Applying to med school but I have a small red flag.

[Aristeidis]

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Hello,

 

[doctorleospaceman]

The dual credit classes dropped my overall GPA to a 3.64!!!

“The horror! The horror!” ― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
I'll let @gonnif handle this one.

 

[redferrari]

The term "upward trend" definitely applies in this case. I think you're fine with a solid MCAT. Your GPA as is seems about average compared to people I talked to at my Texas interviews last cycle.

 

[Gryffindor20]

Hello,

I am applying to medical school this cycle. I just submitted my TMDSAS application as I wait for my MCAT score to come in, in a few weeks. I have strong extracurricular activities, strong letters of recs, and for the most part a pretty good personal statement explaining my life experiences that brought me towards the path of medicine.

The biggest red flag on my application is not my GPA at my primary university, but rather the few dual credit classes I bombed in high school before I wanted to pursue a career in medicine. I blindly picked the dual credit classes to just get some credit hours out of the way at a low cost without realizing that this decision would come to haunt me during application time for medical school.

My university GPA is 3.83 under TMDSAS guidelines with an sGPA of 3.76. I took some bogus English 1 and 2 classes as dual credits, history, and algebra which I ended up getting C's across the board in. I retook every single one of those courses. I explained the circumstance I was undergoing throughout high school in my optional essay. The dual credit classes dropped my overall GPA to a 3.64!!! I found this out when I saw the overall GPA that the TMDSAS application generates for you. I'm sure they will update it a little for the repeat courses but I'm still expecting it to be a 3.6x.

How big of an issue do you guys think this will be? It was seriously so much personal development and tribulations I went through to work my ass off and get a 3.83 in college which is being completely overshadowed by the dumb dual credit classes I took unknowingly as a high schooler.

Thanks in advance!

If your GPA is still at 3.6-ish, you're competitive, assuming your MCAT is decent. Also, high school courses that you "bombed" four years ago are not going to break your application. Medical schools look at the whole application, and if you have strong ECs, strong LORs, and an MCAT >508 you will most likely get in somewhere, assuming that you don't do anything crazy at interviews. I'm no expert, but this is what I gather from 2 years of lurking in my dusty corner on SDN.

 

[Aristeidis]

The term "upward trend" definitely applies in this case. I think you're fine with a solid MCAT. Your GPA as is seems about average compared to people I talked to at my Texas interviews last cycle.

I am starting to have great doubts that I will get a score above a 508 on the MCAT I just wrote in on June 2nd, if that, so I was hoping my GPA gave me some leeway. I guess its just a big waiting game now. By solid did you mean 508+ or a 510+?

 

[sharpstickie]

Hello,

I am applying to medical school this cycle. I just submitted my TMDSAS application as I wait for my MCAT score to come in, in a few weeks. I have strong extracurricular activities, strong letters of recs, and for the most part a pretty good personal statement explaining my life experiences that brought me towards the path of medicine.

The biggest red flag on my application is not my GPA at my primary university, but rather the few dual credit classes I bombed in high school before I wanted to pursue a career in medicine. I blindly picked the dual credit classes to just get some credit hours out of the way at a low cost without realizing that this decision would come to haunt me during application time for medical school.

My university GPA is 3.83 under TMDSAS guidelines with an sGPA of 3.76. I took some bogus English 1 and 2 classes as dual credits, history, and algebra which I ended up getting C's across the board in. I retook every single one of those courses. I explained the circumstance I was undergoing throughout high school in my optional essay. The dual credit classes dropped my overall GPA to a 3.64!!! I found this out when I saw the overall GPA that the TMDSAS application generates for you. I'm sure they will update it a little for the repeat courses but I'm still expecting it to be a 3.6x.

How big of an issue do you guys think this will be? It was seriously so much personal development and tribulations I went through to work my ass off and get a 3.83 in college which is being completely overshadowed by the dumb dual credit classes I took unknowingly as a high schooler.

Thanks in advance!

Same thing happened to me. I was a part of a program in the Northwest called Running Start. Essentially it was a program that allowed you to replace the last two years of HS by going to a CC and getting an AA. My parents enrolled me in the program because they thought it would be "good for me" to give me a more stressful situation and I wasn't doing well in HS, so why not? Well give a teenager more time and non-mandatory classes and he'll get a 3.1. Well I ended up going to undergrad and doing fairly well (3.92 in Biochemistry) but counting my CC grades I had a 3.65. This didn't seem to hurt me in the slightest as it was obvious I had grown since my CC days.

 

[Aristeidis]

If your GPA is still at 3.6-ish, you're competitive, assuming your MCAT is decent. Also, high school courses that you "bombed" four years ago are not going to break your application. Medical schools look at the whole application, and if you have strong ECs, strong LORs, and an MCAT >508 you will most likely get in somewhere, assuming that you don't do anything crazy at interviews. I'm no expert, but this is what I gather from 2 years of lurking in my dusty corner on SDN.

That gives me some peace. I appreciate the feedback. It's just the waiting game from here on out. Fingers crossed for a decent MCAT score.

 

[Aristeidis]

Same thing happened to me. I was a part of a program in the Northwest called Running Start. Essentially it was a program that allowed you to replace the last two years of HS by going to a CC and getting an AA. My parents enrolled me in the program because they thought it would be "good for me" to give me a more stressful situation and I wasn't doing well in HS, so why not? Well give a teenager more time and non-mandatory classes and he'll get a 3.1. Well I ended up going to undergrad and doing fairly well (3.92 in Biochemistry) but counting my CC grades I had a 3.65. This didn't seem to hurt me in the slightest as it was obvious I had grown since my CC days.

Ahhh I see. Glad to hear that it did not hurt you in the slightest bit. I appreciate your response. 🙂

 

[sharpstickie]

Ahhh I see. Glad to hear that it did not hurt you in the slightest bit. I appreciate your response. 🙂

No problem. And may The Great Architect have mercy on your soul during this cycle.

 

[doctorleospaceman]

I am starting to have great doubts that I will get a score above a 508 on the MCAT I just wrote in on June 2nd, if that, so I was hoping my GPA gave me some leeway. I guess its just a big waiting game now. By solid did you mean 508+ or a 510+?

Let's go about this logically.

Even with the 3.64 GPA you are still competitive for most if not all of the Texas schools, assuming you score a decent MCAT. If you're planning on applying OOS, only schools that you should really concern yourself with are the top ones since you're a Texas resident. For those schools, you would also need a phenomenal MCAT score. If you get one, then a 3.64 won't really hold you back. If you score around a 508 as you predict, then a 3.8 GPA wouldn't help you much at top schools.

This is all ignoring the already mentioned fact that you have an upward trend and the courses you did poorly in were taken many years ago.

 

[redferrari]

I am starting to have great doubts that I will get a score above a 508 on the MCAT I just wrote in on June 2nd, if that, so I was hoping my GPA gave me some leeway. I guess its just a big waiting game now. By solid did you mean 508+ or a 510+?

Somewhere around 508~510 and above. Whatever the equivalent of a 30 is.

 

[Gryffindor20]

Somewhere around 508~510 and above. Whatever the equivalent of a 30 is.

That would be >508.

 

[osckey]

To emulate @Goro , "dead for MD, circling the drain for DO" or something like that

 

[Mad Jack]

You'll be fine.

 

[Goro]

"I love the smell of sarcasm in the morning!"

From another Brando movie.

To emulate @Goro , "dead for MD, circling the drain for DO" or something like that