<p>This is my first time posting a question on this actually! I have been having the question for a while, and thought this would be the best place to ask! I am a transfer student starting at UC Irvine in the fall with a biomedical engineering/premed major. I have decided that I want to go to medical school after UC Irvine, but my grades in community college aren't good (3.19). I was wondering if I do really well in my upper division classes at UC Irvine, would I be a competitive enough candidate for medical school? What would be your advice on how to get into medical school at this point in my schooling?</p>
<p>I’m a biomedical engineering/premed major transferring to UC Irvine where I plan to do research and community service work.</p>
<p>This might sound callous (and I promise I don’t want it to) but all you can do is:</p>
<p>Pick a major where you can dramatically pull up that GPA (I doubt an engineering major is it). You need to kill from here on in. </p>
<p>After the appropriate coursework, take a prep course for the MCAT and really, really study and prepare. You need to destroy it. </p>
<p>Use whatever free time you have to get clinical exposure and research experience. </p>
<p>Make connections with prof’s to get the best LOR’s possible. </p>
<p>Move out of California. You are in the worst state for your stats. </p>
<p>That’s about it.</p>
<p>Oh, and good luck. People have done it.</p>
<p>thank you curmudgeon! I wanted to hear that there was a chance!! lol I can be successful in engineering, my GPA is so low because life dealt me some bad cards during that point in my life</p>
<p>^Make sure never ever explain it like that. When “life dealt some bad cards to us”, we still have to be at work with the smile on our faces, performing at 100%. It is applicable to MDs much more than any other profession. All of us have some bad luck, obstacles, things that are out of our control in our lives. What count is how we deal with them.</p>
<p>thanks MiamiDAP!</p>
<p>Curm’s right. I probably wouldn’t suggest engineering for a major for someone wanting to bring UP their GPA. It’s known for killing people’s GPAs. You really need perfect grades from here on out. It’s going to be tough. You need to maintain a ~4.0 every semester from here on as well as get significant research, volunteer, and clinical experiences (at least 1 yr research, 1-2 yrs volunteering at min. 4 hrs/wk, and at least 4-8 hrs/wk of clinical for 1-2 yrs would be a good place to start) and destroy the MCAT (keep in mind that even for those w/ a good GPA – i.e., 3.7+ – less than the 70-80th percentile on the MCAT is often enough to keep them from getting an acceptance somewhere – you’ll probably need to be in the top 5% of test takers, which means you need to perform better than probably 99% of your classmates would if they took it since most premeds aren’t going to make it that far anyway and so would not even be a part of that distribution)</p>