hypothetically. if a person had say... 3.3 to 3.4...... good EC....... good research....... non traditional.......... but had a decent mcat (33 to 38) would that student have a good chance? even if their gpa is complete sh|t?
Bad GPA but good MCAT, does this have a chance?
- Thread starter kmnfive
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I had a 3.4 and a 36N and got into several schools so it does happen, just as long as you don't let your gpa go to total ****.
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I just got into Tulane, interviews at all the important FL schools waiting for decisions.
3.4 3.36sci 35M
Though my gpa for the past 2 years has been more like 3.6+
3.4 3.36sci 35M
Though my gpa for the past 2 years has been more like 3.6+
OK, what about a *really* bad GPA and a great MCAT? In this case, a 2.9 GPA (2.6 Science) with an August 2003 MCAT of 40+ hopefully (could be false confidence, though, of course). My last year and a half (cell bio post-bac) have been all A's (including OChem retakes) and maybe a B in Genetics. ECs, research, volunteer, international stuff etc. are all pretty good and unique. But I'm still wondering if all this is enough for an adcom to forgive my irresponsible years in undergrad and see I really shaped up when I became a husband and a father.
I haven't submitted my AMCAS app yet since I'm still finishing the PS, and I'm kinda wondering if I would be wasting my scant money by adding any schools other than my state schools in Tennessee, where I would actually be happy anyway, especially considering the low tuition. If I can only get an interview... 🙂
BTW, I have been interested in being a D.O. for a long time, so I am applying to several D.O. schools as well. (And of course it's nice that AACOMAS turns my GPA into 3.0/3.0 Science!) The whole osteopathic philosophy jives well with my holistic outlook on things and my plans for rural medicine. But maybe some M.D. schools in my state or elsewhere would be able to give that same good training, especially with ETSU ranked #3 in Rural Medicine by those U.S. News & World Report characters? I know DO vs. MD is a totally moot point especially when it comes to primary care; it may just come down to tuition.
Anyway, thanks for any thoughts from any of you on all this. All the best to you all and thanks, SDNers, for providing such great resources here!
Peace,
Lincoln 🙂
I haven't submitted my AMCAS app yet since I'm still finishing the PS, and I'm kinda wondering if I would be wasting my scant money by adding any schools other than my state schools in Tennessee, where I would actually be happy anyway, especially considering the low tuition. If I can only get an interview... 🙂
BTW, I have been interested in being a D.O. for a long time, so I am applying to several D.O. schools as well. (And of course it's nice that AACOMAS turns my GPA into 3.0/3.0 Science!) The whole osteopathic philosophy jives well with my holistic outlook on things and my plans for rural medicine. But maybe some M.D. schools in my state or elsewhere would be able to give that same good training, especially with ETSU ranked #3 in Rural Medicine by those U.S. News & World Report characters? I know DO vs. MD is a totally moot point especially when it comes to primary care; it may just come down to tuition.
Anyway, thanks for any thoughts from any of you on all this. All the best to you all and thanks, SDNers, for providing such great resources here!
Peace,
Lincoln 🙂
MDapplicants.com has lots of examples of people who got in with low GPAs, just in case you haven't checked it out. But if any of you SDN posters never put up a profile there, it'd still be great to hear your success stories here in this thread.
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lwestfall
with a 3.0 3.0 and a 35+ i dount think DO will be a problem.
But with a 2.6 science and even a 40, no allopathic for you, sorry.
But DO is totaly sweet is thats what you need to do. You should feel lucky after the obvious screwing up you had to do to make a 2.6 science but being smart enough to make a hypothetical 40+
shame on you 😉
with a 3.0 3.0 and a 35+ i dount think DO will be a problem.
But with a 2.6 science and even a 40, no allopathic for you, sorry.
But DO is totaly sweet is thats what you need to do. You should feel lucky after the obvious screwing up you had to do to make a 2.6 science but being smart enough to make a hypothetical 40+
shame on you 😉
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Eh.. with a 3.0 3.0 and a 35+ an Allopathic is still a reasonably realistic goal. Hell, the worst they can do is send you to a post-bacc or equivalent. Also depends on your course strength I guess. If you took meat all meat grinders class, that 3.0 doesn't look bad.. you'll look like a war refugee.
A 2.6? Actually.. I've heard of worse 🙂. But that's besides the point. Never let anyone say no. It's always possible and if you're DEADSET on allopathic you can also try offshore school. And if you got a 40+ and could reasonably explain that 2.6 (like during those years you were going through severe physical and emotional trauma and can show a distinct slump in your GPA).. adcoms aren't dumb and it's not always a numbers game.
3.0/3.0 is on my AACOMAS application. On AMCAS it's 2.9/2.6. Thanks for the pep talk though. In undergrad I did too many totally unrelated majors and minors and just wasn't very responsible when it came to my engineering and science classes. Starting a family is really when I got more responsible. Oh, and I definitely am not deadset at all on being an MD and don't really want wouldn't want to be isolated in the Carribean, even if a great friend of mine is at SGU. And if I wanted to be an IMG I could have already started studying medicine here in Germany (that lasts 6 years), which is actually a great education, but I want to get back to the States for the time being. All in all, I am placing tuition, location and my personal experience visiting the schools (and who ends up letting me in, of course!)at the top of my selection criteria list of where I'll go. If the DO schools I'm interested in were a bit cheaper I would even possibly choose one over my state MD schools, considering their focus on primary care and my interest in holistic medicine and OMT.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing all those miracle acceptance stories still out there. 🙂 Keep this thread going!
Lincoln 🙂
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kiilcancer
How about good GPA and a bad MCAT (~3.9, 30)?
Do people like that have ANY hope of getting into any top school?
Do people like that have ANY hope of getting into any top school?
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what does 'bump' mean?
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it's funny how sdn will completely warp your reality. suddenly a 30 sucks on the mcat and 'decent' is 33 to 38. way too many hard gunning cali folks me thinks. thankfully i have a 6.0 gpa with an 8.3 sci gpa and 62 on the mcat and a couple of low-level pubs [human genome, cure for cancer, and a essay piece in the PNAC about how to achieve world peace].
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well... believe whatever you want. i'm just speaking from personal experience! yes, it will be hard to get in with a 30, but definitely not impossible! the average mcat is in the low 30's at all the uc's, so that means there are likely to be a considerable number of people getting in with less than that. you need to figure out a way to make yourself stand out and also need some luck, but it can be done.
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Or you could try one of those combined UC programs which have pretty low avg. MCAT scores. But you run the risk of a) Insanity or b) Ruining your chances for ANY medschool.
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I got in with a 3.3 and 37 MCAT. I should have studied more in college, but I didn't know I wanted to go to med school until I was out for a few years -- a little too late to work on that GPA.
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I made an F and have 2 w's i got my gpa back from a 3.1 to a 3.5 so im hoping the gpa doesnt hurt that much =0.
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I have a little insight on this issue. I have a 3.0 Overall and a 2.86 sci Gpa, Divorce during my junior year crushed me. I have a 32 mcat and have been on one interview and have another scheduled for later next week. I have good EC's but there is hope for the low GPA'ers be prepared it's going to be tough but it's not impossible good luck.
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PM me some time.
I can say that few people have done what I had to do to overcome my undergraduate GPA (2.88). 2 Ds, and plenty of Cs in all premed stuff.
Fortunately, I do have some interviews, but I feel that in the end, I could very well be waitlisted in light of that 2.88. I'm 27, which isn't all that bad. Still, re-applying would push me closer to 30 as an M1, which frankly doesn't leave me feeling very good about the future despite what people say about "If it's your dream, then it shouldn't matter where and when you start." I completely disagree.
All I'm saying (as most are saying in this thread) is that it's d@#$ near impossible to overcome the undergraduate record unless you've got some genius accomplishments going on, i.e., an awesome MCAT, remarkable employment/research/community service endeavors which lend themselves to outstanding letters of recommendation. I use the word "genius" in a relative sense, i.e., genius = something special and above average.
What you've done to yourself is essentially take away your margin for error. If you've already started the upward trend, you honestly can't have a relapse, so to speak. That's a tall order over time.
Attitude means a lot. Mine is slowly going down the drain as I see that the four or so years I've been out of school, busting my a@#, may lead to several waitlists and eventual rejections. I tell myself to enjoy the process, and most of the time, I do.
Good luck. I'm available to answer any and all questions you might have about the road ahead of you.
AAK
I can say that few people have done what I had to do to overcome my undergraduate GPA (2.88). 2 Ds, and plenty of Cs in all premed stuff.
Fortunately, I do have some interviews, but I feel that in the end, I could very well be waitlisted in light of that 2.88. I'm 27, which isn't all that bad. Still, re-applying would push me closer to 30 as an M1, which frankly doesn't leave me feeling very good about the future despite what people say about "If it's your dream, then it shouldn't matter where and when you start." I completely disagree.
All I'm saying (as most are saying in this thread) is that it's d@#$ near impossible to overcome the undergraduate record unless you've got some genius accomplishments going on, i.e., an awesome MCAT, remarkable employment/research/community service endeavors which lend themselves to outstanding letters of recommendation. I use the word "genius" in a relative sense, i.e., genius = something special and above average.
What you've done to yourself is essentially take away your margin for error. If you've already started the upward trend, you honestly can't have a relapse, so to speak. That's a tall order over time.
Attitude means a lot. Mine is slowly going down the drain as I see that the four or so years I've been out of school, busting my a@#, may lead to several waitlists and eventual rejections. I tell myself to enjoy the process, and most of the time, I do.
Good luck. I'm available to answer any and all questions you might have about the road ahead of you.
AAK
Hey, sorry, no big 40 for me after all. Here's to false confidence and fatal optimism! 🙂 I ended up with a 33M (11VR, 12PS, 10BS), which is "90.1 - 92.7 percentile," but my score definitely doesn't have the high-shock value I was looking for. (My state MD schools' averages are 27.3 and 28.5, though....) I suppose I should have started studying more than a week and a half before the exam and gotten more than two hours of sleep the night before (instead of cramming Kaplan OChem). Anyway, I'll keep y'all posted on any motivating news I may end up having. Good luck to everyone!
Lincoln 🙂
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I'm going to post my success story after I get accepted for next year 🙂
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so should i give up with a 3.3 (3.1 science) and 30 MCAT? 🙁 my gpa was pretty constant throughout school, except i was taking harder classes and more credits in recent years. and i would've done better last semester but became extremely ill and ended up missing a lot of class to see doctors (in classes that counted class attendance as part of your grade).
i think i wrote a decent PS and my extracurriculars are good (i've got research too) and i think my LORs are pretty strong. i already applied to a bunch of schools this cycle so i'm just worried my money will all go to waste and i really want to get into med school.
i'm from nyc too (in case you couldn't tell by my name) if that makes any difference. i guess that puts me at a disadvantage cause sunys take lots of out of staters.
edit: and i go to hopkins. i think i read somewhere that maybe it might make a little difference (i'm crossing my fingers).
i think i wrote a decent PS and my extracurriculars are good (i've got research too) and i think my LORs are pretty strong. i already applied to a bunch of schools this cycle so i'm just worried my money will all go to waste and i really want to get into med school.
i'm from nyc too (in case you couldn't tell by my name) if that makes any difference. i guess that puts me at a disadvantage cause sunys take lots of out of staters.
edit: and i go to hopkins. i think i read somewhere that maybe it might make a little difference (i'm crossing my fingers).
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kmnfive said:
really!? I was about to ask what anyone thought of a 26 and a 3.7.....
Maybe I have hope....😉
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No! Don't give up. Your MCAT is above average for matriculants, which is awesome. More than half the people who got in scored lower than you did! And a 3.3 is not bad. That's just one tiny part of your application that's maybe not quite where you wished it was, but with strong activities and essays you can help yourself a lot. You said you applied to a lot of schools, so just keep working on those secondaries and rock your interviews. You can do it! 👍NYCgirl9 said:so should i give up with a 3.3 (3.1 science) and 30 MCAT? 🙁 my gpa was pretty constant throughout school, except i was taking harder classes and more credits in recent years. and i would've done better last semester but became extremely ill and ended up missing a lot of class to see doctors (in classes that counted class attendance as part of your grade).
i think i wrote a decent PS and my extracurriculars are good (i've got research too) and i think my LORs are pretty strong. i already applied to a bunch of schools this cycle so i'm just worried my money will all go to waste and i really want to get into med school.
i'm from nyc too (in case you couldn't tell by my name) if that makes any difference. i guess that puts me at a disadvantage cause sunys take lots of out of staters.
edit: and i go to hopkins. i think i read somewhere that maybe it might make a little difference (i'm crossing my fingers).
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I had a 3.35 overall/3.1 science GPA, 38-40Q on the MCAT. Applied only to ten very competitive schools, was waitlisted at 4 and eventually accepted at one. I think if I'd applied to my state school or less competitive schools, I would have had a good shot at some of those. I think my GPA hurt me less than the fact that I admitted to having ADHD in my application...big mistake. I shouldn't have tried to explain. Also went to an Ivy league school for undergrad, and had a strong upward trend the last 3 semesters, which may have helped compensate for the relatively low GPA. Bottom line: you can get in with a low GPA, high MCAT, but it's not an easy road. No matter how high you score on the MCAT, it only compensates to a certain extent for a low GPA. What school you went to for undergrad might make a slight difference in how your GPA is perceived but probably not as much as you'd like to believe. It's possible to get in with a lowish GPA/high MCAT but it's an uphill road in my experience, at least at the more competitive private schools.
