My cumulative undergrad is 3.8. But I took some computer science courses last winter that I didn’t do well in, not realizing it would affect my overall GPA. So now I have a cumulative 3.5. Is this going to ruin my chances?
I am not going to lie, if you are planning to go to Med School you are really going to have to get that GPA up. Most medical schools won’t even consider applicants with a GPA lower than 3.7. What year are you in undergrad? If you are already a junior or senior I would recommend that you go on to a masters degree and make sure that you get a good GPA in that. The only reason that I’m saying that is because your GPA will be uncompetitive compared to most students that are applying to med school.
This is flat out untrue. All med schools screen based upon GPA, but the bottom cut off is probably closer to 3.4 than 3.7. Now it’s true that higher GPAs tend to have their application reviewed sooner than lower GPAs, but most reasonable applications get reviewed at least superficially.
Since comp sci courses are not counted as part of your sGPA (only bio,chem, physics, math), what is your current sGPA? If you sGPA is still 3.5+. you’re in good shape to apply to med school, but I would strongly suggest adding DO schools to your application list plus all your instate publics.
I guess that’s what I’m confused about. The application has 3 total GPA counts. My overall was 3.5… science 3.4… and cumulative 3.8. That was BEFORE the computer classes. I graduated from University 7 years ago. So the CS classes were just something I was exploring and it turned out to be a waste of my time. I just didn’t know since I already graduated that it even factored into my cumulative GPA. Now my GPAs are 3.4 overall… still 3.4 science (since it’s not BCPM) and 3.5 cumulative. You still suggest taking more post bac science classes? I read that a master’s won’t really help give me more consideration.
Both your cumulative GPA and sGPA are on the low side for med school. You might get lucky with one of the newer DO programs, especially if you have substantial healthcare experience, but MD programs are out of reach with your current stats.
The only Master’s degree program that will improve your chances is something called a Special Master’s Program (SMP)–these are full time, very intense programs that mimic the first year of med school curriculum. The best ones are offered at med schools. SMPs require a MCAT score to apply. But SMPs have 2 drawbacks: 1) they’re very expensive and 2) they are high risk-high reward. Finish a SMP in top 25% of the class with GPA >3.75 and you have 50-50 chance of getting into a med school somewhere. Finish outside the top 25% or get a GPA below 3.75 and you can kiss goodbye any chance of ever gaining a med school admission.
I suggest that you consider a post bacc. A post bacc doesn’t have to be formal program. You can do it yourself thru you local 4 year college where you’ll take additional upper level bio courses as well as the new pre-reqs added since you finished college–biochemistry, biostatistics or statistics (math dept only), sociology, psych-- until you can raise your GPA and sGPA high enough to be a reasonable candidate.
For the record–every college-level course you have ever taken in your life, including any dual enrollment classes in high school, are included in GPA calculations. No exceptions.
Also osteopathic schools now longer allow grade replacement. Everything counts.
FAKENEWS
Two concerns here. 1: For OP specifically, if college was 7+ years ago, who is going to write the LORs or committee letter? Might need a formal program because of the non-trad status whereas someone only spending only a couple years between UG and med school can almost certainly get support from their alma mater. 2: I don’t know that I agree that “your local 4 year” is a good choice for doing what is essentially a grade enhancing post-bacc unless your local 4 year is at least on par with a state flagship university. The main reason behind taking these courses is to prove academic strength so if the faith in the rigor of the post-bacc school isn’t there what are you proving?
Yea that’s why I was going to do a master’s program, but a lot of people were saying it doesn’t get much weight from admissions. As far as LOR if I took a post bac science I could ask that teacher. The others I was going to get from my volunteer agencies and coworkers. I read somewhere that some schools will waive the science faculty letter if you graduated a long time ago. So I guess bottom line is I either need to get a master’s or take a post bac science and hope to god I can get a decent MCAT score.
Agencies and coworkers cannot write academic evaluation LORs, only professors who taught you can.
I think you might want to attend a SMP program, if you have completed your med school pre-req already and have a Mcat score. The purpose of SMP is for someone who is on the borderline or a non-traditional to brush up the science courses in a medical school environment. In your case, you are a non-traditional.
There is a very large number of discussions on SDN about non-traditionals. You should read the discussions and will help you in your decision.
I read a post before a non traditional had the letter from science professor waived for being out of school so long. So I don’t think it’s always a requirement. But yes I think SMP might be the way to go.
A few medical schools may waive ONE professor LOE** for students who are many years of college, (IOW, if you haven’t taken a single college course in 5+ years.) But the replacement LOR cannot come from a co-worker, or a volunteer site director. It needs to come from a direct work supervisor at your job (paid employment only) or from your commanding officer if you are in the military. The reason is that a Letter of Evaluation (which is what you need for med school, not a letter of recommendation) needs to critique how well/poorly perform when compared to others who have held your position, and discuss your personal strengths and weaknesses as an employee. Letters from coworkers are not raccepted because they are not in positions to evaluate your performance. Ditto for volunteer site directors. (Who seldom write objective critical letters.)
Plus if you have been away from challenging science coursework for a significant length of time, you want to brush up on your sciences before attempting the MCAT. Also science moves fast–some of what you learned 10 years ago may no longer be entirely “stae of the art”.
** Med schools require a minimum of 3 letters.