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A+s don't count for your GPA, but will schools still see them?
Started by nctw
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Nope they don't. AMCAS got rid of all my A+s after verification. I have heard that some people get lucky and some reviewers at AMCAS will only get rid of A+s for science courses and leave them for non-science ones. But it seems that AMCAS trained all the reviewers well enough this year that they're replacing all A+s with As.
Wow, that's unfortunate. I understand them not affecting your GPA, but it would be nice to be recognized for them at least. Not that I think it would have a huge effect.
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Yeah that is unfortunate on my end. I have over 30 A+ and I was hoping they'd at least be recognized since I did work hard for them. That makes sense though....you have to have an even playing field and if some schools only go up to an A then it makes sense why they wouldn't be included. It stinks for those of us who did go to a school with a +/- system, though. Basically my 99% counts the same as someone else's 92%. Sadtown.
Grades only tell part of the story. Your LORs are a chance to put the grades in context.
I'm not sure about you guys, but A+ are definitely visible on my verified AMCAS, under the "OT Grade" column. It's not factored into the GPA, but I do think ADCOMS may be able to see them.
…says the person with the 4.0/4.0. 😉
OT grade does not equal AMCAS grade. The OT grade is the grade you put in and the AMCAS grade is the one that AMCAS verifiers changed your A+ to. The AMCAS grade is what is transmitted to schools.
I'm aware that OT grade does not equal AMCAS grade.
How do you know that AMCAS grade is the only thing transmitted to schools?
Why else would AMCAS go through the effort of changing our grades only to transmit both OT and AMCAS grades to schools? The purpose of AMCAS grades is to equalize the whole process in terms of GPA and transmitting the OT grades would defeat the whole purpose of it.
I don't know? Perhaps, some schools treat A+ as higher than a 4.0, and therefore, for standardization and GPA-calculation purposes, A+ become A.
I did a little search on SDN as to what ADCOMs are able to see and turned up conflicting results. Maybe an ADCOM member or student interviewer can weigh in here.
Edit (source): http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/a-vs-a.741482/#post-9848548
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I completely understand, but that's life.
There are even other factors like grade inflation. You can get angry about that too but in the end there isn't any point. At my school, my transcript has a column for my grade and a column for class average. For ~30 of the 40 classes I took, the class average is B-/B/B+. So getting an A in these classes at my Uni is much more significant than say in a course at Harvard (has been in the news a bunch for grade inflation) where averages can be A-/A fairly often.
I can see both the OT grade and the AMCAS grade in the academic record. When the student has received an A+ I can see it in the OT column.
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I would argue grades tell a story taken completely out of context and of almost no use at all.
That's going a bit too far. Grades are indicative of either how hardworking you are or how easily you can learn things, things of which are important to becoming a physician.
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Unlikely. They will be shown as A's, which sucks for those in the +/- schools.
Not unless the academic schedule is well-rounded (which is rare but very noteworthy).
Yeah, that's how I feel. I should be getting all A+s this semester (except for maybe one class), so it'd be nice for that to be recognized somewhat. It's not an easy task getting a 97-98 in a class, especially if it's a science course.
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Not unless the class is heavily curved
Valid point. But with any of our courses, it's not like adcoms have a way of knowing if our final assigned grade was curved or not.
GPA's can be all over the place depending on the school. Is a 3.7 from Princeton the same as a 3.7 from a CC? My mid-tier undergrad was so grade-deflationary to the point where 95% of the class had a 3.6 cGPA or below.
I don't believe that they add a significant amount of value to the application once you have say a 3.6 or higher. The actual academic difference between someone with a 3.8 or a 3.7 is likely going to be pretty minimal and depend on what school you went to. In that regard, the difference between people getting A's and A+'s and whether they are reported on the AMCAS does not really matter that much in the end. It will be how well you did on the MCAT, interview, your ECs, and your experiences that will set your application apart at that point.
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Yeah pretty much. I can empathize since +/- schools are notorious and what we feel that an A+ is noteworthy is in fact hardly cared by the universities themselves and by the med schools. I really wouldn't worry about aiming high more so than just passing the minimum to get an A. That way, you can invest your time in things that you would do besides academics and be less stressed out.
But that is exactly why its so difficult to take grades at face value. There is very little standardization between different classes, much less different schools.
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@bolded in b4 "my CC is sooo difficult rant". 😉
I agree with this 100%. Beyond a certain threshold (safely 3.7-3.8), GPA matters less, but that's not to say a downward trend will be tolerated.
Exactly. I would err toward GPA being utterly meaningless even between applicants from the same school having taken the same classes. Different professors/tests/scales make grades misleading at best and useless at worst.
I would sooner ignore GPA entirely and just avoid wasted effort in interpretation.
In case it wasn't noticed, the OP appears to have received an authoritative reply in post #16.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...schools-still-see-them.1044659/#post-14686641
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...schools-still-see-them.1044659/#post-14686641
You should feel fortunate that a 92% at your university is an A. Probably half of my science courses required a 95% for an A.
+1
Thanks for the clarification @gyngyn and @Goro
A+ are visible to adcoms. No more speculation (and spreading misinformation) 🙂.
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So my school doesn't do the +/- system. How will this affect my amcas GPA?
For details, you can Google AMCAS guide and read through the documentation in detail. In general, you won't be "affected" an A is a 4.0 and a B is a 3.0. Your grades will be weighted by the credits they are worth and averaged together.
