Many students believe that getting into medical school with a low GPA is impossible. That, however, is not the case. Every year, though, individuals successfully get into medical school with a low or less than ideal GPA.
There are numerous reasons why you may have a low GPA. Perhaps you were afflicted with a major disease throughout your undergraduate studies. Or maybe you didn’t start taking your grades seriously until the conclusion of your academic experience. Perhaps you entered medicine as a senior and have since done post-baccalaureate education.
Whatever your circumstance, you’re probably wondering what options you have and whether you still have a chance of getting into your favourite med school. Fortunately, there are strategies for dealing with a subpar GPA and minimizing its impact on your admissions prospects. It is advised to prepare yourself with the top MCAT examination prep courses to avoid failing in the exam.
Fret not! This guide will show you how to get into medical school with a low GPA.
How Much Does Your GPA Really Matter?
There is no getting around the reality that every medical school will take your GPA into account. In addition to your MCAT results, one of the most crucial criteria considered in admissions choices is your undergraduate GPA. Learn more about online courses for Altius MCAT prep course here before choosing which medical school to enter.
However, your GPA is not as black and white as many students believe. Your grade point average contributes to a picture of your time as an undergraduate student. Admissions committees will consider the big picture, not just the metrics.
Your GPA is crucial because it helps medical schools predict how successful you will be in the program. Will you work hard to obtain the greatest marks possible, or will you succumb to peer pressure and fail? Before enrolling into any prep courses, ask yourself are MCAT prep courses worth it?
Most significantly, meeting the GPA and MCAT score thresholds of the institutions you’re applying to eliminates the possibility of being dropped from the application pool from the start. While medical schools brag about their comprehensive admissions process, most screen out students with lower GPAs and MCAT scores straight immediately to make the application pool more manageable. This means that even if the rest of your school application is flawless, your extracurricular activities and essays will be overlooked. This is why students are encouraged to at least meet the specified expectations when applying — this way, the admissions committee may still be impressed with the rest of the application.
To understand your achievement as a student, schools will examine every aspect of your GPA. They will look at your year-by-year average as well as the kind of courses you took in addition to your final cumulative average.
Your GPA in science-based courses will carry greater weight than your GPA in liberal arts courses. However, this does not imply that the grades are unimportant. Schools will look at your whole schooling and look for grading trends that provide more information than a simple number average (more on that later).
As a result, it is still possible to get into medical school with a low GPA. However, it is a fact that having a lower GPA will make things more difficult.
What is considered a low GPA for a Medical School?
So, what exactly is considered a low GPA for medical school? The answer is that it all depends on the med school you’re applying to. The admissions standards and difficulties differ from one school to the next. What is low for one school may be comparable to applicants at another.
Before you start thinking about how your GPA will affect your chances of getting into your top med school, you should look at the average GPA for applicants. This information is readily available in class profile and national ranking publications. Once you have those figures, compare them to your GPA to determine where you stand.
Assume you have a final cumulative GPA of 3.5 on a scale of 4.0. If the average GPA for new students at your preferred institution is 3.8, it is regarded low. Your score, however, would not be regarded low if the average G PA for new students is 3.6. A low GPA is defined as one that is 0.3 points lower than the average GPA of the entering class of a medical school.
The Importance of a Upward Trend
As previously stated, medical schools consider significantly more than your final cumulative GPA when making an admissions decision. Grading trends are also significant in the process because they can assist construct a picture of your academic success. You’d be shocked how much grading trends can reveal about your undergraduate years. As an example, suppose your GPA is increasing. This will boost your chances of acceptance.
You may have struggled to acclimatize to college in the first couple of years. This could have manifested itself in poor grades as a freshman during your first year. However, as you got into the groove of things, your grades improved year after year. This indicates a positive upward trend. Admissions committees will notice that you overcome any obstacles you faced and were able to complete your studies.
An upward trend can have a significant impact on medical school admissions. Even if your GPA isn’t perfect, that tendency may place you in a better position than you realize.
However, if there is a downward trend, the opposite is true. Even if you have a high GPA, a declining trend indicates that you have lost motivation. That would raise a red flag for admissions committees.
Steps to Getting Into Medical School With Low GPA
What should you do if you’ve crunched the figures and discovered you have a low GPA? Is the dream coming to an end? Certainly not.
Getting into medical school with a low GPA is still extremely achievable; you simply need to make wise choices and study hard. The following are some high-level steps we recommend that will assist you to get into medical school.
1. Figure out why your GPA is so low in the first place
The first step toward resolving GPA concerns is determining why it is low in the first place. Was your low GPA caused by illness, mental health issues, or an unavoidable tragedy? In some circumstances, you may be able to contribute context, causing admissions authorities to at least consider other variables.
Knowing how your score came to be where it is will help you understand what you need to do to improve the appeal of your application. Examine your transcripts and reflect on your performance in classes where you may have gotten a better mark. What was the source of your difficulty?
Several things can have an impact on your academic achievement. Perhaps you were studying something you weren’t particularly interested in at the start of your scholastic career. You may have had worse grades until you finally found your niche and began to study medicine.
Perhaps some personal concerns kept you from concentrating on your schoolwork. A significant sickness, family troubles, and other factors could all play a role.
Is there a problem with time management? Extracurricular activities and employment responsibilities could have impacted your grades.
In such scenarios, you might think about drafting a personal statement for medical school regarding the circumstances underlying your low GPA (i.e. not an explanation of or defense against poor grades, but the story of your life that gave rise to the grades).
If there is no concrete reason, and you simply began to take your studies more seriously as you proceeded, it is important considering what caused this shift and how you want to maintain your performance in medical school. Marks that improved during your undergraduate studies will stand out more than grades that fell.
You can also incorporate a sense of progress into your personal statement by describing a specific point when you become serious about your medical studies.
Whatever the case is, identify it and utilize that information to decide how to proceed. Playing the blame game is not a good idea. The goal is to comprehend and accept responsibility. Personal improvement is valued by medical schools, and accepting responsibility for why your GPA is lower than it should be is a huge part of that.
2. Make up for it
Once you understand what’s the cause of your low GPA, you can take corrective action. There are various things you can do to demonstrate that your low GPA is not an accurate indication of what you can perform in med school.
Beef up the other aspects of your application
- Achieve a high MCAT score – Achieving a good MCAT score is crucial regardless of your GPA, but it is even more crucial if you want to get into med school when you have a low GPA. Another method to demonstrate to medical school admissions that, while you may have had academic challenges in the past, you are now in a strong position to take your studies seriously is to score high.
- Gain additional clinical experience – Taking a gap year to gain additional clinical experience can only benefit your admissions chances. This could include working as an EMT, volunteering at a hospital, or shadowing a physician.
- Increase your research experience – This demonstrates that you have excelled in an intellectually demanding pursuit outside of your studies. If you have extensive research experience, be sure to highlight it in your personal and secondary essays.
Improve your GPA if at all possible
If there is time to make improvements, do so. You want your transcript to demonstrate that whatever caused your low GPA is no longer an issue and that you are now a diligent student.
This could imply retaking past courses in order to improve your GPA. There isn’t much you can do in a short length of time, but retaking a class that you failed can demonstrate that you grasp the material.
Concentrate on the classes with the lowest grades. Converting a C or D to an A is a significant upward trend. Medical schools will be able to see that you retook the class even if your school’s retake policy does not consider the A toward your cumulative GPA. Also, knowing the restrictions on how many times you can take the MCAT will help you to plan your study progress accordingly. You wouldn’t want to be barred from medical school if you are keen to study in this field.
This demonstrates that you are self-motivated, that you addressed the problem that produced the poor grade, and that you comprehend the content.
Post-baccalaureate Courses and Special Masters Programs
If your GPA is extremely low, you may want to consider spending a year or two studying non-degree or post-baccalaureate courses (and acing them) before you get into medical school. The more complex the course, the more impressive admissions committee will find it. Demonstrate that you’ve changed your ways and that you’re capable of undertaking real, challenging academic work.
Formal post-bacc programs are typically aimed at students seeking a career shift in the medical field. They are often made up of prerequisites for medical school.
If you do not wish to participate in a formal program, you can strengthen your application by just attending more classes. Concentrate on relevant subjects to demonstrate that you are prepared for the course load of medical school.
SMPs, or Special Masters Programs, provide a one-of-a-kind educational experience. These programs are specifically designed to help students gain admission to medical school. They are frequently linked with medical schools and contain many of the same courses that first year M.D. students take.
They can be risky because the financial investment is substantial. However, if you do well, your achievement can significantly increase your chances of admission to your desired medical school, even if you have a lower undergraduate GPA.
Consider adding more schools to your list
Many people become fixated on their low GPA because they fail to reconcile the grades with the realities of the application process. Create a realistic school list based on your information. This could imply looking into D.O. programs.
3. Be prepared to explain your low GPA during the application process
Even if you have done all necessary to improve and make your application as appealing as possible, you will be required to explain your GPA. Prepare to handle low GPA concerns in your application and interview.
This can be difficult because you should never appear defensive while writing about poor marks. Your goal is to reassure medical schools reading your applications that you will continue to thrive academically in the future, but also to give them a feel of who you are before, after, and in the midst of those poor grades.
A low GPA will be raised as a point of contention. Medical schools need to know that your low GPA will not be a hindrance in the following stage of your education. Determine how you can address those concerns while still demonstrating that you are prepared for the academic responsibilities that come with attending medical school.
Be truthful and open about the reasons that led to your poor scores. Show proof that you’ve overcome such obstacles. This is an excellent moment to discuss extracurricular activities, class retakes, or any other programs you participated in. If the reasons for your low GPA are nuanced (as they are for most individuals), and neither completely within nor entirely outside of your control, you’ll need to strike a balance between explaining and accepting blame. The obvious place to do this is in your personal essay or secondary essays.
The Adversity Essay, a common secondary essay, allows you to discuss the factors that contributed to your low GPA. If you can show the medical school admissions officers that you’ve not only overcome adversity but also found a way to excel in the time since, it could even be a strength (provided that your GPA is only somewhat below average and not exceedingly low).
For example, if a major health or mental health issue caused you to have poor grades for the first two years of college, you most likely grew personally as a result of that challenge. Writing about it in your personal statement or adversity essay not only answers the admissions officers’ inevitable questions about whether you’re a good fit for their school, but it also turns your weakness into an asset.
Of course, life does not always allow for simple explanations. Accept responsibility for what you could have avoided and explain what you couldn’t. Don’t be scared to discuss your poor grades if they were caused by bad choices or a lack of time management. Demonstrate that you have overcome those challenges.
If, for example, you started out in the wrong major or took advanced classes for which you were unprepared, you should explain why these decisions were poor choices and demonstrate how you’ve grown since then. If you spent your college career playing varsity sports while neglecting your grades, consider writing about what that sport taught you and how it led you to the post baccalaureate path you are now taking to medical school.
Let the medical school admissions committee know how much you’ve grown and matured. Personal development is essential. Being able to demonstrate that you have matured and can put your troubles behind you can greatly boost your chances of acceptance.
Finally, ensure that you obtain strong letters of recommendation from faculty members who are familiar with your story and can write confidently about your ability to perform at a high academic level. Someone who has seen you improve is an excellent recommender to round out your story.
4. Think about DO Schools
Don’t allow a low GPA to hinder your future professional opportunities. Even if your GPA prevents you from being admitted to your preferred medical school, there are other alternatives.
Even the best DO programs have more flexible GPA requirements. Not only that, but these colleges are frequently more lenient of students who have an increasing tendency in their GPA. Obtaining a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine still necessitates a significant amount of hard work and years of study.
Despite the fact that it is a different path, DO programs prepare you to become a licensed physician. It’s worth thinking about if your lower GPA is keeping you from getting into a regular M.D. program.
FAQs
Can I Apply To Schools With Higher GPA Thresholds Than My Results?
While you may be able to apply to a few colleges with greater GPAs than your own, your prospects of admittance are minimal. Applicants with lesser GPAs and MCAT scores are typically weeded out during the early phases of the admissions process. To be a competitive applicant, you must meet the basic requirements.
With My GPA, Which Low GPA Medical School Should I Apply To?
You should be applying to medical school where you meet the minimum GPA requirements. Examine the MSAR database to see how your GPA compares to the average entry GPA at the colleges you’re considering. This should give you a fair idea of which schools are a good fit for you.
Will Med Schools Still Accept Me Even Though I Have A Low GPA?
While your GPA is crucial, it is not the only factor to consider. To improve your overall application, you must perform well on the MCAT (if necessary by your preferred institution) and continue to excel in your extracurricular activities. There are some suggestions on applying to medical schools with low MCAT scores. However, increasing your GPA throughout your Bachelor’s degree will make you a far more appealing applicant, so it is critical that you address the issue.
Can I Get Into Med School With a Low GPA?
To make the applicant pool more manageable, most medical schools will select out applicants with poor GPAs and MCAT scores right away. As mentioned in the article, if the GPA score is more than 0.3 below the average, the chances of getting into a medical school is quite low. However, you may check out the article on easiest medical schools to get into in order to maximize the chances of entering a med school.
Final Thoughts
We hope you’ve realized by now that getting into medical school with a low GPA is entirely achievable. It will simply necessitate some effort to get accepted into one, and we truly hope that this article on how to get into medical school with a low GPA has helped you gain insights.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for dealing with a low GPA. Everyone’s circumstances are unique, and your strategy will be determined by the med school you choose to attend.
If your GPA is less than 3.5, consider adopting the severe efforts recommended here to improve it. If your GPA is higher than 3.5 but still falls short of your goals, you can utilize these tips to not just persuade an admissions officer that you’re prepared, but also to truly be prepared for success in medical school.
Before you get into medical school, make up for your low GPA by developing an effective application plan. If you accomplish this and work hard, you may be able to attend med school in the future!