Does Your GPA Change

[musashi]

Hey everyone, I'm a non-traditional student who's been lurking on this forum recently. I was a high school history and geography teacher for the past few years who graduated with a B.A in history 2.9 and a M.A. in history 3.3. I was young when I attended college and not that focused. If asked when I was working on my undergrad if I ever contemplated medicine as a career I would have laughed, as I've never been a brainiac. Times change and that's now my focus in life. I'm attending my local university presently and am working on my science prereqs. My question is as I'm taking my science courses over the next year or so and let's say hypothetically my "science" gpa ends up around 3.8 or so then will this change my undergrad gpa? Or is it once you graduate with a B.A. then your gpa is forever locked? I know admissions won’t really look at my graduate level work. Just curious as my science gpa will be great and since this will also be my last 30 hours gpa that will also look good. BTW, I am 34 and my family and friends think I'm delusional to consider this quest at my age. It's very motivating to read of others in similar situations that have gone on and accomplished this goal later in life.

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[Sol Rosenberg]

Hey everyone, I'm a non-traditional student who's been lurking on this forum recently. I was a high school history and geography teacher for the past few years who graduated with a B.A in history 2.9 and a M.A. in history 3.3. I was young when I attended college and not that focused. If asked when I was working on my undergrad if I ever contemplated medicine as a career I would have laughed, as I've never been a brainiac. Times change and that's now my focus in life. I'm attending my local university presently and am working on my science prereqs. My question is as I'm taking my science courses over the next year or so and let's say hypothetically my "science" gpa ends up around 3.8 or so then will this change my undergrad gpa? Or is it once you graduate with a B.A. then your gpa is forever locked? I know admissions won’t really look at my graduate level work. Just curious as my science gpa will be great and since this will also be my last 30 hours gpa that will also look good. BTW, I am 34 and my family and friends think I'm delusional to consider this quest at my age. It's very motivating to read of others in similar situations that have gone on and accomplished this goal later in life.

All of your undergraduate and post-bac courses are averaged together.

 

[musashi]

So, when you read about others posting here stating they have low or average gpa's then if they take new or retake old science courses or any general course for that matter do they have the ability to change their gpa? I looked at my transcript earlier and it stated B.A. with a 2.9. As I continue to take and excel at the prereqs then will my gpa change? Or will admissions see my inital B.A. gpa no matter what? Either way my science gpa will be great. Will that show admissions that I'm serious and have since focused or will that dark cloud always and forever be over my head?

 

[relentless11]

So, when you read about others posting here stating they have low or average gpa's then if they take new or retake old science courses or any general course for that matter do they have the ability to change their gpa? I looked at my transcript earlier and it stated B.A. with a 2.9. As I continue to take and excel at the prereqs then will my gpa change? Or will admissions see my inital B.A. gpa no matter what? Either way my science gpa will be great. Will that show admissions that I'm serious and have since focused or will that dark cloud always and forever be over my head?

They will them seperated into:

1) Undergrad GPA (when you did your bachelors)
2) Post-bacc GPA (all undergrad work after your bachelors)
3) Overall Undergrad GPA: combined undergrad + post-bacc work
4) Graduate GPA: All graduate level courses

In addition to this, they will see it seperate out to science and non-science classes, so there is also the science and non-science GPA. Also they will see when you took your classes, and how many classes you took per quarter/semester.

For MD schools, everything is averaged together, INCLUDING retakes. So if you got a C the first time, and an A the second time, both those are counted. For DO schools, I think the best grade or the most recent is considered. Someone who has experience with DO programs can provide more detail here.

Therefore to answer your questions:

1) Yes they will see your the 2.9 GPA that you got when doing your BA.

2) Yes you can change your overall undergraduate GPA by taking MORE undergrad classes. Given that you graduated already, you will never be able to change your undergrad GPA, only your overall undergrad GPA.

3) Yes, for obvious reasons, doing well in recent classes is always better than doing the same quality or worse. Therefore adcoms will view that in a positive light. Your previous GPA won't neccessarily be a dark cloud, but it ain't good either. The way to deal with this is to show significant and consistent improvement, so that it outweighs what you did in the past.

Thats the crappy part about starting out with a low undergrad GPA. Despite doing amazingly well, you still have to work against it. Therefore it is quite crucial for you to do well on the MCAT too. Given that your GPA is real close to a 3.0, I wouldn't fret, and just keep focusing on doing well and deal with explaining yourself when the time comes to apply. Good luck!