Applying to Medical School and doing a year abroad -- should you wait to apply and raise your GPA or not

I will be a junior this fall and have chosen to study abroad for the year. Unfortunately, my GPA is borderline, 3.4 and science GPA is a bit lower 3.25. So, I really won't have a chance to raise my science GPA before I apply to schools next June.

Would you recommend waiting to apply until after I complete senior year in order to raise my GPA? Someone told me that if you apply and are rejected, medical schools take note of that when you apply again, thus reducing your chances the second time around. So perhaps it would help to simply wait a year to apply to raise my chances?

Also, I finished this last year on a bit of a low note, so do you think med schools would "appreciate" my taking the extra year to show what I am capable of after senior year? Some of the other advice I have seen on your page is very helpful. Thanks for setting this page up, and thanks for considering my question.

As far as I know there are schools that do penalize you for being reapplicant--and these schools indeed encourage you to apply once. One example is NYU--which states on its application materials something similar to "If you have GPA/MCAT lower than our average, we DIScourage you from applying now. Raise them before applying." I think there are a few schools that do not accept applications from repeat applicants. On the other hand, there are schools that do not state that they do not look differently at second-time applicants, but one can only guess if that's true or not.

At the very least, if you apply twice all schools will know the fact but the real question is whether they will hold it against you. That, I do not know. I know for a fact that it is not uncommon to apply twice even for people with decent statistics.

On the other hand, you want to think about the other possibility: With your present "borderline" GPA, especially low science GPA, you might have trouble getting in. Let's say you don't get in, and you pull up you GPA in the meantime. You apply again and by some misfortune--that happens to many, you don't get in even though you have a decent application with decent statistics. Now you will have to apply for the third time. It may not affect you application much if you apply twice--many people do. But I am sure it might raise some red flags on your application if you apply for the third time.

The point I want to make is that if you go ahead and apply with low statistics--you have very low chance of getting in and you "spend" one of the two "usual application credits." So if I were you, I would probably wait a year and work real hard to get top grades thus demonstrating that you're a hard working mule that can take everything medical school will throw at you.

Tell your friends about this site

Back to
Home Page

Questions? Comments? Communicate!

Back to Home Page

Back to
Home Page