Hi Everyone,
I am community college sophomore at present and this is my last semester at his school after which I transfer. For about a year and half i wan not doing good in my classes and GPA went really LOW. I brought my GPA up and presently i'm a undergrad volunteer researcher. I am worried that my bad performance at the community college might hinder the application process because when I graduate my gpa would be around 2.9. I know that I have two more years to go but this kinda worries me that I might not be able to get into medical school. I have also started preparing for MCAT's and i'm the 28-32 range....Please advise me.
When you graduate the community college, it will be a 2.9? That would mean, if I'm reading this correctly, that you'll have two years at a 4-year institution to bring that up, right?
There are a couple of factors that can affect your chances.
The first (and probably most important) is what classes were affecting your low GPA. Were they science classes? Were they medical school pre-reqs? If so, you're definitely going to need to find a way to explain that, and go to extra lengths to prove you know that material. For instance, if you did bad in a General Chem class, you'll probably want to take a couple of inorganic chemistry classes (or retake the gen chem, if you got a d or lower) to make up for that. Not only will it boost your science GPA, but also show to the adcoms that you have a grasp on the material.
The second thing to think about is that while grades are important, an upward trend in GPA can mean a LOT. If you start off low, and continually get better and better grades, then the adcomes will take that into consideration. This is usually interpreted as an increase in motivation and experience with the college life. I've heard of people with upward trends beating out people who maintained a solid 4.0, because a person with a 4.0 can be naturally gifted yet a complete dud when it comes to motivation.
The third thing is to really, really blow your MCAT out of the water. 32 isn't bad, but if you want to offset your lower GPA, you'll want to aim as high as you can. This will do the same thing as my first point, but on a much more effective scale. If you can prove that you have a good enough grasp on the basic sciences to get a 36+ on your MCAT, that will definitely quell some fears the adcoms might have about your fundamental understanding of science.
And before anyone states it, ignore the people who say you're screwed because your low GPA was at a community college. This is on a case-by-case basis, and if you went with that train of thought, then there would be no point in even trying anymore. The community college is not nearly as important in the equation as the reason behind your low GPA (family illness, getting adjusted to college, whatever).
