<p>Hey CCers, </p>
<p>Anybody here suffer from a sub 3 GPA at the start of college and then make it to med school? Tell us your stories please</p>
<p>I didn't, but my friend, currently at NYMC, had some hard times with general chemistry freshman year, then proceeded to pull it up to something like a 3.7-3.8. A bad first semester/year won't necessarily kill you, as long as you can figure out why and fix it.</p>
<p>Thanks Son of Opie. </p>
<p>Anyone else?</p>
<p>Figure out what you need to do to get your GPA to the 3.6 level. </p>
<p>I'm sure there are others who have gotten into med school with a low freshman year GPA. Maybe they are minorities. Maybe they had friendly state med schools who were willing to take them. Maybe they had amazing EC's. </p>
<p>If you don't have any hooks going for you, then you will need a 3.6 like everyone else. An upward trend only serves as a tie-breaker (ie a 3.6 on an upward trend is better than someone who started off at 3.9 but dropped to 3.6).</p>
<p>Yeah... you still need a good GPA. I was just saying that there is still plenty of time to bring it up, after only one bad semester.</p>
<p>But average GPA of matriculants is going up year by year, so after 3 years the average will be close to 3.8, and 3.6 will be insufficient by then. You'll need at least a 3.7 to be safe, assuming your other things like EC's, MCAT, etc. are fine.</p>
<p>Assuming trends stay the same... If my math is correct: </p>
<p>If the average GPA keeps increasing at this rate, then in seven or eight years, you'll need a 4.1 to get in.</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>Things are cyclical. No need to panic before it's time. Just get the GPA up to the highest you can by the time you apply.</p>