Session 43 In this episode, Ryan tackles the issue of a student who is struggling with very low undergrad and postbac GPA scores and a low 2015 MCAT score. Find out what options you could possibly take when facing this kind of situation. Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan again dives into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is in need for help and advice for applying to medical school; graduated in 2002 with a very low GPA  (2.01) and have take classes with postbac GPA of 2.7 and Science GPA at 3.3. Overall GPA at 2.37. Because of low undergrad GPA, poster is unable to get premed help from the school where they've taken current postbac courses. Overall Science GPA of 2.7 is because of classes taken while doing research which are graduate level courses taken in order to be able to work in a lab. Not prepared for the classes but needed the job to pay rent and help his soon-to-be wife at that time to pay for physical therapy school. Have worked in basic research labs for 3 years, published 2 papers, and post tier presentations at international conferences. Work experience: clinical research (4 years) and lab assistant at a medical school (anatomy lab and orthopedic surgical training center); MCAT 2015 score of 26 and 3; currently working on physical therapy research and teaching; looking for premed advising help. Here are the insights from Ryan: Figure out why you're not doing well in school. No excuses. What is your struggle? A Science GPA of 2.7 is not going to cut it. An overall GPA of 3.7 is not going to gut it. An MCAT score of 26 is not going to cut it. And it's getting old since most schools are going to stop accepting the old MCAT score. You probably have to take it again. Do some soul searching and figure out where the issue lies. You need to improve your grades if you want to get into medical school. There is no point in doing more postbac classes unless you can do really well and only apply to DO schools to take advantage of grade replacement for GPA calculations. Another possible option is a Special Masters Program (SMP), basically a postbac masters level program that goes into the different category in your application under graduate school courses whereas your postbac classes are still lumped in with your undergrad classes and undergrad GPA. Try to see if there is any Special Masters Program near you and see if they have linkage to medical schools, where if you do well in the SMP, you will have a guaranteed spot in the medical school it's associated with. Your last option is the Caribbean school. Reach out to them and see if your GPA is good enough for them. These schools are for profit institutions and they usually take anybody and everybody. But they might not even accept your low GPA. Major takeaway from this episode: You have a lot of work to do. Your research and clinical experiences are great but they're not going to overcome your GPA or MCAT score. So figure out how to improve those or look at doing something else. Links and Other Resources: OldPreMeds.org