as an ADCOM, how would you react to my grades? what are some red flags?

[havil]

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perhaps not enough science credit hours? maybe the incomplete and the withdrawn?

idk im honestly really worried about the withdrawn and incomplete

but over all how would adcoms react to my grades? Espically since my mcat is low for MD (509)

 

[LunaOri]

Your cumulative GPA is 3.96. That is the only thing that will be noticed. Stop worrying about minutia you can’t change.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Your program doesn't offer any lab courses? Confirm that you attend a university which only gives numerical grades. Are you going to retake the stats course? Why were you incomplete with physiology? (I point this out only because you did.)

As a screener, I would need your chemistry department's website to discuss your sequence. I only count 4 courses: 2 gen chem, 1 biochem, 1 org chem. Each is just 3 semester hours, but our schools want to see 6 for gen and org. Labs also if offered. I would summarize the course policies about the sequence should any faculty member ask me.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Honestly I did with your grades what I do with all applicant's grades: I quickly scanned through them in 2 seconds. I saw a bunch of As.

I would have done what I did with all those other applicants and said "They're smart" and move on.

Besides, by the time you get to me your grades don't really matter anyway, it's fit at that point

 

[havil]

Your program doesn't offer any lab courses? Confirm that you attend a university which only gives numerical grades. Are you going to retake the stats course? Why were you incomplete with physiology? (I point this out only because you did.)

As a screener, I would need your chemistry department's website to discuss your sequence. I only count 4 courses: 2 gen chem, 1 biochem, 1 org chem. Each is just 3 semester hours, but our schools want to see 6 for gen and org. Labs also if offered. I would summarize the course policies about the sequence should any faculty member ask me.

I go to a Canadian university and they are stupid when it comes to converting to the American credit hour system (fml ://///)

Basically a semester course (a course taht runs just half of the school year aka 1 semester) is considered 3.0 and a full year course is considered 6.0, regardless of it has a lab or not
So that’s why my physics, orgo, chem, etc courses are 3.0 eventhough they had a lab component, meanwhile a course like classical studies 2300 is 6.0 (despite it having no labs)

I hope that made some sense, I’ll also triple check with my school that this is the case again then with amcas

Also how do I communicate this whole debacle in my application? Do I bring it up in secondaries



Also I did retake stats? I’m not sure what you exactly mean. I withdrew from it during the summer a day after the deadline (fml) which resulted in a wdn but Then I took it in my sophmore year and I got a 86% on it



Regarding physiology I am incomplete because I was super duper sick during exam. It was also my last exam so that’s why I don’t have incomplete on the rest of the courses for that semester btw. Also The make up exam was like 2 days after the actual exam and I was still sick. I contacted my prof as according to the syllabus and he said that he’ll let me take a special exam this august. After I take the special exam then the incomplete will be replaced with an actual grade

 

[LizzyM]

This is where a committee letter, or at least letters from a couple of science professors come in. They can clarify that your chem 101 (or whatever it's called) includes a lab. It is also possible for a application reviewer to look at your school's website and figure that out from the course descriptions posted online. It is also possible, if your school is a feeder to a given med school, that the med school is well aware of your school's idiosyncrasies.

 

[eigen]

Both your grades and MCAT score are fine, unless you applied just to top schools, which I hope you didn’t.

You really need to lay off the paranoia about your application. It’s submitted. Move on to the next thing, what happens will happen.

 

[havil]

This is where a committee letter, or at least letters from a couple of science professors come in. They can clarify that your chem 101 (or whatever it's called) includes a lab. It is also possible for a application reviewer to look at your school's website and figure that out from the course descriptions posted online. It is also possible, if your school is a feeder to a given med school, that the med school is well aware of your school's idiosyncrasies.

how many credit hours should a 1 semester course + lab should be?

 

[LizzyM]

When I was an undergrad, the courses with labs were 4 credits for 3 hours of classroom and 2-3 hours of lab per week for 15 weeks.
A course without a lab was 3 credits for 3 hours/wk for 15 weeks.

A school is going to decide how to count credit hours and this is going to be described on the flip side of the official transcript.

 

[eigen]

how many credit hours should a 1 semester course + lab should be?

There's no universal standard.

3+1 is common, but 3+2, 4+1, 4+2, or 4+0 are all common lecture/lab splits. Some schools will have a stand-alone lab that goes along with the second semester of a year-long course, others will have paired labs with each semester.

 

[cj_cregg]

As a screener, I would see that your GPA is excellent and probably not look any further unless I had some other reason to be concerned.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Also how do I communicate this whole debacle in my application? Do I bring it up in secondaries

For what it's worth, you can't communicate this. Your registrar and your science departments should. Since you confirmed you were taking coursework at a Canadian institution, these questions will get brought up to ensure you have satisfied the prerequisites. That's why I asked since it looks like you only have one organic course. Some schools may like to see a psychology or sociology course but it's not required so we don't get too caught up with that. Otherwise, many will look up your course syllabi for those classes we are interested in.

Understand that by redacting the University name, I am unable to discern whether those science courses had labs associated with the course or not. Therefore, those questions remain on my requirements checklist, and unless I get that information from your uni, I won't be able to pass your application forward in the process.

Unfortunately, Canadian schools don't have the prehealth advising infrastructure that American universities have. Your grades are great even if your MCAT is not (509 self-reported) for Canadian programs. It is one of the unfortunate barriers Canadian applicants must face if they want to apply to the US for medical school.

In all honesty, you asked for reactions from adcoms, so I'm just answering your request.

 

[havil]

some schools may like to see a psychology or sociology course

i took 2 psych courses in freshman year

Understand that by redacting the University name, I am unable to discern whether those science courses had labs associated with the course or not. Therefore, those questions remain on my requirements checklist, and unless I get that information from your uni, I won't be able to pass your application forward in the process.

I can DM you the univesrity name if you would like, but what stood out to me in your statement is that adcoms will search up the school and check if each course has a lab? Will they bother doing that?

In all honesty, you asked for reactions from adcoms, so I'm just answering your request.

ya and i am thankful for all the answers (fr)

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I can DM you the univesrity name if you would like, but what stood out to me in your statement is that adcoms will search up the school and check if each course has a lab? Will they bother doing that?

Well, since you disclosed that your uni was in Canada, it makes more sense, especially with the grading. Your application has more information than just this transcript entry. In brief, I did check when I began screening applications as a new director of admissions until I became familiar with how those courses are organized. But I still have to anticipate questions from the adcom faculty.