3.75 GPA..competitive enough?

[Guest Alastriss]

Hey all

 

I'm a second year university student and Ive been working fairly hard..and so far my cGPA is 3.75 I dont know If i can actually boost it up in my 3rd and 4th years..so I was wondering if this gpa is competitive enough. I hear about a lot of people with higher gpa's not getting in so im just wondering myself whether or not I have a decent shot

[Guest MrNeuroscience]

A 3.75 (especially after only two years) is very competitive for medical school. You have to remember that not every school looks at all your marks the same way; at Mac you will have a 3.75, but at U of T you may have something closer to a 4 ... all schools have different weighting schemes.

As for individuals with higher GPAs not being accepted, there is SO much more to the application than just your GPA. Your personal essay can make or break your application, the way you spend your time outside of classes and your passion for the pursuit of medicine are all arguably as important as maintaing a high GPA.

 

Don't sweat it.

[Guest TheChosenOneDDS]

with that attitude if I gave you a 3.85 you'll still not get in. Why because you think like a loser. 3.75 is a reasonable range for people to get into med school so it is not like you are just leaving everything to chance.

 

I understand where you are coming from though. You're trying to look for the minimum, that feeling of stability. Let me tell you this, in these applications, there is NEVER that. I've reviewed applications that were 4.0 GPA and they still got rejected from dental school. I think I had around that average and I was accepted into both med and dental school including U of T 4 years ago. Don't sweat it.

[Guest Lurkergonepublic]

I have a 3.5 and I've had 4 interviews this year - of course none of them were in Ontario where GPA cutoffs are higher and more popular, but I have much more on my application than just a university education.

 

The attitude comment is right. I never even knew about these boards before I decided to apply, and if I'd watched them to compare myself to others I probably never would have bothered applying. That would have been too bad, because I think I stand a pretty good chance about now.

 

Get good grades, but don't be one-dimensional, and learn how to make that point on paper.

[Guest peachy]

It's pretty simple to go to each school's website and read what their average accepted GPA is, or to read about how they incorporate GPA into the process. Nobody here is going to tell you anything more helpful than that.

[Guest Maelswarm]

Find the minimum cut-offs and add an extra 0.1-0.2 onto that to be competitive.

[Guest redbluegreen2006]

Lurker,

 

which schools did u apply to and also how well was ur MCAT?

[Guest Lurkergonepublic]

I got interviews at UofA, UofC, UBC and UofM (I'm an Alberta resident). I did quite well on the MCAT, as I knew I'd have to with my GPA (12,12,12,S). I applied to a pile of Ontario schools as well, but didn't make any of their cut-offs. Truth is, I wasn't planning on med school during my undergrad, so it wasn't until after my degree was done that I started looking at it, and then decided I would definately have to rock the MCAT to have a shot at it. My GPA is more accurately 3.56, but of course every school works it out differently, so it ranges from 3.5 to 3.6. Fortunately my best marks were in pre-requisite classes, so my pre-reg avg is closer to 3.7.

 

When I look around at other stats, I'm surprised myself to have had those interviews at times, but it just goes to show there's not a magic formula. Good experiences, references, and a bit of application writing flair can go a long way. I'm definately at an advantage at schools that do an entire file review rather than a grade cut-off, as many are unfortunately moving towards.