Freshmen GPA??

[UTAPlaya10]

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I was just wondering the starting freshmen GPA for most of the people in this forum that have gotten into medical school. I am a freshmen right now and Im working really hard not to start off bad but I was just wondering how well I could rebound if I wasnt able to do this. Any success stories will help. Right now I have a 3.538 GPA but I am worried about this going down. I'm a freshman right now and any success stories or cold hard facts will be gratefully appreciated.

 

[bbabul01]

I was just wondering the starting freshmen GPA for most of the people in this forum that have gotten into medical school. I am a freshmen right now and Im working really hard not to start off bad but I was just wondering how well I could rebound if I wasnt able to do this. Any success stories will help. Right now I have a 3.538 GPA but I am worried about this going down. I'm a freshman right now and any success stories or cold hard facts will be gratefully appreciated.

I started with like a 3.6. A upward progression for a GPA is usually a good thing. You have a million other things that need to be on your application, so I wouldn't worry too much about your freshmen year GPA. You need a good mcat, extra currics, and letters of rec. There's a million things in your app. Keep your grades up and you'll be fine.

 

[BigRedPremed]

My GPA kept going down my first 3 semesters (to the point where my third semester GPA was 0.4 lower than my first semester GPA) but since then there's been an upward trend.

 

[searun]

I was just wondering the starting freshmen GPA for most of the people in this forum that have gotten into medical school. I am a freshmen right now and Im working really hard not to start off bad but I was just wondering how well I could rebound if I wasnt able to do this. Any success stories will help. Right now I have a 3.538 GPA but I am worried about this going down. I'm a freshman right now and any success stories or cold hard facts will be gratefully appreciated.

I think your 3.53 is fine for a freshman. Set a goal of 3.8 by the time you are a senior and you will be fine. Just get better every year until you graduate with 3.8 (science and overall gpa) or better and you will be good to go. That was my goal, and it worked for me. It is just a matter of self discipline and being mentally strong. The weak will fall by the wayside.

 

[Brookstacular]

I wouldn't worry about a 3.5... I started with a 2.91, 2.92, and 3.3 my freshman year (we're on the quarter system) and I've been fighting an uphill battle ever since...it's taken me 2 full years + 1 quarter to bring my cumulative GPA to a 3.53 (that's with averaging about a 3.7), So just raise it and keep it consistently higher.

 

[Kfire326]

I was just wondering the starting freshmen GPA for most of the people in this forum that have gotten into medical school. I am a freshmen right now and Im working really hard not to start off bad but I was just wondering how well I could rebound if I wasnt able to do this. Any success stories will help. Right now I have a 3.538 GPA but I am worried about this going down. I'm a freshman right now and any success stories or cold hard facts will be gratefully appreciated.

My semester GPAs, starting with my first semester freshman year are:
3.53
3.31
3.73
3.86
(3.84 = summer)
4.00
4.00
4.00

So starting with a 3.53 is not a bad thing 🙂

 

[MattD]

At the end of my frosh year I has around a 3.2. By app time I had about a 3.75. No worries.

 

[Bernie3144]

1st semester freshman year i started with a 2.47. Ended up with a 3.3 undergrad and a 3.6 graduate gpa... Not a bad success story.

If you do well on the MCAT and get your research/clinical experience, a 3.5 is not going to hurt you depending on your science gpa and where you want to apply.

 

[Davjc2009]

3.54 ---> 3.63 ---> 3.86 ----> right now 4.0

 

[TMP-SMX]

3.31
3.82
3.35 Summer
3.09 (1.0 in Calc II)
3.54
3.3 Summer
3.71
3.79
4.0

Don't worry about your first year. It's over. Concentrate on improving for the next year. I did horribly in one class and it brought down my whole GPA. That 3.09 semester I had two As, an A-, a B+ and the D.

Just learn what you can and improve. Of course a 3.5 is nothing to cry about. It's a good GPA.

 

[xucardsfan08]

A 3.5 is a good GPA. It sounds like here that if you have a 3.7 or lower you have to result to a high MCAT score or the Caribbean.

The most immportant thing is an upward trend. A 1.0 -> 1.9 -> 2.7 -> 3.5 -> 3.8 shows improvement and responsibility. You will not foever be punished for having a bad semester...

 

[45408]

A 3.5 is a good GPA. It sounds like here that if you have a 3.7 or lower you have to result to a high MCAT score or the Caribbean.

The most immportant thing is an upward trend. A 1.0 -> 1.9 -> 2.7 -> 3.5 -> 3.8 shows improvement and responsibility. You will not foever be punished for having a bad semester...

yeah, but a 1.0 is going to tank your overall GPA. No, you shouldn't think the world is over if you don't do the greatest your first semester or two in college, but they ARE the easiest semesters, IMO. I had a 3.97 with 40 credits after my freshman year.

 

[Bernie3144]

A 3.5 is a good GPA. It sounds like here that if you have a 3.7 or lower you have to result to a high MCAT score or the Caribbean.

The most immportant thing is an upward trend. A 1.0 -> 1.9 -> 2.7 -> 3.5 -> 3.8 shows improvement and responsibility. You will not foever be punished for having a bad semester...

I wish I had a 3.7 and a high GPA... well not really because then undergrad would have sucked. However, a 3.3 and a 30 was good enough for multiple interviews/acceptances... if you're that average student, better get those ECs, a killer personal statement and Research/Clinical experience. This is what I banked on due to average numbers and it worked... plus you'll have more fun in undergrad 😎

Don't apply to "top-tier" schools though, it's a waste of money if you 1-don't know somebody there and 2-have average numbers without crazy ECs, such as saving orphans with kwashiorkor in a 3rd world country.

 

[Bernie3144]

yeah, but a 1.0 is going to tank your overall GPA. No, you shouldn't think the world is over if you don't do the greatest your first semester or two in college, but they ARE the easiest semesters, IMO. I had a 3.97 with 40 credits after my freshman year.

Just providing a different perspective about freshman year because it seems a lot different than your opinion and it may help to provide conflicting viewpoints to show that a 3.5 first year is a very respectable GPA.It really depends on your status/priorities coming in. I knew I wanted to be premed (and graduated premed), but on the other hand, I wanted to have a decent time.

My big mistake was to take credit for 21 AP credits from high school... this brought me out of all the intro classes that would have made anybody's GPA during freshman year higher. However, starting college with soph/jr courses in addition to getting familiar with a totally different social life was a terrible mix (didn't help to pledge 15 weeks either).

I'm not sure if this is true, but there are some schools that look at the GPA of your last 6 semesters (helps if you went 5 years instead of 4 - ie study abroad/co-op/messed around). Although, like many others have said, the best thing to do is show progression. 👍

 

[ds776]

I had a 3.1 freshman year, 3.3 overall, and I'm in.

 

[Brookstacular]

Now obviously grades are important, but it seems like we're all way to focused on just getting as many A's as we conceivably can. It seems to me that while grades can get you an interview, they don't get you accepted... There should probably be an advice column written somewhere to incoming undergraduate freshmen that says, "Do well in school, but don't forget to build some character as well."

 

[45408]

I'm not sure if this is true, but there are some schools that look at the GPA of your last 6 semesters (helps if you went 5 years instead of 4 - ie study abroad/co-op/messed around).

I've heard that about grad schools, but I've never heard that about med schools. Could be possible though.

 

[RollSkins]

A 3.5 is a good GPA. It sounds like here that if you have a 3.7 or lower you have to result to a high MCAT score or the Caribbean.

The most immportant thing is an upward trend. A 1.0 -> 1.9 -> 2.7 -> 3.5 -> 3.8 shows improvement and responsibility. You will not foever be punished for having a bad semester...

I am not sure that if you have GPA lower than a 3.7 and a MCAT of say 28 or 29 that you need to start thinking about the Carribbean. There definetly people who get accepted with GPA's < 3.5. Also I am pretty sure that the average acceptant has a GPA of something like 3.6. In anycase a upward trend will definetly show med schools that you have matured through college and are serious about medicine/education.

 

[Kfire326]

I am not sure that if you have GPA lower than a 3.7 and a MCAT of say 28 or 29 that you need to start thinking about the Carribbean. There definetly people who get accepted with GPA's < 3.5. Also I am pretty sure that the average acceptant has a GPA of something like 3.6. In anycase a upward trend will definetly show med schools that you have matured through college and are serious about medicine/education.

I applied with a 3.71, 29P MCAT. I applied to the Caribbean and DOs to be safe, and got into both. Also got into MD schools this year (see previous post in this thread for my semester gpas). I think applying to the Caribbean is definitely a good backup though. Caribbean and DO were my plans B and C.

BTW, I also asked in the sticky forum for adcom advice what a competitive GPA is for applying the med schools. It was confirmed to be a 3.70-3.75. The respondent, LizzyM, said that anything under but within 0.15 of the average accepted gpa (for that school) should get the adcoms attention. Anything b/w .15 and .25 under would fight an "uphill battle." No mention of anything lower than that...

 

[gary5]

I think it's good that you're worried about your GPA. This means that you realize how important it is. You need to improve your test preparation. Try to start studying for all your exams earlier. For example, if you typically start studying 2 days before an exam, double that to 4 days. And, of course, attend every class and do every assigned problem. My goal in undergrad was do get 4 As and 1 B every semester. You may want have a similar goal.

 

[Kfire326]

I think it's good that you're worried about your GPA. This means that you realize how important it is. You need to improve your test preparation. Try to start studying for all your exams earlier. For example, if you typically start studying 2 days before an exam, double that to 4 days. And, of course, attend every class and do every assigned problem. My goal in undergrad was do get 4 As and 1 B every semester. You may want have a similar goal.

What works for some people doesn't necessarily work for others. Example: I think class is a waste of time. I never went to class for biochem. last semester (undergrad) and got an A. Never went to class for Physiology 2 semesters ago.. got an A. The list goes on....

...and don't get me started on 'assigned' problems...

 

[gary5]

What works for some people doesn't necessarily work for others. Example: I think class is a waste of time. I never went to class for biochem. last semester (undergrad) and got an A. Never went to class for Physiology 2 semesters ago.. got an A. The list goes on....

...and don't get me started on 'assigned' problems...

I hear ya. As a general rule, I attended all my classes, but I did have a few classes that I never went to. It's a risky choice, though. Some people skip classes and they get behind and can never recover. Or, the exam is based on the teacher's lecture more than the text, and so they get burned that way.

 

[CTtarheel]

I was just wondering the starting freshmen GPA for most of the people in this forum that have gotten into medical school. I am a freshmen right now and Im working really hard not to start off bad but I was just wondering how well I could rebound if I wasnt able to do this. Any success stories will help. Right now I have a 3.538 GPA but I am worried about this going down. I'm a freshman right now and any success stories or cold hard facts will be gratefully appreciated.

I started with a 3.55 freshman year, brought it down to a 3.44 after the first semester sophomore year. I ended up applying with an AMCAS gpa of 3.68. It's definitely possible, and don't assume that your gpa will necessarily go down. After sophomore year you'll be done with pre-req's and be in your major classes which are more interesting, plus the grading curves for classes in your major tend to be much more forgiving. Anything close to 3.5 is a solid start, so just keep it up. If you can bump it to about a 3.6 by the end of junior year you'll be golden, if you can't you'll still be fine.

 

[Kfire326]

I hear ya. As a general rule, I attended all my classes, but I did have a few classes that I never went to. It's a risky choice, though. Some people skip classes and they get behind and can never recover. Or, the exam is based on the teacher's lecture more than the text, and so they get burned that way.

Agreed. You gotta know the game to play it well. I don't risk things if I'm not sure I'll be able to do well on an exam w/o going to class. I rely mostly on powerpoint lecture notes that are posted online...the textbook is only a secondary source (if I even bother to buy it.. which I usually don't. Another game you have to know well to play well).