<p>I got a C- in my precalc class (I've never been good at math). At the college I go to, they require that the a student entering Calc 1 has to have a C or better in precalc. So that means I have to retake the class right?</p>
<p>And if I do, both the C- and whatever I score I get will be included in the transcript when the AMCAS will calculate the GPA. So my question is this: Will that C- hurt my chances of getting into a good med school? I mean like a top tier school?</p>
<p>The average gpa accepted to med school is ~3.7. Thus, ANY course that brings down your gpa hurts you for grad school. Do the math do see how many A’s you’ll need to earn bring up that average to a 3.7.</p>
<p>To be honest, you might want to get a tutor and/or rethink premed. Someone who has “never been good in math” may not get thru the gauntlet successfully. Frosh Chem 1 is a lot of math. Physics, another required course, is ALL math. You will need high grades in those courses as well.</p>
<p>BlueBayou is correct. Someone who struggles in math will likely find the other pre-med courses to be too difficult because of the math content in those classes.</p>
<p>Yes, you need math for Physics and Gen Chem. Get very good tutor and stop struggling with math. This is your priority #1, precalc after that will look like walk in a park. After that re-evaluate your goals and see if you still want to pursue medicine. Do not think about your chances of now, too early.</p>
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<p>^^^ Are you sure about that? Other posters on here have said its somewhere around a 3.5-3.6. I think the median might be a 3.66, but the average might be in the 3.5-3.6 range.</p>
<p>According to AMCAS, applicants have a mean gpa of 3.53. The average – not “median” – gpa of matriculants, i.e., those that are accepted and attend, is 3.67. Of course, that national average includes hooked candidates…</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/161690/data/table17-facts2010mcatgpa99-10-web.pdf.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/161690/data/table17-facts2010mcatgpa99-10-web.pdf.pdf</a></p>
<p>A pre-med candidate needs to strive for at least a 3.7 GPA (of course along with a strong MCAT)…especially if not a URM.</p>
<p>Don’t look at what the average applicant has…many applicants get rejected from all their schools.</p>
<p>The reason I was all that sure, was because a 3.7 is also the average gpa of enrolled students at many top medical schools such as Duke (3.72), Emory (3.68), Mt. Sinai (3.69). A 3.75 is the average gpa of enrolled students at other top medical schools such as Cornell and NU. I guess the MCAT is the big deciding factor for students who have reached that gpa threashold. This is assuming the applicant’s ecs are “good enough”.</p>
<p>Fascinating. The GPA has been rising pretty steadily.</p>
<p>There is not a lot of variability on gpa by med school. According to USNews, a handful of schools are below 3.6, but the masses are in a very narrow band. </p>
<p>As Colleges notes, there are several top-ranked schools with a 3.7-3.75. OTOH, there are several much lower-ranked publics with a similar gpa. Of course, the Big Kahuna in Cambridge is 3.86, with Hopkins topping that at 3.87. Penn, WashU, UCLA, Vandy, Columbia, Chicago, Baylor & UTSW, also clear the 3.8 threshold. (Yale is slacking at 3.78…)</p>
<p>But for some of those, I gotta wonder if it was the sGPA or hume/lit courses which generated those B’s. :)</p>
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<p>^^^ Was the gpa much lower in the past?</p>
<p>I mean you can just see it on the chart. 3.59 –> 3.67. For an average, that’s a pretty big change.</p>
<p>^^ haha, my bad, I didn’t open up the link, I just took bluebayou’s word for it. =)</p>
<p>The reason I was all that sure, was because a 3.7 is also the average gpa of enrolled students at many top medical schools such as Duke (3.72), Emory (3.68), Mt. Sinai (3.69). A 3.75 is the average gpa of enrolled students at other top medical schools such as Cornell and NU.</p>
<p>Hmmmm…could that be because these schools strive for diversity so they may be accepting some URMs with lowish GPAs and that brings down the avg GPA a bit?</p>
<p>^^^^ No, I don’t think so. All med schools strive for diversity in their classes, and these school’s don’t have a much greater percentage of URMs than lower ranked schools. URMs can’t be a factor, because the mcat averages of these schools are a lot higher than other lower ranked schools. If they had more URMs, you’d expect the URMs to bring down the MCAT averages as well as the gpa, which is not the case.</p>
<p>^^I’d suggest it has a lot to do with small numbers (in the med class) and the diversity that is accepted. In addition to URMs, the diversity includes D1 athletes, Fulbright Scholars, Peace Corp volunteers, scions of the Dean, non-trads, poets, rock star wannabes, and a whole bunch of folks with post bacs or SMPs. A student could have a fair undergrad gpa, but then absolutely ace grad school to earn his/her way in. For example, Georgetown accepts ~30 students from its Special Master program every year. By definition, those students had lower gpa’s (otherwise they would not be in the SMP), and with 200 in the total GU med class, those students have to be a decrement to the published scores.</p>
<p>I’ve already said this many times and I’ll say it again: the most difficult thing about getting into med school, especially top med schools, is convincing the school that you would be a great fit. Getting a 3.7 is good enough for any med school, even the best ones. However, just because G-town Med has an avg GPA of 3.7 and HMS has an average GPA of 3.8, it doesn’t mean that HMS is only slightly more selective than G-town. Those Peace Corps members, those Fullbright and Rhodes Scholars? They’re going to HMS, not Georgetown. It’s silly to see all the focus on CC about how to game the system so that someone can boost their GPA from 3.7 to 3.75 when there are things so much more important. If people realized this, there wouldn’t be so many posts titled “OMG I got a B- in one of my 30 courses!!! OMG OMG Can I still get into med school?”</p>
<p>I’ll second norcalguy on that one. I’m working on applying right now and all the kids i meet a top schools don’t give a lick about their GPA or MCAT, and neither do the schools. The admissions deans at two elite programs where i interviewed specifically told us that once you get to the interview, you can rest assured you’re numerically qualified and all that matters is who fits best with the program. Med school really is one of those things where “good enough” truly is good enough as far as stats are concerned. </p>
<p>A tenth of a GPA point, a few MCAT points (as long as you’re 30+) arent going to be the shining jewels of your application–and the shining jewels are what matter. Focus all this GPA energy on hobbies, volunteering, research, shadowing, and creating relationships with peers and mentors–your application, and your future, and your sanity will thank you for it!</p>
<p>I understand that GPA is very important as is the MCAT score, ECs, research, volunteering, shadowing etc. and I have received tutoring for math. I know that Chem and Physics are both loaded with math but it’s different than Precalc or Calc. I have taken college level and Chem and Physics and have done well in them. I’m just worried about the one C- hurting my chances of med school. I will obviously spend more time on my math classes to make sure that doesn’t happen again but I was just wondering whether the C- would look bad on the transcript and whether or not I should think about retaking it.</p>
<p>One C- will hurt in that it will lower your GPA
The posters above have already said it well (esp #17 OMG) 
It is the big picture, if the rest of your transcript is good enough, no one is likely to throw your app in the trash for one C ( +/- )
There is so much more to the overall big picture
That being said it is about the big picture once you’ve qualified and it is amazing how many little things can eat away at your GPA, when DD calculated it she had never had less than a B+, but those B+/A- marks dragged her down just below 3.5; she actually stopped doing her sport senior year and focused on classes and shadowing and medically related internships and inched it up several points to be in the right arena.</p>
<p>So, yes it is the big picture, but try to have the numbers in the right ballpark</p>