<p>Suppose you have a 3.3 GPA or lower. Is there any medical school in the U.S. that will accept you? </p>
<p>My roommate has a 3.29 GPA his senior year in college after doing computer science and pre-med (he has a back-up plan THANKFULLY!). But,...the good thing is that his F's and D's came early in college. He said he played Diablo and WoW...etc. on the computer all day and never went to class his firist and second year and that's why his GPA sucked in tough classes (he was usually passed out in the dorms from all night of video gaming and junk food, lol). Then his 3, 4, and 5th years he took responsibility for himself and got his grades up very high. </p>
<p>Do med schools also look at trends in grades and will a 3.3 automatically exclude a person? Is there even an official cutoff? I'm guessing a 2.0 WOULD NOT do it for ANY med school.....but what about a LOW GPA, but good MCAT and good upward grade trend?</p>
<p>1) If he got a C- or worse in any premed prereq class, that is unacceptable to med schools and he must retake the class.</p>
<p>2) If he failed a class and then retook it, both the original failing grade and the grade he got when he retook it will be computed into his AMCAS GPA, which is the only GPA med schools look at (ie, it is immaterial if those grades did not count toward his university GPA)</p>
<p>3) There’s much more to a med school application than GPA and MCAT–clinical experience, volunteering, research, shadowing, leadership, employment, phenomenal recommendation letters, great writing and speaking skills, etc are all important aspects.</p>
<p>5) It’s a big assumption to say that someone with a 3.3 will do fabulously on the MCAT because it’s a big assumption to say that anyone will do fabulously on the MCAT. So the question of whether he could possibly be accepted will be entertained much better when he actually has an MCAT score. With such a low GPA, a sky-high MCAT would help, but that would also leave him with lots of explaining to do. I don’t know how well Diablo and WOW would go over with adcoms.</p>
<p>6) You probably won’t find anyone here who will condemn his chances entirely, nor will you find someone here who will tell you he has a reasonable shot and will probably be accepted. This is because the regular posters on this board tend to be pretty moderate and optimistic, and because no one has that good a shot to begin with.</p>
<p>DUDE!!!..send me to medical school too!!! I’m not even pre-med, lol. That ~combination~ is TERRIBLE!!!..I mean, maybe that person had some other qualities that were outstanding…but man…just that combination of the two major factors, GPA/MCAT, looks ridiculously bad. Perhaps they had a Harvard undergrad degree…and then maybe like they had some awesome experience or invented some medical gadget or something just earth-shatteringly amazing that showed they were brilliant or had something wonderful to contribute to medicine. IDK. That’s still pretty weird to me. I can’t fathom those scores at all. </p>
<p>being an URM would help, if he as a great application other than the GPA will be a determining factor.
He has to COMPLETELY ROCK the MCAT if he really wants a shot</p>
<p>That is a really odd table. Notice that the acceptance rate almost always drops when MCAT scores go from 36-38 to 39-45. For instance, of the 3.8 - 4.0 GPA group, those with 36-38 MCAT had an acceptance rate of 93% while the 39-45 MCAT group only had a 74.1% acceptance rate. Why would that be? :|</p>
<p>May be the ones that have high stats get overly confident in their chances of admittance and get sloppy with their essays, appear cocky, apply late, or only to the “top” schools.</p>
<p>Two possibilities I’m thinking of StatBeast1: </p>
<p>a.) The program of study was easier for those with higher GPA. Like maybe they majored in something super easy like …history…and then they did pre-med courses. </p>
<p>b.) The higher GPA group had no life…studied all the time to get those grades and weren’t well rounded…the slightly lower GPA group maybe did other stuff that made them more well rounded and attractive. </p>
<p>I’ve known some grade grubbing study warriors who actually aren’t always the smartest…but they just work the hardest and don’t have a life outside of studies. … I don’t know…just a bunhc of speculation so far. But the chart is VERY interesting!</p>
<p>If it is possible, do not rely on a notion that it is easy. Most likely it will take much longer process, that would allow some unusual experiences. Maybe Grad. School or whatever.<br>
“There’s much more to a med school application than GPA and MCAT–clinical experience, volunteering, research, shadowing, leadership, employment, phenomenal recommendation letters, great writing and speaking skills, etc are all important aspects.” - vast majority of applicants (probably close to 100%) would have all of that. Consider that there are PhD’s, MS’s, lawyers, Olympic medalists (one who got Silver Medal yesterday is a pre-med from Duke) and URMs and many many perfect 4.0’s with very decent MCATs of 35+.<br>
I am not trying to be negative, but it is a worthwhile to be realistic and develop alternative plans. This would be much better than feeling devasted and depressed at the end.</p>
<p>Ah, I see what is going on. I’m hoping that it is just my browser (Firefox) that is doing an awful job of formatting that table. The last column isn’t the 39-45 group, it’s the combined group (all MCAT scores). Ooops.</p>
<p>Someone with a 3.3 is better off applying to a D.O school or a Caribbean medical school. He would have to get stellar MCAT scores and very competitive ECs to have a good chance at a U.S M.D school.</p>
<p>You can get a job from a Caribbean med school but only about 40-45% of the ones who apply for American residencies get them. Roughly 85% of American DOs will match while 95% of American MDs do. In other words, always choose to attend an American DO school over foreign MD.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if DOs have residency options outside the nrmp or are all DO graduates accounted for in that 85% number?</p>
<p>Why do extracurriculars matter? …Someone who is good at what they do should not be measure by what they do on their off time, right? </p>
<p>I could care less if Michael Jordan - greatest basketball player ever - did a variety of stuff on his off time…All that mattered was what he did on the basketball court.</p>
<p>Doctor of Osteopathy. Both M.Ds and D.Os are considered to be Doctors with very little differences. It is a little bit easier to get into a D.O school vs. a M.D school but you still need the grades.</p>
<p>One reason - EC’s show or do not show your interest in medicine.<br>
Second reason - if you do not have them, you will be negatively compared to everyone else, as everybody who is applying to Med. Schools have whole tons of them in addition to the ones in their personal area of interest
Third reason - to have some meanningful life outside of academics, do not lock yourself in your room studying all the time, be with people who sahre your interests, develop as a person.
Forth reason - nobody cares about discussing academics and your MCAT score during interview. they waant to talk to a person, not a student. Student is shown on paper with all appropriate numbers like GPA, MCAT, rec. letters,…etc. There is no point to discuss it any further.</p>
<p>I get that having a balanced life and interests is great.</p>
<p>BUT…I’m still not sure how/why that would affect a person’s qualifications for med school and their ability to do a good job as a doctor. </p>
<p>Michael Jordan - greatest basketball player of all time - was obsessive about working on his game off the court. It was his life!!! And that hard work and obsession paid off in making him the greatest of all time. Kobe Bryant is another example…many of these “greats” live and breath the game 24/7 …yes to the detriment of their family life at times…but then…does that matter (I’m genuinely asking…not saying I agree/disagree one way or another!) …or should it matter for an NBA team? I would think the employer/boss only cared whether the player performed well ON THE JOB and would want the best players possible. </p>
<p>It might be nice that a team owner could get a bunch of social and friendly guys who were likeable and had lots of extracurricular activities…but if they all were inferior players and lost all the time…would that be good for the team? </p>
<p>Does the same not apply to medicine? Would you not want the most skilled brain surgeon operating on you? Or would you want a slightly less skilled brain surgeon, but one who played a lot of tennis and did charity work in his off-time, etc.? </p>
<p>Just trying to give an analogy and argument for why some might feel EC’s are not that important. I’m not saying I side with one view or another…just trying to better understand the role of EC’s. :)</p>
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