Worth to wait a few weeks to have higher grades before applying?

[relentless11]

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I have a predicament. At this moment, i'll end up with roughly a 2.75-2.77 by the end of June 2004. GPA is explained by personal statement and counter balanced by MCAT score (35). Anyway, i can take a summer session which will end July 30, which can potentially bring me up to a 2.8. However that means i'd have to wait several weeks, and send my AMCAS in early August due to delays in grades being recorded and all of that adminstrative nonsense.

Is it worth applying in early august for that ~0.03 increase in GPA? I'm sorry if you've heard my story over and over again for those that have been keeping up with my threads ...so please ignore this since this is for those that havn't heard..but pretty much low GPA due to taking care of family during undergraduate years.

Pretty much you guys are basing this on, the fact that i've adequately (hopefully 🙂 ) explained myself on my personal statement about my GPA, and my extracurriculars are good, and so on. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

On a side note, do med school's allow GPA updates? For instance if after both summer sessions, my GPA is like a 2.85 for example, i can send an update in...would that matter or would that delay my application? Do they even accept such things?

 

[tofurious]

From a standard US medical school perspective, a 2.8 is not going to dig you out of the GPA ****hole that a 2.77 would put you in. You may have a better chance at DO schools or Carribean schools, if the US med schools don't care for your explanation.

 

[duka]

Most US schools will screen your numbers for certain minimums before reading your essay-- your state school might be a shot, and they may publish what their minimums are, but you might want to look at post-bacc work or at other programs.

 

[TRUE]

I agree with the others that the .03 is not going to make much of a difference if you ask me. There are some schools that will see your #'s and throw our application out the window, but then there are others who will see your GPA, see your MCAT and wonder what the hell is going on and then hopefully they'd look at the rest of your application. A 35 MCAT is not a joke and medical schools know that. They'll want to know how that 35 matches up with the 2.78...I'd give it a shot and just apply to a hell of a lot of schools (25-30). That's my personal opinion.

 

[MNgrrl]

Don't wait - apply as early as possible! You can always send updates, but hopefully schools will look past your GPA earlier, when they might not later in the game when they are bogged down with more applications. I would suggest applying to schools that aren't quite as known for their numbers (i.e. Hopkins, WashU, UChicago etc.) and more open to accepting people based on their potential to be good clinicians (you have probably already been told this a million times). I second what tofurious said about applying DO - though I think you have a pretty good shot at getting into a US med school (MD or DO) with a 35 on the MCAT even though your GPA is low, since you presumably have a good explanation for this.

 

[relentless11]

Thanks for the input, i forgot to mention i've been pretty much getting a 4.0 quarterly since the summer in my unofficial post-bacc right now. So definately an upward trend. Hopefully they just don't look at the total GPA, rather than the trends, as well as classes.

 

[jlee9531]

dont wait...not for that difference at least.

but even with that 35 and looking at trends...it will be hard for schools not to look at the overall numbers...sucks.

but with that 35 i do feel that some schools will give you a shot and if you have an excellent supporting cast of ECs all the more better. but dont be surprised if you dont get in this cycle cause of the gpa.

the best of luck to you.

 

[exmike]

take it from a fellow crappy GPAer,

Applying early will FAR OUTWEIGH the .03 difference in GPA, and you can always send the summer transcripts to the schools if you want to. DONT WAIT.

 

[Rendar5]

Here's what you do:

call up the schools you're applying to and find out if they have a cut-off GPA for applicants. If that cut-off is a 2.8, then wait a few weeks. But that is the only time you should wait.

Getting your applications in extremely early will help you a lot, and for most schools, there isn't going to be much difference between a 2.75 and a 2.8. And your explanation of why you had a low GPA is not going to be affected by that small difference.

 

[uclacrewdude]

Originally posted by exmike
take it from a fellow crappy GPAer,

Applying early will FAR OUTWEIGH the .03 difference in GPA, and you can always send the summer transcripts to the schools if you want to. DONT WAIT.

ditto and ditto

 

[medschoolorbust]

Apply as early as possible. Make sure the rest of your application is STELLAR to offset the low GPA. Make sure you have ECs, volunteer experience, clinical experience, research, excellent personal statement and letters of recommendation. Best of luck to you.

 

[LaurieB]

I'm going to take this one step further and suggest that you pick two schools that you'd really like to get into and see if you can pre-emptively meet with the dean of admissions to talk about your application. Contact them soon and be ready to meet with them in Spring. I have a friend who was in your similar situation and he did this and it made all the difference in getting his application read. I say this because you sound like a great candidate who could get crunched by numbers that aren't relevant to your current situation.

 

[relentless11]

Originally posted by LaurieB
I'm going to take this one step further and suggest that you pick two schools that you'd really like to get into and see if you can pre-emptively meet with the dean of admissions to talk about your application. Contact them soon and be ready to meet with them in Spring. I have a friend who was in your similar situation and he did this and it made all the difference in getting his application read. I say this because you sound like a great candidate who could get crunched by numbers that aren't relevant to your current situation.

Sounds good, i'll pop them an email later this weekend. Pretty much, i get the hint guys, it'll be a pretty steep uphill battle, and i'll need all the luck i can get🙂. Just wondering though, emailing these guys won't have a bad effect or anything right? I'm just going to ask them flat out..as you said to just take a look at what i have right now. I hope they won't just tell me to go to my advisors.

On the flipside, i've pretty much begun collecting my resources to apply. I just have to hope the UC's will show some mercy and at least get me to secondaries where my letters or rec will shine. On the plus side though, i just found out that one of the docs that is on my research team is also on the admissions comittee. Kinda makes sense now how she had all of these insights. Ironic...haha.

Anyway, i guess it behooves me to talk to her more. Regardless though, i totally agree, this hole of a GPA that i got myself into will play a major role. I pretty much have to really sell myself on that personal statement, and pray that the MCAT will be sufficient to make them go "whoa what the hell?" to send a secondary at me. Also I'll definately apply to those schools that automatically give you secondaries. Better go get one of those Princeton Review books that has all the med school's on it🙂.

As always thanks for all the input! I will definately apply early. Heck i'll be ready to go July 15 or whenever it is this year🙂.