Bad grades in high school????

[emiko]

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[lieberarzt]

As long as your overall and science GPAs are good, I wouldn't stress about this too much. I would only specifically address this if a school provides an essay prompt along the lines of "please detail to us any inconsistencies in your academic record, etc." Be prepared to explain what happened during an interview. Otherwise, I personally wouldn't draw attention to it.

 

[Neuronix]

I have a decent undergrad GPA (3.88 from a big, competitive public school) and I just wonder if my C's from high school will screw me over in terms of how my application is going to look like to the MSTP committee.

Is it a 3.88 including those courses? If so, don't worry one bit. Heck, if your overall GPA is still over 3.6 I wouldn't worry about it one bit. Nobody is going to scrutinize your app that much, and even if they did they will chalk it up to freshman/high school student screwups that have since resolved.

Don't bring it up unless specifically asked to.

 

[emiko]

=( I just calculated my overall GPA including the C's from high school:
It's around 3.72
Would that be okay? I am so pissed off by this because I didn't even want the stupid units but my high school automatically signed up for everyone in the class. Also, out of like 50 students there were probably 2 who got A's. Can't believe this is screwing me over again for med school URG!

 

[Neuronix]

It's around 3.72
Would that be okay?

Yes. Score high on the MCAT, but I'd telling you that even if it was 3.92.

I am so pissed off by this because I didn't even want the stupid units but my high school automatically signed up for everyone in the class. Also, out of like 50 students there were probably 2 who got A's. Can't believe this is screwing me over again for med school URG!

It's not screwing you over. Put it behind you. You'll have a clear upward trend from your high school credits and your cum GPA is still very good.

 

[emiko]

I am trying not to be too obsessed with my GPA but it just makes me sad that my GPA would drop from 3.88 -> 3.7 because of a stupid math class in high school. Thanks for all the replies though. I definitely need to do better on the MCAT to make it up.

I just looked at the GPA guide by AMCAS and I am just wondering if the courses taken while in high school are going to be counted toward "cumulative undergraduate GPA." Does anyone know about this? Thank!

 

[QofQuimica]

I just looked at the GPA guide by AMCAS and I am just wondering if the courses taken while in high school are going to be counted toward "cumulative undergraduate GPA." Does anyone know about this? Thank!

Were you dual-enrolled, and do you have a college transcript for that coursework? If so, then yes, those grades will be counted toward your cum UG GPA. You are required to submit all post-secondary transcripts to AMCAS, which means anything taken above the high school level. All post-secondary grades will be used in the AMCAS calculation. So yes, that includes any grades for courses taken where you were dual-enrolled in college while you were in high school.

As others have already said, though, this is not nearly as big of a deal as you're making it out to be. I know you're anxious because you're applying and it seems like everyone else on SDN has a 4.329 GPA, but try to chill a little bit. First, the C in this class isn't going to matter nearly as much as your MCAT score is going to matter. So focus on studying for the MCAT. Second, med schools are not looking for perfection. It's ok to not be perfect. Really, it is.

Also, a little other friendly advice: don't blame your Cs in high school on anyone else. Even if you're sure it's all your teacher's fault (or your school's fault, or the language barrier's fault, or the alignment of the planets' fault), part of being mature is accepting that you are responsible for creating your own success in life. You are not just some passive, inanimate object that things "happen to." So if interviewers ask you why you got Cs in high school, then tell them the truth: you weren't mature enough in high school to be taking a college level class that required you to learn independently. There's no shame in that. Plenty of college underclassmen aren't mature enough for independent learning, never mind a high school senior.

Again, having a sense of perspective here is key. People change over time, and adcoms recognize this. You went to college and kicked butt the whole time, so obviously you're not the same guy or gal academically that you were four years ago. Right?

Best of luck with your apps. 🙂

 

[emiko]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I was just really pissed off about this issue when a classmate pointed out to me about how we all received college credits for this math class that took place in my high school and we will have to report this on AMCAS. Sucks....but I guess life has to move on. I will definitely make a call to my high school to ask them don't automatically give people college credits without students' consent though. This could lead to really unexpected consequences.

I am not sure if I was considered "dual-enrolled" since I never filled out any form to enroll in this local college. Rather, every single student who took multi-variable calc and linear algebra at my high school received both high school credits and college credits for the course. However, when I was admitted to my home institution, my high school requested transcript from the college and I received credits that show up on my home institution's transcript.