<p>Hello All! I'm a rising senior in college and I have an issue. I want the truth so be as hard on me as you can :)</p>
<p>I took pre-medical classes Freshman year and Sophomore year. The grades are listed below:
-General Chemistry I: C
-General Chemistry II: C+
-Calculus I: C
-Organic Chemistry I: C
-Bio Lab: A
-Organic Chemistry Lab: B+
Statistics: B
Non-Calculus: B</p>
<p>After realizing that I wasn't doing well in these science classes, I stopped taking science classes with the hopes that I would be able to do a post-bac and repeat all the science classes I've taken as well as do Organic Chem II, Calculus II, Biology I and II and Physics I and II. When I put those grades on the amcas sheet, my science GPA was a 2.45 for 28 credits. My question is: do I still have a chance of getting into medical school even though I stopped taking science classes and have a low science gpa. What should I do? Any advice is highly appreciated. What is the best method for me. I will graduate with at least a 3.4 cumulative gpa.</p>
<p>Some colleges won’t accept grades that are retaken. Also you’re already off a to rough start. Have you thought about pursuing other things? Not only would it cost time and money to do a post-bac, but your chances of getting in to medical school are pretty slim when compared to the people who have got close to 4.0s from the start.</p>
<p>Don’t all medical schools average out both grades to come up with a final grade? I have thought about other things I could do but medicine was always a priority.</p>
<p>MD schools will use both the original and the retake grades when calculating your GPA. DO schools use grade replacement, so only your retake would count.</p>
<p>There are several questions you have to ask yourself:</p>
<p>Are you a URM (under represented minority)?
Is your MCAT score well above average to compensate for your GPA?
Do you have any significant extracurricular, volunteer, research?
Do you have any special talents?
etc</p>
<p>AAMC stats indicate that it is not impossible for you to get in, but the chances are slim even with stellar non-GPA components of the application.</p>
<p>What unique thing(s) do you have to offer that applicants who have considerably better credentials than you do not have? It will need to be something extraordinary to make up for a 2.45 GPA. </p>
<p>The biggest hurdle you’ll have is getting past the first round of cuts. As far as I’ve ever known, the first round of cuts are made electronically based on a school’s cutoffs for GPA and MCAT. Obviously those numbers aren’t published, but considering I know many students with ~3.4 being denied interviews and I know my school’s GPA cutoff is 3.5, I would be shocked if you made it past the first round of cuts at nearly all schools. </p>
<p>I think you need many more years (5-10) between you and these terrible grades before you stand a chance to be accepted. What could you do in between finishing up undergrad and starting that post bac program? At this point, are you even competitive for post bac programs?</p>
<p>I’m sure you are an upstanding person and I’m sure you have many redeeming qualities beyond your GPA (and MCAT?). The thing is, med school is tough, and in order to be a successful med student, one needs to have been a very good (ideally, excellent) undergraduate. It will be hard for you to make the case that you have been a very good undergraduate if your GPA is 2.45. Additionally, with the volume of applicants who are extremely well-qualified, med schools can afford to be selective. There’s no reason for them to accept someone with a 2.45 (who would probably be a big gamble!) when they can fill their class with kids who had >3.8 (or whatever). You’ll have to prove to them that you are worth their investment. Good luck!</p>
<p>Agree with Kristin’s analysis of the situation completely. The low GPAs that can be seen in looking at admission stats are almost 100% attributable to URMs and in a few cases legacy/development (read BIG donor) admits. For an average non URM a 2.45 will not make it past the electronic screening process. I’m very sorry to be another to burst your bubble but you need to seriously consider another profession or put a LOT of time (like 10 years) and a post back between you and the 2.45.</p>
<p>What? Care to clarify your comment. In EVERY defined(statistically significant) segment of AAMC stats, the majority is (as would be expected) NON-URMs. Contrary to what some people may believe, the majority of the very small cohort of URM applicants, have very good stats, and the residual is simply not enough to dominate any of the remaining data fields.</p>
<p>For a white, unhooked male applicant a 2.45 science GPA will not make the computer cut at most schools regardless of MCAT score.</p>
<p>What I meant was that when looking at GPA ranges of accepted applicants the low scores are virtually all by URMs…that said I did not mean to imply that all URMs had low scores just that when looking at GPA ranges, the bottom scores are generally not occupied by unhooked applicants.</p>
<p>:confused: This would be true for ANY applicant. Why the ridiculous qualifiers? </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>?WHAT? Well then, if that’s what you meant, you would be wrong.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>“hooked” == URM???
Well then who does “occupy” these slots? If you remove Puerto Rico and the HB schools from the AAMC data (which you must do unless your motives are something other than trying to be informative) then what does that leave? There are simply not enough low score URMs remaining to be the majority of ANY statistical category. I will repeat, the overall number of URM accepted applicants is TINY. Too small to dominate ANY statistical category.</p>
<p>Alright I didn’t want any racial arguments to begin. I am a URM and my overall gpa is much higher than my science gpa. I averaged a 3.6 my junior year (no science classes) and will be doing a health internship abroad in the fall. I’m currently doing research and in school government. I’m just not sure if Post-bac is worth it for me with a 2.45 science gpa with 28 credits. I heard DO does grade forgiveness so I would be able to replace all my science grades with a post bac…I’m just not sure if an extra two years of post bac and applying, coupled with 4 years of med school and 3 years of residency is worth it.I’d be 31 at the end of my residency (for general practice only…without even specializing!)</p>
<p>If medicine is your passion, then pursue it! The median age of med students is rising. It’s currently 24.8 years. You won’t be unusually old for a first year student and you certainly won’t be be the oldest individual in your class. Many med schools welcome older, non-traditional applicants for the divergent viewpoints and maturity they bring. My older D started med school at age 26. She was not the oldest person in her MS1 class by a long shot. (In the class ahead of hers, there was a 52 year old first year.)</p>
<p>~~~~</p>
<p>DO programs do have grade forgiveness so that only the re-taken grade counts in your GPA and BCPM GPA. Be aware that DO programs have some unique requirements: a LOR from a practicing DO is required at all or nearly all schools.</p>
<p>~~~~~</p>
<p>Only you can decide if pursuing a post-bacc and then applying to DO or MD programs is worth the expense and years of effort. Only you know if you have the potential to be successful in the science and math classes required for your post-bacc.</p>
<p>~~~~~</p>
<p>One other consideration: if you don’t want to spend the years required for med school, consider PA [physician assistant] programs. They are 3 years long and don’t require lengthy internships/fellowships. (2 years classroom work where you take the same coursework as the MD students; 1 year of hands-on clinical practicum, with an extra 6 months if you want to pursue a specialty like surgery.) </p>
<p>PAs are able to perform many of the same routine healthcare services that doctors do.</p>
<p>OP,
I am not sure I understand you correctly as according to what you are saying, you believe that somehow at Med. School you would be able to absorb material better than you are doing currently. College science classes are hard and require to work very hard to obtain top grades. But Medical School is all science and material is much much harder and there is so much more of it, than most never feel that they know it enough before every single exam. Don’t you have to ask yourself at this point if you would be able to get passing grades at Med. School? I am a bit confused with your concern, I am not sure you are asking the right question.</p>
<p>First, I HIGHLY resent your implication that I have an agenda or ulterior motives in my posts.</p>
<p>Second, I was never referring to AAMC data…just much smaller subsets like looking at individual Med school data and looking closely at several top 20 schools that I am very familiar with.</p>
<p>Consider for a minute undergrad admission to IVY/highly selective schools, where individuals often think their own admission chances are higher than they truly are when they see the bottom 25th percentile contains scores/GPAs like their own. What they often fail to consider/understand is that those outlier scores/GPAs are generally comprised mainly of recruited athletes. A regular student who is not a recruited athlete has very little chance of admission with a similar GPA and test score.</p>
<p>My point was mainly if one looks at school X and sees a GPA range with a low score far outside the norm, it is NOT safe to assume that school X routinely accepts students with similar GPAs. However, in many public schools there is a growing effort to increase the number of URMS (in Texas it is Hispanic) in order to serve a rapidly growing under served population.</p>
<p>Again, that does NOT mean that every Hispanic applicant to Texas Med schools has low GPAs and MCATs but I can say with a high degree of certainty that the persons with outlier stats (and it can be just one student who sets the low GPA or MCAT in the range) at several schools I am familiar with are URMs.</p>
<p>Please don’t try to make this something it isn’t. </p>
<p>Again, my point was directed to a non URM Med school applicant. Don’t let the low end of the range for GPAs and MCATs allow for a false sense of security about odds of admission when applying with similarly low stats. The already uphill admission process is even greater with low stats UNLESS there is some sort of hook.</p>