How to Get Into Medical School with a Low GPA
/Learn how to maximize your medical school admissions odds and fulfill your dream of becoming a doctor, even if you have a GPA of 3.5 or lower
Learn how to get into medical school with a gpa of 3.5 or below
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Part 1: Introduction
If you’re hoping to become a doctor, a low undergraduate GPA can seem like a major roadblock to getting into medical school. And, to a large extent, this certainly is the case. Every year, however, students with non-ideal GPAs make it into the medical field.
There are many reasons you might have a low GPA. Perhaps you suffered from a serious illness during your undergraduate years. Or, perhaps, you simply didn’t begin to take your grades seriously until the end of your college career. Maybe you came to medicine as a senior and have since pursued post-baccalaureate studies.
You might find yourself asking questions such as, “Can you get into medical school with a 3.5 or 3.0 GPA?” You’re likely wondering what recourse you have and whether there’s still hope of getting into your preferred school. Luckily, there are ways to address your less than stellar GPA and minimize its impact on your admissions prospects.
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Part 2: What is considered a low GPA for med school?
GPA is relative, and what might be considered a “low” GPA at one school could be average or strong at another. You’ll want to look at the average GPAs of the schools to which you’re applying. You can find a comprehensive list here.
If, for instance, you have a 3.7 GPA, your grades would be below average for a top school like Stanford or Duke. At the same time, a 3.7 GPA would be on par with Tufts School of Medicine or UNC Chapel Hill. For other schools, such as Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine, a 3.7 would be above average.
While the term “low GPA” is relative, one general rule is that anything below 3.5 is considered low by most if not all medical schools. The further one gets from this threshold, the more ground they must make up in other areas of their application.
Step 1: Identify the cause of your low GPA
The first thing to consider is what led to your low GPA. This will allow you to assess the most appropriate response and make sense of it for yourself and your application. Was your GPA caused by illness, mental health problems, or an unavoidable tragedy? In these cases, adding that context may encourage admissions officers to at least give your other application materials a chance.
In such cases you might also consider writing your medical school personal statement about the circumstances surrounding your low GPA (i.e. not an explanation of or defense against poor grades, but the story of your experiences that resulted in those grades).
If there’s no concrete reason, and you simply began to take your studies more seriously as you progressed, then it would be worth thinking about what led to this change and how you plan to continue this success in medical school. Grades that improved over the course of your undergraduate studies will look better than grades that declined.
Here, too, you can bake that sense of progress into your personal statement by articulating a specific moment at which you got serious about your medical pursuits.
Step 2: Maximize your admissions odds with one or more of the following strategies
GPA is one of several factors admissions officers consider in their holistic appraisal of your application. How much it matters will depend largely on the school and your other test scores, essays, and academic accomplishments.
A GPA below 3.5 will stand out, and admissions officers will expect explanation. The strategy for applying to medical school with a low GPA should be multi-pronged.
Beef up the other aspects of your application.
Achieve a high MCAT score - Scoring well on your MCAT is important regardless of your GPA, but with a low GPA, the importance is only increased. Scoring well can be another way of showing admissions officers that while you may have had academic issues in the past, you are now in a good place to take your studies seriously. (Click here to access 60+ comprehensive guides covering every MCAT content area in order to maximize your score and buffer against a lower GPA.)
Gain more clinical experience - Taking a gap year to earn more clinical experience can only help your admissions prospects. This could mean volunteering at a hospital, shadowing a physician, or even working as an EMT.
Beef up your research experience - This shows that you’ve excelled in an intellectually rigorous pursuit outside your studies. If you have a lot of research experience, be sure to foreground it in your personal and secondary essays. A tangible accomplishment, such as a publication or presenting research at a conference, can have a significant impact on your odds of admission.
If possible, improve your GPA. If there’s time to make improvements, make them. You want your transcript to show that whatever led to your low GPA is behind you, and that now you’re a serious student. This might mean retaking old courses for a better grade.
If your GPA is very low, you might consider spending a year or two taking non-degree or post-bac courses (and acing them). The more advanced the course, the more impressive it will be to admissions officers. Show that you’ve turned things around, and that you’re capable of doing serious, difficult academic work.
Another way of improving your GPA is by enrolling in a Special Master’s Program (SMP). While similar to post-baccalaureate programs, SMPs are generally for students who have already completed their premed requirements. They also tend to simulate aspects of medical school and are often associated with specific medical schools. This can potentially give you a foot in the door. It needs to be mentioned, however, that SMPs can be quite expensive and the coursework is difficult, making this path “high risk, high reward.”
Consider expanding your school list. Many people get hung up on their low GPAs because they don’t reconcile the grades with the reality of the application process. Be sure to look at the average GPAs of admitted students at the schools you are considering and make a realistic school list that fits your statistics. That may mean considering D.O. schools, which generally accept applicants with lower GPAs.
(Suggested reading: MD vs. DO: The Biggest Differences)
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Part 3: How to contextualize your low GPA
Once you’ve done all you can to improve the other aspects of application, you’ll want to turn to explaining your low GPA.
This can be tricky, as you should never sound defensive while writing about bad grades. Your goal is to assure medical school admissions committees that you’ll excel academically in the future, while also giving them a sense of who you were before and who you are beyond and surrounding those bad grades.
If the reasons for your low GPA are complicated (as they are for most people), and neither totally within or outside of your control, then you’ll have to strike a balance between explaining and taking responsibility. The most obvious place to do this is your personal essay or your secondary essays. (Click here to access our massive personal statement example library to help you stand out to adcoms.)
The Adversity Essay, a common secondary essay, provides an opportunity to discuss the circumstances that led to your low GPA. If you can present a narrative to admissions officers showing that you’ve not only overcome adversity but found a way to excel in the time since, it could even be a strength (provided that your GPA is only somewhat below average and not exceedingly low).
For instance, if a major health or mental health issue led you to have bad grades for the first two years of college, it’s likely that you grew personally from that challenge. Writing about this in your personal statement or adversity essay not only answers the admissions officers’ inevitable questions about whether or not you’re right for their school, but also turns your weakness into an asset.
Of course, life doesn’t always lend itself to simple explanations. Take responsibility for what you could have avoided and explain what you could not have avoided. If, for instance, you started out in the wrong major, or you took advanced classes for which you were underprepared, you should acknowledge why these decisions weren’t the best and show how you’ve matured since you made them.
If you spent your college career playing a serious varsity sport and neglecting your grades, consider writing about what that sport taught you, and how it led you to the post-baccalaureate route you are now taking to medical school.
Finally, make sure you get strong letters of recommendation from faculty who know your story and can write with confidence about your ability to perform at a high academic level. Someone who saw you improve is an ideal recommender to round out your narrative.
Prepare for interviews
If you make it to the interview stage, you can rest assured that you’ve overcome the major hurdles of a low GPA and adcoms found something notable in your application. Either you’ve improved your GPA or you’ve found a compelling way explain it.
That said, you don’t want to drop the ball now. Your preparation for interview day should include learning all you can about the facilities, programs, and values of the school you applied to as well as deeply considering how you would respond to common interview questions such as “Why X school?,” “Why medicine?,” and “What is your greatest weakness?”
Additionally, when thinking through your responses, you should try to tailor them for the school where you’re interviewing. For example, if the interviewer asks you about your volunteering experiences with underserved populations and the school is known for its service towards those less well-off, make sure to highlight this fact in your response.
(Suggested reading: How to Ace Medical School Interviews (Questions Included))
Final Thoughts
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing a low GPA. Everyone’s circumstances will be different, and your strategy will depend on the medical school you hope to attend. If you have a GPA below 3.5, think actively about taking serious measures outlined here to mitigate that. If your GPA is better than 3.5 but still not where you’d like it to be, you can also use these strategies to not only convince an admissions officer that you’re prepared, but also to actually be prepared for success in medical school.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
