Hey, I am curious about one thing that I have never really been able to find on any website in the past. I Just graduated with a Secondary Mathematics degree, but now that I am teaching, Im thinking I want to now try and get into medical school. I have a 3.5 mathematics gpa, and so far a 3.4 science gpa. My overall GPA is a 3.55. I had and A and B in organic 1 and 2, and an A and B in physics 1 and 2, and B's in regular chemistry, and although I dropped Biology 1 my freshman year in college, I retook it and received A's in both 1 and 2. I also dropped physics 1 the first time go around in my junior college as well.. So on my transcript I have 2 W's "but i retook both classes and got A's. and my science gpa is 3.4 and my mathematics gpa is 3.5, with an overall gpa of 3.55. What do you think my chances what would be of acceptance and what should I do to better them, thanks.
Your GPA is competitive with other people who get accepted into medical school. My own sense is that less than 3.2 GPA will make it difficult to get accepted. Between 3.2 and 3.4 gives you some chance of getting into medical school. The higher above 3.4 your GPA, the better your chances are of being accepted. You also need to make sure that your pre-med courses are at the proper level (the same course that someone majoring in the field would need to take) and that the science classes include the associated lab.
You will also need to make sure you can explain why you had to withdraw from the various classes.
To take some information from the Medical School Requirements thread:
Q. What GPA do I need to get into medical school?
A. I have never heard of a particular GPA that will keep a person out of medical school, or any particular number of bad grades that will keep you out, but the more C's you get, the more unlikely it becomes you will get into a medical school. I'd say that the closer you get to a 3.0, the more difficult it becomes as well. Most people probably have GPA's around the 3.5 range or better. Generally, I'd say that the worse your MCAT scores are, the better your GPA would have to be. Better MCAT scores definitely seem to help lower GPA's.
Q. What MCAT score do I need to get into medical school?
A. Similar to the GPA question, there is no definite answer. I'd say most people have 10's to 12's but some people have 8's and 9's and may still get into medical school.
Just to give some more specific statistics, based on this page from University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign's website, in 2003 they give some of the averages for MCATs and GPAs for the Illinois schools.
Northwestern: 6800 applicants, 660 interviewed, 170 accepted. GPA avg=3.7, MCAT avg=11
Rush: 3700 applicants, 475 interviewed, 120 accepted. GPA avg=3.55, MCAT avg=10
Chicago Medical School: 6000 apps, 617 interviewed, 189 accepted. GPA=3.3, MCAT=28
Univ of Chicago: 3780 apps, 500 interviewed, 104 accepted. GPA=3.6, MCAT=10.8
Loyola: 6300 apps, 600 interviews, 130 accepted. GPA=3.61. MCAT=10
Southern Illinois: 1000 apps, 250 interviewed, 72 accepted. GPA=3.5, MCAT=30
Univ of Illinois: 4000 apps, 740 interviewed, 300 accepted. GPA=3.56, MCAT=30