Extracurriculars

[deleted647690]

Hi, my science GPA right now is about a 3.4, and my overall is just a little bit better than that. I was told to hold off on EC activities until I can pull that GPA up. I'm involved in about 2 activities right now. I haven't exactly been pulling 4.0s every semester, but I haven't had as bad a semester as my first, when I got a 3.2. Should I be more involved? I'm nearing the end of my college career, but I'd like to get my GPA up to at least 3.6, maybe even 3.7 if possible. Would it be bad if I just focused on GPA?

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[Catalystik]

Hi, my science GPA right now is about a 3.4, and my overall is just a little bit better than that. I was told to hold off on EC activities until I can pull that GPA up. I'm involved in about 2 activities right now. I haven't exactly been pulling 4.0s every semester, but I haven't had as bad a semester as my first, when I got a 3.2. Should I be more involved? I'm nearing the end of my college career, but I'd like to get my GPA up to at least 3.6, maybe even 3.7 if possible. Would it be bad if I just focused on GPA?

There's no rush to accumulate the necessary and desirable experiences that make a med school application appeal to adcomms. Med schools aren't going anywhere. And even the most terrific ECs you can imagine won't do you much good if your GPAs aren't competitive. So concentrate on academics for now and extend your timeline for your plan to apply.

 

[DrShephardWannabe]

There's no rush to accumulate the necessary and desirable experiences that make a med school application appeal to adcomms. Med schools aren't going anywhere. And even the most terrific ECs you can imagine won't do you much good if your GPAs aren't competitive. So concentrate on academics for now and extend your timeline for your plan to apply.

In your opinion, if someone had one terrible semester due to health issues, would it be acceptable to drop nearly all EC's to repair GPA? I'm considering this but I don't want an adcom to think "So, did you even do anything your last two years besides work and school?"

 

[Catalystik]

In your opinion, if someone had one terrible semester due to health issues, would it be acceptable to drop nearly all EC's to repair GPA? I'm considering this but I don't want an adcom to think "So, did you even do anything your last two years besides work and school?"

Yes, it would be acceptable to drop ECs for this reason, but it would be judicious to re-engage in (at least, some of) them for a period of time before applying. Zero pertinent activities for the two years immediately prior to application time isn't going to play well with adcomms.

 

[kmp0410]

Your assuming that dropping your activities will result in straight As? Seems unlikely that time is really the limiting thing in this equation.

So while I agree you should focus on improving your GPA, is just dropping your ECs the only way to accomplish this? Depending on what you are doing, you can always do a little less or have breaks when necessary etc. But most likely, need to improve time management and study habits.

 

[625233]

Just stop binge watching House of Cards.

 

[deleted647690]

Your assuming that dropping your activities will result in straight As? Seems unlikely that time is really the limiting thing in this equation.

So while I agree you should focus on improving your GPA, is just dropping your ECs the only way to accomplish this? Depending on what you are doing, you can always do a little less or have breaks when necessary etc. But most likely, need to improve time management and study habits.

You're right. Dropping my few current EC's is not going to help.

 

[Markymark15]

Manage your time better and find a more efficient way of studying (try different things, like do you learn better reading textbooks or do you learn better with powerpoints and notes). The admissions committee wants to make sure you can handle the huge workload in medical school, plus some extracurricular activities. And yes, focus on the GPA and MCAT. Some schools will not interview you if you don't meet their minimum numbers.