<p>I am currently into my 3rd college term (quarter system) of my Sophomore year.</p>
<p>I currently have a 3.25 cumulative GPA, not having taken any pre-med courses yet.</p>
<p>My GPA is so low due to my immaturity and lack of motivation. A good excuse? No, but it's the truth. I intend on taking a 5th year as well as taking summer credits, and have greatly improved my study habits and find myself much more motivated. I know I am capable of getting good grades, I just let my lack of motivation hurt me.</p>
<p>Do I even have a chance of getting into any Medical Schools (M.D. preferrably, D.O. if all else fails) in my current situation? My intention is to get a 3.8 or better for the rest of my college career, and am fully confident in myself to attain such goals. The only question I have is if it will be enough.</p>
<p>Also, I live in Oregon and am considering OHSU given I've heard that in-state schools usually give a boost to in-state applicants. </p>
<p>On top of that, what can I do to improve my application? Any help will be appreciated!</p>
<p>Yes you do have a chance. Take a fifth year if you like, but use it for more than just studying. Use it to increase the strength and breadth of your resume.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response. That’s what I intend to do - how much volunteer / health based E.C. is generally good to have?</p>
<p>Yeah, I feel your pain. My cousin is applying there this year (taking the MCAT in a few days in fact), so I have an idea as to the difficulty of the MCAT and such. </p>
<p>Fortunately, I come from a relatively wealthy family who will help pay for some of the fees, so my primary goal is just to be accepted as of now.</p>
<p>As much as possible, there is no magic number.</p>
<p>Makes sense.</p>
<p>Would you say my chances are decent provided I manage to bring it up above a 3.50? (mathematically, a 3.60ish would be possible for about 6 undergrad years if I choose to go that far). I know you can’t give a definite answer, but I just would like some perspectives to decide if it’s worth going 100% towards medical school. </p>
<p>On top of that, I want to do some medicine related volunteer work to help bolster my resume, though the aspect of my resume that I fear will be most lacking will be my GPA.</p>
<p>If my odds aren’t very good, I may have to consider an alternative (engineering is another one I’m considering) that will be more stable. I am willing to invest everything I have into getting into med-school provided it won’t prove to be an overtly risky path (I know of many people who couldn’t get into a medical school and was stuck with a degree that they didn’t know what to do with).</p>
<p>Miscalculated, I meant a 3.65ish if I can maintain a 3.8 for my remaining undergrad college career (5 years total)</p>
<p>No one can give you (good) chances without an MCAT score, too - GPA simply isn’t enough.</p>
<p>But assuming you get a 3.65 and an MCAT score in the low- to mid-thirties, you should have a decent chance, as much as anyone else with those stats. You may have to explain your fifth year and you absolutely will be expected to have done something good with your time. I would also strongly encourage you to bulk up your resume outside of academics - you’ll want strong ECs and/or strong research, depending on your interests.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. </p>
<p>I understand that nobody can give me (good) chances, I am just looking for estimations at this point, even if they aren’t 100% accurate (which they obviously will not be) as well as things I can do to make myself more competitive. As you can probably tell, I’m not the most knowledgeable as to what med schools expect and look for in applicants.</p>
<p>I do intend to speak with an advisor, but I’ve been pretty busy as of lately.</p>
<p>And I do plan on doing a significant amount of volunteer work if I choose to pursue medical school. </p>
<p>More input would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>This exercise is totally useless without an MCAT score. Your chances range from basically 0 (less than 27) to probably around 80% (38+).</p>
<p>Okay, let’s say I get the average, which is a 33 or so. I’m only a Sophomore, so I’m a ways away from taking it. </p>
<p>I just want to know if, given I do everything, if it’s a decent chance. If I only have, say, a 20% chance of being admitted even if I do everything I need to do, then I’m probably not going to bother and go for a more practical career (something like 20% just isn’t good enough for me to base my future on it). Now, if I have a decent chance provided I do what I need to do, then I’ll go for it full throttle.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response though, every little bit helps. </p>
<p>I’m not asking if I WILL get into medical school, just if it’s practical given I do what is necessary.</p>
<p>The average MCAT score is a 24. In that case, your chances would be 0.</p>
<p>Alright, I’ll rephrase that, what’s the minimum MCAT that would be competitive with a 3.6 or so GPA for most M.D. schools to at least give me better chance of being admitted than not? </p>
<p>Again, I know this is just a vague estimate, and I’m not asking for more than that. I just need a little bit of guidance.</p>
<p>Competitive? Probably around a 32 or so. Depends heavily on what your EC’s are like.</p>
<p>Thanks. I have a good 3 years to go in my undergrad, so I’ll be sure to get as much volunteer stuff among other E.C.s done as possible. If I have a decent chance of pulling it off, I plan on going for it all out.</p>
<p>Any other people have any input? </p>
<p>I appreciate those who have already responded, I would just like to get as many different people’s perspectives. Thanks.</p>
<p>You’re not getting helpful responses because the question is impossible to answer. You have 3/8s of your GPA and no MCAT score. We’d also need to have a list of your ECs, a writing sample, a video of an interview, and letters of recommendation from your professor. More, we’d need to know when you plan to have these things ready.</p>
<p>Any one of those items can absolutely destroy an application. (That is, make your chances of admission 0%.) Without them – and in particular without a real MCAT score – the exercise is utterly useless.</p>
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<p>As I said before, your chances are somewhere between 0 and 80% right now. No sane poster is going to be able to give you a more precise estimate than that.</p>