Competitve GPA for most med schools in Ontario?

[newbie777]

Hey guys,

 

I just completed my first year at university, and I have searched through the forum to determine a generally competitve GPA for med school acceptance (i'm a noob). I have read things ranging from "Maintain a 3.7 + good MCAT + ECs and you should be fine" to "Maintain a 3.8 +...." to "Maintain a 3.99 +...." lol, so I'm not sure which to believe. I know that it's definitely very individual, but what kind of (ballpark) GPA would give a student a good chance at med school acceptance for schools in Ontario? I got a 3.9 average this year, but I expect that it will be lower next year....is a 3.8 too low?

 

Thanks for any help, from this noob

[NLengr]

Short Answer: No, it's fine.

 

Longer Answer: No. The competitive GPA varies a lot depending on many factors. Your EC's, education, work experience etc all affect it. However, 3.8 should be competative for any degree.

 

Don't sweat the small stuff like that.

[aclementine]

"Maintain a 3.99 +...."

 

slap the person who told you this in the face

[heathcliff]

I think it depends on your whole package. If you don't have good ECs and don't expect to do well on interviews, etc, then honestly I think you probably would need a higher gpa to stay competitive. But that probably applies to a small minority. But if you are a real person, who has a few hobbies and gives back to the community in some small way now and then, then you probably will be fine in terms of gpa. In reality, you'll probably be tougher on yourself than most schools will be on you.

[The Law]

The key is how the med school evaluates your offer of acceptance. For example, at Queen's once you get an interview the formula for acceptance is 50% interview score, 50% essay score.... so whether you had a 4.0 GPA vs a 3.68 would not matter.

 

But if you look at a school like UT that says 60% of the final score is based on academic merit, you can imagine that there is a huge emphasis on your GPA there. In this case, the higher the GPA, the better your chance because it'll give you more points on your final score.

 

Search the forums and the med schools' websites for info on how things get weighted (and how they specifically look at GPA).

 

Hope that helps.

[Smurfette]

"Maintain a 3.99 +...."

 

Learn to tell sarcasm from actual advice (j/k)

 

In all seriousness, it never hurts you to have a good GPA. The higher the better. But at a certain point, striving for that extra 0.01 point in your GPA is going to hurt your personal life and/or your ability to do other things to help your application (eg. volunteering/EC's). For some people, it's easy to get that 3.95 GPA and still have a balanced life and do lots of things outside of school. For others, it might be more realistic to strive for a 3.80 GPA.

 

It also depends on the individual schools. Take a look at the minimum requirements of all the schools you're interested in AND at the statistics for those schools. Most of the schools post statistics on the average entering GPA for undergrad/grad applicants.

[DiscoDoc]

For me, the biggest kick in the gonads after completing my first degree is no one cares where you went to school, and what you took. They only look at your numerical GPA. Take the pre-reqs, but after that take the easiest possible courses and inflate your GPA.

[Yk4]

If you have more than 3,8 , you shouldn't worry about you GPA. You should worry about the MCAT and doing more EC`s

[Julie]

For me, the biggest kick in the gonads after completing my first degree is no one cares where you went to school, and what you took. They only look at your numerical GPA. Take the pre-reqs, but after that take the easiest possible courses and inflate your GPA.

 

I don't think that would make for a very fun degree... I guess it depends on the person, but for me, I know it wouldn't work. When I don't feel challenged, I tend to minimize the effort, often resulting in lower grades! I think this topic has been discussed extensively before, see past discussions on this topic to get a good idea of the pros & cons...

[The Law]

I don't think that would make for a very fun degree... I guess it depends on the person, but for me, I know it wouldn't work. When I don't feel challenged, I tend to minimize the effort, often resulting in lower grades! I think this topic has been discussed extensively before, see past discussions on this topic to get a good idea of the pros & cons...

 

same here