<p>Hey guys, I'm a freshman human bio major interested in going to med school in 4 years.</p>
<p>I heard that getting into med school is not all about GPA like how undergrad sees your application also, in fact way more intense than the activities you do in high school.</p>
<p>When and how should I start seeking things like internships, community service and research?</p>
<p>Does being in a fraternity and conducting activities in it help at all also?</p>
<p>Thanks for your time guys.</p>
<p>This website will be your best friend. An annoyingly pretentious best friend. But very useful nevertheless: [Student</a> Doctor Network Forums | An educational community for students and doctors spanning all the health professions.](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/index.php]Student”>Student Doctor Network Communities | Student Doctor Network). This website is more useul than any premed advisor I have ever met.</p>
<p>GPA and MCAT scores are extremely important. Do not neglect them. Ever. That being said med schools do look at the overall picture and want to know if you’re an engaging, likeable person with many interests/passions in addition to be a hard worker.</p>
<p>Volunteer at the UCSD hospital or Scripps. You can google links to that. Go to the UCSD biology website for potential research 199 opportunities. Join some clubs if you want to do community service- there are literally hundreds to choose from. You do not need to be in a frat but if that’s your thing then do it.</p>
<p>You have the wrong impression. A lot of the pre-med clubs will say otherwise because a lot of the officers for those clubs, themselves have weak GPAs. I know this. </p>
<p>I know a few things after talking to a UCLA Medical School admissions officer. GPA/MCAT are like 90-95% of what gets admissions officer to even LOOK at your application. A good number of them usually shove off those below a 3.5 GPA automatically.</p>
<p>What differentiates YOUR good GPA/MCAT from other apps with good GPA/MCAT are your activities, in which THIS it’s very important to have extra things along with a good GPA and MCAT score. </p>
<p>Most professors will like to take 3rd/4th years for legitimate research because those students already took a good number of upper division courses. There are always exceptions, however. Just look around at the health fairs and read your emails looking for opportunities to get involved. Just don’t pile your plate too much that your GPA suffers, because that’s number one.</p>
<p>Forgot to also mention that your Science GPA is just as important as the overall GPA for a lot of medical schools. If you are going to falter, be it not in your science courses.</p>
<p>alright thanks guys, better raise my GPA by about 0.3 points and start learning more about how the MCAT works then. 3.5 huh. I thought first quarter was supposed to be the easiest quarter, better try harder next quarter.</p>
<p>I wonder if going through an ivy league school getting mostly B’s but a C in chem will be good enough to get into a med school or should I switch to an easy major undergrad and do a postback year and do all of my remaining chem/org chem. My GPA will be higher for applications. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>PS new to this not sure how to start my own thread</p>
<p>First off, if you are smart enough to get into an ivy, you should have what it takes to retain a good GPA. The top ivies inflate their grades but the student body is very intelligent. </p>
<p>The thing about doing a different major is that they will look at the pre req courses pretty heavily. So if you major in Poli Sci, get all A’s except for straight C’s in Orgo Chem/Gen Chem and Biology/Physics, it isn’t going to look very good even with an overall around 3.7, your science GPA would be a 2.0. </p>
<p>Boboman: I did the worst my freshman year. The courses get harder but you get wiser about your time prioritizing at an even faster pace. Start worrying about the MCAT after you are content with your GPA/other stuff beginning of junior year.</p>
<p>anyone who wants into premed is best off going to a community college, getting a 4.0 in all their classes or close to and then going to a CSU, the easiest CSU possible at that.</p>
<p>crazy competitive UCSD biology is NOT a wise choice given the fact that med schools more or less don’t care where you went.</p>
<p>xelink: not a good idea. As much as people say the undergraduate school name doesn’t matter as much, they mean that when they are talking about the difference between Harvard and Cornell and Berkeley vs UCI. </p>
<p>If you look at the matriculating students at most medical schools, you can find that most of them came from undergraduate universities like Ivies and other flagship schools. </p>
<p>It is not as easy to go the 4.0 route at state schools. It’s a lot of pressure and if you screw up, you could really mess up your chances. For example, my ex suitemate’s cousin got into Medical School after going to San Francisco State after having like a 3.9 and the dean actually invited him into his office to congratulate him and that he was the only student of his graduating class to go to Medical School. </p>
<p>I know people and admissions officers say the undergrad doesn’t matter, but personally, I would listen to the actual statistics. Go look them up if you’re curious. </p>
<p>For UCSD, I know around 40-50% of people that apply to medical school, get in SOMEWHERE and that the average GPA for an undergrad UCSD student getting into Medical School is around a 3.6. The National average GPA for a student getting into Medical School is 3.8. This could only mean that our undergraduate students have some leeway statistic.</p>
<p>Note: I must also say that, MCAT is also a huge factor considering your score is based on how other students around the country compare with you. It would only be logical to say that students at more prestigious schools will do better on this exam, hence get into more Medical Schools over students at lower universities. Most students at state universities did significantly worse on standardized tests from HS. This could be another factor as to why more students from respectable universities take spots in Medical Schools.</p>
<p>
That doesn’t sound right.</p>
<p>The average GPA for UCSD students to get into an MD medical school is infact a 3.6 [Graduate</a> Study in Medicine](<a href=“http://career.ucsd.edu/undergraduates/thinking-about-grad-school/medicine.html]Graduate”>Graduate Study in Medicine) click on the Medicine pdf file on the right side of “Download a Guide”. </p>
<p>The national average GPA for matriculants, people who attend medical school is an overall GPA of 3.67 and a science GPA of 3.61,<a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/161690/data/table17-facts2010mcatgpa99-10-web.pdf.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/161690/data/table17-facts2010mcatgpa99-10-web.pdf.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>The average between UCSD and the national average is really nothing significant.</p>
<p>Wow I was terribly off on the 3.8. Nvm then. I guess we are right at the average. </p>
<p>This also is a good indicator which could be linked through IntoTheWest’s post.</p>
<p><a href=“http://career.ucsd.edu/_files/ucsd-admits-2007-09.pdf[/url]”>http://career.ucsd.edu/_files/ucsd-admits-2007-09.pdf</a></p>
<p>Those are some intimidating numbers that are admitted IMO.</p>
<p>Everything helps for medical school. How much it helps is how far you take them.</p>
<p>If your activities consist of volunteering here and there, some undistinguished research experience (as in, your mentor(s) was neither impressed nor unimpressed with your work) and maybe some tutoring on the side, your application will likely suffer even if you have a 4.0 and 40 MCAT. Why?</p>
<ol>
<li>Your activities are boring. (This should be obvious)</li>
<li>Come time for requesting recommendation letters, you will get average ones. These also hurt you, although not as much as letters that read “I do not recommend X for graduate school because I found him to be unreliable, unscrupulous and dishonest.”</li>
</ol>
<p>If you are able to volunteer consistently in something YOU are interested in, maybe even get a leadership role in it (and excel, not just be an undistinguished “leader” who ruins the organization), do well in research (even if it isn’t published), etc. then you will fare much better.</p>
<p>@Post #11:</p>
<p>That’s an awfully large number of UCSD students admitted into UCSD’s med school every year. Can anyone care to nail down some relatively specific reasoning as to why that is, besides the vague “well it’s UCSD->UCSD” thing.</p>
<p>(I’m hoping to transfer to UCSD as a biochem/bio major this fall and work my @$$ off to get into UCSD med school)</p>
<p>Lies… while extracurrics are good, they dont make a difference unless you’re on the bubble.</p>
<p>To even be considered by a med school you need to have a stellar GPA and MCAT. If the decision to accept or reject came down to a group of candidates with similar GPAs and MCAT scores, the extracurrics would be what took you over the top</p>
<p>Of course, a weaker GPA can be made up if you do very well on your MCAT and vice versa. But you dont want to be lacking in one category or the other</p>
<p>Source: Sisters who are in med school who have worked with the deans of their respective schools</p>
<p>I probably can’t add any other advice then what’s above, but just a little stats from the people i know are like this:</p>
<p>A friend of mine at UCSD with a 3.6 GPA and 33 MCAT got accepted into the Med Schools ranked 90-110.</p>
<p>A lot of my brother’s friends had 3.6-3.7 GPA’s and i don’t really remember their MCATs, i think they were around the low 30’s, and all of them ended up going to PA school before re-applying to med school</p>
<p>I’ve heard alot of people from Cal who get rejected from top PhD and med school programs for their lack of research/lab experience.</p>
<p>I have no knowledge about getting into med school, not a path i am going down, these are just people i know and how their lives happened, take it with salt.</p>