very low GPA, what next?

[alwaysrunninglate]

IP for Alberta. Wasn't thinking of med school after undergrad, but now I am interested.

In my fourth year, four year cGPA will be 3.3. Way too low for medicine. I'm thinking about taking a 5th year and kicking it out of the park, taking booster courses and giving it 100%, withdrew from most ECs for the fall to focus. If I manage a 4.0 (possible I was a contender for valedictorian in high school, just didn't study through undergrad), and go into masters (30 coursework credits which count towards cGPA at ualberta I think) - I might be able to pull up to a wGPA of 3.6. My ECs are pretty great, looking at one pub this august, national level student orgs, high-level leadership at uni, multiple diverse internships.  Just don't have awards/scholarships/volunteering, but I can manage that in 2 more years of prep. Is this good enough for IP Alberta? I'm not even going to apply OOP with my GPA lol. Another option is 2nd undergrad, so should I do one more year undergrad + 2 year masters (3yrs) or second undergrad (2yrs)? 

[Pumpkin_]

Hey! 
My best advice is to follow your passions. I know people who have got into uofc with lower GPA’s and below 500 on the MCAT.
I personally feel like it is more about what you write about in your essays. Obviously a higher GPA will help, but why do you want to complete a master’s or a second undergrad other then to improve your GPA? What makes you wanna be a doctor? 
 

Getting into medical school can be hit or miss. Your odds are the best and you enjoy the process more if chase after your passions. Personally I think that spending 2 years working with at risk populations and being able to explain how that made you grow as a person and further inspired your pursuit of medicine is way more valuable then completing a second undergrad with the soul purpose of boosting your GPA. You always have the option to write about why your GPA was lower. 

In sorry if that wasn’t helpful. But just some thoughts. 

[alwaysrunninglate]

On 4/18/2022 at 8:39 PM, Pumpkin_ said:

Hey! 
My best advice is to follow your passions. I know people who have got into uofc with lower GPA’s and below 500 on the MCAT.
I personally feel like it is more about what you write about in your essays. Obviously a higher GPA will help, but why do you want to complete a master’s or a second undergrad other then to improve your GPA? What makes you wanna be a doctor? 
 

Getting into medical school can be hit or miss. Your odds are the best and you enjoy the process more if chase after your passions. Personally I think that spending 2 years working with at risk populations and being able to explain how that made you grow as a person and further inspired your pursuit of medicine is way more valuable then completing a second undergrad with the soul purpose of boosting your GPA. You always have the option to write about why your GPA was lower. 

In sorry if that wasn’t helpful. But just some thoughts. 

This is super helpful! Honestly, I want to do one more year to prove to myself that I can pull a 4.0 and to make myself competitive for PT, OT, grad school applications. I think you're right, not worth doing a second undergrad, because I already have a dream job outside of medicine. I just think eventually having the option maybe one day to apply will be thrown out of the window if I graduate now and don't try to raise my GPA one last time. Sadly, COVID only gave me 9crs of graded coursework for  2019-2020 school year. 

[mapotofu]

I think 3.3 will be very doable if you do well on the MCAT given good ECs. 3.6 would make your life easier but I don't think 3.3 disqualifies you and saves you 2 years. Is 3.3 after they knock off your worst year? Do they still do that?

I was at 3.3 without knocking off the worst year and 3.5 with. 524 MCAT and probably mediocre ECs. I interviewed well and got off the waitlist. 

My 2 cents re: another degree. I did an after degree where I got 4.0 GPA both years and I think that helped to show I was academically capable along with the MCAT score. Before that, my GPA was like 2.9. That said, I did the degree in a field I was interested in and would've been also happy to work in. 

So my advice is:

Take the MCAT to gauge where you are at: anything >= 520 and I think you have a shot. ~516-520 (I'm kinda pulling numbers out of thin air) and I'd still try to apply and see where you land. 

Consider some more coursework to increase that GPA if you either scored meh on the MCAT or you tried applying and didn't get an interview.

Once you get an interview, increasing your GPA is probably not worth it and the focus should probably be on interviewing well and working on EC or retake the MCAT.

The process is pretty opaque and my advice may not be optimal but I think my experience shows that it's definitely possible to get in with a low GPA.

Good luck!

[McMasterMD]

28 minutes ago, mapotofu said:

I think 3.3 will be very doable if you do well on the MCAT given good ECs. 3.6 would make your life easier but I don't think 3.3 disqualifies you and saves you 2 years. Is 3.3 after they knock off your worst year? Do they still do that?

I was at 3.3 without knocking off the worst year and 3.5 with. 524 MCAT and probably mediocre ECs. I interviewed well and got off the waitlist. 

My 2 cents re: another degree. I did an after degree where I got 4.0 GPA both years and I think that helped to show I was academically capable along with the MCAT score. Before that, my GPA was like 2.9. That said, I did the degree in a field I was interested in and would've been also happy to work in. 

So my advice is:

Take the MCAT to gauge where you are at: anything >= 520 and I think you have a shot. ~516-520 (I'm kinda pulling numbers out of thin air) and I'd still try to apply and see where you land. 

Consider some more coursework to increase that GPA if you either scored meh on the MCAT or you tried applying and didn't get an interview.

Once you get an interview, increasing your GPA is probably not worth it and the focus should probably be on interviewing well and working on EC or retake the MCAT.

The process is pretty opaque and my advice may not be optimal but I think my experience shows that it's definitely possible to get in with a low GPA.

Good luck!

I agree with this advice

I also do think that another 1- to 2- years of undergrad would be important to show medical schools that you have the academic capability to do well in a rigorous program. @mapotofu did 2 years of another degree and got 4.0 both years. That's very impressive, and is concrete evidence of academic capability. That and obviously the 524 MCAT.

[Catsandstuff]

8 hours ago, mapotofu said:

So my advice is:

Take the MCAT to gauge where you are at: anything >= 520 and I think you have a shot. ~516-520 (I'm kinda pulling numbers out of thin air) and I'd still try to apply and see where you land. 

U of a is no longer going to use the MCAT competitively unfortunately, so I don’t know if this solution works. 
I would do a fifth year, apply this year  with what you have now, see how it goes, and see how you fall compared to the other applicants, if you can afford it. And you never know, your current ECs might be enough to push you over the competitive edge. If it isn’t, you can continue to do classes to help make the GPA more competitive.

[mapotofu]

On 5/7/2022 at 7:44 PM, Catsandstuff said:

U of a is no longer going to use the MCAT competitively unfortunately, so I don’t know if this solution works. 
I would do a fifth year, apply this year  with what you have now, see how it goes, and see how you fall compared to the other applicants, if you can afford it. And you never know, your current ECs might be enough to push you over the competitive edge. If it isn’t, you can continue to do classes to help make the GPA more competitive.

Woah, seriously? so they just have a cutoff for the MCAT or something now? I guess it kinda makes sense, I never thought that doing well at the MCAT was super correlated with being a good doctor but I still think it's better than GPA at assessing a candidate's academic aptitude. That change definitely makes it difficult for people who may have a low GPA from their undergrad for whatever reason and makes it a big hole to climb out of though...

[Sosof]

On 5/7/2022 at 6:46 PM, mapotofu said:

I think 3.3 will be very doable if you do well on the MCAT given good ECs. 3.6 would make your life easier but I don't think 3.3 disqualifies you and saves you 2 years. Is 3.3 after they knock off your worst year? Do they still do that?

I was at 3.3 without knocking off the worst year and 3.5 with. 524 MCAT and probably mediocre ECs. I interviewed well and got off the waitlist. 

My 2 cents re: another degree. I did an after degree where I got 4.0 GPA both years and I think that helped to show I was academically capable along with the MCAT score. Before that, my GPA was like 2.9. That said, I did the degree in a field I was interested in and would've been also happy to work in. 

So my advice is:

Take the MCAT to gauge where you are at: anything >= 520 and I think you have a shot. ~516-520 (I'm kinda pulling numbers out of thin air) and I'd still try to apply and see where you land. 

Consider some more coursework to increase that GPA if you either scored meh on the MCAT or you tried applying and didn't get an interview.

Once you get an interview, increasing your GPA is probably not worth it and the focus should probably be on interviewing well and working on EC or retake the MCAT.

The process is pretty opaque and my advice may not be optimal but I think my experience shows that it's definitely possible to get in with a low GPA.

Good luck!

I am on a waitlist IP with gpa 3.34 and 511 127 CARS is there is a chance for me to get off the waitlist? And how could I estimate my position on the waitlist?!