Do med schools look at your individual grades or just GPA?

[Guest AH800]

I just finished 3rd year and although I had a pretty solid average a couple of low grades will drop my GPA to about 3.68 this year and 3.69 cumulative. My question is will med school admission look at certain course as more important than others when considering applications or just look at the overall GPA?

For instance this past year my grades were; 98, 96, 92, 85, 84, 84, 83, 80, 79, 71. The 98, 96, and 92 were in nutrition, physiology, and genetics while the 71 was in some environmental course which I really hated. Will admissions people actually take these things into consideration, since physiology is pretty important to medicine while environmental chemistry is not?

This sort of thing seems to happen every year to me, and since I have 1 semester at less than full I cannot use U of T's weighting formula so I have to stick with my 3.69 gpa:( . I'm going to try and pull off more consistency in 4th year, but I also want to apply this coming cycle and just want to know what people generally think about my situation.

[Guest The Law]

I think that most schools look at your GPA and don't differentiate between different courses. From what I've read, at Western the cutoff is firm. This year the cutoff was 3.7 for consideration. The same thing with Queens, you either make it over all four years (this year it was 3.68), or you have a shot at making the "last 2 years" cutoff (I believe it was 3.78). However, other schools like McMaster and U of T don't have firm cutoffs and may still review your application. U of T says that the minimum acceptable GPA is usually around a 3.6, keep in mind that's just the minimum. With all the extra applications, the GPA has increased over the last few years, but I'm sure you still have a shot at many schools.

 

You said that you had a 3.69 cummulative... but not all schools look at your cummulative GPA. Western only requires 1 year above the cutoff for an interview, but you need 2 if you are going to be accepted.

 

I hope that helps out a bit.

[Guest peachy]

At some schools your transcript may be looked at informally, or you could be asked about your weaker grades in your interview. But for GPA cutoff purposes, I agree with TheLaw that it doesn't make any difference in which course you earned what grade...

[Guest AH800]

Thanks, that's pretty much what I thought. It's a pretty tough pill to swallow having one grade make me go from being a decently competitive applicant (including ec's etc.), to not even meeting the cutoffs to apply.

The Law, when you say 1 year at 3.7 to get an interview and 2 above to get accepted, does this imply that the 4th year is the 2nd year above 3.7?

Thanks.

[Guest Yangzie]

yea gpa is all about consistency...

 

and that you choose ur courses *wisely

[Guest The Law]

If you have only one year 3.7 and greater when you apply, you can get a conditional offer of acceptance from UWO. It would be conditional on your current year also being 3.7 and greater.