How did you do it?

[dudewitshirt]

So I've been feeling kinda crappy recently about my grades and I know I'm not the only one out there.

I was hoping if you could give us guys and girls with sub par GPA's some hope (Anywhere from 3.5 and below). Post your story of how you had a low GPA and what you did to overcome it and get into med school

1. Original cGPA and sGPA before you decided to do something different
2. Schools you applied to
3. How you explained your low GPA on application or to interviewers
4. School(s) that your were accepted to
4. Advice you would give to other students who are feeling kinda crappy about their grades as well

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[aSagacious]

Moving to pre-allo.

 

[flodhi1]

Please read my mdapplicants profile it answers a lot of your questions.

 

[dudewitshirt]

Thanks for the info flodhi!

Although I'm sad that this thread has about died and your the only one who contributed :[

 

[armybound]

Keep working hard. Find something else to make up for lackluster grades like an interesting hobby, skill, or life experience. Get great letters of recommendation. Volunteer/get a job near doctors that can get to know you. Continue showing interest.

For me it was a matter of showing a string of good grades by getting a Master's degree (with a 4.0), doing something interesting/unique for a living, and getting new LORs that were a lot more positive. In the time it took between my first application and first acceptance (3 years) I did a lot of growing up and maturing, which I think helped a lot not only during interviews but in my LORs, activities, and PS.

If medicine is what you want to do, seek out people who will be honest about what you're deficient in and work hard to correct or overcome those deficiencies.

 

[Shmemifly]

flodh1's mdapps has a few really truly important points. here are mine. I had 3.5/3.4science and 12 interviews.

a) do well on the mcat. no excuses. i don't mean kill it with a 38, but prepare until you are regularly scoring 38/39 on practices, so that your real grade will be closer to 34/35. Yes, expect that much of a drop -- don't forget that it is much easier to drop points at the top.
b) put incredible amounts of effort/wisdom/thought/enthusiasm into every word in your PS and application. I am convinced many of my interviews were a result of treating my application like a work of art. All of my open interviewers commented on it. Something has to stand out, and that piece is entirely within your control.
c) tailor, tailor, tailor. I didn't do this. Boy do i wish i had. I am a CA resident and the only CA school i didn't get an interview at was Davis, where i hadn't realized that i needed to play my interests towards what THEY care about: rural primary care.
d) the obvious: apply broadly (i had no idea where I would fall, so i split the US news top 90 schools into thirds, and applied to 10 top 30, 10 middle, 10 bottom 30 - i got a pretty even distribution of interviews from all ranges, but seemed to fall solidly in the upper middle range for non-reach interviews). My mistake: make sure your safeties are NOT the oversaturated schools!!!! i wasted so much money on places like georgetown, GW, jefferson, BU etc, where they have too many applicants to possibly give you a second thought. Most rejected me within 2 weeks, and i got the fewest interviews in the bottom 30. Make sure your safety schools are actually safe, and preferably state schools like: UVM, UA, etc. There's much more heart at those places, and they'll put effort into you if you put effort into finding a connection with their school/region and expressing it.

And get lucky. I ended up on a fair number of waitlists, i think because I interviewed well outside my stats range, but I'm happy with my options. Good luck! Yay for imperfect premeds. We don't want only ocd type-A's out there.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

For people with subpar GPA's I would try and kill the MCAT. Like absolutely prepared until you are positive you are able to score a 33+ and most probably higher.