Okay here's the deal. I attend a prestigious university in NY. I began as a premed major, but I literally wound up failing the first semester in both chemistry with lab and biology with lab because I was commuting 3 hours by train to this university and 3 hours back home per day (I had to take the 5:45 am train to make it to my 9am class and I got home at 8pm each day...no time to effectively study both subjects as well as the three others I was taking...did not dorm because my parents could not afford it). I decided to change my major to business because I was unable to handle commuting 30 hours a week+class+studying...barely sleeping due to lack of time. But, the commuting still affected me and I wound up with only a 2.8 business gpa. I knew that my bad gpa was due to commuting so to prove it, my grandparents decided to somehow come up with the money to pay for dorming for 2 years and I wound up getting a 3.8 science gpa based on the general requirements to get into medical school (inorganic chem I+lab, inorganic chem II+lab, organic chem I+lab, organic chem II+lab, bio I+lab, bio II+lab, physics I+lab, calculus, english courses) and I got a 38 on the MCat. Do I have a chance of getting into a good medical school or should I deal with the effects of commuting on my gpa?
What are my chances?
- Thread starter Perelka12
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What is your overall cGPA and sGPA, and what kind of ECs have you done?
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Wow that is a crazy story. 6 hour commuting per day would definitely be brutal on grades and I'm sure they'd understand. I'm sure it would be looked upon in the same extent (maybe a bit less) as somebody who was forced to work for an equivalent amount of time in undergrad.
We need to know your total GPA and sGPA though.
I'd say assuming the difficulty of your undergrad is well known, you have a total GPA of 3.2 or greater, you stand a pretty good chance of getting in somewhere. Applying broadly is an absolute must though. People usually can explain a year of bad grades but 2 years of bad grades is much harder for admin committees to swallow.
We need to know your total GPA and sGPA though.
I'd say assuming the difficulty of your undergrad is well known, you have a total GPA of 3.2 or greater, you stand a pretty good chance of getting in somewhere. Applying broadly is an absolute must though. People usually can explain a year of bad grades but 2 years of bad grades is much harder for admin committees to swallow.
