3.7-3.8 GPA an issue?

[Zanzibar]

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Hey everyone,

I'm an incoming junior this year. My first year, I did extremely well (3.99), but during my sophomore year, due to a variety of reasons, my gpa dipped heavily (3.43 average for the year), with a 3.7ish average overall. Got Bs in Organic Chemistry as well, which was rather disappointing. I'm working in 2 labs now, and I really love what I do, and I'd like to go for an MD/Phd. However, I'm worried that my sophomore year performance will rule me out. Will a strong junior year performance and a good MCAT score keep me in the running for competitive research schools (top 10-20), or will I need to consider taking a year off and working in a lab? I"m on great terms with both PIs, so I feel i'd get great LORs from both. Any tips/suggestions? Thanks a lot guys!

 

[Doctor&Geek]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=539268

The answer is...

NO

 

[Neuronix]

You're fine. Keep your GPA up as high as you can. If that means lightening your schedule, do it. Nobody is going to notice you did poorly one year. All anyone really looks at is your cum unless you have something really weird on your transcript. For examples, a bunch of Ws, a significantly lower BCPM (.5 or more), 6 years or more to complete undergrad come to mind as really weird.

 

[ecoli]

oh geeze. If you think you're going to have problems with a 3.7, I guess my 3.58 is hopeless.

 

[QofQuimica]

At least for my school's MD program, the adcom is pretty forgiving if someone has a bad freshman or sophomore year and then does stellar for their junior and senior years. You are obviously capable of earning top grades based on your freshman year performance. So like Neuro said, cut back anything that is interfering with your school performance (including one of your research gigs if necessary), and do your best to stay in the 3.8+ range for your last two years of college. Particularly if you take upper level science classes and do well in them, that will be helpful. To offset Bs in sophomore level-organic, you might consider taking biochem, medicinal chem, and/or bioorganic chem. Some med schools require biochem as a pre-req anyway. Best of luck to you. 🙂