GPA

[anotherpodperson]

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I realize that grades are important, and yet I feel like I have hit a plateau with mine. I have a 3.0, and I can't seem to raise it anymore. I work hard and am afraid that this may be as high as I can get it. Any suggestions/ideas? Everyone knows that grades play a big role with getting a spot for residency, but I have no idea what GPA makes it into the "good" range. if I'm sitting at a 3.0 how bad is that for me?

 

[heybrother]

What year are you, what school, what quartile and/or class rank. At DMU for my class you would have been right at the middle at the end of year 1 (I'm told), but you would be several tenths below the middle at the end of second year. There's an article in JFAS that I believe just came out called - "Selecting Residents in Podiatric Medicine and Surgery" that you could give a look at.

 

[anotherpodperson]

I am a second year at Western. I was around the same ranking you mentioned at the end of first year as well. I read the article in JFAS and that made me concerned. I know it could be worse, but I wanted to see if anyone had tips to improve. Some of the programs show a cut off at 3.0 so hopefully it wont be an issue, but I'm terrified of having a few bad tests and seeing my GPA drop back to a 2.9x.

 

[josebiwasabi]

Make sure you keep that first number a 3 and not a 2. As long as you have 3.x GPA you will be competitive for the majority of programs out there.

 

[dyk343]

Just going thru the residency interview offer selection process...

Everyone who visited/externed got an interview. Then I clicked sort by GPA and went down the list. We did not consider anyone <3.0. But I am at a semi selective program. Just because someone does not have a 3.0 does not mean you will not get a good residency. But higher is always better.

 

[Pronation]

Just going thru the residency interview offer selection process...

Everyone who visited/externed got an interview. Then I clicked sort by GPA and went down the list. We did not consider anyone <3.0. But I am at a semi selective program. Just because someone does not have a 3.0 does not mean you will not get a good residency. But higher is always better.

Why offer an externship/interview with no intention of accepting that individual to the program?

 

[dyk343]

Why offer an externship/interview with no intention of accepting that individual to the program?

All externs had >3.0 gpa.

My point was after our externs/visitors got an interview we started with the highest gpa and went down the list for the random applicants. We could only offer interviews to so many candidates. So higher gpa candidates that never visited/externed got an interview invite. Preference will be given to those who externed.

Again, just because you don't have a 3.0 gpa doesn't mean you will not get a good residency. But it's helpful to have your gpa as high as possible. The students with higher gpa also performed much better during their month with us. I see a direct correlation.

 

[ldsrmdude]

The students with higher gpa also performed much better during their month with us. I see a direct correlation.

I agree with almost everything you said, but not totally with this ^. Having a good gpa obviously means that the student knows (or more correctly knew) the material. But for me how a student performs during their month has only a small amount to do with their gpa. Maybe I've just had my perspective skewed by a few bad apples, but my experience has been that it is a very rare student that has a very high gpa and has all the other qualities we look for. The students that have made the best residents have had a decent gpa (3.0-3.5 range) but were able to apply their knowledge better than others with higher gpas and worked harder. I definitely don't always see a direct correlation. Obviously, I think all students should try to learn the material as well as possible and try to get the highest gpa possible, but having a 3.0 gpa is by no means the end of the world.

 

[dyk343]

I agree with almost everything you said, but not totally with this ^. Having a good gpa obviously means that the student knows (or more correctly knew) the material. But for me how a student performs during their month has only a small amount to do with their gpa. Maybe I've just had my perspective skewed by a few bad apples, but my experience has been that it is a very rare student that has a very high gpa and has all the other qualities we look for. The students that have made the best residents have had a decent gpa (3.0-3.5 range) but were able to apply their knowledge better than others with higher gpas and worked harder. I definitely don't always see a direct correlation. Obviously, I think all students should try to learn the material as well as possible and try to get the highest gpa possible, but having a 3.0 gpa is by no means the end of the world.

You've been in the game a little longer too! We did have a student with a ~3.0 gpa that we really liked. That was mostly based on his/her personality though. I expect that student will be ranked relatively high.