Amcas gpa?

[astronomical]

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For the AMCAS GPA cutoff do they average your GPA from your community college and university together? Or is it the cumulative GPA listed separately by college?

 

[dsoz]

Not by college, but by pre-batchelors, post bac, other degree programs (master's degree), etc. Let me pull up my AMCAS and look.

dsoz

 

[astronomical]

So community college, University Grades, and post-bacc all get lumped into one CUMULATIVE GPA, meaning that cumulative GPA = everything done in college/undergrad/postbacc?

 

[DrMidlife]

So community college, University Grades, and post-bacc all get lumped into one CUMULATIVE GPA, meaning that cumulative GPA = everything done in college/undergrad/postbacc?

Correct.

The AMCAS breakdown looks like this:

 

[SPionic]

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[DrMidlife]

How does AMCAS figure which credits to label 'high school?' I have 24 credits of co-enrollment classes (technical college/cc) I took during HS, and then a summer class I took at university before starting UG (and bombed). Do they count everything up to matriculation at your undergrad/enrollment in CC?
I understand that they have a peculiar way of figuring what year you are for the purpose of these calculations, but for the life of me I can't find a complete breakdown of how that works.

There's an AMCAS instruction manual with full details: https://www.aamc.org/students/download/182162/data/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf

 

[Umyo]

So AMCAS counts your dual credit classes taken in high school as well?

 

[anguisette]

How does AMCAS figure which credits to label 'high school?' I have 24 credits of co-enrollment classes (technical college/cc) I took during HS, and then a summer class I took at university before starting UG (and bombed). Do they count everything up to matriculation at your undergrad/enrollment in CC?
I understand that they have a peculiar way of figuring what year you are for the purpose of these calculations, but for the life of me I can't find a complete breakdown of how that works.

The manual explains how to break down the different years for GPAs. For the course you took after high school graduation in the summer but before UG, that class gets added to your freshmen year GPA.

 

[DrMidlife]

So AMCAS counts your dual credit classes taken in high school as well?

AMCAS instructions are awesome at explaining AMCAS.

 

[Umyo]

If you take any course, any time, any where that has any college credit or college transcript, it MUST noted on your AMCAS.

The only exceptions are as follows:

None


That is all

So in this sense one can take a lot of easy courses at a community college or even at the actual college and build up a lot of easy 4.0's to inflate GPA according to AMCAS?

 

[Umyo]

While this true in absolute GPA calculations, 2 important things generally prevent this from happening:

1) admissions committee do take note of where you take courses. The big separation is between community colleges and four year schools. Most committees will consider CC less rigorous and thus the "weight" of the course and/or the "prestige" of the institution will be factored in when comparing applicants. For traditional students this is less of an issue as they must follow CC with a 4 year degree so adcoms can readily see how they do in a more "rigorous" environment. For nontraditional students this not necessarily the case. They may only be doing prerequisites at a CC as an informal postbacc.

2) The GPA calculations are broken into two major categories. For AMCAS science (sGPA) is ONLY Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math. Other "hard" sciences are not counted in this. The rest is counted as "all other" and is noted with a separate GPA. There is only so much BCMP you can take at a CC and the other non-science wont help an sGPA. As comparison, AACOMAS (DO) uses all sciences in the sGPA calculation but no math. This is one of the major differences in between the two application processes.

Remember, medical admissions is about an 80% negative process simply because of the sheer number of applications and the ratio of application to seats. They are looking for factors to weed people out. Generally CC puts you at a competitive disadvantage, though the impact of that will vary greatly depending on the student's overall application, the pool of applicants for the year, and the admissions committee at a particular school.

Having said that, the logistics, cost, scheduling, and how classes may impact your life must be taken into account when doing prereqs. If that makes CC the best choice for you take classes, then do so.

Thank you for the well explained answer. Got a lot of things clear now

 

[astronomical]

How about in terms of AMCAS cut off? If I'm not misinterpreting what you've guys said, then does it mean that all UG work (Community,University/College, and post bacc) is averaged into one Cumulative GPA for screening purposes?

 

[silleme]

How about in terms of AMCAS cut off? If I'm not misinterpreting what you've guys said, then does it mean that all UG work (Community,University/College, and post bacc) is averaged into one Cumulative GPA for screening purposes?

There's no AMCAS cut-off. If you did the coursework at or through an undergraduate collegiate institution, the credits are counted. The schools each have their own individual screening limits, and it has been expressed by more than one person that quite a few schools won't look at applicants with less than a 3.0 cGPA, regardless of when it was earned.

So you can use your post-bacc work and do grade replacement and eye the DO route and raise your GPA significantly, but only for AACOMAS calculations, it has no effect on what AMCAS says.

 

[doctorold]

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[Goro]

Correct. You can't run away or hide anything. Your graduate GPA (gGPA) will also be visible, so one can see how you've improved.

So community college, University Grades, and post-bacc all get lumped into one CUMULATIVE GPA, meaning that cumulative GPA = everything done in college/undergrad/postbacc?

 

[rain4venus]

What if you actually have 2 separate bachelor's degrees? Like you graduated, worked for a few years, then went back to a different school and started another BS from scratch? Does the second count as post-bac?
It seems like a lot of nontraditional students won't fit into that nice mold of freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, post-bac, grad...

 

[DrMidlife]

What if you actually have 2 separate bachelor's degrees? Like you graduated, worked for a few years, then went back to a different school and started another BS from scratch? Does the second count as post-bac?
It seems like a lot of nontraditional students won't fit into that nice mold of freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, post-bac, grad...

There's an AMCAS instruction manual with full details: https://www.aamc.org/students/download/182162/data/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf

AMCAS instructions are awesome at explaining AMCAS.

I had 3 freshman years and 5 transcripts over 25 years. If that fit on AMCAS (which it did), your 2 BS degrees will fit.

One super quick way to answer these AMCAS questions: start an app. See what the form asks for. You don't have to submit.

Best of luck to you.

 

[matchb0x]

Is there any reason to not fill out an application just to get your info in? I still have to do my post-bacc but I attended 5 schools in my life and I wonder if getting the info in now while I am working and getting ready to do my post-bacc would be easier than later. I wouldn't be sending it to schools but just loading it to the website.

 

[rain4venus]

I had 3 freshman years and 5 transcripts over 25 years. If that fit on AMCAS (which it did), your 2 BS degrees will fit.

One super quick way to answer these AMCAS questions: start an app. See what the form asks for. You don't have to submit.

Best of luck to you.

Sorry, I tried downloading the manual 3 or 4 times but it wouldn't go through. That's good to know that you can have multiple fresh/soph/etc... years