What do you think......

[BunBun]

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Here I am just another Doctor wannabe looking for advise. I went straight to college once I graduated high school and got really crappy grades for 2 years. In these two years I only took general requirements such as history, english, and so on. At the end of those two years I had an ending GPA of 2.493. (Like I said, really bad). Anyway, I transferred over to another university, which is the same one I am currently at. I am doing incredibly better. I have a 3.914 cummalitive GPA right now and still have about 1 year left to get my Bachelors in biomedical sciences. I know I have to do really well on the MCAT and do a lot of volunteer work in order to even have a chance of getting accepted to any medical school. But how is my GPA going to really look to a admissions person?

 

[Dr JPH]

Your improvement will be noticed, but so will your transfer to another school.

If I was looking at the grades and correlated them with your transfer, my first thought would be that the school you transfered to was an easier school, therefore allowing you to perform better in your classes.

You may need to be careful of this and be able to explain the real reason your grades went up. Maybe you were happier at this school or the courses were more interesting to you.

The GPA is still low and yes, you will need a very good MCAT along with other factors working in your favor.

Don't give up. Don't listen to people who tell you not to go for it. If this is truly your dream, you should do what it takes to make it come true. Just be aware that you will be in competition with a great number of applicants who did considerably better than you grade-wise.

Best of luck to you!



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Joshua Paul Hazelton, CNA, EMT-B
[email protected]
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (2002)
"D.O. Wannabe"

 

[Hercules]

Originally posted by BunBun:
At the end of those two years I had an ending GPA of 2.493. (Like I said, really bad). Anyway, I transferred over to another university, which is the same one I am currently at. I am doing incredibly better. I have a 3.914 cummalitive GPA right now and still have about 1 year left to get my Bachelors in biomedical sciences.

I think that you mean you have a 3.9 at your current school, not a 3.9 overall. Am I right?



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Hercules

But there is also a time for sleeping.
-Odysseus in the Odyssey 11.330-331

 

[alceria]

Adcoms will probably question why you didn't do so well at your first college, especially since you were taking fluffy general ed requirements, and not hardcore science classes. It may just simply be that you had a hard time adjusting to college, which is a big hurdle for some people. Maybe you weren't ready after high school to settle down and be a serious student. Maybe your high school didn't prepare you for college so you floundered a bit when you first started until you learned better study skills. Maybe, like someone else said, you didn't like your first school and did poorly. There are lots of reasons why college students do bad at first. Whatever the case, it's in the past now, and you have since proven yourself at your new college. Adcoms like to see a progression forward, and are more interested in your most recent grades, rather than the grades you got your first few semesters. I don't think you've totally ruined your chances at all. Since you have a 3.9 now, it sounds like you should be prepared for the MCAT, so as long as you do well, and get some clinical experience through volunteering or whatever, you should be a competitive applicant.

If your total GPA (including those 'bad' first two years) is down lower than say a 3.4, you might want to mention this grade discrepancy in your personal statement. From what I understand, some med schools have cut offs and might not give your application a lot of weight if your GPA is too low. So mentioning your improvement might help prevent your application from being ignored.