Is GPA evaluated in increments/intervals for MSTP admissions?

[muddphudder]

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Hey y'all,

Loooong time lurker, first time poster here.

Something I've been wondering about admissions is whether adcoms view GPA as an incremental entity much as in Neuronix's sticky (3.8+ is excellent, 3.6+ is good) or whether we should really seek to maximize it (3.95>3.9>3.8). This would be very helpful for me (and I hope for others), because the prevailing advice for GPA here seems to be: MAXIMIZE, MAXIMIZE. But I wonder if I have an opportunity to take a random class on state of nature theory in political philosophy (incidentally which I took this past sem and it str8 up changed my life) that I know might drop my GPA, should take that chance so long as it can keep me in that "3.8+ excellent place?"

I couldn't find a post that talks about this (maybe I'm wrong?), so I would love to get peoples' thoughts, esp. the veterans (@Neuronix @QofQuimica @Fencer)?

 

[eteshoe]

I mean you should seek to maximize all your stats but honestly the difference between a 3.8+, 3.9, and a 4.0 was how unwilling the people were to settle for something like a B+ or whatever. In my case, I double majored, had some fun in college, and ended up with a 3.85. Now I could have really pushed myself and gotten a few more A's instead of B+'s, but at the end of the day I wanted to hang out with friends, learn what I could in class, and focus on my research and I figured as long as my GPA didn't slip too much, I'd be fine (I saw the amount of effort some of my friends took to keep 4.0's and while I commended their efforts, I felt my energy could be better utilized in other areas).

I have little clue how adcoms view GPAs but if you have a 3.8+ and a 99th percentile MCAT, you've proven to everyone that you can handle the academic rigors of med school (which I would wager is one of the main things that adcoms are looking for in applicants). And in my case, I am no vet by any means (just in my 2nd yr of the PhD), but I have to say that my GPA didn't keep me from getting interviews/acceptances at almost every institute to which I applied. IMO, never be scared to take a class that sounds cool as **** - I know I really enjoyed some of those ones. But hey, it's up to you in the end. Good luck!