Good science GPA, poor cumulative

[CKnobby]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering how competitive I may be if I have an overall GPA of 3.1, but a science GPA of 3.8. I had an amazing GPA my first two years of school, and then first semester of my junior year I was in a dark place mentally and emotionally, and didn't really care about my grades. That one semester I received 2 F's in upper level psychology courses, a D in a Statistics course, as well as B and 2 A's. I've since taken the EMT course, taken 2 years off of school and spent the last year working full time as an EMT-Basic. I recently started school again majoring in health sciences. I still need to take anatomy and micro, but I'm worried that the 2 F's and D will hurt my chances severely, despite only having the one poor semester and having the time to increase my GPA even more.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[pastudentw]

I don't think this will be detrimental to your overall application. Obviously it is hard to say just because the entirety of your application is what really matters.

In the perspective of adcoms,  this might be a concern just because it was near the end of your education, versus someone who had a bad start as a freshman and then improved over the rest of those years. To counteract that, I think it will be important for you to tastefully address these grades in your personal statement. You don't have to go into explicit detail but use it as a learning experience. Show the reader how this will make you a better PA student and a better healthcare provider. It is probably safe to assume that during those years off you have changed and again could be discussed in the personal statement.

The good news is that your overall GPA will at least meet the minimum requirement for most programs and your science GPA is still in the competitive range. Obviously going forward with the remainder of your classes, the goal is to get A's.

[CKnobby]

That's a relief to hear. I will definitely make sure I address it in the personal statement when the time comes. That said, I still have 3 semesters until I get my bachelors, and last semester was my first back and I received 4 A's and a B, so hopefully going forward I can keep that same trend, and I'll be taking the GRE soon and typically do well on standardized testing. Is there anything outside of my GPA and (currently about 1600 hours of) PCE, that I should focus on to help my competitiveness?

[pastudentw]

The thing with PA admissions is just focusing your application to the schools you are interested in. Some good general advice is to look into the schools you plan to apply to and see what they look for in an applicant. 

Other than that your PCE hours look good and will be at a good number when you apply. Besides GPA and PCE, of course there is letters of recommendation, personal statement, volunteering, shadowing and other extra curricular activities to incorporate as you prepare. Just make sure you don't overwhelm yourself with the other activities since fixing a GPA is one of the hardest areas to improve.