2.74 GPA in First Semester. How will this affect my match?

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So I have a 2.74 GPA after completing my first semester of osteopathic medical school. I am not eligible to run for any club postions or leadership roles due to my GPA and it has me down. I am still learning how to study and sometimes struggle with the material.

I am interested in primary care such as FM, IM, or psychiatry. Will these grades affect my ability to match to programs? How important are these preclinical grades as I'm trying my hardest but still doing below average in my class.

 

[68PGunner]

So I have a 2.74 GPA after completing my first semester of osteopathic medical school. I am not eligible to run for any club postions or leadership roles due to my GPA and it has me down. I am still learning how to study and sometimes struggle with the material.

I am interested in primary care such as FM, IM, or psychiatry. Will these grades affect my ability to match to programs? How important are these preclinical grades as I'm trying my hardest but still doing below average in my class.

230+ on your Step 1 will get you solid matches in all three specialties at decent locations. Preclinical grades don’t matter.

 

[Mr. D.O.five]

2.7 isn't even that bad by med school standards haha,

 

[W19]

No one cares...

 

[W19]

230+ on your Step 1 will get you solid matches in all three specialties at decent locations. Preclinical grades don’t matter.

215+ for FM/IM and 225+ for psych due to increased in competitiveness and limited # of spots

 

[BorntobeDO?]

So I have a 2.74 GPA after completing my first semester of osteopathic medical school. I am not eligible to run for any club postions or leadership roles due to my GPA and it has me down. I am still learning how to study and sometimes struggle with the material.

I am interested in primary care such as FM, IM, or psychiatry. Will these grades affect my ability to match to programs? How important are these preclinical grades as I'm trying my hardest but still doing below average in my class.

I know it sucks to feel like your not allowed to 'do' stuff cause your GPA is below 3.0, I mean I was there after 1st semester. But your GPA is doing you a favor, those leadership roles are nothing but distractions. I do want to say something about the GPA tho, you can bounce back. A 2.74 isn't the end of the world. I had something similar after my first semester, it was my lowest one by far. My GPA is now over 3.0 overall I was heading up while most of my classmates where going the other direction.

GPA is not a issue for matching for most students as most non-DO schools don't even have it, just don't fail. But even if you had a rough first semester (I know I did), you have taken the lumps early and can bounce back. It is better to hit adversity early and learn how to overcome than to just breeze through first year only to get walloped in the second. And I know people who that happened to.

In my personal case I just didn't know how to study well my first semester, especially at the beginning. I then got into second and said something had to change, so I watched a bunch of study skills videos on youtube and found out that there were things that I could do to improve, like Pomodoro. I particularly found the Long Beach CC videos helpful (link). Alot of the stuff will seem basic, but when I went over it, especially as nontraditional, I realized that there were lots of bad habits that had slipped into my time. Anyway, keep the head up you can do this!

 

[sab3156]

So I have a 2.74 GPA after completing my first semester of osteopathic medical school. I am not eligible to run for any club postions or leadership roles due to my GPA and it has me down. I am still learning how to study and sometimes struggle with the material.

I am interested in primary care such as FM, IM, or psychiatry. Will these grades affect my ability to match to programs? How important are these preclinical grades as I'm trying my hardest but still doing below average in my class.

Forget the clubs and buckle down for Step 1. Your grades don't matter. Don't fail a class though.

 

[Goro]

So I have a 2.74 GPA after completing my first semester of osteopathic medical school. I am not eligible to run for any club postions or leadership roles due to my GPA and it has me down. I am still learning how to study and sometimes struggle with the material.

I am interested in primary care such as FM, IM, or psychiatry. Will these grades affect my ability to match to programs? How important are these preclinical grades as I'm trying my hardest but still doing below average in my class.

You're not a pre-med anymore....PDs don't care about pre-clinical GPAs.

 

[sab3156]

This is not true in surgery. An upperclassman close friend that applied to ACGME university programs general surgery was asked about one B on their application during an interview. Of course University gen surgery isn't FM/IM/psych but don't throw out blanket statements because surgery and it's subspecialties will care about pre clinical grades.

Why are you lumping ACGME IM with FM/Psych? Two completely different levels of competitiveness...

But I will say, what you're saying does seem to vary from program to program, and from specialty to specialty. I was told by several people at a top program in the specialty I am interested in (which is far more competitive than general surgery) that pre-clinical grades are not a useful marker. @aProgDirector would know way better than any of us, though. Hopefully they can weigh in.

 

[Goro]

This is not true in surgery. An upperclassman close friend that applied to ACGME university programs general surgery was asked about one B on their application during an interview. Of course University gen surgery isn't FM/IM/psych but don't throw out blanket statements because surgery and it's subspecialties will care about pre clinical grades.

Oh, spare us from pedants!

Do you wish to argue with the 2016 Program Director's survey, which barely mentions pre-clinical GPAs?
http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/NRMP-2016-Program-Director-Survey.pdf

Did you actually read the OP, which specifically mentioned FM, IM and Psych?

 

[68PGunner]

This is not true in surgery. An upperclassman close friend that applied to ACGME university programs general surgery was asked about one B on their application during an interview. Of course University gen surgery isn't FM/IM/psych but don't throw out blanket statements because surgery and it's subspecialties will care about pre clinical grades.

Tell your buddy friend that he has been auto rejected by that program.

 

[popopopop]

I've thought about this and isn't there a correlation between step scores and pre-clinical grades? A barely passing student isn't going to pull 230+ out of nowhere unless they are purposely spending time on boards and neglecting classwork.

 

[Goro]

I've thought about this and isn't there a correlation between step scores and pre-clinical grades? A barely passing student isn't going to pull 230+ out of nowhere unless they are purposely spending time on boards and neglecting classwork.

You are correct

 

[68PGunner]

I've thought about this and isn't there a correlation between step scores and pre-clinical grades? A barely passing student isn't going to pull 230+ out of nowhere unless they are purposely spending time on boards and neglecting classwork.

This is becoming a recent trend in the past 2-3 years for my school.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I was tagged, but don't have much more to offer. How much weight pre-clin grades will make depends upon your medical school, the field you're applying to, and the specific program. In general, they don't carry much weight in many situations. Step 1 is more standardized and hence is usually given more weight, although often tracks along with preclin grades. However, some schools use preclin grades to determine the overall "performance level" of the medical student in the MSPE, and that could certainly have an effect. Some fields, and some programs, may care. When we interview someone with a poor preclinical performance and then a solid S1 score, we often ask about it.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

I was tagged, but don't have much more to offer. How much weight pre-clin grades will make depends upon your medical school, the field you're applying to, and the specific program. In general, they don't carry much weight in many situations. Step 1 is more standardized and hence is usually given more weight, although often tracks along with preclin grades. However, some schools use preclin grades to determine the overall "performance level" of the medical student in the MSPE, and that could certainly have an effect. Some fields, and some programs, may care. When we interview someone with a poor preclinical performance and then a solid S1 score, we often ask about it.

@aProgDirector Just for my own edification, when you say a poor preclinical performance, I assume you mean less than a 3.0, is that actually what you mean?

 

[hallowmann]

Why are you lumping ACGME IM with FM/Psych? Two completely different levels of competitiveness...

But I will say, what you're saying does seem to vary from program to program, and from specialty to specialty. I was told by several people at a top program in the specialty I am interested in (which is far more competitive than general surgery) that pre-clinical grades are not a useful marker. @aProgDirector would know way better than any of us, though. Hopefully they can weigh in.

Where did they say IM? They said GenSurg.

And to be clear, ACGME IM, if we're talking about community programs, then they absolutely can be lumped in with FM/Psych in terms of competitiveness, and just like those specialties they have varying levels of competitiveness based on program and region.

@aProgDirector Just for my own edification, when you say a poor preclinical performance, I assume you mean less than a 3.0, is that actually what you mean?

GPAs themselves don't matter as much as general rank (and even then its more like top quartile and bottom quartile matter), but for DO schools, rank matters less to most ACGME PDs I've talked to. What's a 3.0 at one school is a 2.5 at another or a 3.5 at another. What matters is how you do in relation to those around you going through the same curriculum. Even then though, step scores matter much more.

To give you an idea, the class mean for 1st semester of 1st year at my school was something like 77%, so a 3.0 would safely put you in the top 1/3 of the class.

 

[sab3156]

Where did they say IM? They said GenSurg.

And to be clear, ACGME IM, if we're talking about community programs, then they absolutely can be lumped in with FM/Psych in terms of competitiveness, and just like those specialties they have varying levels of competitiveness based on program and region.

Go read the post I was replying to and then read what I said. It said university. Overall, ACGME IM has many closed doors for DOs, whereas FM and Peds is nowhere near that.

 

[Mr. D.O.five]

Go read the post I was replying to and then read what I said. It said university. Overall, mid and high tier ACGME IM has many closed doors for DOs, whereas FM and Peds is nowhere near that.

ftfy. A relatively decent amount of low tier ACGME spots for IM go to DOs.

 

[sab3156]

ftfy. A relatively decent amount of low tier ACGME spots for IM go to DOs.

Your fix did not change anything, to be honest. That was the entire point.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Where did they say IM? They said GenSurg.

And to be clear, ACGME IM, if we're talking about community programs, then they absolutely can be lumped in with FM/Psych in terms of competitiveness, and just like those specialties they have varying levels of competitiveness based on program and region.



GPAs themselves don't matter as much as general rank (and even then its more like top quartile and bottom quartile matter), but for DO schools, rank matters less to most ACGME PDs I've talked to. What's a 3.0 at one school is a 2.5 at another or a 3.5 at another. What matters is how you do in relation to those around you going through the same curriculum. Even then though, step scores matter much more.

To give you an idea, the class mean for 1st semester of 1st year at my school was something like 77%, so a 3.0 would safely put you in the top 1/3 of the class.

If a school doesn't rank, then how would you know? I mean my personal thought is that I want a 3.0 because I think people are basically trained to think someone stinks if they are below it.
IMO doesn't matter what reality may be in med school, for physicians, when your whole life A's have been the standard and B's sometimes okay, when you see a 2.99 you think 'that guy probably isn't the brightest bulb in the bunch.' But I wanted to see if there was a mental bias in program directors minds as well.

 

[hallowmann]

If a school doesn't rank, then how would you know? I mean my personal thought is that I want a 3.0 because I think people are basically trained to think someone stinks if they are below it.
IMO doesn't matter what reality may be in med school, for physicians, when your whole life A's have been the standard and B's sometimes okay, when you see a 2.99 you think 'that guy probably isn't the brightest bulb in the bunch.' But I wanted to see if there was a mental bias in program directors minds as well.

I honestly don't know. I guess I'd try to get above a 3.0, but really if your school has no rank, they'll probably just put more emphasis on the Step.