How am I so far?

[Half_moon]

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Sorry if I'm breaking one of the SDN commandments by posting this, I'm just a little taken aback by all the things I seem to be missing.


I just finished the first half of my sophomore year. I'm sitting at a 3.27 cumulative GPA which scares the crap outta me since I'm considering doing a MD/PhD program and these classes are only going to get harder . I'm speaking with a professor about research, and I'm working on volunteering at the hospital over the next semester. I've got about 50 hours logged doing volunteer work, and I'm active in my school; I'm the president of an organization on campus.

Something in me doesn't feel like I'm doing enough to achieve my goal of going to medical schoool. I'm having motivational problems which I'm trying to seek help for, but appart from that, I'm going to have to pull off a 3.7 +GPA per semester to make up for me slacking in my intro classes and be competitive. Any other things I have to keep in mind and work towards?

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[Conflagration]

Remember- it's in the nature of a GPA to swing more in your freshman and sophomore years because it's a statistical mean. So, don't freak out quite yet.

But the things that you intend to do according to your post seems like an appropriate course of action, tell us how it pans out for you. =D

 

[Half_moon]

Glad to know I'm not off course ;I see people on here with like two publications and super high GPA's etc. And it makes me worry that I'm slacking

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[KLycos]

If you want MDPHD you are gonna need like 3.5+

 

[kristinairene]

=D

If I was the op, I'd be much more worried with that smiley 😛

 

[orthomyxo]

if you want md you are gonna need like 3.5+

ftfy

 

[plumhill]

You're going to need a very high MCAT score to offset a low GPA, aiming for at least mid-30s (from what I'm seeing on MD/PhD stats sheets).

While getting a 3.7+ each semester is going to be tough, it'll be necessary. You should hopefully be able to pull your GPA up to the 3.5-3.6 range by the time you graduate. If you're really set on MD/PhD, you may want to take a gap year so that adcoms will see your entire transcript, instead of just your grades through junior year. Either way, an upward grade trend is positive so just get your grades up, and do whatever you need to in order to keep them high.

 

[SBR249]

I don't think mid-30s will cut it to be frank. A low GPA can be somewhat compensated for by a good MCAT, but the average for top MD/PhD programs is in the 35-37 range usually. So a mid-30s would be...exactly average at the top MSTPs and would not help a low GPA. OP should aim for 37+.