D Junior Year. Can I still apply to med school straight out of college without gap year?

[deleted963889]

Everyone knows medical school admissions is very difficult and so I'm in a sticky situation here with my grades. I know people who've gotten into top tier medical schools with Cs or even Ds on transcripts but they were all from freshman year. However, I just got a D in my junior year orgo class and I can't retake it until next fall after the time I would submit my med school applications. My GPA is still competitive although slightly lower than the top tier med school's median accepted GPA (at time of application would be around 3.65). I thought I could still get my application in this cycle but I was on Duke's med school FAQ website and they say wait 4 semesters after a bad grade to apply. However in my case I would only have 1 semester and be in the middle of my summer semester before applying to med school. Basically, has anyone been in this situation where they had a bad grade junior year since it's less time for an upward GPA trend before applications are due and still applied to really good med schools and got in?

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[FreeRadicals]

What would your sGPA be?

 

[deleted963889]

What would your sGPA be?

At time of application, not including summer semester's final grade, around a 3.4

 

[Wayfinder]

I have never been in your situation, but personally I would take the year.
Orgo is covered on the mcat, and I am assuming you have not taken biochemistry or the mcat yet? Biochem is very heavy on the mcat, and even though it is very different from Orgo I found most students in my classes had grades that correlated. Building a solid foundation and study skills is critical. However I don't know which schools you are looking at, what your goals are, what the rest of your application looks like, and what your finances are. Could you potentially get in? Yeah. But when you apply you want be your best, and it doesn't sound like you will be doing this if you apply this up coming cycle.

 

[jarednogeek]

If you wanted to go to a “top tier” school a 3.4 science gpa is quite low. I wouldn’t worry about the individual grade effecting you but your overall gpa. Unless you have an otherwise spectacular application I don’t see you going top 10-20. Focus on MCAT and getting good grades.

 

[AllBleedingStops]

I would say take a year. Your GPA isn't super high in general and that recent D isn't helping.

 

[ciestar]

Both your cgpa and sgpa would be below national medians. If you’re looking at schools like Duke a 3.4 sgpa won’t cut it.

Take a gap year. Don’t rush things