2019-2020 Low GPA High MCAT Thread

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pugpy_dawg

pugpy_dawg

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Hi fellow SDNers! I got a lot of hope & encouragement from reading last year's low GPA high MCAT threads, so I thought that as II's start coming out in the next few weeks we could start one for this year. I'm reporting in with a 3.5 cGPA, 3.2 sGPA, 3.9 grad GPA (non-SMP) and a 522. Completed 16 MD secondaries and 1 DO secondary thus far, at least 9 more MD secondaries to go and we'll see about more DO. Anybody else in the same sub-3.5 GPA and 517+ boat? How did y'all put together your school lists and address the discrepancy?
 
Same boat, will continue watching this thread. School list is a compilation of strategic target/reach made from 4 separate sources that looked at my specific GPA/MCAT combination. I've personally prioritized schools over others based on my diverse set of ECs and how closely I match with their mission/how friendly they are with reinvention. No postbacc or SMP on my end, but hoping that other strengths pull through to at least interview invites..

24 MDs this round. Saving DO for an unfortunate reapp season where I could have more time to shadow a DO and develop a story regarding my justification for pursuing DO. I don't feel I gave too much effort right now for those schools, and would hate to waste my initial application on a half-assed preparation.

Good luck to everyone in this split category!
 
I have the exact same GPAS (with the exception of the grad GPA as I have no graduate coursework). Will certainly be following this thread for some moral support. Best of luck this cycle!
 
Reporting in with a 3.45c/3.33sGPA and a 514, couple years gap working and an MPH. Basically applied to every low-mid tier school on the east coast and a healthy dose of reaches because I’m aggressively hopeful. Praying for an adcom to let me in the door so I can be charming, and will extend my prayers for you all as well. :xf:
 
rollingstoneshill said:
Reporting in with a 3.45c/3.33sGPA and a 514, couple years gap working and an MPH. Basically applied to every low-mid tier school on the east coast and a healthy dose of reaches because I’m aggressively hopeful. Praying for an adcom to let me in the door so I can be charming, and will extend my prayers for you all as well. :xf:
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Yay for fellow MPH applicants!!! Good luck on the journey to MD MPH!
 
I found the previous year's version of this thread immensely helpful, and so I'm happy to chime in. I have a 3.47 cGPA, 3.45 sGPA, 519 MCAT. No official SMP or post-bacc programs as of now, but I'll be taking some upper-level bio courses at a nearby college during this application year (DIY post-bacc style).

With regards to school selection, I followed the advice in previous year's thread in applying VERY broadly, with a total of 35 MD applications. These include NJ schools, nearby east-coast schools, schools that have historically shown a tendency to favor applicants from my undergrad institution (small liberal arts college in the NESCAC), and schools that align very well with my ECs/philosophy/location preferences. Of course, I have some dream reach schools in the mix, but the bulk of my schools are in the solid, "mid-tier" level. I also made sure that the bulk of my schools had a 10%ile GPA that was still lower or equal to my cGPA. It might be worthwhile to bear in mind that I have a pretty sharp, upward trend in GPA during my junior and senior years (my trend looks like the Nike swoosh).

Though I obviously have no results yet, I feel like this is a solid strategy for applicants in our position to take, especially if you can build a unique and powerful narrative that tie together your EC experiences with your motivations for attending medical school. I'm happy to update the thread as results come in.
 
Following/supporting/empathizing... 3.3 cGPA, 3.5 sGPA, 516 MCAT. I applied geographically and with respect to stats, cost, not being in a megacity, and if my wife would be willing to live there.
 
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Cornfed101 said:
Well... I did a spreadsheet with weighted scores for all the schools and my wife's opinion was the highest weight at 7. So this edit is appropriate haha
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Trust me, I know lol I did the same thing. Then through the whole list out the window when I got my MCAT back and the majority of the schools were yield-protect territory. It kinda just became "Where can I apply that isn't NYC..?"
 
MemeLord said:
Trust me, I know lol I did the same thing. Then through the whole list out the window when I got my MCAT back and the majority of the schools were yield-protect territory. It kinda just became "Where can I apply that isn't NYC..?"
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Yeah... I was looking at rent around some of the schools I am applying to and saw that there was an apartment for $900 a month in Chicago for a 3bd 3ba! But then I realized it was 1 room in that apartment... I don't think my wife and two daughters would be kosher with that
 
I'm still a good 2 years from the MCAT but I'm curious if anyone has experience with academic renewal on their applications.

Sadly I pulled some poor grades during a hardship 8 years ago, including on some bum easy GE classes, but my sGPA is solid and I have a 4.0 over the last year.

I've heard that sGPA and upward trends are important for low GPA students, but curious if academic renewal would ever have any benefit. My assumption is that medical schools will not honor it.
 
Vault-Tec said:
I'm still a good 2 years from the MCAT but I'm curious if anyone has experience with academic renewal on their applications.

Sadly I pulled some poor grades during a hardship 8 years ago, including on some bum easy GE classes, but my sGPA is solid and I have a 4.0 over the last year.

I've heard that sGPA and upward trends are important for low GPA students, but curious if academic renewal would ever have any benefit. My assumption is that medical schools will not honor it.
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Correct that you won't be able to "replace" your retaken class's grade, but you may need to retake failed prereqs in order for them to count for certain schools. A strong upward trend, which you seem to have, is always a plus when it comes to lower GPA!
 
rollingstoneshill said:
Correct that you won't be able to "replace" your retaken class's grade, but you may need to retake failed prereqs in order for them to count for certain schools. A strong upward trend, which you seem to have, is always a plus when it comes to lower GPA!
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TYVM for the feedback. I've seen even undergrad transfer programs dismiss academic renewal so I assumed med school would be even more scrutinizing. USC undergrad was one of them.

I always feared those applicant "filters", if you will, that immediately rule out certain GPA's or course grades (no clue if that's true). When in reality, someone who aced a semester of A&P, Stats, and Chem has clearly turned around from that D in Film History 8 years ago 😀
 
I love that this thread exists! I was starting to feel like I was the only one.

Non-trad here. 3.2 uGPA. Had some family tragedy right before college started and had a tough adjustment.

Came back after years in education and got a 4.0 in my postbacc and 526 MCAT but it only managed to bring my cGPA to 3.4 and I had taken a lot of science undergrad so sGPA is 3.3 even with my postbacc grades added.

I also followed the advice to apply broadly. No II’s yet but fingers crossed! Excited to see all of us succeed 🙂
 
I'll try to post a follow up to this thread when all is said and done a year from now. Applied to 29 schools with 3.4cgpa/3.7sgpa/520mcat. Non-science major, been out of school for a while but have a lot of clinical work experience. Ugpa was 3.2 but got straight A's in prereq's last year. No good explanation for low ugpa other than no-one cares outside of med school admissions, didn't bring it up in primary/secondaries. So far so good with two early II. I applied to some fancy schools but I think my app is more geared towards lower tier MD; only takes one! Good luck everyone
 
notretired said:
No good explanation for low ugpa other than no-one cares outside of med school admissions
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preach.

Similar story to everyone above, graduated with a 3.4ish with sights on MPH programs (I had finance friends with 3.2s who landed jobs at Goldman, so I thought I was doing pretty well). Decided on medicine after graduation and realized how high the GPA expectations were. Did a DIY postbacc, got a 4.0, scored a 522 on the MCAT. Somehow sitting with 3 early interviews with one top 20.
 
peanuttbuttah said:
preach.

Similar story to everyone above, graduated with a 3.4ish with sights on MPH programs (I had finance friends with 3.2s who landed jobs at Goldman, so I thought I was doing pretty well). Decided on medicine after graduation and realized how high the GPA expectations were. Did a DIY postbacc, got a 4.0, scored a 522 on the MCAT. Somehow sitting with 3 early interviews with one top 20.
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Keep the success stories coming! I love it.

Another bit of hope for this thread: I got an II to a school where both my undergraduate cGPA and sGPA are FAR below the 10th percentile. Stats are not everything!
 
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EmbryonalCarcinoma said:
Keep the success stories coming! I love it.

Another bit of hope for this thread: I got an II to a school where both my undergraduate cGPA and sGPA are FAR below the 10th percentile. Stats are not everything!
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Would you be comfortable with sharing where? I feel like that’s every school I applied to for me haha. Above 10th percentile MCAT and under 10th percentile GPA
 
InfectiousLaughter said:
Congrats! And best of luck at the interview!

Also, from a fellow LGBT non-trad, very into the rainbow signature! How did you get the colors in there?
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Thank you!

And you can change text color with the little teardrop thing!
 
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MemeLord said:
Same boat. Wanna come join me in making a “My GPA is not high but not low, everything else is great, how do I avoid being a reapplication?” Thread?
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I would also join this club 🙂 hopefully I can just follow along/support here.

My usGPA was actually 3.3 but with post-bacc its 3.5, so I’m a borderline low GPA/high MCAT club member (522 MCAT). I applied broadly (49 schools, 46 secondaries completed - struggling HARD on the last three). Hoping to one day update this thread w good news!
 
InfectiousLaughter said:
Keep faith! I’ve got almost identical stats (slightly lower sGPA/slightly higher MCAT) and have received 3 II’s so far. Do you have upward trend/postbacc work?
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Congrats on the II's! I do not have either. 🙁 I made an extremely poor decision in undergrad to double-major in Physics/Biochem and I didn't even start the Physics major until junior year, so I did the entire program in two years. So my GPA has a downward trend. Too bad, if you took out all those upper level EM and QM classes my GPA would be like 3.70/3.70.

My other red flag is that I was charged with DUI a little over two years ago. I pled it down to reckless driving, but it was such a colossal moral failing that I worry it may keep me out entirely.

Thankfully, I do have decent EC's. I have maintained employment since I was a junior in high school and have worked in supervisory/managerial roles for the last 5 years. I also have decent volunteering and research and have held an additional job as a paid staff writer for a sports website for 2+ years now.

Add it all up and I have some pretty unique positives and negatives in my application. I've gone back and forth between being overwhelmingly pessimistic and unrealistically optimistic about my chances.
 
bigbearjet said:
Non-trad applicant here. Veteran (non-medical field), Postbacc completer, and older (32.)
3.01 uGPA, 3.83 pbGPA, 3.18 cGPA (3.45 sGPA), 516 MCAT

I applied broadly (28 schools.) 2 IIs... so far!

Honestly, just happy to even have the opportunity, the process has been exhilarating.
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We have very similar stats 🤔

Good luck!
 
pugpy_dawg said:
I remember from reading last year’s low gpa high MCAT thread that many applicants reported they had to wait a while for II’s, but they did eventually come! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!!
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Thanks!! We're all in this together. 🙂
 
Joining the club here with a 3.5 cumulative, 3.3 science and 521 MCAT. Decent upward trend in science GPA. Still no IIs though, so I'm beginning to doubt my school list. :/ 30+ secondaries complete, most of which were submitted in July.
 
mcobaka said:
Joining the club here with a 3.5 cumulative, 3.3 science and 521 MCAT. Decent upward trend in science GPA. Still no IIs though, so I'm beginning to doubt my school list. :/ 30+ secondaries complete, most of which were submitted in July.
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Keep faith! It’s still early in the process. Fewer than a third of available interview invites have gone out so far, and some schools have not sent many at all. Apparently a lot of adcoms are not even fully staffed until after Labor Day.

Did you apply to all of your state schools or schools where you have an exceptional mission fit? Never too late to do that if you think your school list was not appropriately tailored.
 
InfectiousLaughter said:
Keep faith! It’s still early in the process. Fewer than a third of available interview invites have gone out so far, and some schools have not sent many at all. Apparently a lot of adcoms are not even fully staffed until after Labor Day.

Did you apply to all of your state schools or schools where you have an exceptional mission fit? Never too late to do that if you think your school list was not appropriately tailored.
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Thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate the positivity!

I did apply to all of my state schools, but the rest of my list was kind of difficult to make since research is really important to me but many schools in my GPA range don't seem to have a strong research focus. So, I ended up applying to a bunch of "higher" tier schools (ranked between 20 and 40) which have good research programs and a few "lower" tier schools, but from what I've heard those get a ton of applicants and are somewhat low yield because of that.
 
Wolvvs said:
My undergraduate GPA is 2.8, and my MCAT is 522, with a 4.0 postbac I brought my GPA up to 3.1. I believe that regardless of your MCAT, if your GPA is below 3.0 you need to work to bring it above that or risk being filtered out.
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Too bad that it's impossible for me as that will take additional 5 more years. Count your blessings everyone.
 
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