Do adcoms consider whether or not your school graded on a plus/minus scale?

[EngtoMedHopeful]

I had a pretty high undergrad GPA (3.92), although it's not particularly impressive in my opinion 1) because I was an English major and 2) because my school graded on a simple A/B/C/D/F scale with no pluses or minuses.

Obviously, the lack of a plus/minus scale can benefit certain types of students while disadvantaging others. In my case, I wound up benefiting because there are several plain As on my transcript that would have been A-s at many other schools.

I'm just curious if adcoms consider the scale your school used for administering grades or if my 3.92 GPA with a major in English and no plus/minus system will be viewed roughly the same as a neuroscience major's 3.92 GPA at a school with a plus/minus system. I'll be the first to admit that I don't think that's fair if so, but I can't say I'd mind from a selfish standpoint. Just curious.

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[NuttyEngDude]

When you open an application, you are required to type in all your grades to the AMCAS system. This means if you are on a plus/minus system, you type it in and it gets coverted to their own scale. This is then what is sent out to all the schools when they do initial first passes of your application. If they use it, it is deep deep deep in the process quite possibly for a tiebreaker. BUT most likely, it does not come into play because they will care more about your volunteering, EC's research, etc before it becomes a factor.

Take a look at this:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181676/data/amcas_grade_conversion_guide.pdf

 

[EngtoMedHopeful]

When you open an application, you are required to type in all your grades to the AMCAS system. This means if you are on a plus/minus system, you type it in and it gets coverted to their own scale. This is then what is sent out to all the schools when they do initial first passes of your application. If they use it, it is deep deep deep in the process quite possibly for a tiebreaker. BUT most likely, it does not come into play because they will care more about your volunteering, EC's research, etc before it becomes a factor.

Take a look at this:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181676/data/amcas_grade_conversion_guide.pdf

Thanks for the link. I did know that AMCAS calculates GPA differently than schools, but it still appears as though AMCAS assigns less credit to an A- than a solid A, which would obviously cause someone with a bunch of A-s to have a lower GPA than someone with a transcript full of As.

Thank goodness no one has the ability or at least time to contact each and every one of my undergrad professors to find out my numerical score in each class. heh.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

You are right. As a pre-med, A-'s hurt you and A+'s do nothing for you. I always preferred non +/- systems, if you're a B+ student, it's better than being a B student though.

 

[EngtoMedHopeful]

Yes, exactly. I like the non plus/minus system because it almost always works to my benefit. Can't say I won't be extremely frustrated if I wind up with a 3.0 in a class because I came out with an 89.4 in the class, however.

It's just so bizarre to me that it's not taken into more consideration lol. My friends who attended a plus/minus school about three hours away performed roughly the same as I did in undergrad, but their GPAs are around 3.7, and mine is a 3.92. Not a humungous difference, I suppose, but I don't think there's any denying that 3.9+ just looks a lot prettier on paper.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Honestly, I think over the course of a degree it tends to be a wash.