an unusual question, please help

[descartes1982]

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Hi everyone

This is an out of the ordinary question for sure. I am someone who did an undergrad in Biochemistry and later went to grad school where I completed a degree in molecular biology. Later on, I went on to law school. I do plan on applying for medicine not right now but in 1-2 years because I want to work for a bit.

Law is a professional program and it is very difficult to get a high GPA in law especially since we are graded on a B-/B curve. My question is since I've done the most important work in undergrad and grad. How do admissions committees evaluate your professional degrees? Can someone shed light on this issue? I would really appreciate it.

 

[DrMidlife]

Hi everyone

This is an out of the ordinary question for sure. I am someone who did an undergrad in Biochemistry and later went to grad school where I completed a degree in molecular biology. Later on, I went on to law school. I do plan on applying for medicine not right now but in 1-2 years because I want to work for a bit.

Law is a professional program and it is very difficult to get a high GPA in law especially since we are graded on a B-/B curve. My question is since I've done the most important work in undergrad and grad. How do admissions committees evaluate your professional degrees? Can someone shed light on this issue? I would really appreciate it.

We get that question about every other day. Usually the question is more like "I got great grades in my grad program, will that make up for my crap undergrad GPA?" and the answer is NO. In your case, if you have a high undergrad GPA, it's not debunked by a less-high grad record.

Competition for a med school seat is initially all about cumulative undergrad GPA and MCAT score. If you did poorly in law school that will be visible because you're required to submit your transcript - you'll need to have a good answer for what happened, but you can roll this into your narrative.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Reggie V]

I am a lawyer and will be starting my M1 year this fall. I think schools realize that graduate programs are always more difficult than undergrad and therefore lower GPAs are not as big of a deal. Your cumulative GPA will include your law school GPA, so that may bring it down, but it will not affect your science GPA.

In my personal statement/application and during interviews, I focused on my legal career rather than law school. Use the personal statement, in part, to highlight how your legal career will benefit you as a doctor. I wouldn't even address your law GPA in the personal statement, nor during an interview, unless they inquire. During the interviews, I found that the benefit that my law degree provided was not really the grad school experience or GPA, but rather the "real world" experience of being a lawyer. Most people don't see the connection, but practicing law (well at least litigation) has many day to day similarities as practicing medicine (e.g. the ability to handle stressfull clients/situations, good beside manner, dealing with ethical issues, staying effective during highly emotional situations, etc). The interviewers were not interested in my law school academics, but rather my experiences as an attorney.

 

[LeavingTheLaw]

I think one thing the OP was trying to get at was whether or not adcoms realize that a B in law school is (for most law schools) actually considered a high grade. For example, at my law school, graduating with a 3.4 or better got you honors. There are at least a few law school that grade on a C curve, which would really kill your gpa if it is really all just lumped in together as part of your cGPA.

 

[DrMidlife]

I think one thing the OP was trying to get at was whether or not adcoms realize that a B in law school is (for most law schools) actually considered a high grade. For example, at my law school, graduating with a 3.4 or better got you honors. There are at least a few law school that grade on a C curve, which would really kill your gpa if it is really all just lumped in together as part of your cGPA.

Which it's not. Law school is grad school. cGPA (from a med school perspective) is undergrad.

Med school admissions committees don't make it their business to be conversant and knowledgeable about other professional degree programs. They might happen to be conversant and knowledgeable.

In the OP's case, the law school GPA will be averaged with his/her other grad work, and med schools would have to expend effort to tease those numbers apart by looking at individual courses taken.

 

[Reggie V]

I always thought cGPA included every grade ever earned (grad included). My bad if I was wrong. If so, then a poor law gpa is even less of an issue for the OP.

 

[DrMidlife]

AMCAS report looks like this (2009):

TMDSAS looks like this (2007):

AACOMAS is similar.

 

[Lazarus]

I am a lawyer and will be starting my M1 year this fall. I think schools realize that graduate programs are always more difficult than undergrad and therefore lower GPAs are not as big of a deal. Your cumulative GPA will include your law school GPA, so that may bring it down, but it will not affect your science GPA.

I have heard the exact opposite, from my post bac advisor, that med schools etc believe there is a culture of rampant grade inflation in graduate programs. The adviser was not specifically referring to law school when she said those comments. I am not saying I agree with this or not, also this was just the opinion of one post bac adviser so she may be wrong.

 

[montessori2md]

I have heard the exact opposite, from my post bac advisor, that med schools etc believe there is a culture of rampant grade inflation in graduate programs. The adviser was not specifically referring to law school when she said those comments. I am not saying I agree with this or not, also this was just the opinion of one post bac adviser so she may be wrong.

This IS true, largely for applicants who did post bacc or master's programs for the purpose of getting into med schools. Those programs specifically target people who want a high gpa, and the feeling from ADCOM is the PDs of those programs do what they can to make that happen. Some non-md tracked programs (say, a masters in biochem, physics, engineering) are inflated, some aren't.
This is not the case for someone who did a professional degree program like law, and ADCOM knows the difference.

To the OP, if the UG GPA is solid, you have nothing to worry about IMHO. The #1 predictors for performance in med school are MCAT and science GPA. Grad school GPA is a lousy predictor, so ADCOM doesn't care about it as much, regardless of how high/low.

 

[Lazarus]

On a quasi related note:

This conceived notion of grade inflation is extremely frustrating, and I am referring to grad programs and post bac programs. I can accept that there may be grade inflation in some graduate programs, but is it also true for many post bac programs? I for one have not had the pleasure of experiencing grade inflation in my post bac studies; in fact if anything it has been the opposite.

In my classes the professors have attempted to maintain their grade distribution with an average in the mid to low C's. This is fine and dandy except when the class is full of post bac and undergrad premed students who are all neurotic library dwellers; in other words I think my grades are almost at a disadvantage when my peer group is composed of post bacs vs. standard undergrads.

It is just sad to think that the prevalent advice (maybe I am wrong) from these boards is to use rate my professor to find the easiest prof's in order to guarantee the easiest A.

AND on a completly digressive note, I look around my class of postbacs and undergrad premeds and I look at the averages...that means half of this class will basically get a failing grade (i.e. a C).

 

[Dartmouth2005]

Hi everyone

This is an out of the ordinary question for sure. I am someone who did an undergrad in Biochemistry and later went to grad school where I completed a degree in molecular biology. Later on, I went on to law school. I do plan on applying for medicine not right now but in 1-2 years because I want to work for a bit.

Law is a professional program and it is very difficult to get a high GPA in law especially since we are graded on a B-/B curve. My question is since I've done the most important work in undergrad and grad. How do admissions committees evaluate your professional degrees? Can someone shed light on this issue? I would really appreciate it.

It seems that there are a number of us former lawyers going into medicine. Just wanted to say good luck. I also wanted to add that one thing our legal training does help with is the VR and the writing sections of the MCAT.