American medical school

[infinity101 3]

I’m a Canadian citizen. I’m currently doing my second bachelors in biochemistry. Will finish in two years.

first undergrad-2.5 cgpa

thus far for my second undergrad is 3.3 cgpa.. and two more years I can get my yearly gpa as a 4.0. 

low marks were a result of serious conditions at home. 

ill be moving to the USA this fall, and don’t mind redoing years and adding extra undergraduate years to apply to medical schools. Is there a way I can step out of my past and get what I want to achieve? I do know my cousin in the us medical school said us schools do consider an upward trend? 
 

thanks 

[Medase 10]

Hi,

Sorry to say it, but the US looks at all your undergrad years, including those from your first calculation. Without calculations, your GPA would be somewhere 3.0-3.3, which is much lower than average US citizen matriculant, and you need to have much higher stats as an international. The chances are really slim, in my opinion. It's not easy to go from 3.3 to 4.0 suddenly so there's that. 

[DrOtter 364]

18 hours ago, infinity101 said:

I’m a Canadian citizen. I’m currently doing my second bachelors in biochemistry. Will finish in two years.

first undergrad-2.5 cgpa

thus far for my second undergrad is 3.3 cgpa.. and two more years I can get my yearly gpa as a 4.0. 

low marks were a result of serious conditions at home. 

ill be moving to the USA this fall, and don’t mind redoing years and adding extra undergraduate years to apply to medical schools. Is there a way I can step out of my past and get what I want to achieve? I do know my cousin in the us medical school said us schools do consider an upward trend? 
 

thanks 

Hi there. So sorry to hear about your challenges previously and congrats on bouncing back! There are certain ways for sure, though definitely not easy.

US med schools do consider upward trend as a good thing. They actually also make a distinction between your Science GPA and your non-Science GPA as well at many schools (it's better to have higher science GPA). And the great equaliser to all of this is a good MCAT score: if you can manage to score well (510-515+) on the MCAT, your GPA might not hold you back as much as you think.

[JohnGrisham 1,752]

You say you are moving to the US in the fall - are you going to continue your 2nd undergraduate degree there? 

If you can get a few years of full-time 4.0(the first year of a 3.3 is a promising jump from 2.5...but not a saving grace), and absolutely crush the MCAT, you stand a shot at USDO programs..assuming you have strong non-academic profile.   Upward trends are important, but you will definitely need a very strong MCAT.

Curious, are you on the pathway to a greencard?   There is definitely some information missing from this post about citizenship perhaps, that will definitely alter your trajectory into a potential US medical school.