covered grades

[GoHop]

I attend Johns Hopkins and my first semester grades are covered. What do med schools think about this?

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[tennisnr]

For what reasons are they covered?

 

[GoHop]

because that's what the university does...........everyone's first semester grades are pass/fail

 

[LifetimeDoc]

Sounds unfair to the vast majority of other pre-meds that can't hide their low freshmen grades. However, your first semester can't be full of any real challenging, upper-division courses anyway. So, probably won't mean much.

If it was a medical school pre-req (note that I'm not on an ADCOM), I'd personally just assume you got a C. But that's just me.

 

[tennisnr]

Well if it's something that hopkins does then med schools are obviously familiar with this. You can't be the first person to apply to med school from Hopkins lol.

Talk to hopkins and see what they do. If you have prereqs in there I'd assume they would find your grade so you can report it to amcas. But again obviously hopkins deals with this every year so they must have something in place.

 

[GoHop]

Sounds unfair to the vast majority of other pre-meds that can't hide their low freshmen grades. However, your first semester can't be full of any real challenging, upper-division courses anyway. So, probably won't mean much.

If it was a medical school pre-req (note that I'm not on an ADCOM), I'd personally just assume you got a C. But that's just me.

i can't see them assuming i got a C lol i guess i'll have to call some of the med schools but if anyone else has info i'd be glad to hear it

 

[BluePhoenix]

Several of the top science colleges are pass/fail for the first semester of classes. At my school, we were required to take calculus, physics + lab, and chemistry + lab during the first semester, all pass fail. It wasn't until our 2nd year that we selected the courses we registered for. I'm curious how those grades will be handled, as it wasn't an option to take them for a grade or to take them any other semester.

 

[artaxerxes]

probably won't count toward your GPA, just like on the transcript. Its kinda ******ed that some schools do that...I guess they trust their students to be self-motivated which is often not the case.

 

[jochi1543]

Man! I would've graduated with a 3.7 if my school did that!😎 Instead I'm stuck here with a 3.5.🙁 Damn you, freshman year!

 

[Bacchus]

Man! I would've graduated with a 3.7 if my school did that!😎 Instead I'm stuck here with a 3.5.🙁 Damn you, freshman year!

I agree. (I guess I just gave my most private info out 😱)

 

[MChitty]

MIT does this too and I'm pretty sure some schools request that the grades are released. In fact, Johns Hopkins is one of those schools. You'd probably have to call schools and ask them individually, but I would be prepared to have those grades shown to some schools.

 

[SB100]

My school only allows like 4 pass/fail declarations, and they can't be in your major. I'm surprised actually that JHU and MIT do this. How come nobody's brought this up before?

 

[MassTransport]

Some schools do it because it gives the freshman a theoretically low-stress year to get adjusted. I didn't know they actually record letter grades and just hide them. That kinda defeats the whole purpose doesn't it?

 

[MChitty]

Some schools do it because it gives the freshman a theoretically low-stress year to get adjusted. I didn't know they actually record letter grades and just hide them. That kinda defeats the whole purpose doesn't it?

I don't think it necessarily defeats the whole purpose. I think the schools that adopt this policy accept students that were the best in their class, but maybe came from school systems that didn't prepare them as well as some of their classmates. Rather than penalize them for that, it helps them get adjusted to their new level of learning without killing their gpa.

At the same time, if you end up doing well, being able to release your grades is a reward, whereas for those that were adjusting, they are still penalized. Besides, not having as many grades count is kind of a downside, as each of your remaining grades has more of an impact on your overall GPA.

 

[copingmethods]

From what I hear though, Hopkins Med CAN see those grades.

 

[littlealex]

Nope. In the past there had been a struggle between medical schools and Hopkins undergrad about uncovering those grades. However, to put an end to this power struggle, Hopkins had adapted the policy 2 years ago that grades cannot be uncovered under any scenario nowadays.

I know this becaues my freshmen year grades were amazing, and even though under previous policies I could uncover my grades (if you entered with more then 18 AP credits but less then 25), this is no longer the case.

 

[Bacchus]

Nope. In the past there had been a struggle between medical schools and Hopkins undergrad about uncovering those grades. However, to put an end to this power struggle, Hopkins had adapted the policy 2 years ago that grades cannot be uncovered under any scenario nowadays.

I know this becaues my freshmen year grades were amazing, and even though under previous policies I could uncover my grades (if you entered with more then 18 AP credits but less then 25), this is no longer the case.

I would like to know how the playing field is leveled. That annoys me, just a bit. Like jochi and I agreed above, if that is the case then I wish I could hide my freshman grades.

 

[MassTransport]

I would like to know how the playing field is leveled. That annoys me, just a bit. Like jochi and I agreed above, if that is the case then I wish I could hide my freshman grades.

MCAT?

I'm in the same boat as you. If my freshman grades were disregarded, I'd have a much better GPA. But I think of this as no different than the GPA difference between majors or between colleges. There's no way to "level" the field. As long as the schools that cover grades do it uniformly, I'm okay with it.

 

[fastfingers]

JHU has grade deflation. I think that levels the playing field.

 

[Bacchus]

MCAT?

I'm in the same boat as you. If my freshman grades were disregarded, I'd have a much better GPA. But I think of this as no different than the GPA difference between majors or between colleges. There's no way to "level" the field. As long as the schools that cover grades do it uniformly, I'm okay with it.

I understand completely. But if an applicant gets all C's first and second semester, so a 2.0, and then has an epiphany that they actually need to study *gasp* how is that being covered fair to other applicants who hit the ground running? I consider the MCAT a great leveler but not perfect and if someone gets covered and then has a 3.8 through second, third, and fourth year and gets a 28 versus someone with a 3.4 or 3.5 and a 30, it may get hairy. Oh well, the only way to counteract is to become a recluse, haha.

 

[BluePhoenix]

At Harvey Mudd, no letter grades are recorded anywhere, just High Pass, Pass and Fail. Considering the course load for freshman year, it was nice to not have to stress about the grades. If you did manage to get a High Pass in all your classes (1 Hum, 4 Science Classes, 2 Labs), they sent you a "get a life" letter where they encouraged you to spend less time studying and more time enjoying outside activities.

It levels the playing field more at the particular school, where the science background is significantly different depending on the high school you went to. While we all begin in the same class, some people from the top magnet schools definitely have a big head start compared with students that went to public schools with less options. The idea is that by the end of the first semester, we should all be at the same level and it's not fair to penalize people based on something they couldn't really control.

 

[mcpremed]

I went to Hopkins, and I still have no idea what my grades were from that semester. You have to go into the registrar to see those grades, and you can also opt to uncover them.

If I uncovered those grades, then my gpa would prob plummet a couple of points 😎 (one reason I crammed 18 credits into that sem).

I also thought that those intro courses were much harder than my upper level bio courses. Intro course = huge class size = no soup for you.

"we're pass/fail, let's go hit the sauce."

 

[Dr. Josh]

Man! I would've graduated with a 3.7 if my school did that!😎 Instead I'm stuck here with a 3.5.🙁 Damn you, freshman year!

Wow, I agree; that doesn't seem fair. I would have had a 3.85 rather than a 3.65. 🙁