For mid tiers - improve the GPA or improve the MCAT?

[JimmyB123]

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If I'm aiming for mid tier schools (school with avg GPA 3.7 and MCAT 32-33), what is the better option: improve my GPA or improve my MCAT?

My gpa: 3.5
My mcat: 31

Which option would be more financially safe? Which option would be more difficult? And finally, successfully improving which would result in the greatest return on investment?

I want to make myself a more competitive applicant which is why I want to improve one of these.

 

[JimmyB123]

Sorry, 3.5 is my science gpa. My overall is lower, unfortunately at a 3.4 🙁

 

[juliuspepperwood]

Improving the GPA is highly dependent on how many units you have. I spent almost 3 years getting a 4.0 in full time classes and it raised my cGPA by a little over .1, but I have a ridiculous amount of units. But if you don't have many units and/or have the time you definitely can improve your GPA.

What do your MCAT practice test averages look like? If you are scoring significantly higher than a 31 than a retake might be beneficial. If you are only scoring around a 33 or something to that effect then don't retake.

 

[JimmyB123]

Did you spend these 3 years getting a 4.0 after college? Was it through classes at a neighboring college?

Yeah I have many credits so it would take a lot of classes to get the job done

 

[BeancheBlanco]

Your GPA is definitely your biggest weakness. Your MCAT is solid, but it won't carry you. However, improving your GPA significantly is more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. If I were you, I would spend a year taking some upper level bio classes and making sure to get all A's. That will help your GPA a little and more importantly will show schools that you are capable of doing well today, regardless of what happened in the past. You could re-take your MCAT as well but I would only do that if your AAMC practice test average is a 33+.

 

[DK2014]

Improve both.

 

[lmn]

Depends on your trend, your schedule, and your abilities. Assuming you are graduated, it is really hard to make significant changes to gpa due to high number of credit units. So MCAT would be your "easiest" bet, but everyone has their seemingly upper limits on how they are able to score regardless of studying time/quality, if you can study for a few months and take the MCAT and be confident that you can up your score, go for that that. But if you are honest with yourself and don't think you can do much better, explore other options or come to the realization that "tiers" don't really matter that much and that for the vast majority of opportunities beyond med school, it is going to be your performance (step 1 and rotations grades) that determines what you can do, and that doesn't mean you have to go a mid tier vs low tier to do well.

 

[JimmyB123]

Your GPA is definitely your biggest weakness. Your MCAT is solid, but it won't carry you. However, improving your GPA significantly is more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. If I were you, I would spend a year taking some upper level bio classes and making sure to get all A's. That will help your GPA a little and more importantly will show schools that you are capable of doing well today, regardless of what happened in the past. You could re-take your MCAT as well but I would only do that if your AAMC practice test average is a 33+.

Is it okay if the upper level bio classes are from a CC?

 

[JimmyB123]

Depends on your trend, your schedule, and your abilities. Assuming you are graduated, it is really hard to make significant changes to gpa due to high number of credit units. So MCAT would be your "easiest" bet, but everyone has their seemingly upper limits on how they are able to score regardless of studying time/quality, if you can study for a few months and take the MCAT and be confident that you can up your score, go for that that. But if you are honest with yourself and don't think you can do much better, explore other options or come to the realization that "tiers" don't really matter that much and that for the vast majority of opportunities beyond med school, it is going to be your performance (step 1 and rotations grades) that determines what you can do, and that doesn't mean you have to go a mid tier vs low tier to do well.

Thank you. Both my MCAT and GPA are mediocre and improving both seems like it would take an immense amount of work, which is why I was trying to see if improving one would have a bigger impact. MCAT seems the easier route to go though, although I would really have to change my study habits for it

 

[ace12345]

I would try to improve both, but in the short term a big MCAT score will probably help garner a few looks.

 

[DokterMom]

What about NEITHER of your numbers and going for eye-poppingly-good EC's and lower mid-tiers?

Right now, your numbers are 'acceptable'. With a lot of effort, you might be able to bring one or both of them up to 'good'.
But if you put that much effort into your volunteerism, how much good could you do? For your community as well as for your application --

 

[cheetoh]

I don't think the risk/reward of investing time into a second go at the MCAT would be worth your while. Unless you can consistently average ~34 on practice exams (which you've probably already taken), then it's hard to say you should expect any improvement at all. You could spend 3 months preparing to find you're averaging a 32. Then is it worth the risk of a retake that's the same/lower. Seems iffy.

I was accepted into several mid-tiers with a 3.9c/sGPA, 31 MCAT. Your MCAT shouldn't garner an auto-reject from any mid-tier.

Numbers aren't the whole app. Really. Without knowing your EC/volunteer/shadowing situation, spending time doing any of these will improve your chances.

 

[JimmyB123]

What about NEITHER of your numbers and going for eye-poppingly-good EC's and lower mid-tiers?

Right now, your numbers are 'acceptable'. With a lot of effort, you might be able to bring one or both of them up to 'good'.
But if you put that much effort into your volunteerism, how much good could you do? For your community as well as for your application --

Hmm...so forget about my numbers and focus on the non-metric aspects of my application. Gotchya. That's definitely the first time I've heard that!

 

[DokterMom]

Hmm...so forget about my numbers and focus on the non-metric aspects of my application. Gotchya. That's definitely the first time I've heard that!

Not the conventional wisdom, I know. But there are some qualities certain applicants have that make AdComs want them, and those applicants rake in acceptances well beyond what their numbers would support. It will take time and effort, but the rewards are multi-faceted and will definitely pay off. (Possibly not in an acceptance right away, but in other ways that can absolutely lead to an acceptance.)

 

[lmn]

I don't think the risk/reward of investing time into a second go at the MCAT would be worth your while. Unless you can consistently average ~34 on practice exams (which you've probably already taken), then it's hard to say you should expect any improvement at all. You could spend 3 months preparing to find you're averaging a 32. Then is it worth the risk of a retake that's the same/lower. Seems iffy.

I was accepted into several mid-tiers with a 3.9c/sGPA, 31 MCAT. Your MCAT shouldn't garner an auto-reject from any mid-tier.

Numbers aren't the whole app. Really. Without knowing your EC/volunteer/shadowing situation, spending time doing any of these will improve your chances.

True it's possible to get into OP's mid tier definition of school with those stats, but your gpa is nearly half a grade point higher than their gpa. Now that doesn't mean necessarily that it'll be an auto-rejection, but it does mean that they are that much less competitive right from the get go.

 

[orangeman25]

True it's possible to get into OP's mid tier definition of school with those stats, but your gpa is nearly half a grade point higher than their gpa. Now that doesn't mean necessarily that it'll be an auto-rejection, but it does mean that they are that much less competitive right from the get go.

Right. OPs GPA, as it stands, would be around or below the 10th percentile at many "mid-tiers". The MCAT would be closer to the median. I think it may be more worthwhile to improve the GPA to bring it up closer to the median threshold. If you do manage to improve the MCAT to say a 35 (which is no easy feat), your GPA-MCAT tandem would be a little unbalanced. I think it's safer to be a balanced candidate.

 

[JimmyB123]

Thank you all for the wonderful feedback. I have been wondering about something and I hope someone can answer this:

So there must be students that have low GPAs out of undergrad (like me for example) that go on to do SMPs/Post-bacs. Many of these programs are at the graduate level so that means if the student does well in them, they receive a separate GPA from their undergraduate GPA. From the perspective of the adcoms, admitting this student does not help the school's stats at all right? Schools report average undergraduate GPAs therefore GPAs from SMPs/Post-baccs don't even factor into the numbers the school reports.

 

[Goro]

Get both of them up.

Apply strategically. You'll be fine at Drexel or Pitt

If I'm aiming for mid tier schools (school with avg GPA 3.7 and MCAT 32-33), what is the better option: improve my GPA or improve my MCAT?

My gpa: 3.5
My mcat: 31

Which option would be more financially safe? Which option would be more difficult? And finally, successfully improving which would result in the greatest return on investment?

I want to make myself a more competitive applicant which is why I want to improve one of these.

 

[JimmyB123]

Get both of them up.

Apply strategically. You'll be fine at Drexel or Pitt

Ok thank you. Drexel yes but I'm not going to bother with Pitt. Pitt is among the best schools out there and they have really competitive stats (3.75/35).