I know this is quite early but really bugging me... GPA + MCATS

[krazydesi]

Hello everyone,

I know this is quite early to kinda worry about gpa and mcats but after this semesters gpa its been bugging me and I keep thinking I wont even have a chance at medschool


I am a sophomore about to be a junior and currently hold about a 3.39 gpa. I hope to bring my gpa upto 3.6 by end of my junior year before I apply for medical school. The only reason my gpa has been low these past two years is because family reasons.

My dad left for 2 years abroad because we had a lot of family things to take care of abroad and my mom was left home alone basically. I come from an Indian family and my mom isn't really educated and my dad owned two businesses in my area so I had to go home every weekend to help her. I know this shouldn't really be an excuse for not doing well but my freshmen and sophomore year I went 3/4 weekends in a month home to help my mom run the business. I would work 12 hours on saturday few hours friday when i went home and few sunday before I left just so I can make it easier for my mom. I mean for me family comes before anything and since my mom had high blood pressure and stuff I could not risk her getting pressured from business stuff.


So right now I sit at a 3.39 gpa Industrial Engineering major. I am planning on taking the MCATs in August. I have Examkrackers and BK stuff and I plan to study hardcore to do well. I truly believe I will be able to pull off a 34+ because of my mootivation and no other responsiblities this summer. I am taking a few more classes to pull up my gpa even more but still am worried.


So basically the moral of this whole thread is that would a 3.6 in industrial engineering + 34+ on mcats be competitive enough to get me interviews for certain schools

I have done so far 1 year of research and plan to continue on next semester
-I have shadowed two doctors two days each and next semester I plan on shadowing an oncologist and cardiologist for a week, if it all goes through
-I have volunteered at a hospital I will have accumulated about 150-200 hours by end of my junior year.

- I have been a VP of an organization for a year, VP of standards for another organization for a year, and held various positions in this other service based organization. I was recently inducted in the national honors society for pre-meds at my college so I plan on helping out there a lot and possibly getting a leadership position or on a committee.


I have not done much in my college time but I have tried with everything that went on for me the past two years. I mean I really do not want to consider carribbean school, but I also am not very easy about taking a year off and reapplying.

I was thinking maybe if my 3.6 gpa is not good enough possibly do one of those one year masters programs from some school that are kind of geared for prospective med school students who couldn't apply due to gpa.

Just wanted to know what everyone thought about this, because I have a final tomorrow and I am worrying about Medical school over my final and this is not good...

My friends and other people I meet always tell me i will need atleast 3.75+ and like 33+ on mcats to be even considered and sometimes I am just like what should I do.

THANK YOU very much to SDN and everyone on here ...

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[nonesuchgirl]

You're fine. Take a deep breath.

 

[LizzyM]

Relax and do as well as you can on the MCAT and in the year ahead. Be sure to list the "employment, non-military" on your AMCAS under "experiences" and list the hours per week. Describe your responsibilities with the business. The adcom will give you "credit" for having worked part-time while taking a difficult major.

Good luck!

 

[mdgator]

It sounds like you'll be fine if you can get your GPA where you want it and do well on the MCAT. Don't take a 34+ score for granted, though. If you look at the statistics, that is a very high score which over 90% of test takers do not obtain. Just because you study hard doesn't mean you'll automatically score that high. The good news is:

1. There's nothing saying you won't score that high.
2. I think having had to work so hard to help with your family situation will work in your favor. Adcoms admire the dedication that it takes to work and perform well academically.
3. Even if you can only pull a 30 or 32, you can still be a successful applicant, assuming that everything esle is solid as well. Your friends who say you have to have a 3.75, 33+ to be considered are incorrect. While this process is very competitive, the average matriculant still makes about a 30, if I remember correctly. The level of competition is increasing every year, but there are still many applicants with 28s, 29s, and 30s who get in. You should aim as high as you can, and a score in the mid-thirties is definitely a huge plus and a necessity at some schools but it's not yet to the point to where you have to score in the 90th percentile to be a competitive applicant.
3. You're only a sophomore, and you have plenty of time to put together a very solid application, be it for next year, your senior year, or even a year or two later. Work hard and get to where you need to be, but also try to relax a little and enjoy your college years along the way.

Good luck...I bet you'll do fine.

 

[kevster2001]

Stop being so pre-med. The beauty of applying to medical school is that most things wont make or break you. There are so many things you can do to boost an application that it's very hard to be categorically denied unless something is seriously wrong (like a cheating violation etc). Like other people have said, you can't count on getting a good MCAT score but you can guesstimate your performance based on your practice tests.

Moral of the story, you're not going to be as competitive as the 4.0 41MCAT Ace with 3 first authors, but you'll be fine and will most likely be accepted soemwhere.

For what it's worth, my GPA was only 3.6