I ruined my GPA in college but my MCAT is a 36Q, is there anything I can do to get into Medical School?

Any advice on this is questions is extremely helpful!

My undergraduate GPA is extremely low at a 3.179. I ruined my GPA in my freshman year and sophomore year struggling to cope with my grandmother’s death, adjusting to college life, part-time work, volunteering, and a severe ongoing depression. I picked it back up this year with 4.00s but that is not enough to bring me to the competitive GPAs of people with 3.70 and above!

My MCAT score is a 36Q and I want to take it again to raise it.

I have numerous activities like volunteer hours in two Emergency Rooms (400+ Hours), a bereavement hospice (400+ hours), volunteering with disabled adults and children (about 5 hrs/week until June), (hopefully) shadowing a well-respected cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon in my area (150+ hours), summer volunteer work building clinics and helping under served populations in the U.S. (500+ hours), three research papers (but no publications yet!), a teaching assistant position for the Fall 2010 semester, and I was promoted at my job from staff to supervisor after working for more than 220+ hours last semester.

I have also taken challenging course work (300-400 level courses) and graduate level courses in Biology and Anthropology.

I have recommendations from 6 professors, and 1 from my boss.

The pre-medical committee at my school is the worst place to be because they strongly discouraged me from applying to medical school but it is my dream to become a physician.

I really need help because I am very determined to go to medical school even if my grades before my junior year are a complete joke and the medical school admissions committees will roll on the floor with laughter.

Is there any way I can make myself a better applicant? Should I look for more clinical experience? Are there any MCAT book recommendations to help raise my score? Should I get more recommendations?

I can’t give up hope on my dreams, so please don’t say, "just quit."

Don’t give up hope! You have a good reason for why you had low grades for that time, and since you managed to show improvement after that, it won’t count too much against you. With you excellent MCAT score you show that you are a good, diligent student, have plenty of extracurriculars, and having good recommendations will certainly help.
If you are still worried about your GPA, take a year or two off, do a graduate program and get good grades to balance out the bad ones from undergrad.
I got into med school with a 3.4 GPA, so I can promise you that not having a 3.7 won’t automatically count you out.

One Response to “I ruined my GPA in college but my MCAT is a 36Q, is there anything I can do to get into Medical School?”

  1. Don’t give up hope! You have a good reason for why you had low grades for that time, and since you managed to show improvement after that, it won’t count too much against you. With you excellent MCAT score you show that you are a good, diligent student, have plenty of extracurriculars, and having good recommendations will certainly help.
    If you are still worried about your GPA, take a year or two off, do a graduate program and get good grades to balance out the bad ones from undergrad.
    I got into med school with a 3.4 GPA, so I can promise you that not having a 3.7 won’t automatically count you out.
    References :
    medical student

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