Question for current med students

[Ioriscrub]

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I'm a pre-med and there has been something I have been wondering about for a while that I'm hoping some med students might be willing to comment on.
If you got into medical school with a borderline or average gpa (3.6 or less) did you find you had a harder time in medical school compared to students who had a 3.8/3.9 in undergrad or did your experiences seem about the same?

 

[escesc]

About the same. It will all depend on how much work you are willing to put in and how efficient you are at studying. No big /noticeable difference IMO.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I've seen people with low gpas and low MCATs totally dominate med school.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

I've seen people with low gpas and low MCATs totally dominate med school.

👍 👍

Sadly, most GPA's are schools and degree dependent and therefore, are not a precise measure to assess future performance across all students.
SSShhhh..... Don't tell the AAMC I said that.

 

[Gifted Hands]

👍 👍

Sadly, most GPA's are schools and degree dependent and therefore, are not a precise measure to assess future performance across all students.
SSShhhh..... Don't tell the AAMC I said that.

very true

My gpa was below average and my MCAT was WAY below average for my med school class, and I'm doing above average in my course work. It really depends more on how hard you work and your study skills. All that undergrad stuff is behind you now. This is a new ball game.

 

[Geekchick921]

👍 👍

Sadly, most GPA's are schools and degree dependent and therefore, are not a precise measure to assess future performance across all students.
SSShhhh..... Don't tell the AAMC I said that.

Amen.

 

[Ischemic]

Nope, not at all. I'm doing better than a good chunk of my classmates. Can't give you a actual percentage or number but better than half but probably not top 10%. GPA and MCAT are only rough extrapolations of your ability to perform in med school and it's just that an extrapolation. And a ****ty extrapolation at that.

 

[DarknightX]

One guy in my class had a 28 on the MCAT. Ended up getting a 260 on step 1 and AOA as well.

 

[TexasPhysician]

One guy in my class had a 28 on the MCAT. Ended up getting a 260 on step 1 and AOA as well.

Very much believe it. My old roommate scored a 28 on the MCAT and pulled a 270 on Step 2. Maybe I should have aimed for a 28MCAT....it seems to be lucky!

 

[phospho]

About the same. It will all depend on how much work you are willing to put in and how efficient you are at studying. No big /noticeable difference IMO.

yup, I agree. Med school is a totally different ball game... I've even noticed that some people who have the lower undergrad GPA's/MCAT seem to handle medical school better, since there's a lot of emotions involved with medical school, and they are typically the students who did more in their lives than the average 3.9/39 dude/dudette, and can therefore mentally handle it better. But I'm totally generalizing here, and that's just my personal experience. I could be wrong.

 

[Perrotfish]

According to our admissions office the MCAT isn't a great correlation with success but there at least is a correlation. GPA is almost useless: it's more about your school, degree, courseload, and other responsibilities than it is about your actual effort and intelligence.

 

[mspeedwagon]

MCAT ONLY tests how well you can do on the MCAT. It's not really a fair test: http://www.fairtest.org/healthy-medical-school-admissions.

According to our admissions office the MCAT isn't a great correlation with success but there at least is a correlation. GPA is almost useless: it's more about your school, degree, courseload, and other responsibilities than it is about your actual effort and intelligence.