a troubling question....

[tennis-mdphd]

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My Freshman year in college, my advisor told me that any classes I retook would not be reflected on my gpa. Little did I know that the average of the two would appear on my AMCAS gpa. My freshman year I got C's in biology one and two and a C in Calculus. I then took about a year off to do some humanitarian work in Eastern Europe. When I returned I took those same classes again and earned A's. I have earned all A's except for a B+ in calc based physics. How bad will my Freshman year hurt my application?

 

[Mitro]

I wouldn't generalize on this, but I also had bad grades freshman year - all Cs and Bs (had a little too much fun). However, I owned the last three years and I'm having no problems getting into programs. If someone does ask about it, it's easy to just write it off as not being prepared for college. So I wouldn't worry about it too much, some schools certainly give more weight to your grades in the last three years anyway.

As long as you have strong research experience and good letters, you'll be set. Good luck.

 

[zekelion]

I got a C+ in Developmental Biology and a C- in Physics II junior year. I retook those classes senior year and got an A in both. I've been to four interviews, and, much to my surprise, there hasn't been mention of these marks thus far.

Don't sweat the classes you retook. Most MD-PhD programs look for 'upward trends' in marks from your freshman to senior years, so a few C's won't pose a problem if you keep getting A's and B's until graduation.

My limited experience in the admissions process has shown me that MD-PhD programs take a much more holistic approach in evaluating applicants than MD-only programs. They want to know that you're serious about pursuing the career of a physician scientist, and your research experiences are often the best way to gauge this. Thus, research and recommendations from your research mentors are very important, but a lower-than-average MCAT score or a sub-par GPA won't necessarily keep you out of an MD-PhD program.

Please don't worry about a few C's you got during freshman year--it's not going to matter once you start applying and interviewing.

 

[tedrik]

As long as you have an upward trent, you don't even need to worry about those freshman grades. I'm with Mitro on this one, I had horrible freshman grades and it was well worth it 🙂

So far I've had 5 interviews and my early grades have come up at only 2 schools. All they really want to hear is that you have a legitimate excuse such as: "I just didn't adjust to change from high school as quickly as I would have liked." At one school my interviewer asked about the grades and once I told him my reasons he said his son was going through the same thing. He actually wanted to hear about how I was able to turn things around, as if he was going to relay the info back to his kid. It turned out to be one of my best interview experiences because I left feeling like he would not only remember who I was, but would actually be considering what we talked about even after I left.