Can I Get Into a Good Medical School with my Past Grades?

Session 127

Our poster today is wondering about his past IVY league undergrad GPA and MBA GPA, and if he has a chance to get into a “good” medical school.

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[02:10] OldPreMeds Question of the Week:

Low GPA, Ivy Undergrad, Top 5 GPA, Ivy MBA, 4 Years Top Management Consulting Firm

“I have a 3.1 GPA at Cornell, Economics, Bachelor’s of Science, 5 years in corporate business roles, 3.99 GPA Columbia University in the Master’s of Business, 4 years at Mckenzie, a highly selective premiere consulting firm, age 31.

Reason I’m interested is I spent four years at McKenzie working at hospitals and health insurance companies across all functions. As I learned more and more, I became more and more interested in a career in medicine. Do I have any shot at a “good” medical school?

[03:05] What is a Good Medical School?

This might be hard for a student who went to Cornell and then went to Columbia as they may have a skewed perspective on what a “good” medical school is. Do you need to go an Ivy medical school to get a good residency and have an amazing career as a physician? Absolutely, not.

[Tweet “”The business world is different than the medical world. The law school world is different than the medical world.” https://medicalschoolhq.net/opm-127-can-i-get-into-a-good-medical-school-with-my-past-grades/”]

While it matters where you go to law school, it doesn’t matter in medical school. Sure, it’s great to Stanford or Harvard, but what matters more is YOU. It’s your performance in medical school and your performance on your boards and your elective rotations as you’re going through and auditioning for different residencies and programs. You are what matters as well as your interview at those residency programs and much more.

The name on the diploma is one of the lower ranked indicators for program directors in residencies. Residency program directors are pooled every often and that is what shows up lower on the list as to where you went to school. It’s not that big of a deal.

Personally, a good school is one that accepts you. So yes, you have a shot at a good school. But below are some indicators whether or not you really have a good shot at get into a “good,” much less any, medical school.

[04:55] Shadowing and Clinical Experience

There are many things that you need to do if you’re coming coming from the business world. First, you need to shadow. Just because you spent time working at hospitals and health insurance companies, advising them and consulting for them or running their numbers, this doesn’t mean that you like being around patients. It doesn’t mean you like the ins and outs of the day to day life of being a physician.

[Tweet “”Just because you spent time working at hospitals and health insurance companies… doesn’t mean that you like being around patients.” https://medicalschoolhq.net/opm-127-can-i-get-into-a-good-medical-school-with-my-past-grades/”]

Therefore, it’s important that you shadow and you get clinical experience. You put yourself around sick people to make sure you like that aspect of medicine, and not just the admin side of things. You make sure you like the clinical side of things because that’s what is going to drive you through the hard times of medical school and residency and being an attending. Make sure that you like that before you go and drop everything and apply to medical school.

[Tweet “”Make sure you like the clinical side of things because that’s what is going to drive you through the hard times of medical school and residency and being an attending.” https://medicalschoolhq.net/opm-127-can-i-get-into-a-good-medical-school-with-my-past-grades/”]

[05:55] Prereqs and MCAT

There are some things you need to do first since you have an Economics, MBA degree. You have to do your prerequisites too. How you perform in your prereqs is going to be a bigger indicator than your economics GPA or your MBA GPA. How you do in your sciences or BCPM (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Math), are what is going to dictate a lot of how you are viewed when it comes to applying to medical school.

Another big elephant in the room is your MCAT. You have to take the MCAT and get a good score. This is another huge indicator on how good of a student you are to these “good” medical schools.

Again, you have a good shot. Do well in your BCPM. Do well in your MCAT. Get that shadowing. Get that clinical experience and you’ll be fine. Apply to a broad number of schools and you’ll be okay.

[Tweet “”Do well in your BCPM. Do well in your MCAT. Get that shadowing. Get that clinical experience and you’ll be fine. Apply to a broad number of schools and you’ll be okay.” https://medicalschoolhq.net/opm-127-can-i-get-into-a-good-medical-school-with-my-past-grades/”]

Ultimately, go to ANY medical school, Work your butt off. Do well on the boards. Do your butt off in your audition rotations and you’ll be golden!