Is the GPA standard really that high?

[palosantoenjoyer]

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Hello!

Long story short, I think I will end my freshman year with a 3.41 gpa at minimum and 3.66-75 at the very best(depending on if I do good on my exams). I was browsing through admit.org and found that almost every single medical school(even past rank 100) had a median GPA of 3.8.

Is the GPA standard really that high? Is it even realistic for someone to get into a good medical school(T20) with a lower gpa like 3.6+? I calculated it out and if I really lock in the next 2 years in all my classes and get straight As, I will end up with a 3.90-3 and if I get a mix of A and A minus, I will end up with a 3.75. My question is, will a sub 3.9 GPA put you at a disadvantage when it comes to applying to medical school?

I talked to our premed advisor and she told me that the average GPA of 3.76 and that usually a little lower than half of the alumini that apply to med school get into high caliber schools. I am still worried because all I see on admit.org is 520+ MCAT and 3.9+ GPA. Then of course, these students probably had world class extracurriculars.

I really want to do dermatology or plastic surgery as my future career but I also don't want to just have my chances deleted just because of my subpar GPA in freshman year. I heard that med school prestige matters for residency and it makes it a lot easier to match into your desired residency if you go to a top tier med school. Is my prospective career already over before it began?

 

[Goro]

Hello!

Long story short, I think I will end my freshman year with a 3.41 gpa at minimum and 3.66-75 at the very best(depending on if I do good on my exams). I was browsing through admit.org and found that almost every single medical school(even past rank 100) had a median GPA of 3.8.

Is the GPA standard really that high? Is it even realistic for someone to get into a good medical school(T20) with a lower gpa like 3.6+? I calculated it out and if I really lock in the next 2 years in all my classes and get straight As, I will end up with a 3.90-3 and if I get a mix of A and A minus, I will end up with a 3.75. My question is, will a sub 3.9 GPA put you at a disadvantage when it comes to applying to medical school?

I talked to our premed advisor and she told me that the average GPA of 3.76 and that usually a little lower than half of the alumini that apply to med school get into high caliber schools. I am still worried because all I see on admit.org is 520+ MCAT and 3.9+ GPA. Then of course, these students probably had world class extracurriculars.

I really want to do dermatology or plastic surgery as my future career but I also don't want to just have my chances deleted just because of my subpar GPA in freshman year. I heard that med school prestige matters for residency and it makes it a lot easier to match into your desired residency if you go to a top tier med school. Is my prospective career already over before it began?

Answer, it depends upon the rest of your app.
4.0 automatons are a dime a dozen.

Worry about getting into med school, first.

BTW, you're fine for any DO school right now.

 

[Med Ed]

I was browsing through admit.org and found that almost every single medical school(even past rank 100) had a median GPA of 3.8.

You know what the term "median" means, right? Table 23-A may be illuminating.

I really want to do dermatology or plastic surgery as my future career

Of course you do.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Read

HPSA Profile of the Admitted Applicant 2025 Report | HPSA

New research from HPSA reveals that while admissions achieve equitable outcomes across demographic groups, access to resources varies.

www.hpsa.org

https://www.hpsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Profile_of_the_Accepted_Applicant_2025.pdf

 

[RangerBob]

As others say, it's a median, and you need to just do your best and try.

I think my undergrad GPA was a 3.4. And I had an art degree...

I did get a 3.95 as a post-bac. My MCAT was "very good" and more consistent with my 3.95 GPA than my initial undergrad GPA, so that likely helped offset my 3.4 undergrad.

You can't change the grades you got. You change all the ones from now on. Get a 3.8-4.0. Do your pre-reqs/strong EC's (see Goro's guide).

Getting an A in your pre-reqs is the best way to study for the MCAT. You need to study for the MCAT anyway, why not do it all in your class when you can get the GPA bump as well? My study advice (not that you or anyone actually asked me for it) is take as many pre-reqs as you can at the same time (I did bio/ochem/physics over my post-bac year), get A's in all of them, and then take the MCAT maybe a month later after lots of practice tests/review of your weak areas. That's all I did. Likely that system doesn't work well for everyone, but it seems incredibly inefficient to me to study for parts of the MCAT when you took the course two or more years prior--you could've use all that extra time for ECs, a real job, upper division courses, etc, had you just scheduled things differently.