Medical School Requirements | UCLA Med School (2024)

FAQs

Is 3.7 good enough for med school? ›

Is a 3.7 GPA too low for medical school? A GPA of 3.7 is far from low and is generally competitive for many medical schools. Remember that medical schools assess various elements of your application, including your MCAT score, extracurriculars, and personal qualities.

Overall GPA Requirements

Most medical schools seek applicants with an overall GPA of at least 3.5. Top-tier schools often expect an average closer to 3.7 or above.

We do not have a minimum MCAT score or a minimum GPA. Holistically, we're looking at your experiences to understand you as an individual.

As with answering most medical school interview questions, the quality of your response is much more important than the quantity. As a general rule of thumb, a response between 1-3 minutes would be suitable, but too much longer than that and you risk losing your audience's attention.

The minimum GPA for most med schools is 3.0. But if you're a pre-med student, you'll need to aim for a GPA of 3.6 or higher to compete with other applicants.

Note that an average GPA of 3.95 is very high. Many admissions officers view a GPA of 3.8 as very competitive, and they like to see at least a GPA of 3.5 or above.

The typical cutoff for DO programs is around a 3.4 GPA, while most MD programs require at least a 3.7 GPA. Another option is to consider attending a school that has a higher acceptance rate.

While Harvard Medical School is highly competitive, the lowest GPA accepted tends to be around 3.0. However, this can fluctuate from year to year based on the applicant pool and other factors.

In a typical year, the admissions rate for Harvard applicants is in the range of 85 to 90%, and approximately 92-95% of applicants with GPAs above 3.5 are admitted.

There is no definitive pass or fail score for the MCAT; rather, each medical school sets its own criteria for acceptable scores. To determine the score needed for a particular medical school, it's best to consult the specific school's requirements or visit their website.

What MCAT score is too low? ›

The lowest MCAT score accepted by most medical schools in the U.S. and Canada is typically in the range of 490-495. Scores below 490 are rarely, if ever, accepted. It's important to note that while 490-495 is the minimum score accepted, the vast majority of applicants score well above this range.

The fourth, followed by the third, and the first year. You don't do much in the fourth year, other than insert IVs and catheters, monitor vital signs, take medical histories and write progress notes, and perform physical exams. You need to read up on each case that you see, and you present this at the morning rounds.

Med school is far more rigorous than college, requiring students to quickly absorb large amounts of scientific information.

In general, somewhere between 25-50% of interviewees are accepted to any given institution. We recommend researching the acceptance rates at the schools you apply to so you can gauge how competitive the process will be compared to other schools. You can find this information for each medical school in MSAR.

Most commonly, students graduate cum laude (Latin for "with praise") when they earn a 3.5-3.7 GPA, magna cum laude ("with great praise") when they earn a 3.7-3.9 GPA, and summa cum laude ("with highest praise") when they earn a 3.9 GPA or higher.

Among the 191 ranked law schools that submitted grade data to U.S. News in an annual survey, the average median GPA of entering law school students in 2021 was 3.55. But at the 20 highest-ranked law schools, the average median GPA is much higher – 3.86.

While the term “low GPA” is relative, one general rule is that anything below 3.5 is considered low by most if not all medical schools. The further one gets from this threshold, the more ground they must make up in other areas of their application.

Medical institutions in the U.S. and Canada that necessitate the MCAT typically accept scores ranging from 490-495 at the minimum. Scores below 490 are rarely if ever, accepted. Interestingly, a vast majority of individuals score above this range. Recent data suggests that the average score hovers around 506.5.