Sub 3.0 GPA Admitted to MD/DO School

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FlyLite

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Looking at the AAMC data, it looks like over 1100 (about 10% of applicants with such stats) made into MD/DO school between 2008-2010. I have read that most schools screen out GPA's below 3.0. I am wondering what could have helped with these applicants to get through the filters and get accepted? I know some have high MCAT score, but there are also a lot with MCAT scores between 15 and 30. The data I am talking about are available here.
(https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/)

Any opinions?

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Looking at the AAMC data, it looks like over 1100 (about 10% of applicants with such stats) made into MD/DO school between 2008-2010. I have read that most schools screen out GPA's below 3.0. I am wondering what could have helped with these applicants to get through the filters and get accepted? I know some have high MCAT score, but there are also a lot with MCAT scores between 15 and 30. The data I am talking about are available here.
(https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/)

Any opinions?

I am just guessing but I would say either:

A SMP

A PhD

Connections
 
Looking at the AAMC data, it looks like over 1100 (about 10% of applicants with such stats) made into MD/DO school between 2008-2010. I have read that most schools screen out GPA's below 3.0. I am wondering what could have helped with these applicants to get through the filters and get accepted? I know some have high MCAT score, but there are also a lot with MCAT scores between 15 and 30. The data I am talking about are available here.
(https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/)

Any opinions?

From someone who's in the demographic you're asking about...

1. Fit to Mission.
A school might want to only turn out physicians who want to stay in that state, or turn out physicians who want to practice rural and underserved medicine, or do mission medicine. If you express the same goals as the medical school that you are applying to, they will be much more receptive to you. For example, the mission of the medical school I will be attending explicitly says that they teach physicians who want to practice in rural and underserved communities of their state, which I want to do.

By the way, this in no way cements you to family practice. Rural towns need neurosurgeons and cardiologists just as much as they need pediatricians, and schools understand this. Nor can the medical school dictate your chosen specialty. Just rock the boards and you can match to whatever you want. I'm not saying lie to the medical school, I didn't, but also don't be worried about changing your mind if 4th year comes and you decide you want to be a plastic surgeon.

2. Fit to Curriculum/Atmosphere.
While not as important, this one is definitely considered by adcoms. Did you apply to a lecture-based school or to a problem-based learning (PBL) school? Schools who have PBL do a lot of group study, so they're going to be looking for people who can get along and work well with others, as well as people who can teach themselves and love to read. They want to hear about how you love teamwork and a close-knit atmosphere. PBL schools want to know that you're the type of person who can thrive in that environment, because it's not for everyone.

3. State Residency.
You'll always have the best chance of getting into medical school in your own state (except CA?), so always apply to schools close to you. Some schools only take in-state students, and some cap the amount of out-of-state students they take at a low percentage (5-15% or so). This is good news for in-state students. Schools who do this probably want their graduates to also practice in their state, so if that's something you're interested in, make sure the school knows it. Put it in your secondary or bring it up in the interview.

4. Life Experience.
This matters! Admissions committees at every school try to make the class as diverse as possible. This includes things like race, age, and sex, but also experiences...I used to develop software for medical practices and hospitals...that's not clinical experience per se, but it's relevant and unique! I probably know the day-to-day of a private practice doctor better than they do :) Uniqueness is what you want to convey. Mention time spent in the military or teaching or nursing or whatever. Talk about your background and why you decided to make the switch. 90% of each of my 5 interviews were spent talking about my last career and the switch, not about grades or MCAT or shadowing or volunteering. No one even asked about my research. Interviewers talk to 500 people a semester all about the same things. They'll welcome your different perspective.

5. Workload.
If you're coming from a low GPA situation, you need to prove that you can handle the workload of medical school by doing post-bacc classes, formal or informal. But don't do too much that you end up failing a class or getting a C. Make sure you can get a least a B (really you need A's) in your classes. Don't just take your pre-reqs, show that you can also shadow and volunteer at the same time and still make A's.

It doesn't prove much to an admissions committee if you only take 2 classes and get A's in them both. Anybody can do that. What will impress a committee is if you're taking 2 classes while working full-time and volunteering or shadowing at the hospital at night and still get A's. I didn't work full-time, so I chose to take 5-6 classes at a time while volunteering, shadowing, doing research, etc. Point is, make yourself busy (but not too busy that you fail at everything). Don't just stroll through this process if you can help it. You have to do something to let them know that low GPA isn't reflective of you any longer...you're a hard worker now.

6. The Interview.
I hope you get this far. If you do, it means that the school thinks that your numbers are ok enough to be accepted. They just want to see if the person on paper matches up with the person in real life. Be nice to everyone. Smile and have a good time. SDN has a good interview feedback section, so take advantage of it. Educate yourself about the school and what they're looking for. Use common sense - If you are interviewing at a school whose goal is to put out primary care physicians, don't go in and say that you want to be a pediatric neurosurgeon. Ask questions - it shows interest and gives the interviewers a better idea of what is important to you. Again, make sure that the interviewer knows that your goals are aligned with the goals of their school.

7. Timing.
APPLY EARLY. Start your AMCAS when it opens around May 1. Submit it June 1. PERIOD.
 
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From someone who's in the demographic you're asking about...

Lots of good info especially on the PBL/Lecture based schools. I will have to look into that because it will be important to me.

But going back to my question; my understanding of the 3.0 cutoff is that you are not even going to get to the point where ADCOMS look at other factors they are looking for in applicants... life experience, areas of interest etc. Now there may be other factors like eamericana said, but I am lead to believe that in general < 3.0 GPA goes into the "do even look at pile".
 
Lots of good info especially on the PBL/Lecture based schools. I will have to look into that because it will be important to me.

But going back to my question; my understanding of the 3.0 cutoff is that you are not even going to get to the point where ADCOMS look at other factors they are looking for in applicants... life experience, areas of interest etc. Now there may be other factors like eamericana said, but I am lead to believe that in general < 3.0 GPA goes into the "do even look at pile".

Since DO does grade replacement I wasn't < 3.0 for them, so I can't comment. But I know they do look more at the whole applicant.

I did get 2 MD interviews out of 4 MD schools I applied to. One OOS school screened me out, no secondary (U of Illinois). The other 3 sent me a secondary but I didn't fill out one of them.

It's completely possible that some schools won't even look at you at all if you're under a 3.0, but some definitely do (I'm living proof). It's really up to the school and short of calling each one, you may never know which will and won't. But they may see post-bacc or graduate work and won't automatically reject your app without further inspection (that's pure speculation on my part). Looking at the two schools' websites I interviewed at, neither of them mention a GPA cutoff, so apply to schools who don't list that specific requirement.

BTW accepted to one MD school and waitlisted at the other. The waitlisted school told me to retake the MCAT and apply Early Decision. They didn't even care about my GPA.

Edit: For some reason, maybe I've been hanging out in pre-allo too much, I feel like I should say I'm non-URM, no connections to anyone at any school
 
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They apply broadly enough to capture a number of schools who don't filter or screen for secondaries, allowing their app to get in the hands of a human being who can recognize a possible asset to the incoming class and give them a harder look.
 
Edit: For some reason, maybe I've been hanging out in pre-allo too much, I feel like I should say I'm non-URM, no connections to anyone at any school

All good info... Good to know nothing is set in stone. I guess the key is to make yourself as competitive as you can get yourself to be and apply broadly and hope that fate favors you. By the way I did split the 1100 matriculants I mention above into URM and Non-URM... its about 2/3 and 1/3 respectively.
 
Bear in mind that how the AAMC calculates GPA and how a given school does may not be the same thing. A few US allo med schools have varying rules as to how they treat eg retakes such that the GPA in AMCAS might not be the GPA the school looks at.

Also someone who aced a SMP and did well at the MCAT might get in despite a low undergrad GPA; This is particularly the case at places with linkage.

And I think a few of the LCME accredited schools like Ponce in Puerto Rico will consider folks with GPAs as low as 2.7. But if you aren't bilingual lots of luck.


Bottom line though is you don't ever want to focus on this kind of stuff. There will always be exceptions to the rule, but that's generally never going to be you-- you will be the rule. So do what you need to to get your GPA up to a point where med schools will give you a fair shake. No shortcuts.
 
Additionally, to what has already been said, I have a PB c/sGPA ~3.9 (~80cr), but my UG cGPA still sucks. So, it's hard to say what might be the case. I was told by my state school that since I have such a long gap from my graduation to now, that my current GPA will be weighted more heavily than my original UG GPA... we'll see... my fingers are crossed ;) I'm not sub 3, but basically 3...
 
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