Combining Different Credit Systems

[mehc012]

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Hey! Sorry for making a new thread for such a simple question, but I couldn't find anything that fully addressed it.

I plan on taking my remaining prereqs/GPA boost courses at a local 4-year. However, the credit system is completely different from my alma mater, which didn't really have one. You were required to take a certain number of courses, and they didn't use credits at all!

Most of the courses at the new college seem to be 3 credit hours, so I'll assume that a typical, 1-semester course from my college should be about that? However, ALL of the labs here have their own credit hours! My school never listed a lab course separately, and never let it factor in to your GPA in any way other than using it as part of the total grade for your course (so if you did poorly in the lab, it dragged your whole course grade down.)

When adding these courses to my GPA, should I follow the old system of my school, or should I convert my school courses into credit hours and combine them? If I did that, would I just assume 3 credits/course or should I make lab courses worth more credit hours?

I'm not advocating changing the credits of my actual, already-taken courses. I'm just wondering how to count these new ones.

This could actually have a huge impact on the number of courses I need for GPA repair, as well as my sGPA (though since most of my classes were sciences, it will still pretty much equal my cGPA).

Thanks!

 

[DrMidlife]

Generally the best way to proceed is to get nothing but A's. Right?

Your schools don't own GPA calcs. The app services for med schools own them (and then med schools can recalculate all they like).

It's never too early, in a mixed/multi-transcript scenario, to read the AMCAS coursework instructions: https://www.aamc.org/students/download/182162/data/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf

If you're in Texas, also read up on TMDSAS, and if you're thinking DO, also read up on AACOMAS.

I had a spreadsheet with ~17 columns to do all the conversions for 25 years of transcripts. It was worth the time.

Best of luck to you.

 

[mehc012]

I'm planning on getting nothing but A's, haha! The question is how many A's...there's definitely a diminishing return on each class, as the more courses you take, the less impact each individual course has on the average. With that being said, I have a goal, and I'd just like to know when I've made it!

Thanks for the link!

 

[mehc012]

That states which courses should be included, but doesn't really say how much they count for. Oh well...guess I'll just take as many as possible! Besides, I think a 4.0 in PostBacc will be a big boost even if it didn't change my uGPA.

 

[DrMidlife]

I'm planning on getting nothing but A's, haha! The question is how many A's...there's definitely a diminishing return on each class, as the more courses you take, the less impact each individual course has on the average. With that being said, I have a goal, and I'd just like to know when I've made it!

Thanks for the link!

This is an excellent opportunity to get very familiar with how to use GPA calcs.

Such as, use years instead of units/credits/hours to do a back-of-envelope calc, for now. It took you 4 years of full time study to get to your current GPA, correct? How many years of 3.7+ full time work do you need to get to a decent cumulative number?

Make math your minion. Do it!!!

 

[mehc012]

I've already done a back-of-the-envelope, giving each new course the same weight as my old courses. I was just wondering how to incorporate labs. I figure I'll just take as many as I needed w/o labs, and then the labs can only help. That way I'll be safe either way. I just like to have all the smallest details worked out. However, if they end up giving my old courses more weight, it might mean I need to take more than the back-of-the-envelope indicates!

To be fair, I only need ~.2 to have a score that is low, but could be balanced by a good MCAT.

 

[DrMidlife]

I've already done a back-of-the-envelope, giving each new course the same weight as my old courses.

That's not back-of-the-envelope, it's holding on to what you know in lieu of converting to a useful standard. I don't care if you use years or not, but your old school's standard just isn't going to serve you now.

I was just wondering how to incorporate labs. I figure I'll just take as many as I needed w/o labs, and then the labs can only help. That way I'll be safe either way.

I don't get why you're thinking separate labs an are issue. They're just separate courses. More coursework. Not confusing.

I just like to have all the smallest details worked out.

Then spreadsheet it out. Right now you're using speculation. You have the choice to use math instead. Math will serve you better.

However, if they end up giving my old courses more weight, it might mean I need to take more than the back-of-the-envelope indicates!

If by "they" you mean the med school app services, you can figure out exactly what the weighting is of your old school vs your new school by reading the instructions and converting to a useful standard. Which is what the app services will do, regardless.

Math math math math math. Math.

To be fair, I only need ~.2 to have a score that is low, but could be balanced by a good MCAT.

I'm not following that at all. You need to raise your GPA .2? Or if you raise your GPA .2 you'll then have a low GPA?

Go easy on believing you can be saved by a good MCAT score. You're not saying what your GPA is, but if it's below maybe 3.2, most likely you didn't master the content sufficiently to get above the average of 31+.

Best of luck to you.

 

[mehc012]

That's not back-of-the-envelope, it's holding on to what you know in lieu of converting to a useful standard. I don't care if you use years or not, but your old school's standard just isn't going to serve you now.

It seems more useful than 'years'...it essentially tells me how many courses I need to take. I stuck with my school's system only because going by credit hours is the same, just with a 3x multiplier. I would switch to the AMCAS, but it doesn't really specify how to count each course. Therefore, I simply assumed equivalent weight, since it seems odd to purposefully give courses from either school more weight.

I don't get why you're thinking separate labs an are issue. They're just separate courses. More coursework. Not confusing.

I'm only asking because it changes whether or not my post-bacc courses are worth equivalent weight or extra weight as compared to my undergrad ones. This makes a difference to my total GPA.

Then spreadsheet it out. Right now you're using speculation. You have the choice to use math instead. Math will serve you better.

I am using math. Even in your link, I didn't see a specific formula, I just saw 'enter your grades online and the AMCAS will let you know your GPA. So yes, I'm speculating as to which formula to use, which is the entire reason I posted. I posted for more information about how the AMCAS calculates GPA, which I'm having a hard time finding. Even your link didn't have specific details.

If by "they" you mean the med school app services, you can figure out exactly what the weighting is of your old school vs your new school by reading the instructions and converting to a useful standard. Which is what the app services will do, regardless.

Again, the whole point of posting was that I am having difficulty finding a 'useful standard.' You can tell me to use it all you want, but until I know what it is, I'm going to have a hard time using it.

I'm not following that at all. You need to raise your GPA .2? Or if you raise your GPA .2 you'll then have a low GPA?

I have a 3.2, and ~7-8 courses would get me to a 3.4. It would take another year to raise to a 3.5, so I'd like to try applying with a 3.4 first.

Go easy on believing you can be saved by a good MCAT score. You're not saying what your GPA is, but if it's below maybe 3.2, most likely you didn't master the content sufficiently to get above the average of 31+.

My low grades were not due to tests, but rather poor time management and some family stuff. I've worked on it since then, and think that taking classes while working will demonstrate my improvement. Furthermore, test-taking is my forte, and since I have no definite timeline for application, I can spend as much time studying as necessary. I did mostly organic chemistry and microbiology in undergrad, and have a lot of research experience. I didn't take any of these courses with the goal of being a premed (another reason why my GPA was so low; it wasn't as important in my intended career), but rather because I enjoyed them and wanted to learn the material. I have used a lot of it since then, so it's not hugely rusty.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks! And thanks for your input; I'm still trying to figure out exactly what formula they use, but the link you posted had a lot of good info!

 

[kami333]

My undergrad had a similar system, all my classes (including those with labs) counted as 1 credit and I needed 32 credits in order to graduate.

Have you tried getting a copy of your official transcript? Mine had something to the effect of "All courses are 1 credit and are the equivalent of 4 credit hours" on the back. Your old school's registrar may also be able to tell you what the official conversion should be (I find it hard to believe they would have one, at least in order to accommodate transfer students in and out). Another way is to find out how many classes you needed to take to be a full-time student for the semester and divide 12 by that number since the federal government defines a full time student as one taking 12 credit hours or more.

AMCAS calculated it exactly as it said on the back of my transcript, at 4 credit hours each, but I'm still waiting to see what AACOMAS will do in terms of retakes. I ended up with credits, credit hours and quarter hours on my application, I feel sorry for whoever had to verify it🙂

 

[mehc012]

My undergrad had a similar system, all my classes (including those with labs) counted as 1 credit and I needed 32 credits to pass. Your old school's registrar may also be able to tell you what the official conversion should be (I find it hard to believe they would have one, at least in order to accommodate transfer students in and out). Another way is to find out how many classes you needed to take to be a full-time student for the semester and divide 12 by that number since the federal government defines a full time student as one taking 12 credit hours or more.

Have you tried getting a copy of your official transcript? Mine had something to the effect of "All courses are the equivalent of 4 credit hours" on the back. AMCAS calculated it exactly that way, at 4 credit hours each, but I'm still waiting to see what AACOMAS will do in terms of retakes. I ended up with credits, credit hours and quarter hours on my application, I feel sorry for whoever had to verify it🙂

Yeah, that sounds exactly like my school's system! Thanks for the suggestion...I think I have an official transcript lying around somewhere. If they're 4 credit hours each, that would make a huge difference, and I'd need to take more courses! My school did maybe a handful of transfer students/year (really though, less than 10) and there was no such thing as 'part-time'. Everyone took exactly the same number of courses every semester, and you had to graduate in 4 years. They let you take a year off or an extra semester if there were extenuating circumstances, but you were expected to at least attempt a 5-course semester if you dropped a class the previous semester.

 

[mehc012]

Your old school's registrar may also be able to tell you what the official conversion should be (I find it hard to believe they would have one, at least in order to accommodate transfer students in and out).

Thank you so much for this suggestion! It turns out they have a standard specifically for AMCAS conversion (if you ask the right person)!

It turned out to be very good that I got the weights and calculated it out, as I was assuming each semester would be equivalent to a typical full time courseload...in fact, while my school doesn't count the lab at all towards graduation credits, they do affect weighting for AMCAS credit conversion, which is what I was concerned about!

This increased my average semester load a LOT...mine ended up ranging from 16.75-18.25 credits instead of 13 (the typical 4 class FT non-lab load!)

Guess this means more post-bacc!