What GPA is needed for Med School?

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JustLookingforAnswers

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Or at least competitive? I have a 3.93 GPA and I find it stressful and tiring to keep getting the A's. I currently have all A's now, but I know my A in organic chem is going to go down because I am for sure today I got a B on todays exam. I now probably need the cumulative final to boost that grade up to an A, and just thinking of having to do all that makes me nauseous lol. Do you need a high GPA like a 3.8+ because a lot of the posts on SDN have applicants with those GPAs and get rejected and it's like how do you get rejected with a great 3.8 GPA and MCAT score. Ideas?
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Anything over a 3.5 is fine. Obviously higher is better but the difference between a 3.8 and a 4.0 Is pretty much minimal. There are significant diminishing returns after 3.65-3.7

As long as the rest of your app is solid you'll be fine with a 3.8

For the record, I had a 3.8, got 4 interviews, 1 acceptance, 1 waitlist, 2 pending.


You get rejected with high scores when:

1- you have the personality of a wet paper bag and can't interview
2- your extracurriculars suck
3- you come off as arrogant or your PS/Secondaries were poorly written
4- you are a lukewarm, unremarkable candidate in all aspects and more interesting candidates are accepted first.
 
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Lucca said:
Moving to PREallo
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Hard to answer. Starting high and ending up with lower grades in higher classes looks like you can't handle hard material. way better to have poor grades In the beginning of college then end on a high note. I would take a 3.5 with b's first year then all As over a 3.7 with Bs in my upper level courses.
 
The median GPA for MD acceptees is 3.7.

Invest in MSAR Online to see what the top and bottom 10th %iles are, and target those schools (but pay VERY carefula ttention tot he Acceptance Information pages.

It's very common for GPAs to dip in SO or JR year, thanks to Orgo. It's not called a weeding course for nothing, and because of it, at many schools the median sGPA is a full 0.1 point lower than cGPA!

Median GPA for DO schools is ~3.4



JustLookingforAnswers said:
Or at least competitive? I have a 3.93 GPA and I find it stressful and tiring to keep getting the A's. I currently have all A's now, but I know my A in organic chem is going to go down because I am for sure today I got a B on todays exam. I now probably need the cumulative final to boost that grade up to an A, and just thinking of having to do all that makes me nauseous lol. Do you need a high GPA like a 3.8+ because a lot of the posts on SDN have applicants with those GPAs and get rejected and it's like how do you get rejected with a great 3.8 GPA and MCAT score. Ideas?
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I don't think there's a ton of difference between a 3.7 and 4.0 tbh, you're more likely to distinguish yourself in the stats department with a good MCAT score imo.
 
If there is a dip in GPA it is almost always in the semesters/quarters when one took o-chem. This is perfectly normal and won't keep you out of medical school. Shoot for a GPA of 3.8 or higher after the end of 3 years and take into account that you can get to the end of 3 years with a GPA of 3.8 even if your GPA after 2 years of college may be a bit below that because you can expect to rebound after sophomore year.
 
3.8 w/ good MCAT is very competitive, don't freak about dipping below 3.9 !
 
Neglektor said:
What is considered a good MCAT?
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Depends on a bunch of things like URM/ORM, state you are a resident of, whether you fit the mission for any mission-based schools. Generally speaking about a 509 is the typical admitted score, though that can be a lot higher or lower depending on the variables I mentioned.
 
Turkishking said:
Is this going to increase in the next 3 years
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Probably a little as exam prep companies get more used to it and have better-targeted materials, but not so significantly that, say, submitting an old MCAT score that was competitive when you got the results is no longer competitive (MCAT is generally valid 3yrs).
 
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LizzyM said:
For the top 20: 130 in 3 sections and not less than 127 in the fourth. (517 or higher)-- I wish I were kidding.
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? any reason for these specific subsection guidelines? 127/132/132/127 = 518 > 517 but having only two sections 130+ and two 127. I was thinking past a certain threshold (say 517+), the overall score begins to matter more. But i have no idea
 
Lawper said:
? any reason for these specific subsection guidelines? 127/132/132/127 = 518 > 517 but having only two sections 130+ and two 127. I was thinking past a certain threshold (say 517+), the overall score begins to matter more. But i have no idea
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I'm just saying what I've seen in the past 2 cycles among applicants I've interviewed. With some exceptions for URM/VIP, what I'm seeing is not less than 130 in not less than 3 sections and not less than 127 in any section.
 
For us old MCAT peeps, that's approx like seeing only 13/10/13 or better

Seeing as some top private schools were keeping 10th percentiles at like 33-34 and those would mostly be URM/VIP/other outliers, that sounds about like you'd expect
 
LizzyM said:
I'm just saying what I've seen in the past 2 cycles among applicants I've interviewed. With some exceptions for URM/VIP, what I'm seeing is not less than 130 in not less than 3 sections and not less than 127 in any section.
Click to expand...

I suppose the scenario I presented is pretty uncommon for your school then. I saw some SDNers with a 129/127/132/132 although granted, the higher the score, the more likely the patterns you're observing will become
 
Goro said:
The median MCAT for MD acceptees was 31 on the old exam and ~510 today.
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Hi Goro, where did you get these stats from? Trying to get as much accurate information together as possible. Thx in advance.
 
Lucca said:
Is this just at the number ******, or is this across the board? Some schools have MCAT medians in the 34/35 (514-516) range as opposed to 37/38 (517-519).
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:eyebrow: who are you calling a number *****?

Most likely, guilty as charged. Some schools might be more relaxed as in 126 or better in every section and summing to at least 510.
 
LizzyM said:
I'm just saying what I've seen in the past 2 cycles among applicants I've interviewed. With some exceptions for URM/VIP, what I'm seeing is not less than 130 in not less than 3 sections and not less than 127 in any section.
Click to expand...

I had a good score but with 2 sections below 130... This scares the hell out of me since I thought my MCAT was a strong point. Its like no matter how much you do, you always feel like you are still way behind!!
 
LizzyM said:
:eyebrow: who are you calling a number *****?

Most likely, guilty as charged. Some schools might be more relaxed as in 126 or better in every section and summing to at least 510.
Click to expand...

My apologies for the turn of phrase, I didn't mean to point any fingers. I was just borrowing the common SDN parlance for schools with 99%ile medians and didnt think about it.
 
Lucca said:
Is this just at the number ******, or is this across the board? Some schools have MCAT medians in the 34/35 (514-516) range as opposed to 37/38 (517-519).
Click to expand...
LizzyM said:
:eyebrow: who are you calling a number *****?
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well, LizzyM, you are the evil queen of numbers after all. 😉 although you're definitely pure. i'll let @gonnif clarify on that with some puns since i'm about to be fried :hungover::dead:
 
tbonez71 said:
I had a good score but with 2 sections below 130... This scares the hell out of me since I thought my MCAT was a strong point. Its like no matter how much you do, you always feel like you are still way behind!!
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Remember she said top 20. You don't need to go top 20 to be a great doctor. Hear that now.
 
JB50 said:
Remember she said top 20. You don't need to go top 20 to be a great doctor. Hear that now.
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Very true! Though, it helps if you want to do research as significant chunk of your career 😉 It's very easy to find excuses to be neurotic around here.
 
Goro said:
The median GPA for MD acceptees is 3.7.

Invest in MSAR Online to see what the top and bottom 10th %iles are, and target those schools (but pay VERY carefula ttention tot he Acceptance Information pages.

It's very common for GPAs to dip in SO or JR year, thanks to Orgo. It's not called a weeding course for nothing, and because of it, at many schools the median sGPA is a full 0.1 point lower than cGPA!

Median GPA for DO schools is ~3.4
Click to expand...
does that mean that doing well in Orgo means something too? or just that doing bad in orgo means weeded out?
 
jeep1010 said:
does that mean that doing well in Orgo means something too? or just that doing bad in orgo means weeded out?
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Getting an A in orgo probably won't blow anybody away. But doing somewhat poorly is forgiven because it may be very difficult at that school. Plenty of applicants get A's in both, along with biochem. If you did well, you should still be proud though.
 
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