Worries about prereq grades

[birchtree47]

Hello everyone, hope you guys are doing well So, I just rounded out the second half of my sophomore year and am looking back at my GPA. At the moment, my GPA is a 3.805, and will either be a 3.8229 or a 3.8035 depending on what I get in this one liberal arts class. Although I recognize that this GPA isn't super low or anything, the one thing bringing it down are my science prerequisite courses. The courses that I did not get A's in are : gen chem 1 (B+), gen bio 1 (B+), and gen chem 2 (A-), ochem 1 (B+) and this one writing course (B+). Anyway, besides these prereqs and that one writing course, I have gotten A's in my other classes. My question is: how much do adcoms really look at the grades in prerequisite courses? The number one piece of advice I got going in to college is to get good grades in my prereq courses as that is what will matter in the end. Of course, I'm going to try as hard as I can to get A's in ochem 2 and physics next semester (it will be tough), but other than that I really don't know what else to do. Should I be really worried about science pre-reqs or just try to do well overall? Part of my worry is that I am not in a science major, or something where lower grades will be expected, such as biomedical engineering.

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[deleted889094]

JSYK, it's just 3 sig figs for GPA's

 

[Goro]

Hello everyone, hope you guys are doing well So, I just rounded out the second half of my sophomore year and am looking back at my GPA. At the moment, my GPA is a 3.805, and will either be a 3.8229 or a 3.8035 depending on what I get in this one liberal arts class. Although I recognize that this GPA isn't super low or anything, the one thing bringing it down are my science prerequisite courses. The courses that I did not get A's in are : gen chem 1 (B+), gen bio 1 (B+), and gen chem 2 (A-), ochem 1 (B+) and this one writing course (B+). Anyway, besides these prereqs and that one writing course, I have gotten A's in my other classes. My question is: how much do adcoms really look at the grades in prerequisite courses? The number one piece of advice I got going in to college is to get good grades in my prereq courses as that is what will matter in the end. Of course, I'm going to try as hard as I can to get A's in ochem 2 and physics next semester (it will be tough), but other than that I really don't know what else to do. Should I be really worried about science pre-reqs or just try to do well overall? Part of my worry is that I am not in a science major, or something where lower grades will be expected, such as biomedical engineering.

It is a sad and common pre-med delusion that one has to ace your pre-reqs. No med school expects a 4.0 GPA.

Please spread the word.

And do not focus on single metrics, either.

 

[KnightDoc]

Hello everyone, hope you guys are doing well So, I just rounded out the second half of my sophomore year and am looking back at my GPA. At the moment, my GPA is a 3.805, and will either be a 3.8229 or a 3.8035 depending on what I get in this one liberal arts class. Although I recognize that this GPA isn't super low or anything, the one thing bringing it down are my science prerequisite courses. The courses that I did not get A's in are : gen chem 1 (B+), gen bio 1 (B+), and gen chem 2 (A-), ochem 1 (B+) and this one writing course (B+). Anyway, besides these prereqs and that one writing course, I have gotten A's in my other classes. My question is: how much do adcoms really look at the grades in prerequisite courses? The number one piece of advice I got going in to college is to get good grades in my prereq courses as that is what will matter in the end. Of course, I'm going to try as hard as I can to get A's in ochem 2 and physics next semester (it will be tough), but other than that I really don't know what else to do. Should I be really worried about science pre-reqs or just try to do well overall? Part of my worry is that I am not in a science major, or something where lower grades will be expected, such as biomedical engineering.

They DO care about your science GPA as well as your overall GPA. If you are not a science major, what other science classes will you have (if any), and what is your science GPA to date? It sounds like you are probably fine, but, if you are not URM, you should be shooting for 3.7+ in both cGPA and sGPA, since these are the averages of admitted students. Of course you can be successful with GPAs below average, but the further below you go, the harder it is!

 

[birchtree47]

They DO care about your science GPA as well as your overall GPA. If you are not a science major, what other science classes will you have (if any), and what is your science GPA to date? It sounds like you are probably fine, but, if you are not URM, you should be shooting for 3.7+ in both cGPA and sGPA, since these are the averages of admitted students. Of course you can be successful with GPAs below average, but the further below you go, the harder it is!

Ah got it, my science GPA is a 3.76, but that includes relatively easy classes in my opinion such as statistics and gen chem & bio lab. Well, they were easy at my school at least. I've taken all the gen chem/bio courses as well as genetics. Also, I still have a good amount of classes to take lol so it may be too early to talk. Time to try to conquer physics/biochem/ochem 2

 

[KnightDoc]

Ah got it, my science GPA is a 3.76, but that includes relatively easy classes in my opinion such as statistics and gen chem & bio lab. Well, they were easy at my school at least. I've taken all the gen chem/bio courses as well as genetics. Also, I still have a good amount of classes to take lol so it may be too early to talk. Time to try to conquer physics/biochem/ochem 2

That's good. As far as I know, those are the two grade metrics they focus on. They don't go line by line studying how you do in each prereq. Plenty of people bomb classes like orgo and still get in. I think you're totally fine, at least grade-wise!!

 

[LaughingGas10]

That's good. As far as I know, those are the two grade metrics they focus on. They don't go line by line studying how you do in each prereq. Plenty of people bomb classes like orgo and still get in. I think you're totally fine, at least grade-wise!!

I agree, for the first review of application the two most important academic metrics are GPA and MCAT, for schools which are deluged with thousands of applicants, and need to cull some of the herd.

Once you get to the interview stage, the importance of GPA and MCAT does fade and the other metrics start taking more prominence.