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Poor grad school GPA bad for medical school admission?


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Long story short, I am a Canadian in my late 20s that holds two undergrad degrees. I partied a bit too much during my first degree (BSc in biology) but smarten up during my second degree (BA in health sciences) which resulted in a steep upward GPA trend; started with a 2.3GPA in 2nd year and later achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA with full course load for 6 semesters straight. Currently, I am finishing up my Masters of Physiotherapy degree (MPT) with an cGPA of 3.7 (A-), I started the program strong but later struggled with constant migraine and diplopia (as confirmed by my neuro-ophthalmologist) which drastically impacted my grades near the end of my program. I now have my symptoms well managed with visual rehab and corrective lenses. However, I am hoping to apply into medical school as I realized my dream is to be a MD. During my physiotherapy placements at the hospital, I worked with multiple physicians (ie. physiatrists, orthopaedic surgeon, and family physicians) which further confirmed this passion. Will my relatively poor grad school GPA negatively impact my chances of Canadian med school admissions? I know some Ontario schools claim that they don't look at grad school GPA?

ps: I am confident that I can ace my MCAT and am seasoned with the CASPer and MMI processes.


Thank you!

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16 hours ago, Samuel9166 said:

Will my relatively poor grad school GPA negatively impact my chances of Canadian med school admissions? I know some Ontario schools claim that they don't look at grad school GPA?

ps: I am confident that I can ace my MCAT and am seasoned with the CASPer and MMI processes.

 

Undergrad GPA is what counts; grad GPA is almost meaningless.  

If you took a full course load your last 6 semesters (3 years) of your second degree and achieved a 4.0 each semester then you're in good shape stats-wise for three Ontario schools - Ottawa, Queen's and Western.  Queen's is a "black box", but the other two lean more heavily on objective criteria - GPA (Ottawa) and MCAT (Western).  You should check to make sure that your course progression satisfies Western's criteria.   

All three schools look for non-academics  too - so, hopefully you've had an opportunity to be involved.

Given your first degree GPA, I don't think you have any chance at Toronto or Mac.  The only other school where second degree would count is McGill, but it's very a competitive as OOP.  

I don't think grad school will affect your chances much - Queen's may look, but I doubt they would weigh it heavily (you can check).  The one school does weigh grad school GPA heavily is Dal - but you would be OOP there which would make it much harder anyways.  

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On 5/10/2021 at 4:26 PM, Samuel9166 said:

Long story short, I am a Canadian in my late 20s that holds two undergrad degrees. I partied a bit too much during my first degree (BSc in biology) but smarten up during my second degree (BA in health sciences) which resulted in a steep upward GPA trend; started with a 2.3GPA in 2nd year and later achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA with full course load for 6 semesters straight. Currently, I am finishing up my Masters of Physiotherapy degree (MPT) with an cGPA of 3.7 (A-), I started the program strong but later struggled with constant migraine and diplopia (as confirmed by my neuro-ophthalmologist) which drastically impacted my grades near the end of my program. I now have my symptoms well managed with visual rehab and corrective lenses. However, I am hoping to apply into medical school as I realized my dream is to be a MD. During my physiotherapy placements at the hospital, I worked with multiple physicians (ie. physiatrists, orthopedic surgeon, and family physicians) which further confirmed this passion. Will my relatively poor grad school GPA negatively impact my chances of Canadian med school admissions? I know some Ontario schools claim that they don't look at grad school GPA?

ps: I am confident that I can ace my MCAT and am seasoned with the CASPer and MMI processes.


Thank you!

It depends on where you are applying. As the above poster discussed, many of the Ontario schools will not look at your grad GPA. However, several of the western schools (UBC, UofA, UofC) do include it in the GPA calculation. Your first degree GPA will be the bigger barrier for these schools, since they will include all your degrees in the GPA calculation (with potential to drop your worst year).

Calgary has a few additional exceptions. I think you need a minimum of 18 credits per year for that year to be included in the calculation (including graduate studies). And they have a 10 year exclusion policy you can apply for if any of your first degree was completed more than 10 years ago. 

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