We had lots of discussions about GPA requirements to be accepted by med school.
The problem of the published GPA in AMCAS of any school has the elements of non-traditional students. And from what I can get the non-traditional students accounted for about 25% of the matriculates each cycle. Of course, each med school will have different policy on non-traditional students. But to get the GPA average of traditional student can use the following formula:
A= Average GPA of all Students
N= Non -Traditional GPA Average
T= Traditional GPA Average
N% and T% = percentage of matriculated student Non-Trad vs Trad
So the formula becomes T=(A-( N*N% ))/T%
If A=3.5, N=2.9 and N%=25%, I am floored to find that T=3.7, in other words, a traditional not hooked student needs 3.7 GPA to be accepted by Howard.
Am I making the wrong assumptions? No wonder my D did not get a peep from all the MD schools with a 3.5 GPA
Also what you show is that the average GPA for traditionals is 3.7, not that you need a 3.7. Roughly half of the traditional students will be below 3.7
From I read in SDN, non-traditional students are 5 years or more out.
This is ONLY a formula, you can fill in any number you wanted. But my guess is that a LOWEST traditional student needs at least 3.6+ to get in any med school provided a decent MCAT.
I also don’t think 25% non trad is accurate and same thing with GPA 2.9 as the average. If I’m going with 5+ as the definition my class had maybe 5% non trads. Several of them had very successful other careers (eg t14 law grads, google programmers etc). I doubt the average GPA was below 3.3 if that.
Yes, it is average, ibbw, but the below average students could be represented by URM, Less privileged, First Generations, Legacy and other Favors. For example, In Commonwealth’s admission statement, it states:
For State schools, a large chunk of the seats of course go to IS applicants.