How Important is my GPA to Get Into Medical School?

Session 51

Your GPA gets you past the mysterious digital shredder of medical schools. Every class is important, and every grade counts.

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[00:30] Do You Have to Be a Perfect Student?

One of the most common questions we get is about GPA or grades. And it’s undoubtedly a stressful situation for these students.

Oftentimes, students assume or are being told that you have to be a perfect student to get in. You see all these posts of students having a 4.0 GPA and a 520 MCAT and not getting any interviews. So you assume you have to have a 4.1 GPA and a 528 MCAT which is impossible.

'Students freak out about GPA.'Click To Tweet

[01:48] Is GPA/MCAT Not that Important?

GPA and MCAT are the two things that get your application on the desk of the reviewer that determines whether or not your application gets accepted for an interview invite. And hopefully, each interview leads to acceptance. Each step of the way is to get you a step further down the path.

'Your GPA and MCAT get you through the digital shredders that each of the school set up.'Click To Tweet

Schools set up a filter for screening students and they have that power. So you have to understand that you have to everything possible to get the best grades you can get.

With that being said, it doesn’t mean that getting a lower GPA or MCAT score would mean you’re not getting into medical school. But it may be harder for you and it may take longer.

GPA is very important. It’s that one factor that is very easy for medical school to click a button and divert your application to wasteland or onto somebody’s desk for review.

Then the reviewer looks at your personal statement, extracurriculars, and letters of recommendation to determine who they want to invite for an interview. But you have to pass the barrier of the filter first.

[03:50] Every School Is Different

You also have to understand that every school is going to be different. They may filter based on GPA. Some schools filter based on the last certain number of science credit hours. They could filter based on MCAT scores or MCAT subsection score. Or they can filter based on all of those.

'You can't control it. The only thing you can control is do as well as you can.'Click To Tweet

[04:17] What If You Did Poorly?

'If you start off school poorly, it's not the end of the line.'Click To Tweet

Don’t be discouraged if you think you started poorly. You have a lot of time to make up for a poor start. You probably have 20 credit hours at the most per semester, and you’re going to end up with 100 hours.

The most important thing is to determine why you started off poorly. What is it that caused you to have so many difficulties? Figure out what happened.

Remember that every class is included when you apply to medical school. Check if your specific institution has grade replacement for your transcript because that’s great. But AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS don’t care. You have to input every single class you attended. If you stepped foot in that classroom then you have to put it into your application regardless. Whether you got a withdrawal, withdraw/fail, or regular fail, you have to put it in.

'Every grade counts. So focus on your GPA.'Click To Tweet

[06:18] The Key Takeaway

Your GPA is very important. It’s one of the two things (MCAT and GPA) that’s going to get you onto the desk of somebody who will review your application to determine whether you should be invited for an interview.

Links:

Meded Media

The Premed Years Podcast