Is GPA more “emphasized” at Texas MDs?

[ILikeSpidey]

I’ve been seeing a lot of talk on both Reddit and SDN about how important GPA is to Texas schools. Of course, everyone should aim for high grades and do the best they can, but it seems to me there’s a consensus that Texas schools really value high GPA. Like hypothetically would a 3.7 look different for AMCAS schools in comparison to TMDSAS?

Can anyone speak to this?

For context I’m currently a freshman (TX resident) about to finish second semester. Got a 4.0 in first semester, fingers crossed it holds for second.

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[Mr.Smile12]

I don't think I understand the question but the application pools are different by school. TMDSAS is mostly Texas applicants competing for a smaller number of seats compared to all of AMCAS.

 

[ILikeSpidey]

I don't think I understand the question but the application pools are different by school. TMDSAS is mostly Texas applicants competing for a smaller number of seats compared to all of AMCAS.

Sorry for the confusion lol. I was just talking about how every so often I see posts talking about how much GPA matters for Texas schools. I can’t really point you to a specific post but it’s something I’ve noticed get talked about a lot scrolling thru SDN and reddit. It led me to ask if GPA is something that’s more important for admission into Texas schools in comparison to non-TMDSAS (or AMCAS) schools.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Sorry for the confusion lol. I was just talking about how every so often I see posts talking about how much GPA matters for Texas schools. I can’t really point you to a specific post but it’s something I’ve noticed get talked about a lot scrolling thru SDN and reddit. It led me to ask if GPA is something that’s more important for admission into Texas schools in comparison to non-TMDSAS (or AMCAS) schools.

It is only so much more important if you consider that you are in a smaller applicant pool for a limited number of seats to medical schools. I guess I would need numbers to emphasize this point, and so your GPA needs to be appropriately high to be considered. Now there may be some additional considerations since I'm sure the schools also employ mission-specific selection so grades are not everything.

 

[MercifulCamper]

A great GPA is helpful so try to maintain the highest GPA you can. Your MCAT is the most important metric.

As @Mr.Smile12 mentions there is mission fit. Having been accepted at 6 TMDSAS schools this cycle I can tell you that schools have different missions.

UTRGV/Foster (El Paso) - Latino/Underserved/Border Health
UTSW - Heavy Research and is stats oriented (apparently if you have high stats you get an auto Interview Invitation)
Baylor - Heavy Research but seems more holistic in its selection criteria
UTMB - Idk
Long School of Medicine - Stats oriented and working with underserved populations

Those are the schools I got into. I was also asked to interview with Dell and UofH but turned them down after getting into UTSW. Dell seemed to be more community health oriented and UofH is focused on primary care and working with underserved populations in Houston. I know A&M is focused on rural health/military health/engineering medicine. I don't know about Lubbock, Tyler, or McGovern.

 

[xakrinf]

Agree with the wise @MercifulCamper above! I’ll add onto the other 3:

Lubbock — rural medicine, but also more general
Tyler — heavy, heavy, heavy East Texas, rural medicine, and primary care focus.
McGovern — very general; seem to like high stats and research.

Good luck in the process! Enjoy it as much as you can, stay sane and stay true to yourself. Not every activity, extracurricular, and class needs to be “pre health” — you’ll find a way to make them all relate to your overall health-journey story as you get closer to application writing!

 

[plshelpmeineedhelp]

TMDSAS also does not distinguish between A-, A, and A+ for GPA. These are all counted as a 4.0 when you apply, so this may lead to a bit of GPA inflation if you get mostly A-.

 

[Snoozles]

TMDSAS also does not distinguish between A-, A, and A+ for GPA. These are all counted as a 4.0 when you apply, so this may lead to a bit of GPA inflation if you get mostly A-.

As someone with a handful of A- grades, I appreciated this a lot. If I had applied through AMCAS, my GPA would've dropped a fair bit vs TMDSAS. Curiously, professors at my Texas undergrad didn't seem to give as many + grades even if I met the criteria, I think they just don't see it as valuable.

 

[ILikeSpidey]

A great GPA is helpful so try to maintain the highest GPA you can. Your MCAT is the most important metric.

As @Mr.Smile12 mentions there is mission fit. Having been accepted at 6 TMDSAS schools this cycle I can tell you that schools have different missions.

UTRGV/Foster (El Paso) - Latino/Underserved/Border Health
UTSW - Heavy Research and is stats oriented (apparently if you have high stats you get an auto Interview Invitation)
Baylor - Heavy Research but seems more holistic in its selection criteria
UTMB - Idk
Long School of Medicine - Stats oriented and working with underserved populations

Those are the schools I got into. I was also asked to interview with Dell and UofH but turned them down after getting into UTSW. Dell seemed to be more community health oriented and UofH is focused on primary care and working with underserved populations in Houston. I know A&M is focused on rural health/military health/engineering medicine. I don't know about Lubbock, Tyler, or McGovern.

Damn bro I would give anything get the same results as you 😳. Haha but for real thanks for the input I just wanted to see people’s thoughts on this. I got a long way to go, but I’ll do whatever it takes to build a good application for these schools.

 

[Promised_Consort]

To add on to mission fit, TAMU looks for primary care, rural medicine, and military medicine. Very fit based school imo, also tends to accept more reapplicants and older students from what I’ve heard.

 

[WildWing]

@wysdoc Any thoughts?

 

[wysdoc]

@wysdoc Any thoughts?

A high MCAT can help a bit.
Texas MD schools mostly expect a GPA of 3.5-3.6 or better

 

[koalafied_biologist]

I am a unique case as a non-trad but I got into a Texas MD school with a 3.25 cGPA. Granted my sGPA was 3.90 after Fall 2022 semester.
I had plenty of people tell me I would not get anywhere in Texas with my stats but I got more interviews than quite a few of my peers at my undergrad institution and they had much better GPA/MCAT than me. So yes stats are very very important and you should always strive to get the best possible grades, however your stats are not everything. They will not completely carry you through to acceptance if you dont have any ECs, but at the same time they will not totally tank your application if you have good experiences and you can write about them in a way that matters!

 

[Novalis88]

A great GPA is helpful so try to maintain the highest GPA you can. Your MCAT is the most important metric.

As @Mr.Smile12 mentions there is mission fit. Having been accepted at 6 TMDSAS schools this cycle I can tell you that schools have different missions.

UTRGV/Foster (El Paso) - Latino/Underserved/Border Health
UTSW - Heavy Research and is stats oriented (apparently if you have high stats you get an auto Interview Invitation)
Baylor - Heavy Research but seems more holistic in its selection criteria
UTMB - Idk
Long School of Medicine - Stats oriented and working with underserved populations

Those are the schools I got into. I was also asked to interview with Dell and UofH but turned them down after getting into UTSW. Dell seemed to be more community health oriented and UofH is focused on primary care and working with underserved populations in Houston. I know A&M is focused on rural health/military health/engineering medicine. I don't know about Lubbock, Tyler, or McGovern.

Thank your for this post. I am a little confused though: what is the difference between Dell's focus on community health vs UofH's focus on primary care? Isn't primary care and community health basically the same thing?

 

[MercifulCamper]

Thank your for this post. I am a little confused though: what is the difference between Dell's focus on community health vs UofH's focus on primary care? Isn't primary care and community health basically the same thing?

Community health is more community initiatives that impact the health of others outside of the traditional clinical setting.

 

[Max2022]

A great GPA is helpful so try to maintain the highest GPA you can. Your MCAT is the most important metric.

As @Mr.Smile12 mentions there is mission fit. Having been accepted at 6 TMDSAS schools this cycle I can tell you that schools have different missions.

UTRGV/Foster (El Paso) - Latino/Underserved/Border Health
UTSW - Heavy Research and is stats oriented (apparently if you have high stats you get an auto Interview Invitation)
Baylor - Heavy Research but seems more holistic in its selection criteria
UTMB - Idk
Long School of Medicine - Stats oriented and working with underserved populations

Those are the schools I got into. I was also asked to interview with Dell and UofH but turned them down after getting into UTSW. Dell seemed to be more community health oriented and UofH is focused on primary care and working with underserved populations in Houston. I know A&M is focused on rural health/military health/engineering medicine. I don't know about Lubbock, Tyler, or McGovern

Good info !

 

[Max2022]

I am a unique case as a non-trad but I got into a Texas MD school with a 3.25 cGPA. Granted my sGPA was 3.90 after Fall 2022 semester.
I had plenty of people tell me I would not get anywhere in Texas with my stats but I got more interviews than quite a few of my peers at my undergrad institution and they had much better GPA/MCAT than me. So yes stats are very very important and you should always strive to get the best possible grades, however your stats are not everything. They will not completely carry you through to acceptance if you dont have any ECs, but at the same time they will not totally tank your application if you have good experiences and you can write about them in a way that matters!

Did you take a gap year and had good clinical

 

[koalafied_biologist]

Did you take a gap year and had good clinical

Kind of. Went to community college from 2008-2013 then left after failing everything. Returned to go get a bachelors in 2018 an graduated summa cum laude. Technically not a gap year, but yes big gap. had about 1500 hours of clinical volunteering and 1000-ish non-clinical volunteering. 1500 research hours and one pub (technically 3 now, but only one at the time). No shadowing or paid clinical.

 

[Novalis88]

A great GPA is helpful so try to maintain the highest GPA you can. Your MCAT is the most important metric.

As @Mr.Smile12 mentions there is mission fit. Having been accepted at 6 TMDSAS schools this cycle I can tell you that schools have different missions.

UTRGV/Foster (El Paso) - Latino/Underserved/Border Health
UTSW - Heavy Research and is stats oriented (apparently if you have high stats you get an auto Interview Invitation)
Baylor - Heavy Research but seems more holistic in its selection criteria
UTMB - Idk
Long School of Medicine - Stats oriented and working with underserved populations

Those are the schools I got into. I was also asked to interview with Dell and UofH but turned them down after getting into UTSW. Dell seemed to be more community health oriented and UofH is focused on primary care and working with underserved populations in Houston. I know A&M is focused on rural health/military health/engineering medicine. I don't know about Lubbock, Tyler, or McGovern.

Thank you for this helpful comment. Question: do you know how these texas schools feel about older career changing nontrads? Especially Dell? Thanks!

 

[gonnif]

https://www.tmdsas.com/docs/stats/Final-Statistics-Report-Medical-EY20.pdf?fbclid=IwAR36auD_G-qaEw5-f80ZkvRaX1iLaTwAspu6vQpzrZxUKurrG57lsDxTtU4

Just for completeness here are the stats from TMDSAS for 2020. 57% of accepted had 3.81 or higher GPA with a total of 72% having 3.71 GPA or higher. They supposedly have “New” interactive dash board for stats which seems to be down each time I access it.

 

[sugasathya]

GPA/MCAT ratio for Texas schools is higher when compared with similar MCAT band Northeast or western medschools. Since MCAT is a common test, one reason could be that there could be overall GPA skewed toward 4.0 in Texas undergrad schools. Also removing A- could skew that number a bit. Based on this statistics I could not read that GPA is more emphasized. Again my inference is just based on data that is posted on MSAR and to make a proper conclusion we really need more information.