burgler09

Ohhhh that's it, so out of the thousands of applicants they are rejecting the 3.9-4.0 students so they can say their median gpa is 3.7-3.8 good one.

Moire

I didn't say that...

GoldShadow

The definition of "median" is middle. Yes, there are lower ones, but if one wants to be competitive, their GPA should be at or above the median.

Remember, the median of a set of numbers like "3.6, 3.7, 3.7, 3.7, 3.7, 3.7, 3.8, 3.8, 3.9, 3.9, 4.0" is still 3.7. It doesn't necessarily mean there were a lot of 3.3s and 3.4s and 3.5s and 3.6s.

4321234

is it really true you can score an interview if you can impress them? i'm seriously thinking of taking a speaking class just to score interviews.

eva10127

It depends on what kind of interviewer you get. Director, Professors, Graduate Students (yes they do these things too).

Some interviews are serious while others are just conversational just getting to know you like "talking to a friend" kind of dialogue.

I have a friend who was interviewed by a NYU grad student. She told me it was about 15 minutes and that girl was quite unprofessional. (Her cellphone rang and she picked up the call for about 10 minutes and then got back to the interview.) It just gave her a bad impression.

burgler09

4321234, not only would it help with interviews.. but it would also help with any type of speaking skills such as dealing with friends, getting things you want, possibly future business prospects and hey.., even women.

beanieboo

not to make an arguement about the CURRENT stats or anything.. but my brother is just finishing up his first year of med school, this wasnt 10 years ago or anything.

his interview they talked about everything. he had a middle aged woman and my brother is very outgoing and "smooth" when he tries to be. guess you can say somewhat of a charmer. they talked about his voluenteer work, why he wanted to be a doctor, why he wanted to go to THAT particualr med school (he had very good reasons). strangely enough they also talked about his college frat and how they got kicked off campus his jr year for breaking rules and throwing too many parties. he said it was very casual and relaxed and felt more like a regular convo then someone deciding his future.

4321234

yeah... i've had great success with interviews where i felt comfortable with the interviewer, and it was just really casual and conversational. actually, sometimes i could tell right away if they were somebody i could get along well with, and that usually determined if i was going to get the job or not. i guess the interviews also depend on the interviewer, and if you want to work with them or not. people often forget that they need people too, so in a way, interviewers are trying to sell themselves too! that should lighten some people up a bit.

lethargytm

yes med schools are ranked. and you need atleast a 3.4 to be even considered to the lower tier med schools. Acceptance rates used to be like 45% or something couple years ago of everyone who applied, now its lower around the high 30s.

lethargytm

beanie, maybe your brother gave that woman a little extra.

BerkeleySenior

Refer to GoldShadow's post, as follows:
As someone who has already taken the LSAT and done law school research, trust me, I know. A statistics professor ran a regression and found that the LSAT accounts for approximately 60-70% of your application. Regardless if you look at the median GPAs of the T-10 law schools, they are ~3.7. The top 3 (Yale, Harvard, Stanford) have 3.85/3.9 medians.
Source: Top 2008 Law School Rankings

While a high LSAT (at least early 170s) can compensate for a mediocre GPA, chances are a mediocre GPA will knock you out of Boalt (which emphasizes GPA more) and the T-5 (unless your LSAT is 175+). Depending on how low it is, I'd say it'd knock you out of the T-10 completely. You may still have a shot at T-11 to T-14 with a high enough LSAT.

Your brother is an exception. Maybe he had a really high MCAT score. A 3.3 is still subpar at low ranked medical schools.

This is totally inaccurate. I know of a few people at my university with 3.7s and "okay" but not high enough MCAT scores whom were rejected to 10+ medical schools. They did NOT get into a single medical school. Their MCATs weren't that high but not that low either...A 3.7 guarantees absolutely nothing.

beanieboo

ha ha ha, very funny. whatever, my brothers already accepted and into school and i have no intentions on ever doing anything in medicine so im really not a qualified person to be in this discussion.

moral of the story is premed kids have to work their a sses off from the time they are in HS to ever have any hope in becoming a doctor one day

mcim

Well to get back to the original original post, its recommended only to put your GPA on your resume if its above a 3.0 As you mentioned, right now you aren't interested in anything top of the notch, so as long as your GPA doesn't slump down after now, you should be fine and in a decent position at least.

I'll mention I had under a 3.0 overall(3.2 last 2 years) and got into a top 10 school masters program in my field.

alipes07

I've always thought a good gpa is at least a 3.3 and a great gpa is anything that makes you graduate w/ honors(solely based on gpa)

quirky

lol mcim, duh, of course a 3.0 is fine if you're in engineering.

but in the fields of humanities, A students are a dime a dozen, so we kinda have to work it hard.