concerned about bad grad gpa - please advise and help me!

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Michelest2017

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I have spoken with admissions reps at top 10 med schools...

Your undergrad GPA and MCAT are what matter. Not everyone gets a PhD so they can't judge your GPA for that across the board. How in the heck can anyone evaluate someone who has a PhD in physics from MIT with a 3.0 vs. a 4.0 MPP from Harvard, there is no way to know. But it doesn't matter, because it is a FACT that medical schools look at undergrad gpa.

Your undergrad GPA is what matters and then MCAT - this is the very first hurdle... if you don't cross this hurdle they won't even consider the rest

Now, after you pass that hurdle a grad degree is looked at like an extracurricular activity, unless you were kicked out of the school or have academic dishonestly, a low gpa in an extracurricular activity is not going to hurt you...it's like being a member of a club instead of president of a club...

Again, I can't stress enough, no one gives a **** about grad gpa - only undergraduate and then specifically your science GPA... so you would do better to take undergrad courses and get a high undergrad gpa - you are completely and utterly wasting your time being worried about grad gpa

you being worried about grad gpa is the equivalent of being worried that an extra curricular activity doesn't look good enough for med school... okay either join another club or feel free to highlight some other volunteer experience... phd will be looked at the same as an extracurricular activity

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Please advise me - especially current medical students at top 25 schools

My undergraduate gpa at University of Chicago was 3.7/4.0 and I was a National Rhodes Scholar Finalist (triple major - social sciences)
Graduate gpa @ public health school (think Yale) was 2.6/4.0... I got ill throughout the program and had to deal with health problems... however, I ended up finishing with A on my thesis that will soon be published!

- I plan to do a postbacc program...but I am sooo disheartened by my graduate gpa... i feel like my profile would be very strong if it were not for the grad gpa/pending the post bacc program ended up well.. I don't want to pay all that money for a post bacc if admins will toss out my application due to my graduate GPA...

Will the graduate gpa hurt me in admissions to top 10 or top 20 medical schools? Does anyone have any advice and suggestions for me?

You should re-post this in the general forum or ask as specific contributor or moderator.

My uniformed opinion is that if you do well in your post bacc (all science classes) AND do well on the MCAT that you will have options. As to whether or not those options will be top 10/25...I think that depends on how well you do on the post bacc and MCAT. With a post bacc GPA as high as your undergrad and a 30+ equiv. performance on the MCAT I think you will get serious consideration from those schools...especially if you have a tight narrative about your illness and because graduate GPA isn't factored into your uGPa.
 
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So I followup on this thread to spread knowledge i've learned in case it's helpful for anyone else...

I've been told by top 10 med school admin reps that they do not care for graduate school grades - it is looked at like an extracurricular activity.

What matters is undergrad GPA, specifically science undergrad GPA, and then MCAT.
 
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