The following is a guest post from my good friend over at Medaholic.com. He is currently a first year medical student and is involved in his school’s admissions process. His blog is fantastic, so check it out!
Why do grades matter so much when it comes to getting into medical school? We’ve all seen people obsessed with getting a good GPA, arguing with professors for extra an extra mark here and there, and studying not to learn, but as a means to a better grade. The hard fact is if you want to get into medical school, you need solid academic performance. As a result, many students become mark-mongering paranoid GPA calculators.
But we all know that a high GPA does not necessarily correlate with being a good physician. Intangible factors like compassion, empathy and bedside manner cannot be recorded on a transcript. So why should grades play such an important role, if not the most essential, when it comes to medical school admissions?
There are three reasons why medical schools, and why you too, should put such a big emphasis on grades. (1) Convenience, (2) Objectivity, (3) Indication of future performance