p>^^Exactly, mom2. Frosh in particular, should protect the gpa at all costs. EC’s are easy to add later, but fixing just one C in a Frosh BCPM course requires 6 A’s just to average a 3.7.</p>
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<p>Who ya talking about, mom2?</p>
<p>Our very smart, talented, and dedicated future Dr. K…</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Thanks BlueB and Mom2 for the information and great advice! </p>
<p>Can a college grad still do anything to improve the GPA? perhaps grad schools?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>There shouldn’t be quotas for Asians or any other race, religion or ethnic group. Medicine needs the best and brightest.</p>
<p>onedad1–there are programs called " academic record enhancers" which are grad degrees usually in a biology-related field (immunology, physiology) that are for graduates whose GPAs are not strong enough to apply to med schools.</p>
<p>AAMC has a search engine to help find those types of programs</p>
<p>[Postbaccalaureate</a> Premedical Programs - Search](<a href=“http://services.aamc.org/postbac/]Postbaccalaureate”>http://services.aamc.org/postbac/)</p>
<p>Select “academic record enhancers” for type of program.</p>
<p>CAVEAT: not all programs are equally well respected. You’ll want to look at the placement rate for graduates.</p>
<p>onedad:</p>
<p>If one has completed all of the prereqs, and has a BA/BS, a grad program maybe the way to go. Besides a normal MS in say bio-sci, students requiring gpa enhancement also consider “Special Masters Programs” (SMPs), in which students take courses in the med school along with other med students. Georgetown has the oldest program for example; it’s a way to prove one can “do the work” despite a sub-par gpa. Many other colleges offer them as well, but as wayoutmom notes, their seems to be a prestige factor for these on how much they help boost your gpa.</p>
<p>Alternatively, one could register as a special student and repeat the undergrad science courses, targeting DO schools which replace grades.</p>
<p>Thank you WayOutWestMom and bluebayou! Those are very encouraging!</p>
<p>bluebayou, Would you expand on the ‘special student/targeting DO schools’? </p>
<p>Thanks much!</p>
<p>^^Sure, if a student has several C’s (or worse), one could always repeat the class. Allopathic med schools will average the grades, but DO schools will replace the former grade with the new grade, hopefully an A. </p>
<p>Not sure what state you are in, but in California a college graduate can take classes at a UC thru the Extension program or at Cal State Unis as a Special Student. UC San Diego offers a one-year program in Biology in which students can take any course that they want to 'fix"; such students even receive regular registration priority. Harvard also has an extension program which offers the standard premed courses. I have read that folks actually move to Boston to attend Harvard extension – evidently it’s pretty reasonable, and of course, comes with the H-name.</p>
<p>Alternatively, check with the college your kid just graduated from and see if s/he can stay an extra year or so taking courses.</p>
<p>DO schools allow grade replacement. IOW, if the original grade in OChem is a C+ and the retake nets a B+, DO schools will let the better grade stand by itself. MD schools require both grades to be reported.</p>
<p>By special student, I’m assuming BB means as a non-degree seeking student since the student in question has already graduated. </p>
<p>A word about SMPs—SMP programs are almost as difficult to get accept into as MD/DO programs. Many require a MCAT score to be considered for admission.</p>
<p>*There shouldn’t be quotas for Asians or any other race, religion or ethnic group. Medicine needs the best and brightest. *</p>
<p>There aren’t “quotas”…and certainly religion isn’t considered. </p>
<p>Yes…medicine needs the best and brightest, and I don’t support ridiculous “bumps” for URMS…because I think that could be dangerous and be insulting to URMs who are qualified and do get accepted. </p>
<p>That said…grades/stats aren’t everything. We need diversity in medicine for many reasons. For example… If nearly every MD was a X ethnic group and male, there might be a bias towards doing research that is important to X ethnic group or males. There are many other examples that I could give, but that jumped to mind. WE have a tendency to be “moved” to do research on what has affected us personally.</p>
<p>re SMPs:</p>
<p>The mean gpa of Boston University’s SMP is a 3.1, with mcat scores from 25-30…and supposedly BU’s is one of the ‘better’ programs. Such stats have a ~20% chance of admission to an allopathic med school. </p>
<p>Georgetown is probably the most competitive and it has a mean gpa of 3.3, with mcat of 31. Such numbers have <40% chance of MD admissions in total, so it is likely much lower for the unhooked candidates.</p>
<p>OP go to MD applicants .com and search for people with low gpas and you will see that they got into allopathic schools. Sure they were non trade but there are some 24 year olds and other people in that age range who were successful. It is possible so you don’t need to throw that option out of the window and go DO or Carrib. It will be harder yes, but not impossible and thats all that matters. Not the statistics or having other people on here be “realistic” for you. I’m in a similar situation as you gap wise so don’t give up and go DO or other career paths yet.</p>
<p>SMP GPAs aren’t combined with undergraduate GPAs; they are looked at very differently.</p>