Help & Advice for low GPA and high MCAT?

Hey guys! I'm applying for the 2010 cycle right now. I have a couple of questions, but first, here's my info:

On the one hand, my MCAT score is great. Here's the breakdown:
Biological Sciences: 15
Physical Sciences: 14
Verbal: 13
Writing: P
TOTAL: 42P

On the other hand, my GPA is pretty far down there:
High school dual-credit: 4.0
Freshman year: 3.27
Sophomore year: 3.21
Junior year: 3.15
Senior year: 2.89
TOTAL: 3.20

For what it's worth, I just graduated from Duke University in May, and I double-majored in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering (Duke is ranked #2 for Biomedical Engineering by US News & World Report, and if I recall correctly, it was ranked in the top 20 for Mechanical Engineering up until this year). It probably goes without saying, but Duke engineering is HARD. Only three engineering majors in my entire graduating class (out of 265) managed a 4.0, and I'm fairly sure none of them were double majors. So, in that context, I'm hoping that my GPA might be a little more acceptable to admissions committees.

As far as extracurriculars or leadership roles go, I really haven't had time for anything like that since starting college. However, I have had a research position in a cancer drug discovery lab at Duke for the past two years (part-time during classes, full-time during breaks). Since graduation, I've been working as a medical scribe for a GI doctor at a hospital in Texas, which essentialy entails shadowing, plus writing all the doctor's historys & physicals and procedure notes. In a month, I'm returning to my research position, where I'll be until I (hopefully) go to medical school.

I'm a Texas resident, so of course I'm going to apply to most, if not all, of the TMDSAS schools as my safety schools, but these are the schools I'd really, really love to get into:
Baylor
Case Western
Emory
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Mount Sinai
NYU
Northwestern
Stanford
University of California San Francisco
University of Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt
Washington University
Cornell
Yale

I've picked these schools because they are very strong in research, which is what I want to do. If (and I know this is a big if) it's possible, I'm shooting for acceptance into an MD/PhD program.

I think that pretty much covers it. So, then, here are the questions I have.

- What are my chances of getting into any of the schools on my list, for MD/PhD and for MD alone? Is my GPA a killer blow here, or will my MCAT make up for it?

- Are there any schools on this list that really shouldn't be, if medical/clinical research is what I'm interested in? Also, are there any schools that aren't on this list that really should be?

- I'm not sure how to calculate my science GPA. Since I'm an engineering major, I have a TON of engineering classes and math classes beyond calculus. I've asked whether to include these in my science GPA, and I've gotten yes's and no's. What's the deal here? Edit: Without my engineering classes, my BCPM is 3.21

- I have heard that when AMCAS calculates your GPA, they eliminate +'s and -'s from letter grades. Is this true? I'm pretty sure TMDSAS does eliminate them, but I'm not sure about AMCAS.

Of course, I'd love to have any other advice you guys can give me. And if there's anything I've left out that would make a difference, just let me know and I'll add it.

One more thing: I've taken two design courses where the entire class is one semester-long design and prototyping project. In both of these classes, my team and I have designed and built medical devices which may in the future be developed or incorporated into something that actually sees use in the field. These projects weren't extracurricular, and don't entail any extraordinary honor (every engineer has to take at least one design course). However, since the projects are very medical in nature, and since in doing them, I learned a lot about why I want to be in medicine, I'd really like to include them in my work/activities section on the primary application. Is this a good idea, or do I just run a risk of looking like I'm trying to pad my application?

Oh, and thank you Mobius!

exmissionary said:

now... where is this spreadsheet mentioned above?

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Right here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=527971

Just download and open the Excel file in the first post (the title is School_Selector_2010-2011.xls)







Also, I forgot to ask two questions:

- How far are my college and majors going to go in terms of making my GPA look less terrible? I'm pretty sure I could have gotten a much better GPA at a different school, or with a different major, but I have no idea how much that gets taken into account by medical school admissions.

- On a related note, I have no doubt that the single most common question I'm going to have to face in interviews is going to be some variation on "Why is your GPA so low?". Knowing that, I need to be prepared with an answer, and preferably a GOOD answer. The fact of the matter is, I don't have any obvious explanation aside from the difficulty of my coursework. So, does anybody have any advice as to how I can tactfully and convincingly answer that question? I'm open to any suggestions.

canjosh said:

They really want to make sure you're ready to tackle medical school, and thus expect you to peak academically as you approach graduation. Not the other way around. Adcoms may wonder whether you're burned out with school with your GPA trend.

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That's exactly what I'm most worried about right now. The truth is, while many programs tend to have "weed-out" courses early on, and are more forgiving to the upperclassmen, the attrition rate actually went up every year in my major. Courses just get harder as you go, and they give out fewer and fewer A's. I'd bet quite a bit of money that the vast majority of my classmates also have steadily declining GPA's. But if I say that in an interview, I'll just sound like I'm making excuses.

canjosh said:

That being said, you crushed the MCAT, and I imagine that some schools will forgive your grades to some extent...assuming that you don't have a bunch of Cs or lower. A lot of Bs would be more manageable, IMO. Obviously, you'll have to make the GPA cutoff...which could be a problem at the Ivy leagues, Emory, Baylor, Vandy, etc.

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I'd love to be able to say that I have no C's, but unfortunately I have 3. One in Linear Algebra, one in Partial Differential Equations, and one in Tissue Engineering. And the crappy part is that the first two of those are math courses and go in my sGPA. Fortunately, nothing lower than C's. Are three C's enough to be a major problem?

By the way, what is this GPA cutoff? Is there some official minimum that I have to be above, or is it more of subjective thing?

canjosh said:

I believe your best shot is at one of the public TX schools--apply to all of them.

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I absolutely agree. The public TX schools are my safety schools, though, since none of them are particularly strong in research. (Except UT Southwestern, of course)