you've gone through close to four years
of college but your GPA just isn't where
you were planning it to be and now
you're worried about your chances of
getting into medical school or maybe you
decided late in your college career to
pursue something as rigorous and
competitive as medicine I have good news
there is still hope here is what you
should do what's going on guys
dr. jabal med school insiders comm I'll
start by saying that your GPA is one of
the most important factors in your
application the importance of learning
from your mistakes and changing systems
to produce more desirable results cannot
be overstated
this is a skill that will serve you well
as a future medical student physician
and human being if you are unwilling to
revisit your systems and optimize your
studying learning and testing strategies
you will not be successful in this
journey we provide dozens and dozens of
videos and blog posts on how to optimize
your GPA and MCAT if you haven't already
these free resources are going to be the
best place to start and improving your
own study habits and strengthening your
numbers now in order to strengthen an
application with a weak GPA we first
have to understand why medical schools
care so much about your GPA it comes
down to one thing can you handle the
rigors of medical school at med school
Insider's our teams combined dozens of
years of experience on med school
admissions committees and advising
students have made us intimately
familiar with the ins and outs of the
medical school application process
medical schools are particularly
interested in your science GPA and MCAT
to judge whether or not you can keep up
with the demands of Medical School the
material isn't particularly challenging
but the quantity and the rate at which
you learn is unprecedented as they say
learning in med school is like drinking
from a fire hydrant
understanding this it makes sense that
the best thing to do with a low GPA is
to perform well on the MCAT that won't
just happen from wishing it into
existence though it's a matter of
restructuring your study strategies and
study habits we have several videos on
this channel and blog post on the
website outlining how I got a 100th
percentile score in reality can't go
higher than 99.9 but we also go into how
you can achieve a top score by utilizing
a series of systems and study strategies
to take your score to the next level
we also offer tutoring with top MCAT
scores on our website so you can
actually learn from the best but let's
say you've already taken your MCAT and
your score still isn't where you want it
to be here are the next steps first
decide if you need to retake a course if
you have a D or an F in any of your
prerequisite courses including biology
chemistry physics math English
biochemistry psychology and sociology
etc you need to retake that course
simple learn from your mistakes the
first time around and crush it on the
second go it is imperative that you
master this material not only for the
MCAT but schools will also require at
minimum a passing grade to count the
prerequisite as fulfilled there's no
need to retake a course for a B or even
a B - retaking a course with a C is
generally not necessary either unless
you are particularly weak on the
material and need it for the MCAT some
suggest even retaking or auditing a
course if you need a refresher prior to
taking the MCAT I would argue against
this your time is better spent learning
from high-yield MCAT resources and doing
practice tests not sitting in a
classroom number to bolster your
transcript let's be realistic here your
GPA can only change so much even if you
were to get straight A's from here on
out that's just simple math with each
subsequent semester your GPA becomes
more and more set in place and harder to
change either up or down schools
understand that
and if you had a suboptimal early career
in college they don't expect you to have
a 3.9 by the time you graduate
rather demonstrating a consistent upward
trend is essential this is much more
encouraging for a medical school to see
perhaps you have learned to hone your
study strategies and now are ready for
the rigors of a medical school
curriculum for this reason the second
half of your university transcript is
going to be more important than the
first half if you've already graduated
consider taking one or two years for a
postback or special masters program
preferably one offered at a medical
school do not take these programs
lightly solid performance is warranted
shoot for at least a 3.5 or higher if
you're going to do rout and 3.7 or
higher if you're going the m.d. route
formal postback programs are more
targeted to those who are switching
careers and mostly provide the
prerequisite courses certain programs
have reputations of graduating a
significant portion of non-traditional
students into affiliated medical schools
you could absolutely do the same thing
independently at a nearby college of
course a four-year program would be
stronger than a community college but if
costs are a major concern don't rule out
the Community College option if you do
opt for a do-it-yourself path take
classes that are similar to what you
will be taking in medical school for
example
anatomy cell biology histology
immunology molecular biology pathology
physiology etc
now SMPS generally offer classes that
are at the med school level or at least
cover the same material and they last
either one or two years these are
generally affiliated with medical
schools and can be promising routes to
gaining admission you'll be gaining
exposure to medical school faculty in
the process which can be a significant
advantage however this does come at a
significant financial cost
additionally SMPS are considered
high-risk high-reward if you perform
poorly and cannot get into a medical
school then your SMP degree won't be of
much help elsewhere
ultimately the postback vs. SP route is
highly personal and will depend on
multiple factors on an individual level
number three strengthen your experiences
and extracurriculars while applying to
medical school requires you to check
certain boxes we at med school insiders
believe in a more individual approach
many of us were competitive college
athletes dancers artists and musicians
every applicant will have completed
volunteering gotten clinical experience
and done some level of research
definitely do not overlook these
important aspects of your medical school
application however I advise you to
consider a more holistic picture to the
process rather than just completing a
checklist target the research that you
enjoy it doesn't have to be basic
science cancer research by doing
research that you are genuinely
interested in you'll be more likely to
work harder excel earn an abstract or
publication and even get a stronger
letter of recommendation by pursuing
extracurriculars that you enjoy and by
working on developing yourself into the
type of person that will become an
excellent physician you'll be much more
successful in the end I was fascinated
by the brain so I volunteered in the
emergency department where I enrolled
stroke patients into clinical research
protocols I enjoyed it I got
volunteering experience and clinical
research on top of that on the side I
was the lead designer in an organization
which allowed me to pursue my artistic
interests and hone my leadership skills
ultimately both stroke research and
being lead designer were beneficial in
my path to becoming a doctor
number four considered do and Caribbean
MD schools the fact remains that
osteopathic do schools and Caribbean MD
schools are significantly easier to get
into than United States allopathic MD
schools in addition do schools are much
more forgiving for low GPAs with an
upward trend if you haven't already be
sure you consider your options and weigh
the pros and cons of each path for most
students I advise going do-over
Caribbean MD but again that may change
based on a few individual variables
ultimately each applicant is unique and
there isn't a single answer that is best
suited for everyone hopefully you found
the advice in this video helpful and
relevant to your situation if you need
additional personalized help visit med
school and ciders comm to speak with one
of our physician advisors they have real
medical school admissions committee
experience these are the best people to
learn from because they've been in your
shoes and have actually served on the ad
comms at top institutions whether you
need tutoring in chemistry or editing
your personal statement or even need
help planning out the next two years so
that you optimize your performance on
the MCAT we've got you covered use the
coupon code low GPA to receive $20 off
your purchase of $100 or more coupon is
valid for the first 20 customers thank
you all so much for watching if you
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