Applying after pharmacy school, is my advisor correct about gpa??

[StriveForGlory]

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[Avoidthetiger]

I'm confused about why you are going to pharmacy school if you want to go to medical school.?.

Honestly though, it depends on your transcript. If you third and fourth year are labeled as you still seeking an undergraduate degree, than you could potentially mark it as undergrad classes. I highly doubt this though -- so much likely will will have to write on the AMCAS application that you are taking graduate courses.

This will seperate your course work in to your freshman year, sophomore year, "all undergraduate coursework" and "all graduate coursework" GPAs. According to SDN-lore, ADCOMs care more about your undergraduate career, but they will see your graduate school cGPA and sGPA.

 

[StriveForGlory]

I see medicine and pharmacy as two sides of the same coin. Working in a pharmacy all these years has made me realize that i am incredibly interested in learning about that other side. I have an honest desire to learn about medicine and to hopefully come out a more knowledgeable physician because of my pharmacy education. However if I were to apply in the next cycle I would be a year shy of finishing my Pharm.D. and I dont think that would be worth it. So here I am.

 

[Catalystik]

Im in a six year pharmacy program in which the first two years are undergraduate classes and the next four are pharmacy school classes. However my 3rd and 4th years (1st and second professional years) are considered undergrad by rutgers university because we still pay the same tuition as the undergrad students.

So my question is, what gpa will med schools look at? Just the first two pre-req years, the four years, or all six? My advisor told me the med schools will just look at my pre-req years. I ask because I am doing better in pharmacy school than I did in my undergrad (unlike most of my classmates). Will med schools take that into account? Or do they only care about the pre-professional years?

To better compare you to the majority of applicants who have only done undergrad work, you will be judged primarily by uGPA. It sounds like it would be in your best interest for as many classes as possible to be assigned to FR, SO, JR, or SR year coursework, rather than GRAD. Fortunately for you, AMCAS prefers that you assign the educational level in the same way that it is listed on your official transcript. Hopefully, the transcript mirrors the status on your tuition bills. If AMCAS disagrees, they will reassign the status according to their own rules.

The AMCAS instruction manual says (p 36):

"If you have enrolled in a professional degree program (Law, Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Science, etc.) leading to a doctorate degree prior to receiving a bachelor's degree, refer to your transcript or contact the school to confirm course level. In many cases, "GR" status may be assigned to professional level course work leading to a doctorate degree, even if an undergraduate degree has not been earned."​

So, with luck, you'll have 4 years of your PharmD coursework assigned to the undergrad years, and thus a higher, more competitive uGPA/BCPM GPA.​