<p>The “national” numbers are inflated. I think the average cum GPA is approx. 3.65 so you’re given a 0.1 “break.” </p>
<p>The thing that would concern me is that only 1/3 of Duke’s medical school applicants are actually undergrads and 2/3’s have taken time off.</p>
<p>And Duke is not grade deflated compared with any top college.</p>
<p>hmmm no posts in february. is everyone hibernating. will i’m defrosted and would like
to begin a new topic in this thread. i have a question regarding Berkeley’s lack of medical school and its effect on pre-med applicants. Does having a medical school affiliated with the college that you’re attending give certain advantages to undergrads seeking research and/or volunteering. i know that HYPS and even UCLA UCSD have med schools, but Berkeley does not, so i was wondering if there’s any correlation between admission from those colleges that have med schools and colleges that don’t.</p>
<p>"I would argue that maintaining a good GPA at a top school with grade deflation is tougher than being at a state school or a school with grade inflation (ie Harvard). " Of course its trivial to maintain good grades at Harvard. All the premeds get 4.0’s and spend their time sipping pina coladas on their yachts.</p>
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<p>This is a good thing, as you know. As you can also tell, I am a pro-Duke partisan.</p>
<p>With that said, Harvard, etc. all also have lower GPA’s than the national average. Penn’s, in fact, is much much lower (3.3?). This is proof positive that medical schools treat Ivies (and Duke), not publics, as the grade deflated institutions.</p>
<p>A little quick math verifies that this is correct.</p>
<p>ahh all of this is very confusing. could people resond with one line to this question? it can just be your opinion… thnx!</p>
<p>what do you consider a “safe” GPA at an ~ivy league undergrad college to get into(or at least be very competitive at) a top five medical school?</p>
<p>No such number exists. A 4.0 will be absolutely, 100% dead in the water without the other qualifications.</p>
<p>obviously no number will “get you in”
but what is considered to be good gpa for a pre med student at a ivy-rank school?
im sure theres a cutline that’s considered good!</p>
<p>Your original question was a safe GPA to get into a top-five medical school. The answer is, “even a 4.0 is not high enough.” Your second original question was a safe GPA to be competitive at a top-five medical school. Again, the answer is “even a 4.0 is not high enough” if you don’t have EXCELLENT other aspects.</p>
<p>the college i go to markets molecular and microbiology major a great deal. although it sounds great, i’m pretty sure it’s nothing more than a pre-med major. Are pre-med majors generally frowned upon when applying to med school? I am currently a first year molecular and microbiology major. If such a “pre-med” major is frowned upon, than I may simply switch out to biology.</p>
<p>It never occurred to me to check class profiles of various florida medical schools. Surprisingly, miami showed only 1 applicant coming from ucf. in comparison, they admitted 26 applicants from uf. discouraged but hopeful, i looked at the class profile of fsu medical students. again, i surprisingly found a large number of uf students; 38% to be approximate. 26% came from fsu. ucf only made a fraction of the class; about 3%. usf made twice as many, 6%.</p>
<p>now i’m thinking to myself. If FSU Medical is willing to accept more uf students than its own, uf is definitely going to accept a large number of its students. ucf just opened a medical school of their own. great. only, in order to make a name for themselves, they’ll probably be less loyal to their students and only accept the creme of the crop crowd. so there goes ucf, uf, miami, and fsu. I still haven’t mentioned usf but by now, you should get my point. going to ucf has no advantage whatsoever in getting accepted to a florida medical school. it can’t be grades because it isn’t as if every pre-med who graduates from ucf is dumb. we’re probably just as bright as anyone from uf or fsu. no, it has to be the name. </p>
<p>So what does this tell me, “UCF pre-med need not apply?” (I’m quickly losing confidence here)</p>
<p>I have a unique situation and I’m not sure about how it has affected my chances of getting into med school. Towards the end of sophomore year (a year and a half ago) I was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer. Since that time I’ve literally been through hell and back dealing with that situation. Two stem cell transplants, 12 rounds of chemotherapy, multiple surgeries, etc. Finally, after all that it is in remission and my chances are good that it will never come back.</p>
<p>For the year or two before my diagnosis I was sick. I never knew it was because of cancer and neither did the doctors that I went to see. I was exhausted all the time and my schoolwork suffered. My cumulative GPA for my first 38 credits of college is 3.2. The 40 or so credits since then have had a cumulative of 3.7. I’m fairly certain that from here on out I can get almost a 4.0 every semester. My final cumulative for everything will probably be around 3.7.</p>
<p>I feel like I’m a smart guy and have confidence that I’ll get a decent enough score on the MCAT. Are my chances totally screwed by my GPA and health issues? A couple people have told me that the whole situation will make my application unique and strengthen it. I want to agree with that. My health issues have also prevented me from doing anything at all when it comes to volunteering, being active in clubs, and working in the medical field. Am I too late? I’m halfway through my Junior year. I just feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start or if I even should bother.</p>
<p>It’s always been my dream to go to medical school but I don’t want to do all this work in vain. I should also mention that I will have a letter of recommendation from Dr. Lawrence Einhorn. He is definitely a celebrity within the medical community as he is the inventor of chemotherapy for testicular cancer and various other things. He treated Lance Armstrong and is a pretty influential doctor.</p>
<p>I go to the University of Utah by the way. I believe that if I’m given the chance and they really read about my situation I can talk my way right into a medical school. What frightens me is having my application glanced at and rejected for the slightly below average GPA and likely average MCAT score and thrown into the do not accept pile.</p>
<p>Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if you need any other information. Thanks.</p>
<p>AM: You’re currently sitting on a 3.45. That’s low, but it’s hardly a catastrophe.</p>
<p>If you’re willing to take a year off after medical school, I strongly recommend it. It’ll give you an extra set of semesters in which to improve your GPA and add extracurriculars. I might add, however, that getting cancer is kind of an extracurricular in itself.</p>
<p>(It is not one that we recommend to other premeds.)</p>
<p>Was Einhorn your treating physician? (Which is okay.) Or was he some kind of a research mentor or class professor (which would be better)?</p>
<p>(psst, mike. I think you meant year off after UG -or maybe “before” medical school.)</p>
<p>Oh, gosh, good catch. Yes, of course I did. Apologies.</p>
<p>(psst, Mike. As your penance go tell the kid on the “decisions , decisions” thread that UCSB doesn’t even have a medical school. ;))</p>
<p>Dr. Einhorn was my treating physician. His letter would be less about my academic excellence and more about the struggles a pre-med student with cancer would face. What kind of extracurricular things should I do in that year?</p>
<p>Could be just about anything, honestly. Research is one of the most common paths, but fellowships, work experience, etc. are all good choices.</p>
<p>Hi I am a junior in high school and I am almost certain I want to go into medicine to become a doctor, specifically an immunologist. Now I am not some insane genius who is going to get 2400 SATs and win ISEF. My main question is what would be a good school to go to for premed? What I want is a school that won’t have 50 other premeds in my general chemistry class who are going to be super cutthroat. I mainly want a school that has a generally small, intimate classroom setting, a place where I can still earn a decent gpa 3.5>, and a place that would still be considered a respectable place to apply from.</p>
<p>Hello, I was wondering how much a W in a general chemistry lab would affect an application to medical schools. The course is by no means difficult, it’s just that I slept through one lab out of 6 labs, which cost me a large portion of my grade, so I didn’t really have too much choice. I’m pretty sure I could have gotten an A in the class if I didn’t oversleep, so if I were to take it again, I can probably get an A. And I learned not to take 8 AM labs anymore lol.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine an explanation for this W going very well for interviews… Although I suppose I can say my course load was really heavy and I chose to drop the lab really early, but since our drop-without-a-W deadline for chem labs at UCSD is by the second class meeting, I still received a W. It might work, since even after dropping the chemistry lab, I’m still taking 21 units this quarter, so my course load actually is pretty heavy. I have a feeling that wouldn’t go too well though… I’m just worried about how this hurts my chances for a good medical school. I have an overall GPA of 3.719 and a science GPA of 3.914, but would this W completely rule out higher medical schools? (Wondering most about UCSF, if that changes anything). Thanks for your time.</p>
<p>Hi, I graduated with an International Business degree, but I want to go back and go to medical school. I have already taken General Chemistry I and II…but it was about 4 years ago… I sort of went over chem I, and I am now auditing chem II…I am going to take organic over the summer…how much of the general chem information is really needed in organic? I have heard not that much, but I am just wondering, since i am really rusty on it. Also, for the MCAT how much General Chemistry will I really need,and how much detail of the General Chemistry information is really needed to know?? for example, I remember I had to memorize the polyatomic ions…will that be needed for the MCAT and/or organic chemistry. My gen chem skills I feel are somewhat weak compared to all the freshman and sophomores im in there with!</p>
<p>thanks!</p>