poor/good gpa

[Guest Precision7]

hi,

this is my first time using this board (or any message board for that matter). I was wondering if anyone would have some advice for my sticky situation. My first two years of undergrad was really bad, I had a two car accidents in my second year (one was mine, other driver was under influence) and the other accident was while getting a ride from a friend. The accidents were a week apart and my university would not help out. They said I had to drop out of school. I later found out about writing exams at a later date. By the time I got things going and was on my way to recovery, I had messed up my second year so that I was on suspension. My last two years I have worked really hard and my gpa was a 3.7. I know that the first two years do not reflect my true ability but I feel reluctant to persue my med school dream. I am applying to grad school and will apply to med after. I don't know what my chances are even with a good graduate school gpa. Do you think it would be futile to even try for med?

[Guest mydream88]

Dear Precision7,

I do not think you should snuff out your dream, your case is certainly not a lost cause. I suggest you look at the individual medical school websites to determine what their requirements are for admission. For example, at the University of Western Ontario, only your best two years are considered to determine your gpa, and combined with the MCAT, these two scores determine if you will receive an interview with their school or not. This year for example, the GPA cut off is 3.7

 

so, first and foremost go check out the schools you are interested in applying to to see how they calculate your gpa and if your gpa, caculated by their method, would be sufficient for application to their school.

 

next, if you are on the road to doing so already (which I think you are), it could only benefit your application to complete a Master's degree. Some schools (though again not all, so check each school's website) WILL consider you differently if you are a graduate student. For example, at the University of Toronto, if you have completed or are completing a graduate degree, you are expected to have an undergraduate gpa of minimum 3.0 and you are permitted to submit a graduate school package detailing your research productivity, general resume and additional letters of reference.

 

As well, at the University of Ottawa Medical School, they permit graduate students to submit a graduate school submission barring that they are completing/have completed a 2 year graduate program in which they have an A average in grad school, with a lower undergraduate gpa requirement for grad students. If your graduate studies constitute a one year course-based masters which involves 10 courses, then your graduate year of school will be used in your gpa calculation as your 'most recent year of school' (see website for details)

 

So, long story short, I hope this information is useful to you, I hope that you DO NOT give up, please let us know your journey is going

 

mydream88

[Guest klukyboy]

I agree with mydream, there are several schools that only look at your best two years for the overall avg: Western, Sask, and Calgary come to mind (Calgary says they look at the whole package, but the stat they post is the two-year avg, so I'm not sure which to go by). Plus other schools like Alberta drop your worst year and give extra points for a masters or phd, so you may be able to make up the difference for one bad year.

 

However, you may want to spend a bit of time (maybe the spring/summer session) taking higher level courses to improve your pre-req avg. Depending on what your major was, you've probably improved many of the classes already so it may not be too hard.

 

Most importantly, talk to the admissions people at the schools you're interested in. They usually won't give you a straight answer as to whether or not you should apply, but they can give you some good advice on how to make yourself more competetive.

 

klukyboy

[Guest coastal79]

I won't add much cause other people have said almost everything, but I believe in the application to U of A this year, there was a section that said something like "Do you believe that you grades are not a reflection of your true ability" or something like that.

 

If meds is what you want to do, go for it, you'll find a way.

[Guest Steve U of T]

Actually, the application for Ontario schools also includes a question about whether your grades are a true reflection of your ability too. I'm not sure exactly how the schools consider it, but there is space given to justify yourself. Yours sounds like the type of situation that would warrant such justification.