BioEngineering Major 3.4 cGPA, 3.2 sGPA CA resident chances

[Gill_97]

Major: BioEnginering from a major CA public university
MCAT 510
cGPA: 3.4
sGPA:3.2
I have extensive volunteering experience, did research work and shadowing also. I know my GPA is low but I felt that BioEngineering is a demanding major and difficult to maintain a stellar GPA.
Anyone in a similar position would like to share his/her experience especially if the medical school valued their major? Also, if you have any specific school suggestion or anything you can share from your experience. Please pm me if you would like to respond discreetly. Thank you

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[mdphdNYC]

I went to a private school famous for an especially rigorous engineering program and professors who were very stingy with A-range grades (likely due to departmental/institutional pressure). I have many friends who were in engineering (bioengineering, chemical engineering, CS, even one electrical) and decided to apply to medical school.

Unfortunately I don't have great news - med schools do not tend to be sympathetic to the argument that "my GPA is low because I was in a hard major/took hard classes/took 5-6 classes every semester". I attended several premed forums run by adcoms and the consensus answer to this question was that while they encourage you to challenge yourself in college, they also expect you to choose a major/classes/courseload that you can handle and you should not expect preferential treatment over someone who chose a lighter courseload and did better (you may be at an advantage compared to someone who chose a lighter courseload and ended up with the same GPA). They do give some consideration to whether grading overall is stricter at your school than others (i.e., per-class caps on percentage of A grades), though this usually manifests in weighting your MCAT more.

Almost all the people I know who were admitted had 3.6-3.7 GPAs or better, which was considered unusual (<10%) in the engineering majors at my school. One person had a 3.4 but made up for it with a 520+ MCAT.

 

[Gill_97]

Thanks for the response mdphdNYC. Anyone else want to share their experience?