Decreasing GPA.... ;; Canad

[halakkala]

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Hi

I have a slight concern. First of all I am a canadian applying to only American schools (because of personal circumstances). Also, I have taken the MCAT before and did very poorly... so I will be retaking in June/July this year (hoping for 35+)

I did really well in my freshman year and in the first semester of sophomore year... but my marks kept falling after that (in my Junior year i got 3.72 but a 4.0 in the second semester = 3.86)

Year 1: 4.0
Year 2: 3.95
Year 3: 3.86

cGPA: 3.942

I am interested in top 20 schools, but this isn't a big issue right? I didn't do very well in chem this year where i got around 75% 🙁 ... hence the 3.86

Thanks...

 

[apumic]

You're fine. A decrease like this isn't a big deal and is bound to happen, TBH, when your GPA starts high. It's much better than the opposite trend coming from a low GPA. (Upward trends are good, but an upward trend of 3.5-3.6.3.7 is easily beaten by your 4.0-3.9-3.8 trend).

Now as for the "top schools" thing...the fact is that those schools care about a lot more than GPA and MCAT score. Your GPA is fine for any of them but remember that those schools generally take <<3% of their applicants (some <1%) and their applicants are generally self-selective to begin with (i.e., they don't get the average applicant; they get mostly the people who are bound to get in somewhere).

Finally, I'd strongly urge you to apply to Canadian schools as well. Applying only to US schools as a Canadian citizen is seriously shooting yourself in the foot -- and neither you nor any other applicant, myself included, can afford to do that in this game!

 

[coralfangs]

I did just that. I think it's only a matter of personal preference. After college, I've been working in the States for a couple years and really enjoyed the field in US. Hence, I only applied to US school despite my GPA met their requirement and my MCAT score far exceeded the requirement. Yet, I still face this "negative" stigma against those Canadians studying in the States.
Stupid Canadians. A couple months ago I went to a walk-in clinic in Canada. The doc saw me reading a high yield boards book.
He was like, "Do you go to med school here?"
I was like, "No"
He was like, "Oh, Carribeans?"
Me "No, it's _____________.... That's in ________?"
Doc, "You didn't get into Canadian schools?"
Me ".... I like the hospital there, you know, it's affiliated with ________ and ________"
Doc, "oh, that's where I sent my father for his _____ surgery, that's a very good hospital"
Me "ya, we are the best in that field.... just so you know there are a lot of US schools that are better than Canadian schools......"



To OP: do not "count on" getting a 35+ MCAT, finish it and see what you get.

It gets quite annoying sometimes to see kids like this, "oh my GPA is only 3.9 and I want to apply to Harvard, is that bad?" knowing that their avg GPA is about 3.85 (correct me if Im wrong)
What do you want us to say? No, not at all, you will get in for sure with that GPA.........
You need to understand that GPA and MCAT are not the only things matter for top US schools. Many have done extraordinary ECs.... Hell, at my school, we have Juilliard musicians, we have NYC visual artists, we have professional go-cart racers, etc....

You're fine. A decrease like this isn't a big deal and is bound to happen, TBH, when your GPA starts high. It's much better than the opposite trend coming from a low GPA. (Upward trends are good, but an upward trend of 3.5-3.6.3.7 is easily beaten by your 4.0-3.9-3.8 trend).

Now as for the "top schools" thing...the fact is that those schools care about a lot more than GPA and MCAT score. Your GPA is fine for any of them but remember that those schools generally take <<3% of their applicants (some <1%) and their applicants are generally self-selective to begin with (i.e., they don't get the average applicant; they get mostly the people who are bound to get in somewhere).

Finally, I'd strongly urge you to apply to Canadian schools as well. Applying only to US schools as a Canadian citizen is seriously shooting yourself in the foot -- and neither you nor any other applicant, myself included, can afford to do that in this game!