Transcript Exception

[purplecrayon12]

Hello everyone,

I'm transferring this Fall 2020 and deciding between two FL universities. I went to Nursing school in the Philippines (3 years) but didn't finish, moved here in 2010, joined the military, got out in 2017, and my major now is Molecular & Cell Bio. UNF asked for my foreign transcripts so I had them evaluated, and they accepted them. Unfortunately, this lowered my gpa. I'm coming from a community college and my transfer gpa is 3.9 but with the foreign transcript, it went down to 3.5. With USF, they didn't ask for my foreign transcript so my transfer gpa is the same. If I stay with UNF, can I still request for a transcript exception or it probably won't get approved since UNF accepted the credits? I'm worried that the gpa with the foreign transcript will be calculated when I apply later.

Thank you!

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[medschoolthrowaway2020]

AMCAS will only accept course completed at or through an American university (with some exceptions and differences for study abroad programs). So if you go to USF, I believe that AMCAS will not include foreign courses in that GPA. In fact, they won't even accept a foreign transcript. When you apply to med school, the med schools may ask you for your nursing school transcripts at any point and of course its a good idea to be totally up front and that you did 3 years of nursing school in your application. Then they could recalculate your GPA with your nursing classes but I suppose that is kind of far down the road. In the case of UNF, I am not sure how it will all play out if. You could call AMCAS or look into the policy deeper to see how foreign transfer credits are handled.

 

[purplecrayon12]

AMCAS will only accept course completed at or through an American university (with some exceptions and differences for study abroad programs). So if you go to USF, I believe that AMCAS will not include foreign courses in that GPA. In fact, they won't even accept a foreign transcript. When you apply to med school, the med schools may ask you for your nursing school transcripts at any point and of course its a good idea to be totally up front and that you did 3 years of nursing school in your application. Then they could recalculate your GPA with your nursing classes but I suppose that is kind of far down the road. In the case of UNF, I am not sure how it will all play out if. You could call AMCAS or look into the policy deeper to see how foreign transfer credits are handled.

I wish UNF didn't accept them so I don't have to worry about my gpa going down because of the foreign transcript. This was on the 2020 AMCAS Applicant Guide:

Independent Attendance, Credits Transferred
Courses attempted independently (not through a study abroad program) at a foreign institution must be listed if the credit has been transferred to a U.S. or Canadian institution by using a credit hour system convertible to semester hours. Courses include those taken in a foreign country before formally enrolling in a U.S. or Canadian institution, as well as those taken independently after enrolling in a U.S. or Canadian institution.

• If the U.S. or Canadian institution awarding transfer credit provides letter grades (e.g., A, B, C) and credit hours convertible to semester hours for each course on your transcript, enter all required course data. AMCAS will include the coursework in your AMCAS GPAs, regardless of institutional policies.


UNF did assign letter grades to my foreign courses. And this is kind of why I'm worried if I choose UNF. The only reason why I'm leaning towards UNF is the location. I will call AMCAS though to ask about my situation. Thank you so much!!

 

[Catalystik]

I'm transferring this Fall 2020 and deciding between two FL universities. I went to Nursing school in the Philippines (3 years) but didn't finish, moved here in 2010, joined the military, got out in 2017, and my major now is Molecular & Cell Bio. UNF asked for my foreign transcripts so I had them evaluated, and they accepted them. Unfortunately, this lowered my gpa. I'm coming from a community college and my transfer gpa is 3.9 but with the foreign transcript, it went down to 3.5. With USF, they didn't ask for my foreign transcript so my transfer gpa is the same.

-If I stay with UNF, can I still request for a transcript exception or it probably won't get approved since UNF accepted the credits? I'm worried that the gpa with the foreign transcript will be calculated when I apply later.

If you transfer to UNF, which accepted the foreign credit, and the classes appear on your official UNF transcript with a grade (not just P/F), then AMCAS will include those grades when calculating your med school application GPAs.

 

[purplecrayon12]

If you transfer to UNF, which accepted the foreign credit, and the classes appear on your official UNF transcript with a grade (not just P/F), then AMCAS will include those grades when calculating your med school application GPAs.

Okay that's what I thought.. :/ thank you so much!!

 

[Catalystik]

Okay that's what I thought.. :/ thank you so much!!

It looks like you found the relevant information yourself and posted it right before I did.

 

[purplecrayon12]

It looks like you found the relevant information yourself and posted it right before I did.

In your opinion, would I be better off if I go to USF? I do plan on making sure I get all A's for my upper division classes but I feel like that foreign courses gpa is going to hurt me later if I go with UNF.....

 

[Catalystik]

In your opinion, would I be better off if I go to USF? I do plan on making sure I get all A's for my upper division classes but I feel like that foreign courses gpa is going to hurt me later if I go with UNF.....

It depends on your career goals and your final application GPA. If you plan to include DO med schools on your application list, your GPA will likely be fine despite those lower grades. Even for less-selective MD schools, it will be evident those grades were from vocational coursework and from long ago, and a steep-upward grade trend is very helpful at most med schools. And finally, even with more-selective MD schools, the fact that you are ex-military will make you much more competitive, even with below-average-for-acceptee GPAs (3.72ish), compared to the general applicant pool.

You did know that military coursework and grades must be submitted and are are included on an AMCAS transcript, too, right? Does that help or hurt you?

 

[purplecrayon12]

It depends on your career goals and your final application GPA. If you plan to include DO med schools on your application list, your GPA will likely be fine despite those lower grades. Even for less-selective MD schools, it will be evident those grades were from vocational coursework and from long ago, and a steep-upward grade trend is very helpful at most med schools. And finally, even with more-selective MD schools, the fact that you are ex-military will make you much more competitive, even with below-average-for-acceptee GPAs (3.72ish), compared to the general applicant pool.

You did know that military coursework and grades must be submitted and are are included on an AMCAS transcript, too, right? Does that help or hurt you?

Okay I see, thank you for the info. Yes, I'm not too worried about military coursework/grades. I also worked as a surgical tech in the OR when I was active duty, I think that can be a little bit of a boost later. Anyway, I know that there are other things to worry about besides gpa. I guess I'm just getting too fixated on the numbers and I just wanted to end up with an overall gpa later on with one that's at least average for the med schools I'm interested in. Thank you so much for all the info.

 

[LittlePuppy]

If you transfer to UNF, which accepted the foreign credit, and the classes appear on your official UNF transcript with a grade (not just P/F), then AMCAS will include those grades when calculating your med school application GPAs.

Late to the party, but I am in a similar dilemma. Received my transcript from the US school. It shows no grade for the foreign transcript, but a couple of "ehrs". Then on the bottom it shows total institution hours: x (the amount of hours I did in the US institution) and completely neglected the foreign institution "ehrs". What do I do then? Thanks!

 

[Catalystik]

Late to the party, but I am in a similar dilemma. Received my transcript from the US school. It shows no grade for the foreign transcript, but a couple of "ehrs". Then on the bottom it shows total institution hours: x (the amount of hours I did in the US institution) and completely neglected the foreign institution "ehrs". What do I do then? Thanks!

Look at pages 14 and 38, here: https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fast...473/aamc-2020-amcas-applicant-guide041119.pdf

Edit: I see your question was answered on your thread here: Foreign Transcript for AMCAS?