Should you mention post-baccalaureate GPA in personal statement?

[sciencewizard]

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Just what the title says.

I am a non-traditional student obtaining a 2nd bachelor's degree. When I apply to medical school this coming cycle, I hope to have 76 credit hours complete (all prereq's, plus upper-level bios and couple non-science courses) with a cumulative 4.0 GPA.

Thanks for the help!

 

[mauberley]

Your post-baccalaureate GPA is already going to be listed in the transcript portion of your application. There's no reason to include it in your personal statement unless it figures somehow into the story of why you are pursuing medicine.

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

Just what the title says.

I am a non-traditional student obtaining a 2nd bachelor's degree. When I apply to medical school this coming cycle, I hope to have 76 credit hours complete (all prereq's, plus upper-level bios and couple non-science courses) with a cumulative 4.0 GPA.

Thanks for the help!

What does your postbac GPA have to do with why you want to be a physician? 😕

 

[MilkmanAl]

What does your postbac GPA have to do with why you want to be a physician? 😕

Words of wisdom.

 

[SFO-IST]

Of course you should. Right after you address your reasons for the poor GPA.

 

[romanjetfighter]

why should he just take upper division science classes and not lower division (like anatomy or smth) if it would help him

jw

 

[gravitywave]

What does your postbac GPA have to do with why you want to be a physician? 😕

Plenty. I agree it would be tacky to actually mention the numbers in a PS. however, contrasting the success you've had lately with your prior efforts might be a powerful example of your motivation. "Medicine has made me born again hard" and this sort of thing (don't actually say that)

 

[aSagacious]

why should he just take upper division science classes and not lower division (like anatomy or smth) if it would help him

As Catalystik said in another thread (which I agree with for the most part) "[Lower division] retakes repair your GPA and show you have a reformed work ethic. Upper-level Bio success shows adcomms you have the potential to survive their science-intense curriculum."

 

[sciencewizard]

I really appreciate all your responses, it has been truly helpful.

and yes, I am recovering from a poor GPA in my first Bachelor's degree, which was not a science degree and I only took 2 science courses in that degree.

So, is the consensus that I SHOULD mention the GPA as a direct comparison from my previous GPA? Should I directly quote the numbers, as my first GPA was 2.7, and now my cumulative post-baccalaureate is 4.0?

OR

Should I just paraphrase and say something like.."My mediocre GPA of the past pales in comparison to my superb GPA of the present.." something like that...thanks!

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

I really appreciate all your responses, it has been truly helpful.

and yes, I am recovering from a poor GPA in my first Bachelor's degree, which was not a science degree and I only took 2 science courses in that degree.

So, is the consensus that I SHOULD mention the GPA as a direct comparison from my previous GPA? Should I directly quote the numbers, as my first GPA was 2.7, and now my cumulative post-baccalaureate is 4.0?

OR

Should I just paraphrase and say something like.."My mediocre GPA of the past pales in comparison to my superb GPA of the present.." something like that...thanks!

I respectfully disagree with others who think it would be okay to mention your postbac GPA in your PS.

Your PS is about why you want to go into medicine. You'll get plenty of secondaries that ask about poor academic history or about a time where you struggled and what you learned out of it, etc. In fact, I would say that the majority of my secondaries asked a question where you could easily talk about how you overcame you initial poor performance. Talk about your academic turnaround, how you became more disciplined, etc, for those secondary questions and leave it out of your PS. Like I said, the PS should be about why you want to pursue medicine, not about things that have gone wrong in your past and how you fixed them. And, like someone else already mentioned, your undergrad GPA, postbac GPA, etc, are already in the application. There's no reason to point it out again when the rest of your app already contains that info.

Just my $0.02. Feel free to take the advice or toss it.