Anyone graduated from UW applying to (have applied to) med schools?

[banannamilk]

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Hello,
I was wondering if I could get some help on the gpa conversion thing.
I graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle. Having read some of the threads on the topic of gpa conversion for the amcas application, I realize that UW's numerical grading system (4.0, 3.0 etc...) is very different from most other schools that use the letter grade system (A, B etc...). I read a thread a few days ago that even though UW gives out numerical grades, I STILL have to convert them to the amcas grades (if I got 3.8 from the UW, I have to convert that to 3.7 when I fill out the amcas application). Is this true? If I don't "convert" on the application and just enter the grade I have on my transcript (eg, I enter 3.8 instead of 3.7), would I be creating more problems for myself? 😕 😕 😱

 

[luckyday]

I applied last year (for entering 2004) from UW. Last year's app asked for two types of grades, OT grade and the AMCAS grade.

Where it asks for Official Transcript Grade (OT), type in the grade exactly as it is on the UW transcript (ie. 3.9,3.8, 4.0--these are all you should need right?).

Then there's a little something called the AMCAS grade, which is on the A, A-, B+ etc. system. If I remember right you convert according to UW's established grading scale that looks something like this:

A = 3.9-4.0
A- = 3.5-3.8
B+ = 3.2-3.4
B = 2.9-3.1

http://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/front/Grading_Sys.html
Pretty sure that's how its done, but it wouldn't hurt to double check.

Good luck to you.

If you're bored this is kind of interesting (I just stumbled on it trying to find the conversion table):
http://depts.washington.edu/grading/practices/grdtblin.htm

 

[LaurieB]

All I had to do was type in my numeric grade from the UW as my Official Transcript grade and the AMCAS grade was automatically computed. I didn't have to do any manual converting.

 

[Petitpois]

I STILL have to convert them to the amcas grades (if I got 3.8 from the UW, I have to convert that to 3.7 when I fill out the amcas application). Is this true? If I don't "convert" on the application and just enter the grade I have on my transcript (eg, I enter 3.8 instead of 3.7), would I be creating more problems for myself?

Ditto what everyone else said... the application will automatically convert all your UW grades for you when you enter them in. But, your AMCAS GPA should be pretty close to your UW GPA b/c even though the 3.8's will go down to 3.7's, the 3.5's and 3.6's will bump up to a 3.7, etc. So, no worries!

 

[banannamilk]

Thanks guys! 😍

 

[Yobot]

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/conversionguide.pdf

Interesting. I'm assuming the school you go to goes by a numeric 4.0 scale, which begs me to ask, if you, say got a 3.1 in class, does that convert to a 3.3 on the AMCAS?

 

[banannamilk]

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/conversionguide.pdf

Interesting. I'm assuming the school you go to goes by a numeric 4.0 scale, which begs me to ask, if you, say got a 3.1 in class, does that convert to a 3.3 on the AMCAS?

No, I think 3.1 gets converted to B, which then gets converted to 3.0. But, as petitpois noted, (which I now also realize after doing my own calculations), some grades bump up a little while others bump down a little, so the overall amcas gpa is pretty close to the UW gpa (mine went a little down (by .05 points) because I had a lot of 3.8s, which converted to 3.7s 🙁 ) 😳

 

[potuhusky]

graduated from udub in 2002. my amcas gpa was exactly the same as my udub gpa.

 

[Yobot]

No, I think 3.1 gets converted to B, which then gets converted to 3.0. But, as petitpois noted, (which I now also realize after doing my own calculations), some grades bump up a little while others bump down a little, so the overall amcas gpa is pretty close to the UW gpa (mine went a little down (by .05 points) because I had a lot of 3.8s, which converted to 3.7s 🙁 ) 😳

Thanks for the reply. Best of luck with the application process. We'll be cheering you on. 👍