Decline in Grades

[13132]

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An increase in grades/GPA is often discussed on this forum but I was curious how a decrease, perhaps steep, is viewed?

Say a decrease from an A in Orgo II to a C in Orgo II? Or a GPA that goes from 3.9 to 3.6?

 

[HawaiiHereICome]

An increase in grades/GPA is often discussed on this forum but I was curious how a decrease, perhaps steep, is viewed?

Say a decrease from an A in Orgo II to a C in Orgo II? Or a GPA that goes from 3.9 to 3.6?

I doubt anyone on here will say that it will be viewed positively. I liked the following book because it helped me improve my time management and general efficiency:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

 

[hiyaman]

An increase in grades/GPA is often discussed on this forum but I was curious how a decrease, perhaps steep, is viewed?

Say a decrease from an A in Orgo I to a C in Orgo II? Or a GPA that goes from 3.9 to 3.6?

Fixed, It probably won't look favorably but it also probably won't kill your app or anything. I think the general consensus is that you should maintain your grades as high as possible, some people mess up the beginning of their college years and so get their acts together the last couple of years to even out their GPA.

If you have a reason for the drop in grades or something, I'm sure you'll be given a chance to explain sometime in the app process.

 

[13132]

Well I guess my question would be better phrased another way. How damaging is this? I ask because with a 3.9 it almost feels like ,aside from sustaining GPA as classes get harder, the only way is down.

Thank you for the link by the way.

 

[UnclePhil]

This is all my opinion of course, but a 3.9 to a 3.6 is not a steep drop depending on where you are starting from.

If you are a freshman and made a 3.9 and then your GPA dropped to a 3.6 the next semester it's not really THAT steep a decline. But if you're a junior and you had a bad semester and your GPA dropped 0.3 GPA points, then that means that you absolutely bombed a semester. Also keep in mind that an upward trend is sort of hard to maintain when you're above a 3.7. Even A-s drop your GPA.

Overall, I found that when I was less neurotic about grades, the better I did in my classes.

 

[Prof Chaos]

An increase in grades/GPA is often discussed on this forum but I was curious how a decrease, perhaps steep, is viewed?

Say a decrease from an A in Orgo II to a C in Orgo II? Or a GPA that goes from 3.9 to 3.6?

As you noted most people have the opposite problem, but that is generally the case of poor study habits and being generally unprepared for college as a freshman/sophomore and then picking up the after that.

In your case it sounds like you did well as a freshmen, but when the harder upperlevel classes starting coming it was an adjustment.

Either way I doubt it would be a big deal, especially if the drop is 3.9-3.6. If you started getting C's in half your classes, though, that may raise some eyebrows. But just going from an all A student to a B+ student is nothing to be discouraged about.

Just do your best and be ready to convince an admissions officer you are disciplined and mature enough to handle the rigors of med school.

 

[Catalystik]

Don't apply with a downward trend. Demonstrate to adcomms that the real you is the 3.9 person you started out as. Hopefully, you have enough time left in college to demonstrate this.

Your grades will be laid out year by year for adcomms to view on the AMCAS transcript, so if it was one bad semester, the negative impact will be moderated by an adjacent semester and may not look so bad as you fear.