Another chance question....

[Xswim57]

I was wondering what my chances are of getting into a school. I have a 3.1 undergrad GPA (first two years were below average). One year post-bacc GPA of 3.6 in upper level science classes, and I will continue to take classes this year. I will be taking the MCAT in two weeks and have been scoring right at 30-31. I was a four year div 1 athlete in undergrad, and have lots of volunteer and medical experience. I know the undergrad GPA is low, but will the upward trend from junior year help offset the first two years? Will medical schools look at the upward trend? I'm just worried I wouldn't make the "cut off" based on GPA. Thanks for any feedback, I really appreciate it.

 

[infinitejest]

I was wondering what my chances are of getting into a school. I have a 3.1 undergrad GPA (first two years were below average). One year post-bacc GPA of 3.6 in upper level science classes, and I will continue to take classes this year. I will be taking the MCAT in two weeks and have been scoring right at 30-31. I was a four year div 1 athlete in undergrad, and have lots of volunteer and medical experience. I know the undergrad GPA is low, but will the upward trend from junior year help offset the first two years? Will medical schools look at the upward trend? I'm just worried I wouldn't make the "cut off" based on GPA. Thanks for any feedback, I really appreciate it.

I can relate my experience, which nearly mirrors yours. I had a 3.3 in ugrad, worked for a couple years, decided to go back and do a post-bac, got a 3.5 in that (low due to bio - hard stuff!), made a 32 MCAT, and out of the five schools I applied to, I got two interviews, one waitlist, and zero accepts this year. I had some decent ECs, from my work and also some volunteering. The problem with us nontrads is getting past poor (relatively speaking, anyway) undergrad performance years in the past. I'm sure you're like me in that your low undergrad grades were due to low freshman year grades, but showed gradual improvement after that. I was told by both schools I interviewed at that I should look at a master's program - that my postbac GPA was good enough for each of their schools, but when it was all factored together, I was still too low for their averages (one was my state school, one was a mid-tier private). A master's degree would serve in place of your undergrad grades, that is. It seemed to me that both schools were sympathetic to my plight of being haunted by 8 year-old grades, but there was nothing they could do about it.

It sucks, I know, but I think with all the emphasis on rankings nowadays, upward trend doesn't count for as much as overall performance. At least, that was the case in my experience - or at least, that's what both schools heavily emphasized. Good luck with everything and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to share more of my experience - you can PM me. Take care!