Match Me: Senior aspiring to be a physician, good scores [IL resident, 3.97 GPA, 1560 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Appreciate the insight!

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You’re correct. I have been working in genomics research in a biopharma company during sophomore and junior year summers, but do not a lot of hospital volunteering hours. Would that be a disqualifier?

Thank you!

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DePaul does not have a BSMD program, it does have a 3+3 program with Rosalind Franklin U that one applies for junior year of college. Accelerated Degree Option | Pre-Health Program | Academics | College of Science and Health | DePaul University, Chicago

Here are other schools with early assurance med school programs, which may make sense for you to consider (always confirm info on each school’s website): Information about Early Assurance Programs | Students & Residents

I agree with others that all BSMD programs will be high reaches even for high stat students, and likely unattainable for one with limited patient facing experience. How can one know they want to be a physician if they haven’t worked directly with patients? (you will likely have to cover this in BSMD interviews.) It is becoming increasingly difficult for students to be accepted to med school during senior year of college, let alone senior year of HS. It is difficult to compete with med school applicants who take one to two years post-college to gain more clinical experience.

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Thanks so much!

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Hello, another hopefully quick question. Our school uses a 4.0 scale and my UW is 3.97 and W is 4.54. Which one should I use for reporting, wherever there might be an option?

Thank you for your time!

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Calling @Mwfan1921
 I believe you recently addressed a similar question on another thread.

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If your school calculates both weighted and unweighted Class Rank/GPA, report the weighted value.

How do I report my class rank and GPA? (commonapp.org)

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In addition to following the commonapp guidelines that tsbna posted (although the GPA question is optional on commonapp because AOs will get the GPA info from your transcript), I would also encourage you to use weighted for other things like honors and/or scholarship apps and the like. Good luck!

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Thank you! Would my weighted GPA be considered competitive?

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Thank you!

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It’s taken in context of your HS class. It looks like you said you are in the top 10%, maybe the top 5%? If so, that’s generally competitive, as is the rest of your profile.

Where is your thinking on your safeties? I know there was discussion about changes at UIUC impacting undergrad research
have you decide if you will apply? Have you already submitted your app to Pitt?

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I think @Mwfan1921 makes the right point.

They’re going to look at your transcript.

It’s hard to tell anything from a weighted GPA because all weight differently. Some, for example, give you a +.5 for Honors and + 1 for AP. Others give a .3 or another #.

So unweighted is how they can compare apples to apples - but even in unweighted, some have +/- - and many schools will figure out your GPA as they want to see it (hence looking at your transcript).

On the other hands, there can be schools that simply say - we only use the weighted # - without re-doing - IU Kelley does this but this is more for specific college within the university admittance.

Your profile is your profile - and don’t worry about how schools will view it.

You can figure out whether you’re competitive for a school in general so that you build a balanced list overall - and don’t worry about being too granular in things outside your control.

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Moving forward with UIUC. Getting close to applying to Pitt. Refining my essay right now. Thanks so much for the quick response!

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As others are pointing out, one of the obvious problems with weighted GPAs is different high schools weight differently, so comparisons between school-reported weighted GPAs are inherently suspect. Most colleges will therefore figure out for themselves how to compare your transcript to others.

That said, Miami (Ohio) actually has an automatic merit chart which uses school-reported GPA:

The highest category is 4.30+, so I think you can safely assume a 4.54 at least superficially looks pretty good (possibly even better than like a 5.8, or anything else clearly not on a normalish 4.0-based scale).

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Thanks so much! Really appreciate the insights.

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Our school doesn’t share those, but it was my counselor’s guess. Thanks again!

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Thank you so very much. This was very helpful. Having a confidence crisis while going through the crunch.

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Completely normal, it’s a stressful time for you. Posters here can help keep your spirits up. You are clearly an accomplished and thoughtful person and will do well in college admissions, but more importantly in life.

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It is hard to avoid! During this part of the annual cycle, so many conversations are basically about all the ways something can go wrong, individual colleges can decide they don’t like you even if you have competitive numbers, and on and on. And that is necessary information, but it is definitely missing the forest for the trees.

You have done great in HS! You have a high test score! You have interesting activities! Apply to a thoughtful list of Likely, Target, and Reach colleges given your needs and wants, take time to write good applications, and I am dead sure you will end up with plenty of great offers to consider.

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Thank you, grateful for the kindness.

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