HELP Please! Med school admissions with some bad grades?

[allyallymac]

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Hello,

I am currently a third year student in the Medical Sciences program at Dalhousie University. I am wondering if I can still get into medical school with one bad semester in second year? My sGPA for that year was a 3.47 (3.83 in first semester and 3.11 in the second). I finished second semester of second year with a C in O Chem II (A- first semester) and a C+ in Human Systems Physiology. Other than those two bad grades, all others were As. (There was some personal issues I was dealing with at this time) This year I have a sGPA of exactly 4.00. This makes my cGPA at 3.73 right now. I also have an MCAT score of 522.

Do you think it is still possible to have a competitive application? I have one year left and am hopeful that it will be similar to this years (4ish). I know that Dalhousie looks primarily at the last two years but will those bad grades stand out?

PS: in terms of extracirriculars I volunteer in a research lab during the year, am a member of multiple clubs and commitees and do pole sport.

I just freaking out that that semester of a 3.11 is going to fail my application. So if anyone has any advice, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[HomeSkool]

You're just fine. One bad semester doth not a career destroy. It's very common for folks to start OK, then have their grades drop a little as sophomores before figuring things out as juniors and seniors. Don't worry, you're in a great spot academically.

For your ECs, make sure you're shadowing and volunteering clinically. @LizzyM gave great counsel on the number of hours to target: How many volunteer hours are solid?.

 

[Yasuo]

Please relax. Your MCAT is god-tier and one sketchy semester with a legitimate reason will not tank your app.

 

[FutureSurgical]

If you can show it was truly just a bad semester, you have no worries. I'd explain what happened in your PS or elsewhere in your AMCAS and let your future grades/top 1% MCAT show that it wasn't anything more than a bad part of school. We all have them and adcoms are people too.

 

[sehnsuchtsermedico]

If you can show it was truly just a bad semester, you have no worries. I'd explain what happened in your PS or elsewhere in your AMCAS and let your future grades/top 1% MCAT show that it wasn't anything more than a bad part of school. We all have them and adcoms are people too.

I wouldn’t even point it out in the PS. I think during initial screening, they’re just look at the average. With your GPA and MCAT I wouldn’t worry too much.

 

[wubear0613]

I wouldnt worry at all! This is pretty similar to what happened to me, you could see a substantial dip in my semester gpa like second semester freshman year or something (gpa was a flat 3 that semester) and then a pretty strong upward trend afterwards. I didn't mention the dip itself anywhere in my AMCAS app or secondaries. However, sometimes when there was one of those "describe a barrier you've overcome" questions on a secondary I'd talk about the difficulty i went through and how i worked hard to overcome it and leaned on people close to me. Only one of my interviewers asked about that dip and I was able to talk about a difficult time in my life, and it made for this awesome and organic conversation.

You'll be fine OP!!! Keep your head up!!!!! 🙂