Road Blocks, GPA, and the likes

[Lengluiii]

The first two yrs of college were rough for me because I simply wasn't ready for college and was undergoing Biomedical Engineering at the same time. Also, my mind wasn't focused for those 3 yrs that I did survive engineer, but then I got kicked out of school with a 1.8 GPA. This is where I got my rude awakening that I needed to understand the value of education.

From that point on, I went to community college and finished up an associated degree with a cGPA of 3.69.. I am currently attending a pretty well known 4 year university and this is my first term there. I am off to a good start and my GPA is still B+, A- range at this point in the term. I also have been working and been paying myself out of community college and am still working at this moment while maintaining my status as a full time UG. I am taking applied psychology and I am also on a research team. I have about 1.5 yrs left, but I'm worried about my history and whether or not this will look good or bad to the med school. If I continue maintaining my grades, my cGPA can reach about a 3.1 or 3.2. What is your opinion based on my history? I am not an international student and I have lived in the U.S my whole life.

Also, I will need to retake a large portion of my courses. Is it safe to get four of them done during the summer?

What are my chances the medical school will still want me on board?

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[anfleisch]

If you can get it up to that with a huge upward trend, you probably have a shot at DO schools. You'll just have to do alot of explaining, and do it well.

 

[ksmi117]

Moving to the What Are My Chances? forum.

 

[Lengluiii]

what about allopathic schools?

 

[Cleavername]

what about allopathic schools?

numbers in terms of statistics always sooths me.
http://aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/table24-mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm

 

[Catalystik]

what about allopathic schools?

With allopathic med schools, every grade earned at every institution attended will be averaged together, leaving you with a cGPA well below the median for those accepted of 3.65, as there is no grade forgiveness. An MD school acceptance isn't impossible if you got an extraordinarily high MCAT score (hard to count on) or completed a Special Masters Program with a high GPA. See the Postbaccalaureate Programs Forum for more details about these expensive, high-risk, high-reward auditions to med school.

 

[Lengluiii]

But you're saying there's no forgiveness with medical schools when I've actually heard the contrary. Being that you go from a 1.8 cGPA to a cGPA in 2 colleges that are 3.7 in one and 3.6 or so in another, I highly doubt that is true that the only possibilities are just a post bacc of some 50 on the MCAT. If for three years (8 terms total on a co-op program based schedule) I messed up, but have 3 to 4 full years of schooling that show that I have gotten my act together, I think there is the possibility of the medical schools taking this into consideration.

The fact that there is an upward climb in my GPA will surely help, but my cGPA of a 2.8 or 2.9 at the end of the day would show that I worked really hard to get there. Working hard consistently is good, but I fought hard and gave it all my effort to obtain my cGPA. Everyone knows that once your GPA falls, it's harder to climb back up. If I show that I've continuously worked for it (granted i'm still not some big shot 4.0 student, but I am about a 3.6/3.7 consistently throughout the last 4 semesters), I'm sure there are exceptions for that nature being that I'm nontraditional.

On top of my school work, i've maintained my job for 3 years, did some volunteer service at hospitals, and am a research assistant at the moment at NYU. I went from Drexel University to a community college to NYU. I think there's more hope then what you're alluding to.

Although it was 3 years with a cGPA of 1.8, 2 of the years were 6 months at school and 6 months at work. Two of those academic years qualify as one full academic year. It was a 5 year program and I was a "pre-junior".

 

[drizzt3117]

Cat is right, it's hard (but not impossible) to come back from such a low GPA. Check out the thread in the postbac forum titled "the low GPA thread" and you can read about others' experiences. It generally requires a lot of hard work, dedication, and some luck.

 

[ksmi117]

Sure, there's a chance that they will take that stuff into consideration, but they will see all of your grades, and the GPA figure they see will take all of your past grades into consideration. I'd say your best bet is to work your ass off now, address your weaknesses in your personal statement, and hope for the best. I just think it'd be foolish to limit yourself to just allopathic schools with the competition the way it is now. Apply to both MD and DO schools and see how it goes.

 

[Catalystik]

Sure, there's a chance that they will take that stuff into consideration, but they will see all of your grades.

Individual med schools may choose to weight your earlier grades differently based on various moderating factors that can come into play. Examples I've seen evidence of are as follows, and I think are the explanation for the statistics cited in post #5:

As mentioned, Special Masters program completion with a GPA>3.5, stand-out extracurriculars, non-traditional age, health issues, legacy factor, interest in rural med, first family member to attend college, economic disadvantage, people with PhDs, ex-military, participants in Teach for America or the Peace Corps, steep upward GPA trend or a very-high BCPM GPA, forgiving state schools, etc. Those whose data make up the successful applicant statistics are likely those who did everything they could to make their applications the best they could be. It would be a mistake to look at the stats and decide that your chances were good enough that you could cease efforts at improving your application in every way possible. An additional assumption is that you have excellent Letters of Recommendation, a compelling Personal Statement, applied early and broadly, and will interview well.

Despite all the above, and a potential luck factor, if you don't have a cGPA above the automatic cutoffs that a school has established, no one will ever read your application further to discover the back story behind your grades (though an extraordinarily high MCAT score has been known to catch their attention). Unfortunately these automatic cutoffs are often a mystery. Med schools get thousands of applications and don't have time to read every one, so they trim down the pile any way they can. Some schools are known for "looking at the whole application." DO schools are among them and some MD schools do the same.