Colorado Technical University

Do most medical schools weigh more on upperdivision courses?

I currently have a GPA slightly below a 3.0, but still have over 100 units to go (I'm a bioengineering student with a minor). I had a rough start at university, but according to my academic counselor, I still have the ability to graduate university with a GPA of 3.5. I've been doing well in my upperdivision courses (aced organic chemistry courses) and hopefully will do well in my engineering upperdivs. My first two years at uni I didn't do so well because I was really spreading myself thin (helping start up a medical clinic in Africa, working as an undergrad research associate in a laboratory, heavy involvement in several community service organizations, etc). I'm a first generation university student in my family and learned the hard way the consequences of poor time management. I was wondering if medical schools, as well as graduate schools in general, weighed upper division courses more than lower division courses. Thanks!

Public Comments

1. Graduate schools yes, medical schools no. Most grad schools won't care so much what you got in into bio if you aced everything after that. Med schools, on the other hand, generally don't require upper division bio courses at all, or chem beyond organic. The reason is that people can major in all kinds of humanities areas and still apply to med schools with just a few science classes. So you generally need to do well in those intro courses they require, more than the upper division courses they don't. All schools like to see improvement over your four years, though, which is something.