Anyone applying with no grades or GPA?

[QofQuimica]

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I am wanting to hear from anyone who does not have any undergrad grades or GPA, especially if you applied to any out-of-state schools. How did the schools react toward your lack of grades?

Here is my story: I went to a small liberal arts college that only offers narrative evaluations. It is part of our state university system, so I didn't have any problems getting interviewed at any of our state schools as an undergraduate. But the prestigious out-of-state schools were not interested. Now I am finishing graduate school, and I do have grades from grad school, but of course I took all of my pre-reqs as an undergrad. I have also taken the MCAT, so the schools will know that I am capable of the work, but I am just curious about whether any of you have had any experience with this situation, and how it is working out for you.

 

[fullefect1]

Thats wierd... What state/college is this?

 

[pseudoknot]

Evergreen in WA?

 

[spot the cat]

I went to Hampshire College (and graduated 14 years ago), which also has no grades. I did have a few letter grades from other schools (cross enrollment) but no GPA is calculated because they didn't count credit hours. Or something.

I can't tell you about med school, but I did get into a very competitive masters program in a completely different field at Harvard, and there were actually quite a number of people there (Graduate School of Design)from Hampshire, so at least some admissions committees are able to wade through the lengthy transcript. Talking to the career and grad school advisors there, they have similar acceptance rates for medical, law and other graduate programs as do other liberal arts schools, so the evaluations can't be too much of a hindrance.

You might contact your alumni office or graduate school advising office to see where other graduates who pursued medicine have ended up, to give you an idea of what schools are amenable to those monstrous transcripts.

Good luck.

 

[QofQuimica]

I went to Hampshire College (and graduated 14 years ago), which also has no grades. I did have a few letter grades from other schools (cross enrollment) but no GPA is calculated because they didn't count credit hours. Or something.

I can't tell you about med school, but I did get into a very competitive masters program in a completely different field at Harvard, and there were actually quite a number of people there (Graduate School of Design)from Hampshire, so at least some admissions committees are able to wade through the lengthy transcript. Talking to the career and grad school advisors there, they have similar acceptance rates for medical, law and other graduate programs as do other liberal arts schools, so the evaluations can't be too much of a hindrance.

You might contact your alumni office or graduate school advising office to see where other graduates who pursued medicine have ended up, to give you an idea of what schools are amenable to those monstrous transcripts.

Good luck.

Yeah, grad schools seem to be a lot more flexible about this. I did not have any trouble applying to grad school at all. My file was just about 10 x thicker than everyone else's because I sent them copies of all of the narrative evaluations from my science courses. Well, it will be interesting to see how it turns out this time. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[PKP719]

you gotta be kidding me right ? lol

Damm , my high school guidance counselor so didnt mention these schools to me ! I would be straight chillllinnnnn & buzzing

I believe other schools have this no grade thing too ,
one of my friends at MIT says that his first year or maybe first semester they just get pass or fail grades. Awesome !

 

[kiwie07]

I believe other schools have this no grade thing too ,
one of my friends at MIT says that his first year or maybe first semester they just get pass or fail grades. Awesome !

hahah yup that's true - there's no grades the first year.
to the OP - is there premed counseling at your school? or a careers office? they might be able to help you since there are probably many people who graduated from your school that was wondering the same thing.

i know that some schools send a written statement explaining the grading system etc. with the premed committee letters (in my case, a reccomendation packet). but the best thing is what spot the cat wrote - call your school and ask. 🙂 g'luck!

 

[QofQuimica]

hahah yup that's true - there's no grades the first year.
to the OP - is there premed counseling at your school? or a careers office? they might be able to help you since there are probably many people who graduated from your school that was wondering the same thing.

i know that some schools send a written statement explaining the grading system etc. with the premed committee letters (in my case, a reccomendation packet). but the best thing is what spot the cat wrote - call your school and ask. 🙂 g'luck!

Thanks for all of the suggestions. Yes, they do include an explanation of the transcript in the official copy. The actual narrative evaluations are unofficial only, and I have to copy and send them myself if anyone wants to see them.

They really didn't have anything in the way of pre-med counseling at the school because it obviously isn't your typical kind of pre-med school. A few people that I know of from there have gone to the state medical schools without a problem, but I haven't heard of anyone going to out-of-state schools who went there.

I am thinking that what I will do is talk to the medical school admissions director here after New Year and see what he suggests.

 

[45408]

Given your MCAT score, I rather doubt that schools would have much trouble with your app.

 

[QofQuimica]

Given your MCAT score, I rather doubt that schools would have much trouble with your app.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. 🙂 Wish you could be on the committees evaluating me. Anyway I guess I will find out the answer to this question after I apply, and then I can let you guys know. 😛

 

[scooter31]

Same thing happens at UCSC (though I think they may have gone to a letter grading system now). Friend of friend got into med school and had the same troubles... I think the admissions committees weighed her MCAT more heavily in her situation initially, and the further they got into the process, I think they made a call to UCSC to figure out a system of converting evals into a rough GPA estimate. Saying this, she was a lit major, and had post bac grades for a good deal of her pre reqs, as she went back and took them at a different school-- it was a matter of getting the rest of the "story" figured out for her. Good luck, you wont have any issues-- med schools will give you a honest evaluation by hook or by crook. 👍

 

[pseudoknot]

Same thing happens at UCSC (though I think they may have gone to a letter grading system now).

Yes, they now have mandatory grades for most classes; I don't remember if they still have narrative evaluations, but I think so. They have allowed students to get grades in upper-division science classes for a very long time, however.

 

[QofQuimica]

I suppose if you know that you're pre-med and you have an option to get grades, it makes sense to do that because it saves you a lot of trouble. I didn't have that option. Still, I can't say that I'm sorry I chose that college because I think the education I got was phenemonal, and I can deal if some schools don't like applicants like me. 😛