Applying to Med School With Low Stats? Read This.

Medical school admissions are competitive: it’s a fact of the process. If your GPA or MCAT is lower than average for your target schools, you may be facing an extra level of worry. It’s natural to have questions and anxieties. After all, you have a lot of dreams – not to mention years of hard work – depending on the outcome of your med school applications. It’s important to get this right.

Analyzing Your Profile

Drawing on our years of experience advising applicants in all types of situations, we’ll teach you what you need to know about applying to med school with low stats. You’ll learn how to analyze your profile and make an educated decision about how to approach the application process so that you can put your best foot forward. Can you mitigate your low stats with a great essay? Or should you take a step back and focus on raising your MCAT – or consider a postbac program?

Strategic Application Options

When you submit your application depends on several factors, including your undergraduate academic performance, when/whether you have taken the MCAT, the strength of your experiences, and your level of certainty about medicine.

Specialized Programs

• BS/MD or BA/MD Programs: For high school students who are absolutely certain that they want to pursue medicine, joint BS/MD and BA/MD programs provide an integrated learning experience that usually takes seven years to complete.
• Early Assurance Programs (EAPs): About a third of U.S. allopathic medical schools participate in early assurance programs. EAPs offer undergraduate students a conditional acceptance to medical school during their first or second year of college.
• Early Decision Programs (EDPs): EDP applicants submit an application to a single school, and the school commits to rendering its decision early in the season. The idea of applying to an EDP might be appealing, but understand that it can be difficult to gain acceptance this way.

Traditional Application Routes

Following what was once the traditional time frame, you will likely apply at the end of your junior year as a rising senior in college. Taking the MCAT early allows you to determine where you will be a competitive candidate and gives you a chance to retake the exam, if needed. For this reason, it is increasingly common for premeds to apply at the end of their senior year of college. This later application timeline allows candidates an extra year to take the MCAT and provides extra time for travel, research, and volunteer or work experience – all of which are highly valued by admissions committees.

The Medical School Application Timeline

There are many steps to putting together a successful medical school application, so here we’ll break it down a few months at a time so you can refer back to this and make sure you’re on track. MD applicants’ outcomes improve drastically if they have their materials ready the first day the AMCAS primary applications allow submission.

• January - May: Take the MCAT and receive scores. Registering for the MCAT at the beginning of the year will afford you plenty of time and also give you the opportunity to retake the test before applying if you’re not happy with your score.
• May: Complete all sections of your AMCAS application. Complete your application, which includes your personal statement, throughout May so that you can press submit as soon as the application officially opens.
• June: File primary applications. Not only is the medical school application process incredibly competitive, it is a rolling admissions process.
• July - November: File secondary applications. The secondary applications are school-specific, and you’ll have to tailor your essay responses to individual schools.
• August - January: Prepare for and attend interviews. Interview requests are sent out on a rolling basis.
• November - March: Receive acceptances. Acceptances, like interviews, are sent out on a rolling basis.

Strengthening Your Profile

Should you retake your MCAT? How can you mitigate a low GPA? If you had a rough freshman year but achieved an upward trend in your GPA (and an overall GPA above 3.5), you might want to apply to medical school right out of college. However, if the upward trend in your grades did not start until your junior or senior year, you might consider completing postbaccalaureate coursework. Postbac refers to any coursework taken after your undergraduate education. While not all applicants must follow an exact timeline, it is important that applicants give themselves plenty of time to prepare for the rigorous demands of this application process.