I got 5 B’s in Freshmen year due to the death of my grandma, and I got 2 B’s Sophmore year as my final grade. Right now during junior year, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to end up with any B’s as my final grade. Are the B’s I got in freshmen and sophomore year gonna hinder my chance of getting into a pretty good pre-med program?
Also to add on, I didn’t get any B’s in junior year.
Luckily for you, almost every top 100-200 university in the US has a “pretty good pre-med program”. For med school you need 1) a very high GPA, including the core set of classes (def bio, chem, ochem, physics, sometimes stats, psych & a few others); 2) a very high MCAT score (which, like the SAT, you study for on your own); 3) good shadowing experience (qualify as an EMT and get experience & $ in one go). It helps to be a star at your university, so that your LoRs will be extra strong.
There’s no bonus points on the application for the name of the college you go to, so find schools where you are likely to shine. That will help your med school process as much as anything.
So to clarify on what you are saying, it does not matter what college I go to for pre-med as long as I have all the criteria you listed above when applying to med school. I want to get into a decent pre-med program,and do you think my grades will affect that?
@collegemom3717 is absolutely right. You can get a good premed education at any reputable 4 year college or university. Look for some place with good pre-med advising, availability of volunteer and clinical opportunities - so near a city or at least a town with a decent hospital. Make sure that you keep your grades up and that you study hard for the MCAT.
All most all the big state universities have very good pre-med programs. Many LACs also do. Go where you can afford - minimize debt, have a pre-med advisor, access to volunteer or work, and where you can get all the prerequisites and good grades. That is the most important part. They look at grades, experience, and GMAT scores, not where you went. Look at your affordable instate options first.
Pre-med is an intention, not a specific major, and something you can do at just about any college in the US. You can even start pre-med at community college if that’s how it works out for you. (It’s a non-ideal route, but it works for some people–including the former Surgeon General of the US.)
Pre-med is a set of coursework in biology, chemistry, math, physics, English composition and social sciences.
Pre-med is gaining a set of experiences that will help you determine if you have the right mindset to spend the rest of your life serving the needs of other people. Those experiences include: physician shadowing; clinical volunteering (You don’t need to be EMT; you can volunteer/work anywhere you can observe closely that interactions between a physician and her patients-- a hospital, clinic, private office, hospice, or nursing home); non-medical community service with the less fortunate; leadership roles in your activities; lab bench or clinical research experience.
Your ability to get into medical school will largely depend on you and what you achieve during college–not the name of the school on your diploma.
D1 went to a state U ranked below #200 USNews; she is now a physician finishing her residency at an Ivy hospital.
Some general advice for picking a pre-med school:
1) Don't go into huge debt for undergrad. Med school is very, very expensive and you need to minimize your undergrad student debt as much as possible.
2) Pick a school where you "fit in". Students who are happier do better academically.
3) Don't pick a school just because it has a "good" pre-med program. Pick it because it offers your opportunities to grow as person and explore new things. (Including alternative majors and careers) Most freshmen pre-meds will never even apply to medical school.
4) Find school where you're in the top 25% of admitted students. You need a excellent GPA for med school. You don't want to make the competition for those grades any harder than needs to be.If you want a more accurate comment of your standing, please fill out the following spreadsheet for AMCAS gpa calculation:
http://honors.usf.edu/Documents/AMCASGPA_Calculator.xls
You need to include ALL your college level courses, including those you took in HS.
Please let us know the results about your SGpa and CGpa
@artloversplus, OP is in HS- that’s getting a little ahead!
I have no idea. 
He should have posted in the HS section, pre-med section is for college students.
Pre-med
If you want to go pre-med then think about:
- The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school
- The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA
- Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)
- Success in graduates getting into med school
- Options if you don’t go to med school. You think you are going to med school, but less than 20% of pre-med freshman actually do.
To clarify, “prepare you for MCATs” means teach a good standard of the core required courses- actual straight-up MCAT prep is up to you. As @WayOutWestMom’s example shows- that can be at most accredited colleges. As for “success in graduates into med school”- that is a tough thing to sort out: a college may have a high % of the students who apply to med school get in, but “weeding out” students early can skew those numbers.
As @collegemom3717 says this is hard to sort out.
Colleges manipulate these numbers six ways to Sunday. Some schools have heavy-duty weeding of pre med student in lower level science classes. Some use health profession committee letters to prevent students who the committee feels are unlikely to get accepted from applying. Some colleges count admission to ANY professional program (med, dental, PsyD, optometry, podiatry, nursing, OT, PT, audiology etc) as a “medical school” admission. Some even include admission to foreign medical schools as a medical school admission.
@WayOutWestMom I think I had once seen a post where you had listed how many hours a med school applicant should have in the various EC categories. Even if you didn’t previously, do you have any idea? Based on your post above, the categories are:
- clinical volunteering
-non-medical community service with the less fortunate
-lab bench or clinical research experience.
Anything else? Thanks!
Having X hours is box-checker mentality and something I strongly discourage. Students should participate in a specific ECs for as long as they’re gaining insight from the activity.
Adcomms (per this survey (https://www.aamc.org/download/462316/data/mcatguide.pdf)
highly value all of following ECs–
- non-medical community service with the less fortunate
- physician shadowing (esp with primary care specialties)
- clinical employment or volunteering (in positions with direct patient contact)
- leadership
medium value ECs–
- lab bench or clinical research.
Some schools value teaching/tutoring/coaching experience in applicants.
@WayOutWestMom thanks for the clarification! And you’re right about the box checker mentality. I (the parent) thought that it literally was important to do X number of hours in Y, etc. Glad to hear that’s not the case!
I think putting research as a “‘medium value EC” is (unintentionally - WOWMom is one of the GOAT posters) misleading. When surveying schools across the board it will come out that way but I think it’s value is more bimodal (high value or low value at individual schools) than it is evenly distributed around medium value.
@iwannabe_Brown, I wish we could drop images or gifs in here…we need a momma goat gif…
Maaah --maaah!
Actually I agree with IWBB–research intensive schools often expect significant research experience in applicants, while the rest see research as nice plus, but not strict necessary.
Hi there, I’m interested in Biomedical Engineering and the pre-med track. However, with my long term goals in medicine, my parents have concerns about the rigor of an engineering curriculum and its impact on my GPA. Does anyone know how medical schools consider engineering GPAs?