CA resident, worried about gpa

Hi everyone, I'm currently a senior biochemistry/psych major at UC Berkeley, with a 3.6 sGPA, 3.6 cGPA (first couple years at Cal were kind of rough, a lot of bumps here and there)...but with an upward trend my past two semesters (3.85 average in upper div courses), hoping to maintain this GPA for senior year.

35S on the MCAT (12PS 11V 12BS) along with decent experiences: 4 summers volunteering at a medical center all during HS, executive leadership on student clubs; broad, clinically relevant research for the past 2 years (Alzheimers and cognitive neuroscience & aging), summer internship with Bayer Healthcare, doing protein purification in their drug development sciences department...not toooo much strict "clinical" work....(no shadowing I guess)

I'm a bit shaky on the Letter of Recs, just cuz I never go to office hours, don't really ask too many questions...hopefully I can get some decent ones...but I am planning on applying after senior year...looking to stay in CA for med school, either that or east coast, NY area schools (aiming high I guess?)...all this LizzyM and GPA stuff is getting to me, and admittedly I am a "weak" premed when it comes to judging and understanding the playing field when it comes to med schools and their requirements...but how will the 3.6 GPA and a middling first couple years in college (3.2ish GPA for some semesters) hurt me for top programs? I don't mean the harvards or the yales and JHU's, but the UCSD's, UCLA, cornells? What about if I decided for MD/PhD, MD/Masters programs?

imcanadaian said:

Hi everyone, I'm currently a senior biochemistry/psych major at UC Berkeley, with a 3.6 sGPA, 3.6 cGPA (first couple years at Cal were kind of rough, a lot of bumps here and there)...but with an upward trend my past two semesters (3.85 average in upper div courses), hoping to maintain this GPA for senior year.

35S on the MCAT (12PS 11V 12BS) along with decent experiences: 4 summers volunteering at a medical center all during HS, executive leadership on student clubs; broad, clinically relevant research for the past 2 years (Alzheimers and cognitive neuroscience & aging), summer internship with Bayer Healthcare, doing protein purification in their drug development sciences department...not toooo much strict "clinical" work....(no shadowing I guess)

I'm a bit shaky on the Letter of Recs, just cuz I never go to office hours, don't really ask too many questions...hopefully I can get some decent ones...but I am planning on applying after senior year...looking to stay in CA for med school, either that or east coast, NY area schools (aiming high I guess?)...all this LizzyM and GPA stuff is getting to me, and admittedly I am a "weak" premed when it comes to judging and understanding the playing field when it comes to med schools and their requirements...but how will the 3.6 GPA and a middling first couple years in college (3.2ish GPA for some semesters) hurt me for top programs? I don't mean the harvards or the yales and JHU's, but the UCSD's, UCLA, cornells? What about if I decided for MD/PhD, MD/Masters programs?

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so according to your LizzyM score, you are around a 70, right? CA schools are pretty competitive, but I haven't checked their lizzyM scores. I mean, you stats are fine, nothing that would preclude you from getting looked at on the secondaries. I'm sure you'll get interviews at some CA schools, maybe not UCSF b/c that is a top 5 school nationwide. I think in your case escpecially, it will come down to the quality of your EC's.

I believe you'll get secondaries from the UC's, but due to your gpa, I think the interview invitation will be hard, unless you have excellent EC's & letters of rec. I don't think you can list HS activities, so go out there and volunteer some more. Also, work on the rec letters. Do you think your PI's and bosses will write you a letter? It's better than "So-and-so took my class last semester and got an A. Therefore I recommend him/her."

Today, get a piece of paper, write down three things you wanna do this summer and forward, stick with them, do them very well and get excellent rec letters. If you want more advice, PM me.

What do you guys mean about the "quality" of my EC's? I'm going to say it now, I HAVENT gone to Africa and helped in medical clinics, I haven't shadowed 100+ hours, nor have I started healthcare organizations on campus...and admittedly, I know I haven't done the "typical" clinical experiences of volunteering in hospitals (I did this in HS, so I felt that I had a good feel of what it was like to be in a hospital setting!)

However, I do believe that I've devoted my time and energy wholly into a variety of different things. I've always enjoyed teaching/mentoring, so I've held positions as a campus tutor for Chemistry, as well as a software instructor for UC Berkeley staff, and I serve as mentors for younger college students through the club. I've worked for substantial amounts of time in the two different research labs I've been involved in; the first, my RA is writing and fine tuning the paper we worked on, and the second was with the campus research program where I've helped develop spreadsheets and templates for a big chunk of their data analysis. For 4 years now, I've been involved with an international Christian group and have committed as a student leader for the past 2 years, as well as being on executive leadership in working with the full-time staff. And this summer, as I alluded to, I'm at Bayer Healthcare as an intern, doing a lot of cool stuff....so what do you guys think? how do these EC's stack up to other common EC's people have?

BTW, I think my LizzyM is around a 70, 71 or so....to put things in perspective, UCSD's LizzyM average is 73? Will a 3.6 GPA (versus a 3.7) really hurt me that much?

What about the fact that I'm doing something "different" than all the other premeds (who, frankly, at my school, ALL do the same clubs, volunteer at the SAME medical center for their 1 or 2 semesters, join the requisite red cross clubs, honor societies, etc) I keep struggling with this EC issue because it's not like I'm wasting my time sitting on my butt all day--I've invested myself in things that I enjoy--and my experiences don't become invalid just because they happened when I was 16, 17 yeears old right?

imcanadaian said:

What about the fact that I'm doing something "different" than all the other premeds (who, frankly, at my school, ALL do the same clubs, volunteer at the SAME medical center for their 1 or 2 semesters, join the requisite red cross clubs, honor societies, etc) I keep struggling with this EC issue because it's not like I'm wasting my time sitting on my butt all day--I've invested myself in things that I enjoy--and my experiences don't become invalid just because they happened when I was 16, 17 yeears old right?

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While I agree with you, I think the general rule of thumb is that in order to list high school activities, it has to be something that you continued into college, in a role of increased responsibility. I know, some of this stuff is pretty BS if you ask me, but I guess that is the general thought about high school stuff.