Post-interview score

[xone]

"Do you honestly think there's that big of a difference academically between those 2 candidate"

 

hmm, 3.86 and 3.95? yeah, thats a huge difference in my eyes. ofcourse, 3.86 is a good gpa too, but 3.95 is significantly better. academically, i suspect both candidates would be able to handle med school, but the effort required to get a 3.95 is alot higher than what would be required for a 3.86. i think that difference should be emphasized during the post interview selection process... a very high gpa does say something about a person's focus and drive, i think (assuming they have reasonable extracurricular involvement).

 

an interesting point, then, is to wonder...is it worth getting a high gpa when a slightly lower one will suffice? especially if you can get more extracurricular things? not sure...i personally "try to try my best" in everything, so it probably wouldnt work in my case. However, based on current selection systems, i'd argue that the best approach (and probably the most tricky) would be to aim for a slightly lower gpa if that means you can boost other parts of your application. ive noticed its those classes where u aim for the bare minimum u need to get that A or A+ that end going badly .

 

ofcourse, there are many factors in play in obtaining gpa (priorities), but i feel people sometimes minimize the difficulty in obtaining a very high GPA, so i thought i should say something about it. i guess all im saying is that a high gpa means more than a number, and can (given other considerations) give insight into who a person is.

[premedgirl101]

well this is hypothetical but....

 

say 1 person gets consistent 89's and the other gets consistent 90.0 's , one gets a 3.9 and the other gets a 4.0 . The only objective way to measure g.p.a is if every school used a percent system instead of a letter system because with letters you could be a 90% 4.0 , an 89% 3.9 or a 99 % 4.0

[Footyfanatic]

Premedgirl, your scenario with the gpa's is correct but it is very unlikely to happen, most people get a range of percentages so their A and A+ are balanced in terms of "border marks" like 89 or 90. The percentage system you mentioned would work but we'd have to account for course weighting. There are too many factors that come into play with gpa's and stuff anyway, like school selection, course selection, EC effort etc. Personally, who the hell cares now, we'll hear on tuesday and I hope everyone is pleased with the outcome. Enjoy the damn weekend! lol