Last time I talked about the minimum MCAT score required by many BS/MD programs. But you also need to be aware that many programs have a minimum college GPA that a student also must earn to advance to the medical school.
Most commonly, this is a 3.5 GPA. Many programs are also specific about the grades that must be earned. Typically the programs require that a student get no longer than a “B” grade in one of the required classes for medical school.
When I am working with students applying to medical school through the traditional approach I generally advise that they have a minimum 3.5 college GPA and higher is better. Like the minimum MCAT score, the BS/MD programs let a student have the minimum competitive GPA and still advance to the medical school. In like manner, if you have a “C” grade in a course required for medical school, admissions to a medical school will be very difficult.
My experience is that most students who work hard are able to achieve the 3.5 GPA required for most BS/MD programs.
As with the MCAT, however, there are programs that require higher GPA’s and a student needs to be aware of that before applying to one of these programs as it can make advancing to the medical school much more difficult. Washington University in St. Louis is an example of such as program. The require a student to have a 3.8 GPA to advance to the medical school from the BS/MD program.
[…] posts I have mentioned that there are some BS/MD programs that have higher than typical required grades or higher than typical MCAT scores to advance to the medical school. Today I want to identify those […]