<p>Hello All,</p>
<p>Im interested in attending medical school. Im almost done with my ChemE degree (only have 2 classes left), however, my GPA is low, a dismal 3.263. I have some research experience, but no internships. </p>
<p>Im wondering if i should stay another year, majoring in chemistry, to increase my GPA for med school admissions. </p>
<p>What do you guys think? </p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Have you considered a special masters program? [Postbaccalaureate</a> Premedical Programs - Search](<a href=“http://services.aamc.org/postbac/]Postbaccalaureate”>http://services.aamc.org/postbac/)</p>
<p>How are your MCAT scores?</p>
<p>Is there any downside to applying and getting rejected? Can you then do more work and apply again without prejudice?</p>
<p>Consider a D.O. program.</p>
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<p>When your GPA is in the 3.2 range, it doesn’t matter what your MCAT score is. A 3.2 overall is just too low to have any decent chance for allopathic schools, in my opinion.</p>
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<p>There are a few downsides to applying and getting rejected. You lose the money and time you spent during the application process. In addition, having applied once and been unsuccessful, medical schools will want to see significant improvement in your application the next time - otherwise, you don’t stand much of a chance.</p>
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<p>Not a bad idea in this situation.</p>
<p>Nah, I think 3.2 is brutal but possible depending on the rest of the application. Arez is right, we need to know more: MCAT, EC’s, and undergraduate school.</p>
<p>Hrm, the OP seems to have transferred from UC Merced to UCLA. A 3.2 is probably bad news. I withdraw my previous comment.</p>
<p>With a 35+ and 3.2 can be doable at a low to mid tier MD. There are also a few medical schools, such as case western and nyu, which are famous for accepting low GPAs in exchange for high MCAT scores.</p>
<p>Interesting. The person I was thinking of is at Case; I hadn’t realized it was a trend.</p>
<p>It is in part because they have a large favoritism towards non trads, who often have lower gpas but stellar MCAT scores.</p>
<p>if youre set on allopathic schools, why not go to a carribean school? SGU is a pretty good carribean school and has a high number of students who get residencies in the U.S.</p>
<p>Yeah, that´s a bad idea if you can get into any US schools.</p>
<p>It’s a bad idea even if you can’t get into any US schools.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. It depends. For example, lets say you have a 30Q MCAT score but a 2.0 GPA. If your GPA is because of a part of your life that is no longer a factor, it might be worth considering SGU or one of the other big 4. There are some circumstances that warrent going to the Carib, and many good doctors do come out of them. However, they are for profit schools that bend their statistics up the wazoo in order to make themselves seem like they have higher pass rates than they actually do. Huge numbers of people end up dropping out or not getting a residency in the US.</p>
<p>Indeed, if you can’t get the stats to get into a DO school, you have to wonder whether it’s worth it to go to a Carib med school where the pass rates are low, where many of the people who do pass cannot get residency spots in the US, and where many of the people who do get residency spots in the US are relegated to mostly primary care specialties.</p>