low stats success stories??

Started by tpl12
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tpl12

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I am sure there are a bunch of us here with pretty low stats (either MCAT or GPA or both) who are now sitting twiddling our thumbs waiting for interview invites wondering if they will ever come. We are also probably in it for the long haul. Sooo, if there are any accepted/matriculated low stats friends out there who have a success story to brighten our spirits, I know I would love that.

(By low stats I would suggest <3.5 or <510, but even those aren't really that low. Use your own judgement. Or, if you had particularly low stats for your school, under bottom 10%)

:help::help:
 
I met a girl at Stanford last year who told me she had a 2.85 gpa, engineering major from a top school. don't know her mcat or anything else, but she insisted that its about more than just the numbers.
Shortly after, I met a girl who told me she had a perfect gpa, a 100 percentile mcat, and was also a urm, a d1 athlete, and had insane ECs. So there's that too..
 
hubbsbubbs said:
I met a girl at Stanford last year who told me she had a 2.85 gpa, engineering major from a top school. don't know her mcat or anything else, but she insisted that its about more than just the numbers.
Shortly after, I met a girl who told me she had a perfect gpa, a 100 percentile mcat, and was also a urm, a d1 athlete, and had insane ECs. So there's that too..
Click to expand...
lol @ more than just numbers...

Also, she probably did really well on the MCAT, or not; who knows... You should've asked her about her MCAT
 
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tpl12 said:
I am sure there are a bunch of us here with pretty low stats (either MCAT or GPA or both) who are now sitting twiddling our thumbs waiting for interview invites wondering if they will ever come. We are also probably in it for the long haul. Sooo, if there are any accepted/matriculated low stats friends out there who have a success story to brighten our spirits, I know I would love that.

(By low stats I would suggest <3.5 or <510, but even those aren't really that low. Use your own judgement. Or, if you had particularly low stats for your school, under bottom 10%)

:help::help:
Click to expand...

I just got an II from Creighton with a 3.94/507. Applied 7/29, II notification 8/7
 
Saifa said:
Implying that those people don't? Nice.
Click to expand...

That's especially upsetting ( what the quoted user said) b/c URM and SES disadvantaged folks only get slack b/c they have to navigate greater barriers to make it to college , earn good grades, and score well on the MCAT to start with.
For example, someone who had to pay for living and school all out of pocket likely has to work a job outside of school, which would put a lower GPA into consideration.
Someone who is from a poor as hell school district wouldn't have as strong of educational background to do well on the MCAT ( which is why some schools in the south/midwest have very low MCAT medians-b/c people from those areas generally have lower MCAT scores) .
TL;DR: SES/URM folks have to work just as hard, if not harder, for those lower stats.



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I'll keep the positivity going instead. I personally know current medical students who are doing well and a few who had less than average MCATs and/or GPAs that did above average on STEP 1. 🙂
 
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tpl12 said:
I am sure there are a bunch of us here with pretty low stats (either MCAT or GPA or both) who are now sitting twiddling our thumbs waiting for interview invites wondering if they will ever come. We are also probably in it for the long haul. Sooo, if there are any accepted/matriculated low stats friends out there who have a success story to brighten our spirits, I know I would love that.

(By low stats I would suggest <3.5 or <510, but even those aren't really that low. Use your own judgement. Or, if you had particularly low stats for your school, under bottom 10%)

:help::help:
Click to expand...
A student with a 499 recently enrolled at a mid-tier NY school I know of. Nice fella; hell of an application. MCAT was abysmal, but he did have a stellar GPA and unique "ECs." He was a non-trad, NYPD high ranking officer for a number of years before enrolling in medical school.
 
Dr. Stalker said:
A student with a 499 recently enrolled at a mid-tier NY school I know of. Nice fella; hell of an application. MCAT was abysmal, but he did have a stellar GPA and unique "ECs." He was a non-trad, NYPD high ranking officer for a number of years before enrolling in medical school.
Click to expand...

MSAR shows Duke accepting below 500 well within the bottom 10% of applicants. Heck, even my GPA fits with their stats (not that it means much). If I'm successful this round, I will certainly update this thread.
 
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hubbsbubbs said:
I met a girl at Stanford last year who told me she had a 2.85 gpa, engineering major from a top school. don't know her mcat or anything else, but she insisted that its about more than just the numbers.
Shortly after, I met a girl who told me she had a perfect gpa, a 100 percentile mcat, and was also a urm, a d1 athlete, and had insane ECs. So there's that too..
Click to expand...
When you see stories like this, it's because people reinvent themselves, and they are to be applauded. No med school is doing anyone any favors by admitting people who are at risk for failing out.
 
I don't mean to be a debbie downer or the bearer of bad news, but I REALLY want to express that applying with low stats or EC is a HUGE gamble. I don't recommend it because an application takes up an entire year and A LOT of money. It's doable as many people on here will tell you, but its not a guarantee by any means. Again, don't take this negatively! I'm celebrating in your achievements, I just don't want people who are about to apply thinking they can get the same end results because of a person getting in with similar stats.
 
Though this is the Pre-medical-MD forum, but I thought I'd share my story here anyway. This cycle, I got accepted to 2 DO schools (ATSU-KCOM and ARCOM). I attended 4 DO and 1 MD IIs, and turned down ~10-12 other DO IIs. I almost went Caribbean (SGU) because even though I had great GPAs (cGPA 3.72 sGPA 3.70), as an ESL student, I always thought my struggles in the MCAT (18, 487, 492, 500, 499) would keep me out. Now I'm just humble and grateful I got in a U.S. school and will do anything to not disappoint. I'm also from Haiti (extremely URM) and immigrated here after surviving the earthquake in 2010. Life keeps giving me lemons, and I just keep making lemonade [emoji4].

Sent from my SM-G950U using SDN mobile
 
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Good work...was this amcas gpa or transcript gpa? I ask because I have similar transcript grades but about a 2.9 in both sci and ao amcas and am retaking the mcat in August and turning in amcas/tmdsas app mid June. Hoping to have enough time to get my supplementals in at a decent time without hurting my study time for mcat. Is there a ton of emphasis on the amcas calculation, such as a possible cut off, or is it mainly trends and resiliency in that dept? Also are a lot of secondary apps beastly and time consuming? Anybody?
 
3.2 gpa 503 mcat reapplicant 3 DO acceptances and 2 MD waitlists. Being persistent is always helpful and things will work out, not always on the time frame that we want them to, but sooner or later they will. As mentioned earlier, mine was more of a reinvention route.
 
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~60th percentile MCAT

5 acceptances

ECs and interview skills count! If you want it bad enough and it isn’t TRULY out of reach it can be done. The stats for MD schools are easily available. I think I had roughly a 30% chance of getting into an MD, but I did.
 
helloitsodin said:
I know this was from a while back, but I still want to address it.

First, that's unacceptable. URM have to work just as hard. Nothing can compensate for low GPA or MCAT and poor EC, if that's what you're implying. Your bitterness shows too much, take it down a notch.

Second, these are the population that most of us serves/ will be serving.

Third, I hope you don't reflect your lack of compassion anywhere near your applications. You're absurd.
Click to expand...
You realize you're replying to a post that's almost a year old, correct?
 
Reapplicant with 3.5cGPA/3.3sGPA.Took the MCAT four times with an average of 496, and a range of 490-500. Applied last year to 60 MD/DO schools. Rejected to all 60, with just one interview. This year, applied to 37 medical schools (MD only). Recieved 6 interviews, attended 5, and accepted to 2! It can be done😉
 
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Clemsonfive0 said:
Good work...was this amcas gpa or transcript gpa? I ask because I have similar transcript grades but about a 2.9 in both sci and ao amcas and am retaking the mcat in August and turning in amcas/tmdsas app mid June. Hoping to have enough time to get my supplementals in at a decent time without hurting my study time for mcat. Is there a ton of emphasis on the amcas calculation, such as a possible cut off, or is it mainly trends and resiliency in that dept? Also are a lot of secondary apps beastly and time consuming? Anybody?
Click to expand...

In my experience applying last year, secondaries take up a huge amount of time and money. They will have you write at least one essay, but most had several smaller mini-essays (which seem easy, but take up so much mental energy to write properly). Plan to pay $60-110 per secondary app. It's all worth it if that interview invite comes through!
 
MedicineN'Jazz said:
Reapplicant with 3.5cGPA/3.3sGPA.Took the MCAT four times with an average of 496, and a range of 490-500. Applied last year to 60 MD/DO schools. Rejected to all 60, with just one interview. This year, applied to 37 medical schools (MD only). Recieved 6 interviews, attended 5, rejected from 1, silence from another, waitlists from 2, and acceptance to 1! It can be done😉
Click to expand...

Now that is a great story! You should be applauded on your resilience. I have a similar story (lower GPA, higher MCAT) and have been previously rejected by about the same number of schools. (3 interviews, 1 waitlist). I am currently reapplying after completing an M.S. program and hoping for a similar outcome!
 
DeadlyWarbler said:
Now that is a great story! You should be applauded on your resilience. I have a similar story (lower GPA, higher MCAT) and have been previously rejected by about the same number of schools. (3 interviews, 1 waitlist). I am currently reapplying after completing an M.S. program and hoping for a similar outcome!
Click to expand...
Thanks so much! It’s been a choppy ride this year for sure. An M.S. will definitely boost your app, wishing you the best of luck mim rafiki!
 
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fruitloops24 said:
I had an unbalanced MCAT and debated not submitting, but I think that the GPA helped me out a bit.
Click to expand...

Still... posting on “low stat success stories”, with a GPA above a 3.4 is kinda ridiculous... lol I mean I get that this is SDN where anything below a 3.9 is considered awful but seriously

Not whining. Good job on your success, but you were a pretty good applicant to begin with!
 
chemdoctor said:
Still... posting on “low stat success stories”, with a GPA above a 3.4 is kinda ridiculous... lol I mean I get that this is SDN where anything below a 3.9 is considered awful but seriously

Not whining. Good job on your success, but you were a pretty good applicant to begin with!
Click to expand...
3.4 is below average for most MD schools, and sometimes needs in-state status, incredible ECs, excellent MCAT, and/or URM status to help alleviate its weight on the balance.

Sent from my SM-G950U using SDN mobile
 
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