Kinda a stupid question about grades....

[Guest Lytefyre13]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and I have kind of an odd question. I know that you need pretty good grades to get into medical school, but is it possible that high grades would actually be detrimental?

 

I've heard from friends at UBC that sometimes an A+ average is not desirable. Reasons include:

 

1) Working really hard at the academics but leaving out time for ECs

 

2) I've heard that you only need an 85% to get full marks on the Academic score

 

3) There is some myth (i dunno if it is true or not) that the admissions committee sees A+ ppl as kinda nerdish and not well rounded? Sorta like a bias??

 

Can anyone clear this up for me (ie. is the above true or not)? Thanks

[Guest GundamDX]

2) is right, i think you maxed out 25/25 for AQ if you overall and last 60 is 85%+

 

as for 1) and 3) not neccessarily true. I know at least 2 people who have A+ average and unbelievable ECs... they probably got high 40s / 50 in the pre-interview score

 

It's up to you to balance your time and plan your activities/ study times. For me I can never do too much and keep a 85% average.

[Guest Lytefyre13]

Thanx GundamDX! I was just curious about this issue since when I looked up the statistics of ppl who got into med, there were like only 2 ppl with 90% avgs.

[Guest FungManX]

yep as long as you have the extracurricular activities to back up your super high gpa you shoudl be fine

[Guest peachy]

Yeah, having too high a GPA is really not something worth worrying about.

[Guest Lytefyre13]

I don't really have a high GPA, just wondering if it was worth the effort to go for those straight 90s.....though I wish I was in that boat.....

[Guest AnxiousBoy]

Wow, I would love to be in that situation where I had to worry if my grades were too high :eek If your school does not use percentages but letter grades like my school, your straight A will be 85% (my school does not give A+) :\

[Guest canstowski]

Let just say having a 90+ avg, u will most likely get into one of the many med schools across canada. I know the western schools prefer a more rounded individual but the truth is, the Eastern schools are more academically driven. Having a 90+ avg will most likely land you a spot in UofT. (this was the exact scenario for my friend. rejected by all western school but got accepted/waitlisted on 3 of the 4 ontario school. He did basically jack in terms of EC)

[Guest csp0304]

3) There is some myth (i dunno if it is true or not) that the admissions committee sees A+ ppl as kinda nerdish and not well rounded? Sorta like a bias??

 

I'm pretty certain that the admissions committee will not assume what kind of a person you are based on grades. They will determine whether you possess the social skills and well-roundedness from other aspects of your application such as the autobiographical essay, sketch of non-academic experiences and your interview.

 

From my personal experience, I don't see a strong correlation between high average and lack of social skills/well-roundedness. Some people with 90% averages have a really good amount of EC, are fun to be around with, outgoing, and have great social skills. But some of them, like you said, will seem like they've been living under the stone for the past 4 years. It really depends on the person.

[Guest RoseSmurfette]

This is an interesting question actually.

 

In 2004:

90+ average - 2 admitted, 14 rejected (14%)

85-90 average - 44 admitted, 104 were rejected (30%)

 

In 2005:

90+ average - 5 admitted, 19 rejected (21%)

85-90 average - 62 admitted, 132 rejected (32%)

 

So it appears that in both 2004 and 2005 those in the 90+ category actually had a substantially lower admissions rate (14%, 21%) than those in the 85-90 category (30%, 32%)!

 

This is rather curious. Sure there's probably many 90+ students that only study and don't have EC's and social skills. But there's probably many 85-90 students that only study and don't have EC's and social skills either. To echo csp0304, I haven't seen a correlation between marks and social skills/EC's either and I personally know quite a few people with 90+ averages and are very competent in other areas.

 

There's a couple of other points to consider that might skew the results. (1) Students applying in third-year may have higher averages, but lower admissions rates. (2) Applicants who were accepted but turned UBC down (presumably for another school) are not included in the numbers. Perhaps a substantial percentage of students with 90+ averages had other options (as someone mentionned U of T tends to take students with high averages).

[Guest csp0304]

There's a similar discussion going on in the general forums. Check out this link

 

p090.ezboard.com/fpremed101frm85.showMessageRange?topicID=470.topic&start=61&stop=61

[Guest canmic]

Keep in mind that the interviewers have no idea what your GPA is when they assign you your interview score..

 

What would be interesting to see, would be a 3d plot showing GPA, EC score and Interview score on the 3 axes.

 

Or, statistically, the correlations between GPA and EC score as well as GPA and interview score.

[Guest ewon2003]

Here's my take on this gpa / EC issue.

 

In every med class there are always many people who can excel at both - no question about that, and those are the people who get multiple admissions from med schools.

 

It's good for all premeds to strive for this level of performance.

 

But the real question comes when when you have to choose either doing well in school or less well but be more well-rounded.

 

My firm belief is that it's better to focus on school grades and getting the highest gpa you can. There are many reasons for this.

 

1) a lot of schools have firm gpa cut-offs. If you don't meet them, you have zero chance of getting an interview and letting your experience shine.

 

2) the extracurriculars and experiences can come later - even after you finish your undergrad. You can even spend a whole summer full-time volunteering and doing a lot club services - and that would increase your EC scores dramatically. If you choose to work, your work experience will add points as well.

 

3) conversely, I've seen lots of premeds with great personality and great EC experience, but are lacking the GPA due to 1 or 2 years of poor undergrad experience. These people are severely disadvantaged and may even have to give up medicine all together. Think about it, if you have 2 years of undergrad with 3.0 or lower GPA, it's almost impossible to pull them up to a competitive standard - unless you use the 10-year rule that UBC gives you. and even then you're looking at a couple more years of schooling to pull the gpa up.