Will my 3.5 last semester stand out? (Upward trend)

[yeezuswest]

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Hi all, I'm currently going into my senior year and was wondering if someone could take a look at my GPA on a semester by semester basis. I'm looking to gauge my confidence for MD schools with the hope of applying by next June.

Freshman GPA: 2.5 (failed and retook calc 1)
Sophomore: 2.91
Junior: first semester 3.90
Second semester junior year: 3.50

I was wondering if this 3.50 my second semester would kind of be seen as a downward trend within an overall upward GPA. I overloaded on science classes (with lab), without taking any other courses, and ended up having 4 final exams within two days of each. How I made it out alive I don't even know...

 

[Catalystik]

Hi all, I'm currently going into my senior year and was wondering if someone could take a look at my GPA on a semester by semester basis. I'm looking to gauge my confidence for MD schools with the hope of applying by next June.

Freshman GPA: 2.5 (failed and retook calc 1)
Sophomore: 2.91
Junior: first semester 3.90
Second semester junior year: 3.50

I was wondering if this 3.50 my second semester would kind of be seen as a downward trend within an overall upward GPA. I overloaded on science classes (with lab), without taking any other courses, and ended up having 4 final exams within two days of each. How I made it out alive I don't even know...

AMCAS displays GPAs on a year-by-year basis, which will show your junior year as ~3.7 on your application. They do this for cGPA, BCPM GPA, and AO GPA. How will your yearly science/math GPAs look in that format?

 

[GrapesofRath]

Hi all, I'm currently going into my senior year and was wondering if someone could take a look at my GPA on a semester by semester basis. I'm looking to gauge my confidence for MD schools with the hope of applying by next June.

Freshman GPA: 2.5 (failed and retook calc 1)
Sophomore: 2.91
Junior: first semester 3.90
Second semester junior year: 3.50

I was wondering if this 3.50 my second semester would kind of be seen as a downward trend within an overall upward GPA. I overloaded on science classes (with lab), without taking any other courses, and ended up having 4 final exams within two days of each. How I made it out alive I don't even know...

Just keep at it. Do well senior year(3.8+) and the 3.5 isn't going to hold you back nearly as much. Many ADCOMS says it takes 3-4 strong semesters of work to convince them someone can handle medical school. That means acing next semester. If after next year you are at a point where over 4 semesters you have accumulated a 3.75+ GPA that will work in your favor.

 

[yeezuswest]

AMCAS displays GPAs on a year-by-year basis, which will show your junior year as ~3.7 on your application. They do this for cGPA, BCPM GPA, and AO GPA. How will your yearly science/math GPAs look in that format?

Okay this is kind of what I was most concerned about. If that's the case, then I guess it's not so bad if the jump is from a 2.9 to a 3.7 in one year (assuming I can go above a 3.7 senior year)

And I just included my BCPM GPA for the sake of simplicity, but my cGPA is probably around the same if not a little lower than the BCPM. Now when you look at it year by year, there's a nice upward trend, but cumulatively things start to look a little different, where I'll probably end up averaging out at around a 3.3.

 

[yeezuswest]

Just keep at it. Do well senior year(3.8+) and the 3.5 isn't going to hold you back nearly as much. Many ADCOMS says it takes 3-4 strong semesters of work to convince them someone can handle medical school. That means acing next semester. If after next year you are at a point where over 4 semesters you have accumulated a 3.75+ GPA that will work in your favor.

That's reassuring, especially since I actually took the majority of my pre-med classes during my junior year and will finish them off this year.

 

[Goro]

Sometimes you have to apply with the app you have, warts and all. I think the overall upward trend is very admirable and there are plenty of schools that reward reinvention. Now, ace MCAT!

 

[candbgirl]

A 3.3 isn't going to be helpful in applying to MD schools. Start investigating DO schools and do very well on your MCAT. If you absolutely have to have a MD behind your name you'll most likely need a SMP.

 

[bae2017]

AMCAS displays GPAs on a year-by-year basis, which will show your junior year as ~3.7 on your application. They do this for cGPA, BCPM GPA, and AO GPA. How will your yearly science/math GPAs look in that format?

Is this the main source that adcoms use to inspect grades, or do adcoms tend to go a little more indepth and look at the transcript for trends in semesters/certain courses? Is a year over year upwards trend more important than performance on a semesterly-basis?

 

[Catalystik]

Is this the main source that adcoms use to inspect grades, or do adcoms tend to go a little more indepth and look at the transcript for trends in semesters/certain courses? Is a year over year upwards trend more important than performance on a semesterly-basis?

If an application overall GPA is sub par, I expect it would be highly likely that the transcript will be looked at carefully to see when the lower grades occurred. I doubt that individual term GPAs will be calculated by the observer.