Most medical schools in the U. S. and Canada will not accept a GPA lower than 3.0. This is the general rule of thumb, as anything below 3.5 is considered low.
However, there are some medical schools that traditionally accept students with a lower GPA. To be accepted into medical school, it is important to have a high MCAT score and demonstrate your diverse abilities, experiences, and interests through your extracurricular activities. GPA is relative, and what might be considered a “low” GPA at one school may be average or good at another. To contextualize your GPA, the schools you apply to should also consider these other aspects in a more honest evaluation of you as a candidate. If your GPA is more than 0.3 points below that average, you can assume that the school will consider it low. Getting a good score on your MCAT is essential for any medical school applicant, but it becomes even more important if you have a lower GPA.
Many people become obsessed with their low averages because they don't reconcile grades with the reality of the application process. To increase your chances of being accepted to medical school, try to exceed 500 on your MCAT. For an inspiring success story with a low MCAT level, listen to my interview with Austin, a student who managed to enter medical school with a 496 in the MCAT. Read the sample interview response below for an example of how to talk about a low GPA in the admissions interview. The counselor said that he probably wouldn't enter medical school unless he did things the way he saw fit. When he contacted me on his application, he had already submitted an application to enter medical school once and they rejected it.
The situation is so absurd that having a pair of B's can hurt your chances of being accepted to medical school. Many medical schools pay attention to progress and increase in GPA over the years, so be sure to demonstrate improvements in your academic record. Here, too, you can capture that sense of progress in your personal statement by expressing a specific time when you took your medical activities seriously. In conclusion, getting accepted into medical school with a low GPA is possible if you have other strengths such as high MCAT scores and extracurricular activities that demonstrate your commitment to medicine. It's important to remember that GPA is relative and contextualized by other aspects of your application.
