What should I do about my uGPA of 3.45?

[hannahfox]

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Overall UGPA is a 3.45.

Science GPA is probably slightly lower (unless Psychology is now considered a "science" in the eyes of the AMCAS).

Last 2 semesters overall GPA = 4.00 (30 credit hours)
Last 3 semesters overall GPA = 3.98 (43 credit hours)
Last 4 semesters overall GPA = 3.79 (56 credit hours).

I am starting a Biomedical Sciences PhD program. I hear schools don't weight those courses very much so should I take w/e undergrad classes I can to get my uGPA and sGPA to a certain point (what point)?


Here is a list of some of the classes that I think med schools are looking for....

Comp 1 - B-
Comp 2 - A
Bio1w/ Lab - B+
Bio2w/ Lab - B
GenChem1w/ Lab - B
GenChem2 - B
GenChem2 Lab - A
Pre Calc - A
Calc1- C+
Statistical Methods - A
Bio Stats - A
Organic Chem1 - A
Organic Chem2 - B+
Organic Chemistry Lab (3 hours) - A
College Physics A (Noncalc based) - B
College Physics B (Noncalc based) - B
Biochemistry - B


GPA that list is 3.34;
Just in case, Biomedical physics 1 and 2 I got A's in, so another 6 hours at 4.00 =/

sGPA is probably pretty close to the 3.35 mark

 

[aztri]

When amcas calculates your cum gpa and sci gpa, the latter is determined solely from courses you designate as bio, chem, math, or physics. Therefore even graduate level courses with these prefixs will count into your sci gpa. Your cum gpa will be based on all of your courses weighted together. I'm pretty sure, my graduate gpa was not calculated and labeled separately from my undergrad gpa on my amcas. So with your PhD program you should have some latitude in which courses you can take. Choose some that boost your sci gpa and that you like. Some courses have material that is retaught in med school and so you can get a head start by learning the topics (i.e. immunology, biochem, etc.). As you are just starting your PhD program, you likely have several years until you will be applying to med school. Make sure you take the mcat seriously, study hard, and do well. A good score will balance out a lower gpa.

 

[smarty666]

Overall UGPA is a 3.45.

Science GPA is probably slightly lower (unless Psychology is now considered a "science" in the eyes of the AMCAS).

Last 2 semesters overall GPA = 4.00 (30 credit hours)
Last 3 semesters overall GPA = 3.98 (43 credit hours)
Last 4 semesters overall GPA = 3.79 (56 credit hours).

I am starting a Biomedical Sciences PhD program. I hear schools don't weight those courses very much so should I take w/e undergrad classes I can to get my uGPA and sGPA to a certain point (what point)?


Here is a list of some of the classes that I think med schools are looking for....

Comp 1 - B-
Comp 2 - A
Bio1w/ Lab - B+
Bio2w/ Lab - B
GenChem1w/ Lab - B
GenChem2 - B
GenChem2 Lab - A
Pre Calc - A
Calc1- C+
Statistical Methods - A
Bio Stats - A
Organic Chem1 - A
Organic Chem2 - B+
Organic Chemistry Lab (3 hours) - A
College Physics A (Noncalc based) - B
College Physics B (Noncalc based) - B
Biochemistry - B


GPA that list is 3.34;
Just in case, Biomedical physics 1 and 2 I got A's in, so another 6 hours at 4.00 =/

sGPA is probably pretty close to the 3.35 mark

This is what I would do because I just found this out a few days ago from Dr. Midlife. Every school and its grading system is different so what your school reports as your cGPA and sGPA means nothing and will be different from what AMCAS calculates. If you go to google and type in doctor gpa calculator they will give you a AMCAS spreadsheet were you will have to put in all your courses, grades, and credits per class and that will give you a pretty accurate estimate of what AMCAS will calculate your uGPA at when you go to apply.

Be in for a little bit of a downer because most people's are lower according to AMCAS compared to what your school reported. My school said I had a 3.45 cGPA and sGPA of 3.38. Once I put it all into AMCAS spreadsheet my cGPA lowered to 3.39 and my sGPA lowered to 3.25 so you can see the difference.

I'm not quite sure why your doing a biomedical Ph.D program if you want to go to medical school? That is going to take you years to finish and the med school will want you to have it all done before they matriculate you. The only thing I can recommend is, you need to get B+ or As in all your graduate biomedical science courses! Even if you do really well in your grad program, the schools are still going to look at your undergrad GPA so make sure you do the AMCAS calculations because it probably will be lower than what you think it is.

 

[hannahfox]

I calculated what the AMCAS would calculate my GPA to be.

sGPA = 3.357 w/ 105 credit hours
oGPA = 3.448 w/ 178 credit hours

Last year (3 semesters) = 3.97 GPA (One A- in Public Speaking 🙁) w/ 43 credit hours (I took 13 hours over that summer ...
My Psychology GPA (all "psychology" courses) = 4.0

Any advice... I kind of screwed myself.. W/ 178 credit hours, it's kind of hard to fix my GPA.
How much will the upward trend help
Last 7 BCPM credit hours = 4.0 GPA (pointless I know)
Last 36 BCPM credit hours = 3.494 GPA (Lowest grade was a B- in 3 hour Immunology. I also got 3 B's that semesters).

Is my GPA F😕CK😕D??

 

[LRAccord624]

What's worse than your GPA is your MCAT. How many times have you taken it and why don't you take it again? People get to US MD schools with 3.3-3.4's sometimes if their MCAT/ECs make up for it, and people get in to DO schools with that GPA somewhat frequently (especially since the DO app does grade replacement, but I don't think you've had to retake any classes, have you?).

Don't do the PhD program to make you a better med school applicant- it won't help and may even hurt your app, not to mention it will take a long time. Have you not considered retaking the MCAT and how did you study for it
the first time?

 

[J ROD]

Gonna need close to a 34 MCAT with that GPA.

 

[drizzt3117]

You're starting a PhD program? That means you wouldn't be applying to med school for another 4 years or so, probably... I wouldn't be worrying about this stuff right now.

 

[hannahfox]

You're starting a PhD program? That means you wouldn't be applying to med school for another 4 years or so, probably... I wouldn't be worrying about this stuff right now.

I am thinking about things I could possibly do while in graduate school to alleviate concerns school will have about my uGPA if I decide to apply to medical school. Like, maybe retaking undergrad courses as a grad student. As typical and repetitive as it may sound, I only recently 'learned how to study'. I went from getting nothing but B+ averages each semester to scoring almost entirely as #1-#3 in the class over my last 40 or so credit hours.

Do you think taking gross anatomy (if that was even possible) and doing well in it would help me prepare for the MCAT and prove I can handle the course load.

 

[Catalystik]

Anatomy is not helpful in preparing for the MCAT. Physiology, genetics, Cell Biology, and Biochem would be helpful.

 

[drizzt3117]

I am thinking about things I could possibly do while in graduate school to alleviate concerns school will have about my uGPA if I decide to apply to medical school. Like, maybe retaking undergrad courses as a grad student. As typical and repetitive as it may sound, I only recently 'learned how to study'. I went from getting nothing but B+ averages each semester to scoring almost entirely as #1-#3 in the class over my last 40 or so credit hours.

Do you think taking gross anatomy (if that was even possible) and doing well in it would help me prepare for the MCAT and prove I can handle the course load.

You might want to check whether that will work. Sometimes when you take undergrad classes as a grad student, they still count as grad classes. Ultimately, a 3.45 uGPA isn't great, but isn't going to keep you out of med school if you get a good MCAT score. I would focus on doing well in your PhD program and getting lots of research and publications. IMO this is going to help you more than incrementally raising your GPA. I suppose getting it above 3.5 would be helpful, but not at the expense of other things.

 

[hannahfox]

You might want to check whether that will work. Sometimes when you take undergrad classes as a grad student, they still count as grad classes. Ultimately, a 3.45 uGPA isn't great, but isn't going to keep you out of med school if you get a good MCAT score. I would focus on doing well in your PhD program and getting lots of research and publications. IMO this is going to help you more than incrementally raising your GPA. I suppose getting it above 3.5 would be helpful, but not at the expense of other things.

Yeah, that is what I want to do (at least a 3.5 for both). I just don't want to (if I decided to do try and get into medical school down-the-road and earned a high enough MCAT score) get hit by a bunch of 3.5 cut offs. What is the highest cutoff any single school uses? I assume that the "minimum 3.0 (or is it 3.2 now?)" might increase to 3.5 by time I apply (if I apply)...

I guess I should just worry about things I can control (better late than never ) and not worry about things I can not control (like how adcoms view my intelligence based on my uGPA...