<p>I am sal of my class w/2200 55554 AP’s 800/700 SAT II’s, National Merit Commended. </p>
<p>If i give my utmost effort at Penn State, how hard will it be for me to maintain a 3.8+ GPA at Penn State on a biology major?</p>
<p>Your standardized test scores show that you have the aptitude. If you work hard and try you should be able to keep a 3.8+.</p>
<p>REMEMBER NOT TO GET COMPLACENT. I have seen lots of freshman who pull off a 3.9+ their freshman year, only to see their gpas drop junior and sophomore year due to complacency.</p>
<p>Senior year GPA doesn’t count?</p>
<p>And THANK YOU SO MUCH for the tip. In fact, complacency is the reason my second quarter grades are falling in HS lol How do you keep yourself from feeling everything is okay just from freshmen grades? It’s hard.</p>
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<p>Senior Year grades do count. A lot of medical schools start giving out acceptances in early October through late December, before your senior year grades are out. If a school that you applied to hasn’t given out a decision to you by that time, then yes medical schools will factor in your first semester senior grades into making their decision.</p>
<p>If money is not an issue, with those stats you should be trying for a top 10 school. A lot of posters on this forum have said that going to a top 10 school gives you a “boost” in the medical school admissions process. You should be aiming for schools like Duke, UPenn, Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Princeton. (MIT and Caltech if you are into engineering).</p>
<p>^I have applied to schools like that. It’s just I am afraid of the competition lol What if i **** up? What if i choke? Besides, money IS an issue. </p>
<p>And im sure the “boost” is negligible if everything else is there (i.e. MCAT scores, GPA, research, volunteering, etc). Also, the people at those top schools are very uptight. I would like to be in an environemnt in which i can chill with normal kids. These students from top schools are, to put in bluntly, dicks.</p>
<p>And im not a believer of the ideology that if one studies in a positive environment, one will succeed. I don’t get influenced by my environment. I set my limits/boundaries reasonably. I grew up in a crappy environment. I learned to adapt. Im sure I wil do the same in college. So, really the top schools don’t mean much to me.</p>
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<p>No one can really answer this question. Maybe you are 3.8+ GPA material - but maybe you’re not. You’ll have to go out there and do your best to see what you get.</p>
<p>The question is not how high of a GPA one can maintain by working one’s utmost, OP, the question is how high of a GPA can one maintain while building a pre-med resume.</p>
<p>^true…but doesn’t Research, volunteering, etc usually happen in the summers? I guess it could also be during semesters…</p>
<p>I think you could pull off 3.8+ if you worked hard. Like posters have mentioned, don’t get complacent. </p>
<p>And I feel ya when it comes to top schools. Right now I’m questioning my decision to apply to 5 Ivys after I got the UMich acceptance. I guess I’m keeping options open but I dropped $70 fee/app., $10 score report/app. and probably couple 10s of dollars here and there for these 5 schools. $500 is a lot, and I think I spend around that for just 5 schools. </p>
<p>But I guess when you consider the potential value for that money and in the grand scheme of things it’s not a big deal (college tuition, books, housing, etc.). Maybe that’s just me justifying the cost.</p>
<p>Penn State can prepare you well for med school…do NOT fret it…Med school is very expensive…there is a lot to be said for minimizing undergrad debt.</p>
<p>Despite what some might have you believe, there is no magic bullet or secret hand shake. Work hard, do your best, make sure that you have done all that you can do to make yourself the best and most well rounded candidate…good grades, MCAT, research, medically related ECs…</p>
<p>Most of all, enjoy your undergrad experience as well…take elective courses that interest you and that you think you will enjoy…remember you will be taking nothing but science classes once in med school…that added layer of dimensionality can help you in the interview process.</p>
<p>Good luck…enjoy your time in Happy Valley…</p>
<p>Most people have significant extra curricular activities during the semesters. I personally didn’t do much during my first two summers</p>
<p>^Oh dang it…oh well I’ll just try my best and see what happens.</p>
<p>And edad, thank you very much for the kind words</p>