<p>Hello, I attend an up-and-coming state school that is ranked outside the top 100. During my freshman year, I barely worked much but was able to pull out a 3.93 the first semester. In the second semester, I was doing really well at the beginning but then lost focus/luck and ended up with a 3.53. Cumulatively, I have a 3.72, but I am worried considering I have seen students from my school with 4.0/40 stats being rejected from top medical schools. My question is how much will my bad semester affect me if I apply to top medical schools?</p>
<p>3.53 is not so bad, and for one semester, its really not a problem at all. 3.72 is well on track for getting into a med school. I’m pretty sure its above average. </p>
<p>BTW, were there actually 4.0/40’s who got rejected? Did they have other issues? And what school are you at?</p>
<p>Notice “from top medical schools.” This isn’t unreasonable in the least.</p>
<p>Hmmm… so do you actually need better stats for top schools? Or do you just need “good” stats, but outstanding EC’s (sort of like for undergraduate admission)?</p>
<p>Both .</p>
<p>Well you still have 2 years to get it up to a 3.85>.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Do you know this for a fact or is this hearsay? People lie about their stats all to time to make themselves look better among their peers. </p>
<p>Even if its fact, med school is not just numbers. Maybe they didn’t do anything outside of class/stuyding or had no clinical experience. PS could have been bad or their interview sucked.</p>
<p>Again, don’t forget the OP’s claim: she’s seem some of them get rejected from top med schools. For example, a student who got into Penn, WUSTL, UCSF, and Stanford but not Harvard and Hopkins would technically have “been rejected from top med schools.” It depends on what exactly the OP means here.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah, I would need more detail. He/She would have to post if they were rejected pre-secondary, post-sec, post-interview, or after being on a waiting list. Anyways, it seems like a word of mouth thing, which I dont give much weight.</p>
<p>A lot of our students have high stats (3.9+, 35+) and I personally know two people with 4.0s/40s. These students interviewed at all the top schools but were ultimately waitlisted/rejected at all of them except for the University of Virginia. However, one of the students with a 4.0/40 got into NW and that is where he will be attending next year. </p>
<p>Since they got interviews, they must have had high stats and solid extracurriculars. Either all of the students suck at interviewing or there is another factor at play. My friend told me that he was asked about our college a lot because barely any of his interviewers had heard of it. This isn’t surprising because our college is ranked outside the top 100 universities and accepts 60% of its applicants.</p>
<p>If you think about it logically, it must be so hard to distinguish top applicants from one another which would cause the name to play a much bigger role than expected…</p>
<p>This isn’t terribly unusual since all of the students interviewed by top med schools have great stats and “solid” EC’s. The ones accepted often have better than just “solid” EC’s. And even out of those with spectacular EC’s, it’s not unusual to see them get into 1 or 2 top med schools at most. There is just too much competition.</p>