Medical Education US

hello,
I am a firefighter paramedic and decided to move forward and go to medical school. I already have a master degree in electrical engineering, but it is from a regionally accredited institution outside of the country, and I did not do too good in it, I graduated with a 3.0 GPA. That was in 2003, now i'm getting a bachelor's in biology and my GPA for this program is 3.96. I want to know how much would the previous bad GPA on electrical engineering would affect my application to a prestigious medical school (Harvard).

You present an interesting situation in which you obtained a Masters Degree but are now going back and obtaining a bachelors degree. Your grades now (assuming a 4.0 scale) are excellent, especially if that includes your pre-med classes and you are attending an average or better 4 year undergraduate university.

It is hard to say how much your previous grades will be a factor, but the question you are likely to be asked (or would want to answer in your application) is why your grades were not as good then as they are now. Assuming you have a good answer, you are a well rounded candidate, and you do well on your MCAT, your GPA currently is definitely adequate to get into a medical school.

Getting accepted to a medical school like Harvard is a much more complicated factor than just getting into a medical school. Even if you didn't have the previous 3.0 GPA, your 3.96 GPA even with high MCAT scores may not be enough to get into Harvard. With a school like Harvard, it is also important where you are going to school for your undergraduate education. I also don't konw what other factors they consider, but they probably get far more applicants with top MCAT scores and GPAs than they have slots. They can really be picky in who they take.

I'm curious what undergraduate school you are attending? Also, I would suggest you speak to a pre-med advisor at your university to get their input as to which schools are reasonable for you to be considering for medical school.

Best of luck and be sure to let us know how it goes.

I was wondering, wouldn't he be able to exclude the information about his first bachelors degree since he is pursuing a second one and basically starting from scratch?

Vince,

Unless things have changed, you need to include ALL college courses taken - whether they were part of your degree or not.

First of all lets take into account that your GPA in elec eng is 3.0, that is equal to a 4.0 in liberal arts studies or a less significant general studies course.....also the school you studied engineering in could hold significant weight..... Second you are doing your self an injustice by setting your sights solely on the toughest med school in the USA, you should look into the top 25, 50, 75 schools and consider that they have all produced graduates of formidable medical training! Upon graduating any of the schools (yes it is tough to get a very good residency) it is you who control your destiny and desire to become one of the Top Doc's ......