GPA after submitting transcripts

[MoeDaMan]

One quick last question...

for everyone already in medical school

I have already submitted my transcripts to AAMC for Spring quarter. I was wondering, does my GPA matter anymore? or can I relax and just get C's I ended with an above average GPA, but i was wondering, if the grades matter anymore? I heard some schools ask for updates but most don't

If they don't then hell, I might as well double major, not stress myself, and absorb all the material I find interesting, heck it can't hurt you can it?

I also worked hard taking SO MANY honors classes, and trying to graduate with latin honors and that stuff. However, I wonder, if any of these matter once I get accepted to medical school? cuz I know with the first acceptance letter I get, I will just aim to pass my classes I can't help but think that all these 4 years are going to go down the tube lol

but heck, relax and enjoy life, no? or should i keep on trying to work hard and get top notch grades..... I mean, if I don't have to, should I? we all need a break sometime no?

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[AJM]

Grades your senior year don't matter nearly as much as the other years. There are a couple of concerns about completely slacking off during that year, though. First of all, you are not guaranteed that you will be accepted to a med school this year. If you do not get accepted, and apply next year, you will have a very hard time explaining your lower grades. Second, if you are admitted, and decide to attend a particular school, they will ask you for a final transcript in the spring/summer. They typically require you to have gotten at least a C- (I'm not sure of the exact cutoff) in all the rest of your courses, or they could withdraw their offer of admission.

Here's what I did my senior year. My undergrad school was a trimester system. So when I applied to med school, I worked hard during the fall quarter of my senior year. I was lucky enough to get an acceptance in December, so after that, I took my winter quarter courses pass/fail, and was able to graduate a quarter early. That gave me a full 6 months off before med school started and it was SO worth it! I highly recommend that kind of approach if you can work it!

 

[MoeDaMan]

Wow Ajm

Dat sounds so kewl....I might take you up on your offer

 

[Popoy]

Remember though, if in the event that you don't get accepted to medical school this year (which I hope doesn't happen to you).... those senior grades will matter for reapplication.

 

[MoeDaMan]

Popoy honey

if i don't get into medical this year...I am applying to Law, Dentistry, or a PhD program...

hard work past for all these four years...either I have proven myself, or I hvaen't no need to toture myself to the end of life....of course, it is not like I wont be careless and not study at all..

I will just not stress over them and have sleepless nights like sometimes I did

 

[gower]

AJM is right about not slacking off. If you should not get accepted the first time around and reapply, you have dug yourself a deeper hole to get buried in. Bad, bad, bad mistake!

I would think not twice, but 3, 4, 5....times about then applying to the variety of schools you mention. If you are not truly motivated and have not thoroughly investigated what practicing dentistry and law is, should you get accepted to either, spend all that time studying and passing licensing exams, and THEN discover that you hate it, or even a milder don't love it enough and look for a divorce, think of the wasted years, the hell and stress you went through, the money down the drain for nothing, and NOW having to find a new career
later in life with debts owing the law or dental school. BAD, BAD move.

PhD may be even a worse choice. Unless you are STRONGLY motivated for a possible career in academia, involving teaching (and in the sciences, teaching premeds like you were) and research, don't. If you are not top drawer from a top drawer graduate school, if you are lucky you can expect a job in a small college somewhere with relatively low pay and a heavy teaching load. If you find something more upscale and if you want to keep your job and get promoted, you HAVE to do research and try to get grants to pay for the research. Grants are not at all easy to get. You are likely to remain small time, and if you teach science, the premeds will likely sneer at you as a failed premed. A PhD is neither for impressing others nor yourself; you still get on the end of the line at the supermarket, the postoffice, the theater, wherever there is a line, along, of course with physicians, dentists and lawyers unless you send someone else to to stand in line for you! Another blow to the ego!

Think before you jump! One of my favorite lines is from an old but marvellous comic strip, Pogo, by Walt Kelly. "We have the met the enemy, and he is us." How often true; we are always quick to put the blame for our own missteps everywhere except ourselves, relieving of us all responsibilty for our own errors, learning nothing from them, doomed to keep making mistakes, like the legendary Greek Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a mountain, never making it, forced to start again at the bottom for all eternity. Bad role model!

 

[MoeDaMan]

thanks for ur input guys...i really appreciate it