Is it worth addressing my cGPA (3.72) on secondary prompts for schools with a 3.9+ median?

[MasonBlue]

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To start with my basic background, my MCAT is 522 (130/132/131/129), cGPA is 3.72, sGPA is 3.83. IN resident, ORM, financially underprivilegded/FAP recipient but otherwise not much going on in my background that's super eye catching.

I am applying to 20 schools and 5 of them are reach/far reaches for me which have a median MCAT of 520-522 and median GPA around 3.9-3.93. Specifically, those schools are WashU, Vandy, Penn, Chicago and Northwestern.

For schools with 3.90 or higher median that have a "anything else you want us to know?" prompt I have been thinking about whether I should put in a spiel about my cGPA. There are a few things that I think might be good for me to point out about my GPA. My low grades were isolated in a period of time when "life stuff" was affecting my school performance, I have a pretty strong upward trend (4.0 for last 50 cred hours and 3.91 for my last 75 cred hours), and I did hella good in some notoriously difficult science courses like orgo and physics.

Any thoughts on whether I should try to sell my reach schools on my ability to handle rigorous science coursework? Or would it possibly be in poor taste, unnecessary, ineffective etc etc?

 

[907914]

To start with my basic background, my MCAT is 522 (130/132/131/129), cGPA is 3.72, sGPA is 3.83. IN resident, ORM, financially underprivilegded/FAP recipient but otherwise not much going on in my background that's super eye catching.

I am applying to 20 schools and 5 of them are reach/far reaches for me which have a median MCAT of 520-522 and median GPA around 3.9-3.93. Specifically, those schools are WashU, Vandy, Penn, Chicago and Northwestern.

For schools with 3.90 or higher median that have a "anything else you want us to know?" prompt I have been thinking about whether I should put in a spiel about my cGPA. There are a few things that I think might be good for me to point out about my GPA. My low grades were isolated in a period of time when "life stuff" was affecting my school performance, I have a pretty strong upward trend (4.0 for last 50 cred hours and 3.91 for my last 75 cred hours), and I did hella good in some notoriously difficult science courses like orgo and physics.

Any thoughts on whether I should try to sell my reach schools on my ability to handle rigorous science coursework? Or would it possibly be in poor taste, unnecessary, ineffective etc etc?

Not worthwhile, you fall above the 10th% of matriculated and accepted for every school. Your sGPA is good'nuff, the trend is stellar, the MCAT is stellar. If ECs are good then you are Aces, my friend.

n=1, I am <10% cGPA for UChicago and have a lower MCAT than you but was in their first wave of II's.

It may be school specific, but I think for those of us with atypical pathways/atypical stats and trends, the absolute number matters less than the total of everything in the context of 'whole applicant.'

 

[Isoval]

Not worthwhile, you fall above the 10th% of matriculated and accepted for every school. Your sGPA is good'nuff, the trend is stellar, the MCAT is stellar. If ECs are good then you are Aces, my friend.

n=1, I am <10% cGPA for UChicago and have a lower MCAT than you but was in their first wave of II's.

It may be school specific, but I think for those of us with atypical pathways/atypical stats and trends, the absolute number matters less than the total of everything in the context of 'whole applicant.'

Basically this.

Unless your GPA is catastrophically low, we're talking 3.0-range or lower, don't mention it in your essays unless you want to talk about one particularly bad moment in a question that explicitly asks for academic difficulties. As Goro likes to put it, don't be the person that people view as "the kid who'll be in my office because they got a 95 and not a 100".

 

[Goro]

To start with my basic background, my MCAT is 522 (130/132/131/129), cGPA is 3.72, sGPA is 3.83. IN resident, ORM, financially underprivilegded/FAP recipient but otherwise not much going on in my background that's super eye catching.

I am applying to 20 schools and 5 of them are reach/far reaches for me which have a median MCAT of 520-522 and median GPA around 3.9-3.93. Specifically, those schools are WashU, Vandy, Penn, Chicago and Northwestern.

For schools with 3.90 or higher median that have a "anything else you want us to know?" prompt I have been thinking about whether I should put in a spiel about my cGPA. There are a few things that I think might be good for me to point out about my GPA. My low grades were isolated in a period of time when "life stuff" was affecting my school performance, I have a pretty strong upward trend (4.0 for last 50 cred hours and 3.91 for my last 75 cred hours), and I did hella good in some notoriously difficult science courses like orgo and physics.

Any thoughts on whether I should try to sell my reach schools on my ability to handle rigorous science coursework? Or would it possibly be in poor taste, unnecessary, ineffective etc etc?

Do not do this.


Do you not understand what median even means????