Another GPA question

[bonghead]

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Here's my situation which i'm sure is fairly common:

Freshman year I was super lazy, didn't really try, and as a consequence had about a 3.0 gpa. Sophmore year I suddenly kicked it up a gear and have been pulling 3.75+ ever quarter since. Currently I have about a 3.5 (which I can theoretically raise to about 3.65ish by the time I graduate). I was wondering would the adcoms "view" my GPA as 3.75 or 3.5 or somewhere inbetween.

The reason I am asking is just because I want to have an idea of what schools i realistically have a shot at. My overall GPA seems to be at the level of a lower tier school but based on my performance I would have the GPA that would probably qualify me for a top tier school. Which is the more realistic way to view it?

 

[TexPre-Med]

Average g.p.a. for every med school is about 3.7 or so. 3.5 is on the lower end anywhere. What sets students apart at top tier schools from lower tier schools on average is MCAT scores and extracurriculars.

We just released our state school's average g.p.a. for the incoming 2007 class at 3.7

Still a 3.5 will get you looked at. Just make sure that everything else is stellar.

 

[bonghead]

yeah i realize that. I know that the average GPA is about a 3.7 and that it takes a lot (besides GPA) to get in to to tier schools. The question I am asking is when I should apply should I think of my GPA as what I most recently got (last quarter was a just over a 3.8) or should I think of it more in terms of my average GPA (3.5). A 3.5 and 3.8 cover pretty much the spectrum of average GPA's and I don't want to be applying to too many schools that I would be over/under-qualified for. So which way do you think would be more appropriate for thinking of my GPA?

 

[gotmeds?]

Your average GPA is exactly what the term implies. It is the average of every grade you got. If the adcomms only looked at your most recent GPA, you could get straight C's every year and then pull off A's your last semester and have a shot at Harvard. They will "view" your GPA as exactly what it is. I think what you're trying to ask is if they will take your upward trend into account. Sure, they will. But they'll take it into account in terms of your whole applcication. They won't say, "hey this guy had a bad freshman year, so let's just tack on an extra 0.2 to his GPA."