GPA

[riotgurl]

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Just what exactly would a competitive GPA for med school be? 3.5? 3.7? I know that's kinda generalizing cause there's so many other factors that are taken into account, but I just want to know what I should be shooting for. Also, how do med schools look upon honors classes?

 

[none]

Okay, this will sound really bad because it goes against everything you learned about coursework in high school...but GPA is almost invariably more important than the classes you took. Now that is not to say that all majors are considered the same, far from it...but schools simply don't have enough quality time to spend with actual coursework. As far as GPA, it means nothing without a school attached. They're going expect near a 4.0 from a school they've never heard of. They're not going to expect that from very competitive/well-known schools, even if some do suffer from GPA inflation. Now then...that said, you really can't go much below a 3.2 and be considered at all by anyone, even with a super high MCAT and coming very a good school. If you have to have average numbers, I think they're around 3.4-3.5, but that includes a lot of state schools that accept very non-competitive applicants simply because they hold state residency. Sorry, I'm a bit bitter about the UCs. 🙂

 

[Amy]

People HAVE gotten in with below a 3.2. Also, no schools accept "very non-competitive applicants." Give me a break. Just do as well as you possibly can in school and hope for the best.

 

[riotgurl]

About the honors thing, at my school, (Santa Clara U) the honors classes don't seem to be harder than regular ones. For your first two years you take six honors classes out of say, 24 classes. (4 a quarter) And in your junior and senior years you take four more and do a thesis project. I'm a chem major and I have to do a research thing anyway, which covers that requirement. Plus if you do all four years in the honors program, it goes on your transcript, saying that you completed the honors program. This is my first quarter of my freshman year, and I'm only taking English honors, and I'm doing really well in it.

Somebody said that you need a school attached to put your GPA in perspective. So what would a good GPA from Santa Clara be for med school?