<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I'm a pre-med second year at Cal (just finished freshmen year). This Spring I got C's in both Chem 3A and Math 1B..and my overall GPA is ~3.04 at the moment. Is there any way I can still get into a "good" med school? I know I screwed up horribly but yeah is there anything I can do that could help me? (besides doing stellar on the MCAT...)</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>halp me )::::::::</p>
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<p>there’s too little information to go on but since you seem to really want to hear something…</p>
<p>if you continue to get grades like that you will have very little chance at getting into *any *medical school in the US let alone a “good” one. There are a lot of other factors that are taken into consideration, but with a GPA < 3.5 you’re chances decrease significantly. Just do as well as you can in the rest of the prereqs and handle the MCAT. Those grades are behind you now, learn from your mistakes and correct them.</p>
<p>yeah most people would just be satisfied getting into any medical school, it’s very competitive. focus on your grades, maybe take some easy science classes to raise your GPA.</p>
<p>Just try really hard sophomore year and watch out because IMO it’s the worst year. Chem 3B/Bio 1A/1AL has pretty interesting material, but the tests can be pretty brutal if you don’t stay on top of your work.</p>
<p>dude it doesn’t matter if you did your premed courses at Harvard, UC Berkeley, or a CC</p>
<p>a 4.0 in your premed classes at a cc will trump a 3.5 from UC Berkeley</p>
<p>Just like Dr. Sanford, the author of [Amazon.com:</a> Getting Into Medical School (9780764134470): Sanford J. Brown: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Medical-School-Sanford-Brown/dp/0764134477/ref=dp_ob_title_bk]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Medical-School-Sanford-Brown/dp/0764134477/ref=dp_ob_title_bk) said </p>
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<p>also</p>
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<p>I Don’t intend to make you feel bad I just want to give you the facts</p>
<p>amplyprovidedfor,</p>
<p>Try to calm down first, and realize you’ve still got time to make up for that bad freshman year. Before summer ends, try to analyze what went wrong, and in the future - how can you can get better grades - whether that means an easier courseload, less involvement in EC’s, etc. The good news is that med schools like to see improvement from the 1st year, so an upward trend in GPA would look good. Don’t be too discouraged, you’ve still got 3 years ahead of you, so put all your effort into raising that GPA, and as well as working on all the other factors besides GPA. </p>
<p>Also, it’s not impossible to get into med school w/ less than 3.5 GPA, I’ve heard plenty of stories, and you can check the stats here:</p>
<p>[Table</a> 24: MCAT and GPA Grid for Applicants and Acceptees to U.S. Medical Schools, 2005-2007 (aggregated) - FACTS - AAMC](<a href=“http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/table24-mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm]Table”>http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/table24-mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm)</p>
<p>One more thing, any med school is a “good” med school, since it doesn’t really matter in the end where you go, you’ll be a doctor in the end.</p>
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<p>Yet it’s highly unlikely that Harvard would actually assign a D grade to anybody because of Harvard’s grade inflation.</p>
<p>I’m saying this with only third hand knowledge, but I heard math & science courses at Harvard are only slightly grade inflated. It’s the humanities and social science courses that make getting A-/B+/B grades as easy as getting candy on October 31st.</p>
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<p>Is it?</p>
<p>“The physical sciences and engineering had rigorous grading standards roughly in line with the recommendations from 1976,” stated Rine, "while the humanities and social sciences in many classes had all but given up on grades below a B, and in many courses below an A-</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Education Colloquium, The College of Letters and Science, UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://ls.berkeley.edu/undergrad/colloquia/04-11.html]Undergraduate”>http://ls.berkeley.edu/undergrad/colloquia/04-11.html)</p>
<p>I can agree that social science courses tend to be graded more harshly than are humanities courses. But even more harshly graded are the natural sciences and engineering. </p>
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<p>Yet the fact remains that, despite being one of the premier science schools in the world, and having numerous students who either major in science or who major in other subjects but nevertheless take science courses (such as premeds fulfilling their required coursework), Harvard practically never assigns grades of D’s (or worse).</p>
<p>48.5% of Harvard grades last year were A’s and A-minuses, compared with 33.2 percent of grades in 1985. Grades in the three C categories fell from 10 percent in 1985 to 4.9 percent last year. D’s and failing grades accounted for less than 1 percent each.</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> Figures Show Most of Its Grades are A’s or B’s](<a href=“http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1121-02.htm]Harvard”>http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1121-02.htm)</p>
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<p>i didnt mean for you guys to apply this quote to Harvard but to UC Berkeley because of how hard the curves are</p>
<p>@anon5389567, I’m not talking about Berkeley. I was addressing sakky’s post which was talking about Harvard. </p>
<p>Either way though, the four majors you listed does not make the out the bulk of the social science majors because there are certainly more than eight possible social science majors. Econ/Buisness (I heard buisness classes are actually easy once you get into Haas??)/PIES/Political Science are actually the minority. And I didn’t generalize saying ALL social science / humanities courses are like that. I only said MOST</p>