MD & DO Nontrad-ish low uGPA overall, but good sGPA

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I had a rough going of the first two years of undergrad due illness of my childhood best friend/roommate and lack of direction. He is now fine, and as he recovered so did my performance in school once I looked toward medicine (thanks to friend's illness). Turned around from 1st science course forward and sGPA is 3.44 according to AACOMAS, but overall 2.81 .

I worked as an EMT-B and then as a cardiographic technician for two years after that. I'm now in grad school and doing research at a great medical school for Cell biology, I should have a first author publication before leaving, and a grad GPA of 3.5+. Also will be able to get LORs from a med school professor and my PI. Previously took the MCAT and got 25T. I plan on taking them late spring/early summer with more studying this time around, and think I've a good shot at 32+ based on practice exams. Would I have a chance at DO with this cGPA holding me down?

Originally Posted by mfas

I had a rough going of the first two years of undergrad due illness of my childhood best friend/roommate and lack of direction. He is now fine, and as he recovered so did my performance in school once I looked toward medicine (thanks to friend's illness). Turned around from 1st science course forward and sGPA is 3.44 according to AACOMAS, but overall 2.81 .

I worked as an EMT-B and then as a cardiographic technician for two years after that. I'm now in grad school and doing research at a great medical school for Cell biology, I should have a first author publication before leaving, and a grad GPA of 3.5+. Also will be able to get LORs from a med school professor and my PI. Previously took the MCAT and got 25T. I plan on taking them late spring/early summer with more studying this time around, and think I've a good shot at 32+ based on practice exams. Would I have a chance at DO with this cGPA holding me down?

There are some DO med schools with posted cGPA cutoffs of 2.5 and 2.75. I suspect that those successful in applying with such numbers have strong MCAT scores, a steep upward grade trend, and a good story. You could consider doing additional grade replacement to bring your cGPA up to > 3.0 so that you'll have more options. Alternatively, you might call the schools you'd most like to attend and see if they are among those that include the gGPA in their calculation, which might get you over "the hump."

DO GPA cut offs (probably needs updating): http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=7199902&postcount=2

25o, on the mcat, my bad

Yea man a lot of DO schools have the 3.0 cutoff. They won't even send you a secondary, which is kind of a nice compared to MD schools giving you that false sense of hope and give you a secondary no matter what.

Use grade replacement, apply broadly.

cGPA is still too low; you must get it >3.0!

Originally Posted by mfas

I had a rough going of the first two years of undergrad due illness of my childhood best friend/roommate and lack of direction. He is now fine, and as he recovered so did my performance in school once I looked toward medicine (thanks to friend's illness). Turned around from 1st science course forward and sGPA is 3.44 according to AACOMAS, but overall 2.81 .

I worked as an EMT-B and then as a cardiographic technician for two years after that. I'm now in grad school and doing research at a great medical school for Cell biology, I should have a first author publication before leaving, and a grad GPA of 3.5+. Also will be able to get LORs from a med school professor and my PI. Previously took the MCAT and got 25T. I plan on taking them late spring/early summer with more studying this time around, and think I've a good shot at 32+ based on practice exams. Would I have a chance at DO with this cGPA holding me down?

Originally Posted by Goro

cGPA is still too low; you must get it >3.0!

This is frankly quite annoying to think about, no offense to you Goro. I know what you're saying is most likely true, its just painful to hear. I know I am not a unique case with the screwing up early and then showing an upward trend in cGPA, and a solid sGPA. I messed up very bad, in very non pre-med classes. I didn't know I wanted to be a doctor in high school and not many other professions require flawless college performance to further your education. Re-taking classes to recoup my GPA was not economically feasible then, and is not logistically feasible while attending grad school now; nor does it seem sensible. I took those courses almost 7 years ago now, I can't imagine going to community college to retake an introductory writing course at this point in my life, in the name of not being an application that gets weeded out. Its so much time and money right now, just for the sake of looking good on paper! gGPA, so long as its in sciences, should mean so much more than it does.

Sorry for the rant, Goro's response was sort of reality check...guess I'll get back to calling admissions offices and asking their policy on factoring in gGPA

bumping this for another look

my grade trending goes like this
freshman fall: 1.5
freshman spring: 2.0
soph fall: 2.0
soph spring: 2.33
junior fall: 1.94
overall: 2.00 at this point

I didn't take a science course until spring of my junior year, and those terms (taking bio, chem, phys and a few non-science) gpas were

junior spring: 3.43 (bio 1, stats, other science)
senior fall: 3.87 (bio 2, chem 1, non sci)
senior spring: 3.89 (bio 3, orgo 1, sci research, non-sci)
senior 2 fall: 3.25 (bio 4, bio 5, orgo 2, phys 1, bio seminar)
senior 2 spring: 3.69 (bio 6, phys 2, chem 2, non-sci)
senior summer: 3.3 (bio 7)
Overall: 2.81

Grad gpa in cell biology with loads of research and 2 pubs: 3.7

will this make a difference, I know overall looks terrible, but my science really is good. I just want to know if the overall numbers will be over looked with a good trend?