When you say get a masters and bring up your gpa to a 3.6, do you mean the masters gpa itself being a 3.6 or is that 3.6 the resultant of undergrad gpa and masters? If so.. I didn't know that could be done. I mean I thought your undergrad gpa was your undergrad gpa and your masters gpa was your masters, I always thought they just looked at them as 2 different gpas, not combined them. Are you sure about that?

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studying my life away..

i think you are correct i believe the aamc uses two different gpa's..one is your undergrad(including post bacc classes) and one is your masters. i heard that DO schools combine the two into one gpa, but i'm not 100% on this.

I'll give this a try:

GPA: 2.4 (2.3 science, 2.5 nonscience)
MCAT: 36m
1 year of clinical volunteer work at a hospital and 3 months at a homeless shelter (ongoing), no research

Any thoughts about my chances?

umm.. your mcat is awesome but your gpa sucks. Spend some time bringing up your gpa and apply to american schools. With that mcat you'll get in anywhere. Just make sure your gpa is just as good, which shouldn't be a problem looking at your mcat score, you seem like a bright person. Good luck!

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studying my life away..

i'm sorry, but unless this guy has only 25 or 30 credits under his belt, he will not be able to get his GPA up high enough to satisfy US requirements. Plus the science GPA will be hard to get away from.

Maybe a post bacc program or a linkage program would be a better bet. The crazy high MCAT can take you only but so far... Try to find one that gives you some level of guarantee that you will get a spot in the next years class- there aren't many, but there are a few.

GL!

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wow...i wish i had ur mcat....gee, are u good at std tests or what? I tell u go ahead and apply, u have a great chance at Ross, I believe, but ur GPA is def a red flag b/c it shows u r not serious about studying or something, but i am sure there are other factors that contributed to this drop of gpa. PM me if u have any questions

Thanks for your help, HocusPocus, rokshana, and simpleman1

I don't know how much I can raise my GPA, since I've completed my undergrad, and am currently taking classes at a junior college (an informal postbac). I've been getting straight As so far, but I've only completed 2 classes, and am midway through 2 more.

I guess I'm pretty good at standardized tests, but not so good with my GPA (I was in a similar but less serious situation when applying to college)...I better prepare for the inevitable questions about the GPA/MCAT discrepancy!

I'm hoping to matriculate in Fall of 2007 at the latest (I'm getting lots of pressure to move out), so it may be too late for me to do anything else except apply and hope for the best! Still, it's a relief to hear that I've got a great chance at Ross

What do you guys think? sGPA 3.2 -cGPA3.0-19M volunteered at two hosiptals, shadowed 2 doctors, involved in 2 clubs and one non-profit organization
In general I got off at a slow start (two semesters messed me up which consists of C's) but later started picking it up.....
Open to opinions?..........

Does Ross pay you ? How dare you say "now they are quite picky". You are not on the island. There might have been a slight change in admissions criteria (speculation), but not enough to warrant a celebration. I am unimpressed with my colleagues. I do not consider crammability an intellectual achievement. My initial medical assessment is that my colleagues do not have a pulse but they are wearing an iPod, along with gang-banger clothes, or slut clothes for the girls, or excessive tattoos, or a head scarf for cheating in the exam, or streaked hair to scare a patient at the hospital, and the obligatory sandals which are dragged along the concrete from building to building in what I have named "the Ross shuffle", kind of like the Prozac shuffle, but worse. Medical students who seem to be horribly "put out" at the opportunity of getting a medical education. Freakin' whiners.

The "passing standards" are reasonable, but the stuff students do to pass is unreasonable, e.g., CRAM, CRAM, CRAM, with the occasional cheaters thrown in. There will indeed be significant attrition as long as lower than average students are accepted and inadequate resources are available on the island. The claimed lower attendance in the annex might be partially attrition in the newbies (please), clinical depression, or people watching the videos instead of going to the lectures (could explain the lack of bandwidth on internet access in the medical library, in addition to the creeps downloading porn and music to their iPods, about which an e-mail was sent to everyone a few weeks ago). Perhaps the newbies don't like the miserable and limited food selection outdoors in the heat. The annex is a depressing building, kind of like a giant "home improvement" store; somebody ought to put big price tags on all those video displays. Perhaps a Hollywood film crew will come in to photograph a scene in the annex for a video about people being "reprogrammed by Big Brother" while staring blankly at the displays. Long rows of seats for the chemically altered. Actually quite accurate, considering the people on self-medication and prescriptions. Everyone would need Foley catheters and a leg bag, though, those bathrooms for the annex look like they are in the boonies !

Please, whoever is listening, increase the admissions criteria AND the difficulty of the exams.
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why close all of the doors? Even a failed med student is a better patient than a high school graduate. A failed med student is more knowledgeable and more susceptible to primary preventation. Good patient outcome for other physicians. The student contributes money to Ross. This helps it survive to continue to train those who can make it. Nothing is lost!