2.82 gpa, 380 MCAT.

[Triangle09]

GPA: undergrad = 2.82, science = 2.5, major = 3.3, grad = 3.8 (18hours)

MCAT: 38O = 14P, 10V, 14B. 98.4-99%.

Patient experience: 400+ hours in a hospital environment.

Research: 5 months in a science lab, coauthor of published paper.

My GPA after the first two years of undergrad was a 2.52. Over the past two and a half years, GPA has been a 3.35. The schools I have spoken with like everything but the overall and science gpa. To address this, I will be taking courses towards a masters degree for the next 1-2 years. People in admissions have told me that if I apply next year (for 2012 admission) with a years worth of graduate work and grades, my chances will have greatly improved. However, I haven't been able to get an honest evaluation of my chances for 2011 admission. Will simply being enrolled in the masters program and the promise of additional grades do any good? Do I have any real hope of being admitted this year? If there is any additional information that might be helpful please ask. Thanks

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[muhali3]

Masters won't help you if those are your only ECs. I would do an SMP instead, it's the quickest way for you to remediate that uGPA.

What type of patient experience did you have, what was your title? You need shadowing, clinical and nonclinical volunteering, leadership also.

 

[ThaliaNox]

That GPA may be the only thing that they're worried about, but it is a BIG only thing. Even your recent work (3.35) has been sup-par. You need to prove you can handle med school. Grad school is not going to do that, as GPAs are considered inflated. (I won't argue the truth of this with you, just that this is the interpretation)

I would recommend either a post bac program to get your GPA over 3.0, or an SMP. Possibly both, as many SMPs will not take you with a GPA under 3.0.

For this year... I don't see much hope. That GPA is just going to trash your application.

 

[Triangle09]

I actually presented the SMP/Post Bac vs masters question to my target in-state schools. Both schools directly stated they preferred the masters. From what you have said, it seems that most med schools would tell me the opposite. Is the difference between the 2 options really that great? Could you argue that I'm limiting myself to these 2 in-state schools by taking the masters path?

 

[jbz24]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe your master's GPA does not factor in to your total GPA, but a post bac will. Since your major weakness is your GPA, this is why you should do a post bac instead.

 

[muhali3]

I actually presented the SMP/Post Bac vs masters question to my target in-state schools. Both schools directly stated they preferred the masters. From what you have said, it seems that most med schools would tell me the opposite. Is the difference between the 2 options really that great? Could you argue that I'm limiting myself to these 2 in-state schools by taking the masters path?

Most SMPs make you take medical school classes, so that would obviously demonstrate aptitude if you do well.

A postbacc would just be a step towards an SMP since you're starting from such a low GPA in the first place; it would take too many credits to bring that up to a competitive level with just undergrad courses.

Masters vary greatly in difficulty from school to school and so it is hard for adcoms to gauge the significance of a Master's GPA. It is also hard to compare you to the majority of applicants who have only done undergrad studies.

I'm assuming that these in-state schools are familiar with the school that you go to and the graduate studies there, so they may prefer a Masters. I do think that you are limiting yourself to those schools by doing a Masters.

 

[ThaliaNox]

I actually presented the SMP/Post Bac vs masters question to my target in-state schools. Both schools directly stated they preferred the masters. From what you have said, it seems that most med schools would tell me the opposite. Is the difference between the 2 options really that great? Could you argue that I'm limiting myself to these 2 in-state schools by taking the masters path?

I think there are nuances to this question that you may be missing. If you were to just ask me what I'd rather see on an application, an SMP or a master's program, I'd say the masters. Why? More interesting, has future value, shows interest in a field, research, etc. HOWEVER, for an applicant with an extremely low GPA, the story changes. The advantages to a masters are completely overturned by the low GPA. No matter how "interesting" or how wonderful the ECs are, it's hard getting past the GPA. I would then say that either a post-bac to get the GPA up or an SMP to prove they can handle med school is in order. It depends on the stats of the person, in sum.