Any 3.3 GPA and under with Interview Invites?

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LostinLift

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Similar to the Low MCAT thread, does anyone with under a 3.3 GPA (or close) have any interview invites yet?

We could all use a little inspiration :)

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3.36 sgpa and 3.5 cgpa if that counts
Interviewed at my state school!

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Similar to the Low MCAT thread, does anyone with under a 3.3 GPA (or close) have any interview invites yet?

We could all use a little inspiration :)

Yes. :) 3.1ish with two invites. One at a newish school in Michigan and one at Albany! Couldn't be happier (with the exception of more invites or an acceptance... :p). I just made sure to rock the MCAT and apply super early.

Hope there are more of us out there!
 
Yes. :) 3.1ish with two invites. One at a newish school in Michigan and one at Albany! Couldn't be happier (with the exception of more invites or an acceptance... :p). I just made sure to rock the MCAT and apply super early.

Hope there are more of us out there!

congrats! how did you do on the MCAT?
 
Thank you! I got a 36 on the MCAT... but it was also my third time taking in as many years (27 --> 29 --> 36), so it may not be as good as it looks if schools average :)
 
Thank you! I got a 36 on the MCAT... but it was also my third time taking in as many years (27 --> 29 --> 36), so it may not be as good as it looks if schools average :)

congrats! imo, that shows major determination and courage. well done.
 
3.3 cGPA/3.2 sGPA here with an interview at my state MD school back in September. Hoping for a couple more at some point. I've had a lot of rejections though, which is to be expected.
 
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CA resident with <3.3 science and cum GPA + nothing special MCAT (edited to spare people asking: balanced 33)

Also, let me head off the questions: definitely NOT URM, and 3.9 postbacc that covered all pre-req's.

~10 interviews, including multiple top XYZ (insert your own arbitrary cutoff "amazing" ranking here).

Multiple acceptances

I say this to give people hope - there is nothing that makes sense about this process, and one can only wait and let it play out.
 
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Undergrad GPA's: 3.3 science, 3.3 overall.
MCAT: 30 S
Graduate GPA: 3.8+

Two interviews. Both were OOS MD.
 
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3.3/3.1, 1MD OOS interview so far! Also many rejections, but I'm hoping for at least one more II.
 
3.2 cgpa, 2.9 bcpm, 3.65 SMP, 31Q MCAT, great EC, great LOR, non-URM

3 interview invites, 2 IS, 1 OOS. Still waiting on many schools
 
any way u guys could include the schools to help those of us applying in the future with similar stats know where to try? thank you all and I hope you all get in somewhere! good luck!
 
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Six so far. See stats on MDApps. I'd rather not share which schools.
 
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any way u guys could include the schools to help those of us applying in the future with similar stats know where to try? thank you all and I hope you all get in somewhere! good luck!

Respectfully, you're doing this all wrong. The MSAR has average stats for every school, and a 3.3 is not average ANYWHERE - Puerto Rico perhaps excepted (I don't know and won't bother to look). Asking for which schools we applied to is like asking what the weather was like yesterday - informative but not predictive.

See my next post.
 
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This is directed at those with below-average to average numbers.
Let me first say, though, that THE IMPORTANCE OF NUMBERS IS WILDLY OVERSTATED ON SDN.

Let me say second, however, that in the aggregate numbers do not lie - that is to say, when you see that your GPA or MCAT is at or below a school's median, you (somewhat obviously) have a less than par chance at that school. If you're below their 10th percentile, know that your application fee is essentially a lottery ticket.

This brings up a key point: while most lottery tickets don't pay off, some do.

Approaching the application process from the beginning...

Do everything in your power to maximize the quantitative elements of your application. In theory, one would "like" to have a 3.7+ and a 35+. These represent "price of entry" numbers for most of the top 10/15/20/(upper-echelon) schools.

If you had those numbers, however, you wouldn't be reading a post about "Advice for the Marginal Applicant". I think of marginal applicants as the folks who are just as likely to get 0 acceptances as 5+. These are the sorry souls that wind up doing SMPs. These are people whose numbers are not getting them in nor keeping them out of most schools: numbers that do not elicit golf claps (positive or sarcastic) from AdComs - let's say something like an MCAT of 30-33, GPA of 3.2-3.5 (which implies a LizzyM of about 62-68).

And children, before you get riled up, these are not hard and fast cutoffs, nor even vaguely scientific. You'll see that this is an overarching theme of this post - there is nothing strictly quantitative nor scientific about this process. Embracing this (or at least accepting it), not venting blind impotent rage online, is the key to success and mental health.

So how does that marginal applicant work to enhance the odds that they are in the cohort of marginal applicants that winds up with an acceptance (or multiple acceptances)?

1) Have the requisite amount of direct contact with medicine. This is something on the order of 30 hours of physician shadowing in addition to clinical volunteering (with all of the highly variable settings and roles that the phrase entails) that lasts longer than one year. This is a checkbox to fill in the admissions rubric, and you can not afford to be missing any of these "must haves". Crucially, having 3000 hours of shadowing is likely of very little marginal value beyond something like 60. Put this time to other, more productive, use.

2) Stay involved during your application year. Get in to some research, take a job at a senior center, etc. etc. etc. Do ANYTHING scientifically, medically, or socially meaningful that allows you to show that gaining admission is a full-time endeavor for you, not just a punctuation mark in life. This has the added benefit of potentially generating "updates" for you to send to schools later in the season.

3) Do something you genuinely care about. I meet so many people and read so many posts asking essentially, "what should I do to game the system?". The truth is that the system is smarter than you, in aggregate. The best secondary/interview answers and LOR's come from situations and opportunities that you are genuinely passionate about. Instead of coming on SDN and asking "ED volunteer, EMT, or CNA cert?", take the time to do some genuine introspection. You may find that there is something you'd actually enjoy doing that has a tie - even if peripheral - to medicine. This is the experience that you should pursue, or create.

4) Don't be a child. This is different - importantly - than not being young. You can't help your age, but you can change your approach to life. Understand that you, as an (nearly) adult, are allowed (and should) have multiple facets to your personality, interests, and lifestyle. I'm not saying don't go out and have fun on a Saturday. What I AM saying is: cultivate a responsible public face. Learn how to effectively and professionally interface with anyone: 5 year olds, contemporaries, 50 year olds, and the elderly. Force yourself out of your comfort zone regularly and be honest with how others see you.

5) Apply wisely. This is the key&#8230; and it's not what anyone else has suggested.

Create your application budget. You have ancillary costs, primaries, secondaries, and interview travel. Hold perhaps $1500-$2K back for interview costs if you are casting a wide geographical net.

The first, and most often overlooked, step of the admissions process is early research. These are your ancillary costs. Buy the MSAR. Buy USNEWS. Read a ton of school's websites.

The purpose of this first step is to identify three broad classes of schools:

-Those you would love to attend.
-Those that you would attend.
-Those that you would not like to attend (the kind of schools that you just think "oh&#8230;.um, no" about)

Notice I did not say anything about figuring out which schools match your statistics. At this point, you should be concerned with things like:

-Geography (family, SO, etc.)
-Mission (don't be one of the hundreds of lower-stat people that apply to Meharry, only to find out later than Meharry has lower average numbers because of a strong institutional mission that you have no interest in or connection to).
-Unique elements of the curriculum that speak to your past experiences and or future goals (dual degree strength, global health, etc.)

If you have more than 10 schools on your "would love to attend" list, YOU DO NOT HAVE A STRONG ENOUGH PERSONAL VISION FOR YOUR MEDICAL EDUCATION. I say this for one reason: as a marginal applicant, you will need to do everything in your power to differentiate yourself as an applicant. Your "perfect match" schools should speak strongly to your personal interests, goals, desires, and strengths, and there just can't be THAT many schools that do. If you find that this list is rather long, it is time to go back to the well and refine your personal mission statement.

(Let me digress for a moment and reinforce that this is the most important piece of advice I can give you here: the marginal applicant must have a strong and well justified - through activities and accomplishments - personal "brand". Consumer brands are built over time and with clarity and purpose. Do the same for your application.)

Apply to every school on your "love to attend" list regardless of their/your numbers (again WITH THE CAVEAT that these schools should be "brand" matches. If you are a marginal stats applicant and your 10 "love to attend" are every one - or even half of - the top 10 schools, you are delusional and have not grasped the essence of what I'm communicating to you here. Either that or you're a California applicant trying to stay close to home. In that case, godspeed.).

Figure out how much of your application budget you have left, and begin to work down your list of "would attend" schools. I suggest applying to all of them.

Again (this is broken record time): none of this has to do with the school's numbers or your own. You are applying to schools that appeal to you in literally every other dimension BUT numbers.

Have I stressed enough that this is not about numbers? Are all of you NOT applying to RFMS, Georgetown, BU, etc? Good. You absolutely CAN throw your money away with eight thousand or more fellow applicants (and if funds are unlimited, you should), but you're smarter than that. You're an informed marginal applicant.

That said, if you are like, "I am a Jesuit and I want to be a Jesuit doctor", and that's REAL, then you SHOULD be applying to Georgetown, SLU, Creighton, etc... Point being, again: you're never applying anywhere because of a stats match but because it matches your personal brand and criteria.

6) Apply early. What is early? Within a week of AMCAS opening. You have so much time to prepare for your application that there is simply no excuse in this regard. Start working on your PS months in advance. Line up your letters well in advance - this is a notorious rate-limiter.

If you are not able to finish your (strongly composed) application in time, wait a year.

7) Pre-write your secondaries. Even better, write them early enough that you have time to finish them and then revisit/edit them. Every applicant has the story of re-reading a secondary later in the cycle and going "wait, WHAT?!?!". You want to avoid that feeling AFTER the secondary is submitted.

7a) If you don't have real-world life experience (not a knock on the traditionals, just something about which one should be self-aware), have someone who hires/fires/interviews people read all of your work and give you a reality check on tone and composition. Trust me, people never get to your resume if the cover letter isn't tight and compelling. The same holds true here.

8) Do not waste any of the interviews that you land - your first one can't be "practice". This requires practice/experience. Find a resource - your school's career center, objective third parties (PI's, GSI's, etc.), and make them ask you all of the standard questions. Similarly, use the SDN interview feedback tool and troll for past questions. I had one interview that was literally straight off the page from the interview feedback.

9) Find space in your life for honest self-assessment. There are so many people on here who I can only assume are entitled, whining, know-nothings.

Many premeds live life trying to step on other people's necks just to grab the next rung of the ladder. Don't be these people. While this works for some number of people - generally those who didn't need to do it in the first place, ironically - for most it creates a vicious cycle of misanthropy and smug certainty that those below you got there because they weren't as good, NOT because your sociopathic self put them there.

Competence combined with kindness is generally rewarded. And you get to sleep really well at night.

Anyway, to wrap this polemic up: We all remember our parents telling us (in response to some perceived injustice), "YEAH? WELL LIFE ISN'T FAIR!!!".

Well guys, it both is and isn't. There's a little bit of luck involved, no doubt, but most success in life comes down to working hard, smiling a lot (and usually meaning it), and finding the sweet spot on the continuum of confident and humble.

Having a genuinely positive outlook (hard as it is - TRUST ME I get it), being kind to people even when you don't "need" to be, and trying to just generally be a good person goes so far in this world that you can't even imagine it until you start living it.

Good luck, all.
 
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Just got accepted to George Washington this morning.

KEEP YO HEADS UP UNDERDOGS THIS IS SO POSSIBLE!! :)
 
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OK GUYS!

So my sGPA is less than 3.3, my cGPA is less than 3.5. Just got accepted to George Washington this morning, in addition to 5 other MD IIs.

I'm non-URM, non-disadvantaged, and a traditional applicant. KEEP YO HEADS UP UNDERDOGS THIS IS SO POSSIBLE!! :)

what was your MCAT? Congrats on GWU and your 5 II!!! :OOO

Any other tips? I don't fall in the < 3.3 GPA camp but GWU is a school I'd love to go to and 5 II is really awesome
 
2.9 c/ 2.5 s, 29 mcat

4 II's (3 MD)

Whoa! :eek:

This just caught my eye. I recall there being GPA cutoffs at 3.0. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe that isn't for all schools.
 
3.3 cgpa, 3.2 sgpa, 31 MCAT

3 iis, (2 DO, 1 MD). If I can get a few, so can you!
 
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what was your MCAT? Congrats on GWU and your 5 II!!! :OOO

Any other tips? I don't fall in the < 3.3 GPA camp but GWU is a school I'd love to go to and 5 II is really awesome
Thanks :) MCAT 33, balanced

This is pure speculation, but I think it helped my app to be very specific about the reasons I thought they would be a good fit for me. I tried to do that on my secondaries, and at my interviews. I named specific programs at the school, faculty whose work I was interested in, etc. Also, be able to back up why you're interested in those programs via the things on your resume.

Again, pure speculation about why they might have liked my app, but that's my best guess!
 
My overall GPA is 3.3 and I have an ii to Loma Linda.
 
Whoa! :eek:

This just caught my eye. I recall there being GPA cutoffs at 3.0. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe that isn't for all schools.

3.0 is a hard cutoff score, if your school of choice were in the world of SDN.

Not every school has a cutoff at all, and many more are trying to take the time to really look at the applicant's entire life picture... thank goodness. ;)
I just made sure to talk with admissions directors about my history and application before applying to see if it was even worth it at their school. :D
 
My cGPA varies from app service to app service but for AMCAS it is well under 3.3 with my sGPA a bit north of 3.3 and I just got an OOS MD acceptance this year. I'm non-URM, didn't claim disadvantaged, have a balanced 34 MCAT, solid-great ECs, 4.0 postbacc, a previous successful career and interviewed well. I wasn't a legacy and had no special connections or anything else that gave me "an in."

I think the AAMC chart put me just under 50/50 odds. It is possible guys.
 
And just like Twins Fan above... I had a second bachelor's and a masters with excellent GPA's, great EC's, a currently successful career, and fairly good at interviews. They were able to look past previous academic indiscretions for which I am grateful.
 
2.67c/2.51s, 39 MCAT

1 MD acceptance!

(p.s., 4.0 MS, great ECs, etc., but it can be done)
 
I have a 3.29sci/3.4cum/31...no II's yet (except for Ross)...but how long does it usually take to hear back about an interview after you submit secondary?
 
I have a 3.29sci/3.4cum/31...no II's yet (except for Ross)...but how long does it usually take to hear back about an interview after you submit secondary?
We have super similar stats so I'll weigh in, in case it helps: my fastest turnover from secondary submission to II was a little less than 2 weeks, my slowest was 2 months (so far). But I submitted my app the day AMCAS opened, so I think the times will lag depending on when you submitted your primary and when your LORs got in.
 
I think my cGPA is around 3.3, and my sGPA is a little higher, with a 34 MCAT. I only have one MD interview so far (Wakeforest as OOS!), but I also applied relatively late with many of my applications complete mid-late September, and a few in October. You guys are giving me hope that I might still have a shot at others despite the silence.
 
OK GUYS!

So my sGPA is less than 3.3, my cGPA is less than 3.5. Just got accepted to George Washington this morning, in addition to 5 other MD IIs.

I'm non-URM, non-disadvantaged, and a traditional applicant. KEEP YO HEADS UP UNDERDOGS THIS IS SO POSSIBLE!! :)

congrats! Did you happen to have amazing ECs and/or a unique story?
 
3.28 in UG/3.85 Graduate/32 MCAT and I have had 1 II.
 
3.4c/3.3s

6II (5MD) All Texas.

But having a high SMP gpa offsets that. I only bring this up so people won't be mislead.

If you have low gpas (and I consider myself in that category), then you need to have something strong to compensate for it.

My general opinion is that Med Schools are looking to select the best candidates all around, and a key aspect are your numbers. You need to give them a reason to accept you, because you already gave them a reason to reject you.
 
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But having a high SMP gpa offsets that. I only bring this up so people won't be mislead.

If you have low gpas (and I consider myself in that category), then you need to have something strong to compensate for it.

My general opinion is that Med Schools are looking to select the best candidates all around, and a key aspect are your numbers. You need to give them a reason to accept them, because you already gave them a reason to reject you.

I like that line. It's very true... you need to show them an awful lot of good stuff and sell yourself as a well-rounded person to have any chance of making up for what could be a deal-buster otherwise.
 
3.0 is a hard cutoff score, if your school of choice were in the world of SDN.

Not every school has a cutoff at all, and many more are trying to take the time to really look at the applicant's entire life picture... thank goodness. ;)
I just made sure to talk with admissions directors about my history and application before applying to see if it was even worth it at their school. :D

Wow! You did not do any post-bacc at all...
 
But having a high SMP gpa offsets that. I only bring this up so people won't be mislead.

If you have low gpas (and I consider myself in that category), then you need to have something strong to compensate for it.

My general opinion is that Med Schools are looking to select the best candidates all around, and a key aspect are your numbers. You need to give them a reason to accept you, because you already gave them a reason to reject you.

True. A lot of schools regard SMP as having some level of grade inflation, while others tend to disregard them often.

There are schools that value higher uGPAs since theres about 120-140 credit hours over 4 years versus the 35-40 in a typical one year SMP.

But yes, my SMP GPA is 3.87
 
Wow! You did not do any post-bacc at all...

Actually, I did do a type of post-back (I think you were asking a question, correct?)

I had a terrible first bachelor's degree experience, took some time off, did another bachelor's and then a master's.... my last two degrees were with great GPA's.

Ultimately I don't think it's so much of what your stats are. It really comes down to proving to the adcoms that you can pass their program, that you can do well on standardized exams, that you'll make a good doctor, and that you're someone they'd like to be around as a colleague. Do all of that however you want, and you'll get looked at.
 
3.22uGPA/3.1 sGPA
10 II, all US, MD.

it can be done! best of luck to everyone applying in this position
 
It honestly seems a lot easier to get into med shool these days both MD and DO. Must have something to do with all the schools being built and class sizes expanding. I remember a couple yeas ago, a 24 was on the low side for DO now 22 MCATS are being accepted no prob. Definitely one of the easier times in recent American history to become a doctor. Take advantage kids.
 
It honestly seems a lot easier to get into med shool these days both MD and DO. Must have something to do with all the schools being built and class sizes expanding. I remember a couple yeas ago, a 24 was on the low side for DO now 22 MCATS are being accepted no prob. Definitely one of the easier times in recent American history to become a doctor. Take advantage kids.

I don't know about that; average MCAT scores at almost all schools have been increasing in recent years. Maybe getting into new schools has given people opportunities that they wouldn't have otherwise had, but I think acceptance into a more established program is still pretty difficult.
 
3.45 cGPA/3.3 sGPA accepted for MD! It can be done!
 
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Congrats, Kairos!

3.06 (3.14 AACOMAS) just accepted at MSU-COM today as well... so there's always hope to be a doctor no matter how scared your GPA makes you. :clap: I do really hope that my two MD interviews to-date pan out, but I am otherwise super excited to have an acceptance at my #1 DO choice.
 
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3.37 cGPA, 3.10 sGPA, 2 MD II, 4 DO II (2 DO acceptances). And my MCAT is 31, which is still perfectly average. Don't give up!
 
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