Low post-bac GPA, chances of getting accepted to med school

[DRG0783]

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I am currently finishing a post-bac premed program, will be taking the MCAT in June and applying to both MD and DO medical schools. My GPA is not great and I wanted to gain some insight into the realistic chances of getting into a medical school considering this. My undergrad GPA in business was a 3.2 and my post-bac GPA is only about a 3.1 (the post-bac program I am in is at an ivy league school if that factors in at all). I have done a good amount of volunteering at various places, well over 300 hours. As I continue to study for the MCAT and am beginning to write my personal statement, I wanted to gain input on my chances of getting accepted assuming I get a great MCAT score.

Additionally, any advice on what to include in my personal statement or where to apply is greatly appreciated.

 

[DrMidlife]

Congrats on making it this far. However, your numbers are far too low for you to be taking the MCAT, and too low for you to be applying yet. You have too much competition.

Every year in August there's a daily flood of posts on SDN from people who try to start an application in June, then get their MCAT score in July or August, it's crap, and they don't know what to do. Horrible situation to get yourself into. Applying before you know your MCAT score, particularly when you are starting with a GPA that is two standard deviations below the matriculant average for both MD and DO schools, is not good planning. Applying before you have shown strong success in a lengthy, difficult mostly-science stretch of academics is also not good planning. Med school is really hard. Don't start it before you have shown to yourself that you can handle it.

Take the MCAT once and only once and get your best possible score. To do that, get a 3.7+ in a year of hard science before taking the MCAT. You can find ideas for how to do this in the postbac forum, if you like.

Yes. Really.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Goro]

A post-bac is supposed to convince Adcoms that the you of now is not the you of then.

You haven't done this. You have luck with some of the newer DO schools, but not mine.

Bets to start thinking of Plan B.

I am currently finishing a post-bac premed program, will be taking the MCAT in June and applying to both MD and DO medical schools. My GPA is not great and I wanted to gain some insight into the realistic chances of getting into a medical school considering this. My undergrad GPA in business was a 3.2 and my post-bac GPA is only about a 3.1 (the post-bac program I am in is at an ivy league school if that factors in at all). I have done a good amount of volunteering at various places, well over 300 hours. As I continue to study for the MCAT and am beginning to write my personal statement, I wanted to gain input on my chances of getting accepted assuming I get a great MCAT score.

Additionally, any advice on what to include in my personal statement or where to apply is greatly appreciated.

 

[DRG0783]

A post-bac is supposed to convince Adcoms that the you of now is not the you of then.

You haven't done this. You have luck with some of the newer DO schools, but not mine.

Bets to start thinking of Plan B.

Thanks for the advice from everyone, it is much appreciated. I agree that my post-bac GPA is not nearly as high as it should be. I do want to note, though, that I enrolled into my post-bac program directly following college. My post-bac grades are not so much to show that I am a better student than I was, but more to fulfill the science pre-reqs for the MCAT and medical school. That being said, I agree that my grades aren't great.

Any advice from anyone regarding retaking classes verse taking supplemental classes and how it is looked upon by adcoms?

 

[Goro]

You need to be acing these classes.

Thanks for the advice from everyone, it is much appreciated. I agree that my post-bac GPA is not nearly as high as it should be. I do want to note, though, that I enrolled into my post-bac program directly following college. My post-bac grades are not so much to show that I am a better student than I was, but more to fulfill the science pre-reqs for the MCAT and medical school. That being said, I agree that my grades aren't great.

Any advice from anyone regarding retaking classes verse taking supplemental classes and how it is looked upon by adcoms?