Hi everybody,
Apologies to those who have heard my story before... search is currently disabled or I would have just posted a link.
First off, let me say that I don't really feel comfortable with the title of this thread, as I wouldn't like to think that I am 'bragging' about my low gpa, but since I didn't start the thread, there isn't much I can do about that.
I agree with Caveman wholeheartedly... the intent of this thread is neither to mislead, nor to give false hope, but to see what kind of things can compensate for doing poorly in one's undergraduate days, however long ago that was.
I think people that only post their low gpas, without including another huge factor such as great mcat, publications, or other unusual experiences that they know compensated for their gpa are being somewhat misleading.
I think there are some recurring themes that I've noticed among people that have gotten accepted despite gpa problems. In addition to the typical premed activities, i.e. hospital volunteer time, etc:
1. MCATs:
Caveman: It may not be that people are trying to feel 'smart' by 'downplaying' their high mcats, but rather that they feel like they are bragging about their mcats if they call them 'great'. So they say 'good' instead.
Anyway, 'good' MCAT's show that your grades are not reflective of your actual academic abilities. Hopefully, you have a good reason to explain your prior shortcomings. In my case, although it wasn't an excuse, I did Army ROTC which was a huge time commitment, overloaded myself with unreasonable classes such as a molecular spectroscopy grad class, and was overly involved with reconfiguring my linux computer. Still, my MCATs 'saved' me in the sense that it showed that my grades were not reflective of my abilities.
10V, 13P, 14B, R
2. Time: I graduated in '97, and worked and took postbac classes since then... It's taken me this long to get accepted; hence the name, Third Times A Charm. I think it's practically impossible to get accepted less than 2 years out of college if your gpa is <3.0
3. GPA upward trend: Although I started off horribly, I finished with a 3.5 my senior year, but an overall amcas gpa of 2.78.
4. Postbac classes: I took 7 of them at UCSD, got 2B+'s, 1 A-'s, 3 A's and 1 A+, while doing research full time and serving in the National Guard. This showed that I had 'reformed' since I was an undergrad, back in '93...
5. Research: I was fortunate enough to get a research position in a great lab where I got onto 4 papers in great journals: PNAS/JBC, and a few poster presentations
6. Great letters of rec: At least that's the 'vibe' that I got, having waived my rights to see them.
7. Good interviews: I'd like to think that I am pretty good with my people skills. I think my experiences of having to deal with people from PhD's in the lab to privates in the Army has helped me out alot. Another thing that was key during the interview stage was to convey that I realized that it wasn't the ROTC time, it wasn't the extra difficult classes and it wasn't the school that was partly responsible for my low gpa, but it was _ME_. _I_ was the one that was irresponsible, and immature, and _I_ realized that. It was tough to take 100% responsibility for my past, but with 26 years of living under my belt, I finally realized that. Adcoms want to know that ultimately, _YOU_ take responsibility for past problems.
8. A well-known undergrad school: Obviously, by the time you are reading this post, there isn't much you can do to change this point, but I think my school: MIT, helped me get a little leeway w/r/t my gpa.
9. Something else that makes you stand out: In my case, it was my army experience; ROTC in college, a 17-week Officer Basic Course with other active duty army officers, and a ranger-school type course that I volunteered in. I did very well in these courses, and despite being a National Guard officer, I proved I could keep up with the real army too...
I'm sure that there are other factors that may have improved other people's chances, but for me, these were the things that got me accepted.
I hope I didn't come across sounding like I was 'bragging' about anything, because that was not my intent. It's pretty much impossible to convey tone of voice in a text post, and hopefully nobody flames me for 'bragging' about my EC's/MCATs. I just wanted to include the factors that I know were very important in compensating for my atrocious gpa.
One sobering thing that I have realized is that, had my gpa been in the 3.7-3.8 range, I probably would have gotten accepted to higher ranked schools, and perhaps even with scholarship money. As it stands, I will probably go hugely into debt for a long time, but hopefully will do well enough in medical school to get into a specialty that I really want, which as of right now is orthopedic surgery, and one that will allow me to pay off my debts before I retire. Regardless, that's the price that I have to pay for my past transgressions. To those of you that had the maturity to prioritize, do well in school, and get accepted to your top choice school, my hat is off to you. You have earned it.
I hope my long-winded post was helpful. If I can answer any other questions, please post/pm me.
-ttac
p.s. Since I know it will be asked, I am an asian american male from CA and I was accepted to MCP-H and USUHS.
p.p.s. My apologies if this post seemed somewhat disjointed. For some reason I had to strip off all the parentheses and used commas and semicolons instead.
Hands down...his story and #s are awesome and inspiring....and he got into an awesome school 
