<p>For college I've heard that its ok to have mediocre grades for 7,8, and 9th grades. 10th grade grades matter, but not much.
If I work hard junior year, and do stellar, then do I still have a shot at the BS/MD programs. </p>
<p>Please evaluate the last statement and NOT the first about college.</p>
<p>If by mediocre you mean B+/A- average… maybe.
Would you want to risk it… probably not.</p>
<p>Keep in mind admissions to college is a process that is completely unlike admissions to medical school in both scale (at minimum several thousand degree granting undergraduate programs vs. 129 accredited allopathic medical schools) and in nature (in medical school admissions the seriousness of commitment, kinds and significance of extracurriculars, grades, standardized tests, and interviews are all different and receive greater deliberation than for undergraduate programs). They just aren’t the same. </p>
<p>That being said, it is common for the junior year to be given more weight than other years. Some programs even calculate the GPA as:
(3xJunior year + 2xSophomore year + 1xFreshman year)/6= GPA</p>
<p>But the fact remains that the competition is very very fierce. Only about 46% of all applying undergraduates to medical schools last year were accepted to one school or more, meaning that 54% of undergraduates that applied got in no where. In order to not be a member of that 54% group you would need to be better than at least half. I can tell you that half of all undergraduates do not do mediocre for the first two years of college, however if you had stellar MCAT scores and excellent extracurriculars anything is possible. I guess it would be better than doing well for the first two years and then bombing junior year thus having a “negative trend” in your GPA which medical schools do look at.</p>
<p>BigRedSoldier, I think you completely missed the question. The OP was asking about BS/MD programs. </p>
<p>OP: My old HS sends a lot of people to 8 year BS/MD programs every year. A bunch go to UIC’s GPPA and Northwestern’s HPME, and 1 or 2 go to random ones like USC Keck’s BS/MD. </p>
<p>All the kids who went BS/MD were in the top 1-5% and had ACT scores of 33-36. They also had a lot of shadowing/volunteer experience in high school. Just to give you an idea.</p>
<p>a few I know of in the east coast require top 5% or 10% SAT’s (no ACT’s) and tend to accept those who score 750+ on SAT II’s on the sciences and are top of their class. Are you top of your class as of now?</p>
<p>If you do well, it’s possible. The most important thing for those programs is displaying an interest in medicine. So, my advice would be to talk to your hospital’s volunteer office and see if you can volunteer some time this summer.</p>
<p>Combined programs are usually really competitive, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t get in. The combined programs I have heard of typically have hundreds of students apply for about 10 spots.</p>
<p>But, if you don’t get in…you’d still have plenty of opportunity to pursue an MD. In fact, you’d have a fresh start. Your high school grades are important to college admissions, but medical schools won’t even look at your high school grades.</p>
<p>er… no. I am not the top of my class, this girl with straight A±s is.
I think due to slightly infamous grade inflation, I know I will have all A-s next year… (half-grade boost if you don’t antagonize the teacher). </p>
<p>By this time next year, I will have taken the SAT I (projected: 2170-2400 depending on how hard study -.-), SAT II Biology (projected 800; almost 99% sure…), SAT II US History (I have no idea what score I would receive, but I know I’ll take this b/c APUSH will be over by then. I’m doing well in USH though.), SAT II Korean if I’m desperate and job experience possibly?</p>
<p>This summer I tried to get an internship… I think that’s failing. I think it’s because I used the word “internship”. I’ve been lumped with college grads looking for research experience to go to med school -.-.
I have less than no chance of getting a job, even though I told them I didn’t care about getting paid. This is at Cornell Med School btw, which offers to pay its interns $30,000 a year. I don’t know what’ll happen if I apply again for Christmas (as this was told to me by some lab head person). </p>
<p>I know combined programs are really hard to get into and the people who get into these programs are the same caliber of students, who would be be accepted into Harvard or Yale. </p>
<p>At my school (a competitive public high school in New York City, not Stuyvesant) I know that even with mediocre grades (a mix of A’s, A-'s, B+'s and B-s) the first three years of junior-senior h.s it is possible to go to very competitive schools. This is what I meant by mediocre =.= I know I can do better if I try. </p>
<p>I did not believe that I could go to more competitive schools until I heard from the college bound senior parents, that screwing up 8th, 9th and 10th grade was ok. Before this I thought I would end up at a liberal arts school that isn’t nearly as cutthroat, such as Emory, UMass, or UMich. This is why I gave up on BS/MD programs a while ago. </p>
<p>Other activities I am part of include:
<p>Currently I have no awards whatsoever… except in music (NYSSMA LVL 5, ABRSM grade 5, and ABRSM theory test grade 5.) I am going to try to finish NYSSMA up so at least I can write that I finished NYSSMA. </p>
<p>yeah… I think I’m not that great. What do you think?</p>
<p>The ****…</p>
<p>sorry everyone =.=. Creating a really long post was really tempting.</p>