-
The 2026-2027 MD School Specific Threads are now live in the School Specific Discussions forum. The 2025-2026 cycle threads can be found here. -
Scholarship Access: Becoming a Student Doctor course
Free access to comprehensive medical school prep. Eligible students include AAMC FAP recipients and HS graduates from underserved areas. Apply today.
how "bad" is a 3.7 - 3.75?
Started by bayer
Make up for it in MCAT. Top schools are more about experiences/EC's/being Unique.
If you have a 3.75/36 + Average EC's you probably won't get in, a 3.75/36 + Great EC's good chance at a top school
If you have a 3.75/36 + Average EC's you probably won't get in, a 3.75/36 + Great EC's good chance at a top school
I might have a coauthor pub and a first author, some service leadership, maybe some entrepreneurship leadership type stuff...I think I'll apply junior year so I'm just another premed...
10th is like 3.7 right? Do those people have outstanding EC's/stories?
To be clear my goal is just to get in somewhere
Well I've always wanted to go to my IS public schools... just ruling things out at this point and trying to figure out what to focus on this upcoming year (I'm a soph)
I had a 3.6 cGPA. Doesn't lock you out, you just need to make up for it in great EC's and a solid MCAT.
3.7-3.75 is like the 5'11" of GPAs... yeah it's above average, but damn you were so close to 6'
You also had a 3.9 sGPA. Good job in picking an excellent school!
You will most likely have to settle for a school that is arbitrarily ranked 21 or greater. The shame and humiliation, I know.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
So embarrassing that it might not even be worth wasting a couple hundred bucks on primary applications.
4
487806
Classic case of simply caring about the title and nothing more since he obviously doesn't care about the quality of the school. Just the fact he can get an M.D. behind his name.
ALMOST 6 foot...
Even worse, I fear your only option now is DO school.
Never assume you'll be one of those 10th percentile people. If you're one of them, you probably won't need to make a thread like this.
What?? He's talking about the bottom 10%
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Oh no! I will never be a real doctor, lol.
If you do well on the MCAT and go above and beyond or EC's
once you're above the 3.6-3.7 threshold, your gpa matters less and less. **Insert diminishing returns here**
TBH, the opportunity lies in improving your extracirriculars. make sure you have adequate hospital volunteering, and as well as shadowing clinicians. If you have an opportunity to work in healthcare, that will be huge, as well as doing other activities such as Americorp or TFA.
I usually get the impression that the 3.6 >> crowd often lacks in EC's, so I'd definitely focus on that if you really want to standout. That being said, this is a generalization, but often times I see that being the case.
I would almost say that the numbers matter based on how much you want them to matter. People who agonize over every detail in class to bump their 3.6 or 3.7 higher and forget about being well-rounded with extracirriculars will be judged more on their grades because they simply don't have anything else to be judged on! And the converse, is likely too: more interesting activities can result in adcoms ignoring your gpa.
I applied with a sub 3.5 ORM and managed to secure 8 interviews and a couple acceptances. Just keep that in mind.
TBH, the opportunity lies in improving your extracirriculars. make sure you have adequate hospital volunteering, and as well as shadowing clinicians. If you have an opportunity to work in healthcare, that will be huge, as well as doing other activities such as Americorp or TFA.
I usually get the impression that the 3.6 >> crowd often lacks in EC's, so I'd definitely focus on that if you really want to standout. That being said, this is a generalization, but often times I see that being the case.
I would almost say that the numbers matter based on how much you want them to matter. People who agonize over every detail in class to bump their 3.6 or 3.7 higher and forget about being well-rounded with extracirriculars will be judged more on their grades because they simply don't have anything else to be judged on! And the converse, is likely too: more interesting activities can result in adcoms ignoring your gpa.
I applied with a sub 3.5 ORM and managed to secure 8 interviews and a couple acceptances. Just keep that in mind.
A 3.75 isn't that bad 😕
With a score like that, it will not be the reason that you don't get into a top school. If the rest of your application is lackluster, then perhaps yes.
With a score like that, it will not be the reason that you don't get into a top school. If the rest of your application is lackluster, then perhaps yes.
Yes and those bottom 10% people didn't get in because they were lucky, they got in because they had a good MCAT and killer ECs. If you have to ask if your ECs are good enough to make up for your GPA, they probably aren't.
i'm just scared because i see lots of 3.7/35 type guys who applied broadly with no acceptances on mdapps. not even to top schools necessarily.
It wasn't because of their stats. They most likely had some combination of lackluster ECs, bad LORs, bad PS/essays, or botched interviews. They may also have applied very late, or had a transcript that was half W's, or had an IA/criminal history, etc. Point being, there are many ways an application can be deficient while still have great stats.
As an example, I knew a guy with a 3.7/31 who was convinced it was his MCAT that held him back from getting accepted in his first round of med schools, and got him wait listed on everything the second time. Meanwhile he had only applied to 2 or 3 schools, had very little clinical experience and volunteering, a small amount of shadowing, worte his PS in a night, and had submitted his primary in early October. He still ended up eventually getting an acceptance.
lol im both there in gpa and height..soo close smh
That's pretty self explanatory so quit trying to manipulate what I said
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I don't think so... the median GPA at most of the top schools is 3.9 and the bottom 10% is approaching 3.7. The 3.7 ORMs who get in at those schools probably had amazing MCAT, well-rounded ECs, and a little luck on their side.
Do you have a source for that claim (3.9 average GPA for most top schools)?
Here is data from the 2008-2009 MSAR http://www.washington.edu/uaa/advising/downloads/gpamcat.pdf
The only schools with a median close to 3.9 are Harvard (3.87), JHU (3.87), and WashU (3.91).
The rest of the top 20 range from 3.75-3.85 for the medians.
Perhaps the averages have changed since 2009 though enough to make it close to 3.9 medians?
You're perfectly fine. Keep increasing the GPA to become even stronger, but that GPA shouldn't keep you out of any medical schools. the challenge ahead of you is maintaining/increasing it.
Last edited:
you can find a spreadsheet version of 2011-2012 msar online. few schools have 3.7 medians these days, most are 3.8/3.8 ish. there are tons of schools with 3.9 medians now. but the spreadsheet only goes to 1 decimal place so it might be rounding up
Wow you are right, although it does go to 1 decimal point only. But damn the competition has gotten fierce.
WashU has an average MCAT of 38 😳
4
487806
I'm just restating whatever you said. There really isn't any manipulation involved.
Well yeah. WashU loves high stats.
exactly why i'm worried. 3.7/3.7 is median even for low-mid tiers
4
487806
No it's not. 3.5-3.6 is the average for low-mid tier schools.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
"So... DO isn't prestigious but a Caribbean MD is? Harsh man"
that's not repeating what I said.....
Generally, when picking schools, you should ignore the bottom 10-15th percentile. Always assume that they have something you don't.
"Approaching 3.7" is very vague.
Duke's 10% GPA: 3.58, BCPM: 3.48
Harvard 10% GPA: 3.71, BCPM: 3.69
Columbia 10% GPA: 3.57, BCPM: 3.48
UPenn 10% GPA: 3.66, BPCM: 3.63
Stanford 10% GPA:3.63, BPCM: 3.53
That's just a handful right there. A 3.7 is very different from a 3.53 or a 3.48 and these are some of the most selective schools in the country. I think having a great GPA is absolutely important, but people also are getting a little carried away with the "stats" required to be successful.
i agree that you shouldn't have trouble getting in somehwere (even US MD) with 3.7. It's a pretty good GPA.
However looking at bottom 10% stats, you have to know that these are the ones with disadvantaged stories, great MCATs, multiple first author papers, national athletes etc. Things making up for it.
My point is that a 3.7 is well above the 10th percentile even for these top schools. You need not make special assumptions about what they must do to become accepted.
You can get in anywhere with a 3.7 without having to resort to absurd ECs like national athletes or multiple first author papers.
I really don't think a 3.7 is all that bad as long as you have a good balance of meaningful activities and can destroy the MCAT.
Best of luck! People have gotten into medical school with much lower!
Best of luck! People have gotten into medical school with much lower!
