accepted, worth it to strive for magna cum laude?

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Doctor D

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I have been accepted to med school for next year. If I add a class like golf or racquetball and get a 4.0 (which is attainable) than I will get magna cum laude. However I dont need the class to graduate. Should i add it to bump me up to a 3.7 or should I settle for a cum laude 3.69?
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i'd do it because it seems like it would be easy to obtain from the way you describe. it goes on your CV and is a nice bonus.

but realize that it won't carry that much weight after med school.
 
Doctor D said:
I have been accepted to med school for next year. If I add a class like golf or racquetball and get a 4.0 (which is attainable) than I will get magna cum laude. However I dont need the class to graduate. Should i add it to bump me up to a 3.7 or should I settle for a cum laude 3.69?
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I was about to say: "why the heck would you give two craps, since you go into med school?".

However, since it's only a golf or racqetball class, why not? You've got nothing to lose, and it'll be something fun.

congrats, and good luck!:luck:
 
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wow 3.7 gives you magna cum laude! i'd say if it's that low go for it especially since you're playing a sport i.e. having fun
 
bluesmd said:
wow 3.7 gives you magna cum laude! i'd say if it's that low go for it especially since you're playing a sport i.e. having fun
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My university worked the same way.

3.5 = cum laude
3.7 = magna cum laude
3.9 = summa cum laude
 
aznb0y129 said:
My university worked the same way.

3.5 = cum laude
3.7 = magna cum laude
3.9 = summa cum laude
Click to expand...

my school oddly doesnt have summa cum laude. i wonder why
 
Well, is it important to you? I don't believe that the title of magna cum laude is going to make a bit of difference in getting into medical school (doesn't matter in your case). But if it's something that you want on your diploma, something that you want to follow your name/undergraduate institution into your career, then go for it. Attaining summa cum laude from my undergraduate school was important to me for prestige purposes and to make my parents proud, but I knew plenty of people who didn't care which, if any, honorary title went along with their GPA. It's a personal decision and I don't think anybody on SDN can tell you if you should/should not strive for it.
 
jgberken said:
Nor does mine. We have highest honors, high honors, and honors.
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Wouldn't honors = cum laude, high honors = magna, and highest honors = summa? That's what wikipedia says anyway :p
 
why not? sounds easy and fun (and it could be a workout)
 
So basically your conundrum is to either get cum laude, or get magna cum laude by taking a sport? Seems like a fairly easy choice to me.

racquetball will help you develop your speed, agility, hand-eye coordination and will give you one hell of a workout. Plus its fun.
 
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aznb0y129 said:
Wouldn't honors = cum laude, high honors = magna, and highest honors = summa? That's what wikipedia says anyway :p
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Not necessarily...I see your logic, but some schools give departmental honors and then the overall cum laude. As in, I could have graduated Cum Laude, with Honors in Biology. Or something along those lines.

It really depends on the school. What amazes me is when I see people who made PBK with 3.6 GPAs. Now that I don't get.
 
My undergrad had a huge table with values for each graduation honor designation, as it was different for every major.

The engineers usually had the lowest, the liberal arts usually had the highest. On average it tended to be:

Cum Laude - 3.8
Magna Cum Laude - 3.89
Summa Cum Laude - 3.95
 
It really does not matter that much. Will your patients ask you: Doctor D: Did you graduate cum laude or magna cum laude? But then again, how do you fail golf and racquetball?
 
I say hells yeah! As long as your school lets you wear an extra cool colory cord for graduation then its totally worth it. You would look like such a loser with only the cum laude cord. Seriously, nobody cares what your gpa is in undergrad. And if you did tell people you were magna cum laude- they'd probably ask "cool, did you have any wicked toga parties?"
 
jgberken said:
Nor does mine. We have highest honors, high honors, and honors.
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i guess we have nothing that equates to the highest honors/summa. *shrug*, brown marches to its own drummer lol
 
cum laude = 3.92
magna cum laude = 3.95
summa cum laude = 4.00

My school must really suck :laugh:
 
I guess us East Coasters are just dumber...:eek:

They ought to set up a national standard for graduating with distinction, though I doubt that will ever happen.
 
aznb0y129 said:
My university worked the same way.

3.5 = cum laude
3.7 = magna cum laude
3.9 = summa cum laude
Click to expand...

You're lucky. Mine is-

3.6 = cum laude
3.8 = magna cum laude
4.0 = summa cum laude

My friend blew summa cum laude because he only had a 3.99, got a B in a 1 credit class. So our only summa's are like art majors LOL
 
Doctor D said:
I have been accepted to med school for next year. If I add a class like golf or racquetball and get a 4.0 (which is attainable) than I will get magna cum laude. However I dont need the class to graduate. Should i add it to bump me up to a 3.7 or should I settle for a cum laude 3.69?
Click to expand...

nah
 
Alaska21 said:
You're lucky. Mine is-

3.6 = cum laude
3.8 = magna cum laude
4.0 = summa cum laude

My friend blew summa cum laude because he only had a 3.99, got a B in a 1 credit class. So our only summa's are like art majors LOL
Click to expand...


Dang, looks like the caribbean for him
 
Absolutely.

It is something you can take pride in for the rest of your life. Plus, the means seem like a good time.
 
Doctor D said:
I have been accepted to med school for next year. If I add a class like golf or racquetball and get a 4.0 (which is attainable) than I will get magna cum laude. However I dont need the class to graduate. Should i add it to bump me up to a 3.7 or should I settle for a cum laude 3.69?
Click to expand...

This is something you put on your CV for the rest of your life. Is it that important? No. But if all I had to do to be magna was take a sports class, I would have been all over that. It's completely worth it.
 
My university only has honors and high honors--both of these must be met by a) all work in the student's major done at the university, b) a combination of all work done at the university in a student's major and all work done in that major at other schools, c) all work done at the university, and d) a combination of all work done at the university and all work done at other schools:

Honors: 3.40
High honors: 3.70

Pretty low compared to some, I guess.
 
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i'll be taking coaching football and finding financial freedom next semester. A+ mmmmm
 
Just make sure they take your last semester into consideration. My school calculates all semesters except the last. They might make exceptions though. Sounds like a silly policy to me.
 
drangocar said:
Just make sure they take your last semester into consideration. My school calculates all semesters except the last. They might make exceptions though. Sounds like a silly policy to me.
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My school uses all semesters but the last to calculate who gets the honors stuff to wear at graduation, but the actual honors printed on your diploma take all semesters into consideration.

i.e. If I get a 1.0 next semester by failing all my classes but the single one i need to graduate, I'll still get the magna cum laude cord to wear at graduation, but it wouldn't be printed on my degree and I couldn't write it on my resume.
 
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