Does cGPA include associate degree?

[Guntrip]

I have a 3.5 cGPA in my AA degree in Liberal Arts from a community college, but I royally screwed up my BA degree from Skidmore College as I graduated from there with a 2.7 cGPA psychology major.

I am wondering how this works in applying to post bacc programs or even programs in the future that I would most probably need to apply to

I understand that there is a long road ahead of me and I am willing to do what it takes.

So do they get averaged? Do the community college grades just get tossed aside as they were when I got my bachelors?

I have only taken the min science courses required for a B.A. degree, one or two of them at most.

Thank you for your help.

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[DrMidlife]

All college grades are included in cumulative GPA calcs for med school.

How a college evaluates transfer credit is not part of the story for med school. Colleges don't get a vote in course evaluation or GPA calculation.

It doesn't matter how old a transcript is, or how many transcripts you collect over the years, you have to submit them all for med school.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Guntrip]

All college grades are included in cumulative GPA calcs for med school.

How a college evaluates transfer credit is not part of the story for med school. Colleges don't get a vote in course evaluation or GPA calculation.

It doesn't matter how old a transcript is, or how many transcripts you collect over the years, you have to submit them all for med school.

Best of luck to you.

Thank you for your quick reply.

So what you are saying is that while my B.A. degree erased all the community college credit grades that I transferred to it, medical schools will still count these grades in my cGPA?

Based on how I am understanding what you said, in the long run, this is perhaps a good thing for me?

Basically my story is that I did alright at community college with my 3.5 over 64 credits. I went to Skidmore and started mucking up my first semester (3.3 with 12 credits) the next two semesters and summer session I had a serious personal issue (please note that I am not trying to make excuses, I am just explaining what I think happened) and my GPA really suffered. If it helps I did not fail any classes but I did get a D in an english class. The next semester I did much better finishing it with a 3.5 (including an honors thesis class which I got an A in).

So, hypothetically, if I ace a post bacc program and do well on the MCAT, is there is hope for me getting accepted into a medical school in the USA? I am willing to do whatever it takes, I just want to know if there is hope.

There is that post that I often seen linked to situations similar to mine. It is titled something like: WHAT TO DO IF YOUR GPA IS LOWER THAN 3.0 AND YOU WANT TO GO TO MED SCHOOL. Reading that made me quite anxious over all of this as it made it seem like it was simply not possible for me to do what I know I want to do.

I worked in a psychiatric hospital after college and I am utterly, thoroughly, and completely convinced that the only thing I can see myself doing in my life is becoming a psychiatrist.

Having taken one, or at most 2 science courses (I'm going to have to check this tomorrow) is a good thing too I think? As all the post bacc science courses will be fresh on my record and I could get a seriously competitive sGPA if I ace it?

I imagine that med schools look at community college grades differently but perhaps not?

I know I'm throwing a whole bunch out there but if you can provide any information as to any of these questions of mine it would help me so much.

Thanks again.

 

[Goucher2013]

What's your GPA with the associates taken into account? Presumably at the 3.0 mark. Yes, the fact that it's community college credit might not help, but they'll look at the cGPA number before they look at where you got the credit.

Plenty of people have switched to medicine with a 3.0 GPA later in life, but do be aware that it won't be easy and that you'll have to set realistic expectations in terms of where you'll ultimately attend med school. Yes, there are always outliers (the guy with a 3.0 uGPA and below-average GPA in my postbac program who's going to a top-50 MD school; the guy with a 2.8 uGPA I met at UMich), but you're by definition almost certainly not going to be one of them. DO will probably be your best route (and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that). If you can accept that some things from the past can't be undone - that certain doors will be closed to you - there's nothing standing in the way of you having a healthy pre-med experience that will culminate in successful admission to a medical school. Well, nothing except your ability to master the material, and that's also largely a function of being resilient and quickly improving your study and testing abilities under the stress of knowing that string of Bs can ruin your chances. It's tough, but achievable.

Lastly, if any of your personal problems in college had anything to do with mental health, I strongly advise being cautious about being vocal with postbac programs and med schools about your interest in pursuing psychiatry, and especially about linking any personal experiences to that interest.

PS: Here's a TED Talk (I know...overdone) that I've found to be a good litmus test for readiness to embark on a big career challenge: if the talk makes a viewer obsess about failure afterwards, they're in trouble: http://www.ted.com/talks/larry_smith_why_you_will_fail_to_have_a_great_career.html

 

[DrMidlife]

So what you are saying is that while my B.A. degree erased all the community college credit grades that I transferred to it, medical schools will still count these grades in my cGPA?

Your BA degree didn't erase anything. The college that granted you a degree made choices about what coursework to consider in granting you a BA.

Med schools don't care at all what your BA-granting college thinks about your community college transcript. "Transfer credit" has nothing to do with anything in med school admissions, except when it counts as evaluation of foreign transcripts.

Your academic record goes into a med school app course by course, transcript by transcript. Whether you got a degree or not is a completely separate question.

Pull up AMCAS, AACOMAS or TMDSAS and see for yourself.

 

[Guntrip]

What's your GPA with the associates taken into account? Presumably at the 3.0 mark. Yes, the fact that it's community college credit might not help, but they'll look at the cGPA number before they look at where you got the credit.

Plenty of people have switched to medicine with a 3.0 GPA later in life, but do be aware that it won't be easy and that you'll have to set realistic expectations in terms of where you'll ultimately attend med school. Yes, there are always outliers (the guy with a 3.0 uGPA and below-average GPA in my postbac program who's going to a top-50 MD school; the guy with a 2.8 uGPA I met at UMich), but you're by definition almost certainly not going to be one of them. DO will probably be your best route (and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that). If you can accept that some things from the past can't be undone - that certain doors will be closed to you - there's nothing standing in the way of you having a healthy pre-med experience that will culminate in successful admission to a medical school. Well, nothing except your ability to master the material, and that's also largely a function of being resilient and quickly improving your study and testing abilities under the stress of knowing that string of Bs can ruin your chances. It's tough, but achievable.

Lastly, if any of your personal problems in college had anything to do with mental health, I strongly advise being cautious about being vocal with postbac programs and med schools about your interest in pursuing psychiatry, and especially about linking any personal experiences to that interest.

PS: Here's a TED Talk (I know...overdone) that I've found to be a good litmus test for readiness to embark on a big career challenge: if the talk makes a viewer obsess about failure afterwards, they're in trouble: http://www.ted.com/talks/larry_smith_why_you_will_fail_to_have_a_great_career.html

Your clairvoyance on the matter is most impressive ; what gave it away? I will be sure to note that for my future plans.

Going to give whole thing a whirl though. Looking at Stony Brook for the fall as well as City College and Hofstra for the summer.

Thanks to everyone who posted here for their advice.

And that TED talk was... blunt to say the least. Perhaps that should be required viewing at some point in everybodies academic career? Heh, thank you for showing me it.

Edit -- I am going to find out my exact cGPA today and will post it when I do. What I originally posted as my GPA from Skidmore was just an estimate as they are being a bit of a pain in giving this information out. I should have it shortly and will post everything when it comes through.

 

[DrMidlife]

Again, GPA calculations done by a school are meaningless if you have gone to more than one school. Start thinking of GPA as being defined by med schools, and owned by you. Which means you need to be in charge of what classes you took at what credit hours with what grade on what grade system.

Google "AMCAS gpa calculator".