Hypothetical Admissions Situation

[tealover567]

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Let's say you had a 3.3GPA at HYS and a 30 MCAT and 300 hours of emergency room experience. Do you think it would be good take take an extra year to boost your GPA before applying or would that work for top medical schools like HYS?

 

[ScutmonkeyNJ]

If you choose to do that, you better have a good reason why your GPA was 3.3 before you decided to take a whole another year for an opportunity to raise your GPA. Med schools assume that students are aware of the fact that GPA is weighed more heavily compared to extracurricular activities on your application.

Of course, both are critically important for admission, but GPA and MCAT scores come first before extracurricular. If you can't jump over the 1st hurdle, how do they expect you do jump over the second?

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

Let's say you had a 3.3GPA at HYS and a 30 MCAT and 300 hours of emergency room experience. Do you think it would be good take take an extra year to boost your GPA before applying or would that work for top medical schools like HYS?

Yes, it would be a good idea to boost your gpa with an extra year. No, even with an extra year, you aren't looking at admissions to HYS.


(Assuming this is not a troll)

 

[tealover567]

If you choose to do that, you better have a good reason why your GPA was 3.3 before you decided to take a whole another year for an opportunity to raise your GPA. Med schools assume that students are aware of the fact that GPA is weighed more heavily compared to extracurricular activities on your application.

Of course, both are critically important for admission, but GPA and MCAT scores come first before extracurricular. If you can't jump over the 1st hurdle, how do they expect you do jump over the second?

What if you got a masters degree in biochemistry first instead? (Two years)

 

[ScutmonkeyNJ]

What if you got a masters degree in biochemistry first instead? (Two years)

I don't think they care what degree or major you have as long as you have satisfied medical school admission requirements (minimum of BS or BA along with completion of all the course requirements). I kid you not, I've seen a number of music and art majors get accepted to medical schools (and I presume it's not uncommon nowadays). Med schools look for good GPA and MCAT regardless of degrees or majors.

 

[tealover567]

Yes, it would be a good idea to boost your gpa with an extra year. No, even with an extra year, you aren't looking at admissions to HYS.


(Assuming this is not a troll)

What if you had a 3.6 GPA and 30MCAT. Then you could get HYS probably? The average GPA at HMS is 3.8...therefore there must be some who get in with a 3.6.

 

[ScutmonkeyNJ]

What if you had a 3.6 GPA and 30MCAT. Then you could get HYS probably? The average GPA at HMS is 3.8...therefore there must be some who get in with a 3.6.

...remember that the 3.8 average could possibly mean that a lot of students had GPAs around 3.8 and that the standard deviation was low. 3.6 is definitely a reach for Harvard. If you have absolutely stunning extracurricular and personal statement, you might get an interview.

and MCAT score of 30 is way away from what Harvard is looking for. Consider retaking it?

 

[NickNaylor]

What if you had a 3.6 GPA and 30MCAT. Then you could get HYS probably? The average GPA at HMS is 3.8...therefore there must be some who get in with a 3.6.

What if, what if, what if...

Worry less about these hypotheticals (I'm assuming you're in a situation similar to this, otherwise you probably wouldn't be asking) and more about working to make your app as strong as possible. If you're applying with a less than desirable GPA after three or four years of work, you should be skeptical about your ability to magically boost your GPA with a year or two of 4.0s unless you know for a fact that you didn't work as hard as you could have. "Boosting your GPA" is something commonly thrown around on SDN that is significantly easier said than done. If "boosting your GPA" were as easy as people here make it seem, you probably would've had a 4.0 in the first place and wouldn't have anything to worry about.

 

[WorldChanger36]

A special master program would be a better use of your time. Go to the postbacc section of this forum and look into it. I am in an SMP now...

 

[Yoseph101]

What if you had a 3.6 GPA and 30MCAT. Then you could get HYS probably? The average GPA at HMS is 3.8...therefore there must be some who get in with a 3.6.

Yes, if you have a 3.6 and a 30 MCAT you could get in to HYS if you won the nobel prize in physics for discovering the theory of everything and then published a paper in Science on its application for curing brain cancer.

3.6, a 30, and some shadowing wont get you love from HYS.

 

[tealover567]

Yes, if you have a 3.6 and a 30 MCAT you could get in to HYS if you won the nobel prize in physics for discovering the theory of everything and then published a paper in Science on its application for curing brain cancer.

3.6, a 30, and some shadowing wont get you love from HYS.

3.8 and 30?

 

[WorldChanger36]

3.8 and 30?

Go away...

 

[ScutmonkeyNJ]

3.8 and 30?

Like I said, MCAT score of 30 is not even on par with what Harvard is looking for.

 

[Claudin]

3.8 and 30?

3.8/36+