Don't understand the difference between AMCAS & institutional GPA's..

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HeatherMD

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A lot of people here are listing two GPAs in their posts, and the AMCAS one always seems lower than what their school gave them. Why is this and how would I go about calculating my AMCAS GPA?

At my university all class as are worth 3 credits (even the ones with 4-hr labs, unfortunately!), and we use an F to A+ grading scale, where an F = 0.0 and both A & A+ = 4.0

How would I go about calculating my AMCAS GPA and why do I need it/where do I use it?

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To calculate your AMCAS GPA, use the calculator here: http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2008amcasgradeconversionguide.pdf

Some people may have higher institutional GPA's due to grade replacement for retaken classes (AMCAS will average the 2 grades), use of A+ as a 4.3, or something else.

Your AMCAS GPA is what med schools will see and judge you by when you apply. They don't care about what your institutional GPA is.
 
Ok that's cool, looks like my GPA will be unchanged =) thanks for that link

We're not allowed to retake courses at my school, so I never had that option. Looks like that's a good thing!
 
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Alright, I have another question.

For calculating the BCPM GPA, what constitutes what?

At my school, things like physiology, anatomy, zoology, genetics and botany all count as Biology courses. Biochemistry can be chemistry or biology.

I have a ton of biochemistry courses, as well as anatomy and physiology. Are they part of my BCMP GPA?
 
All of those courses will be included, as well as chemistry, physics, and all math. Engineering is not included by AMCAS.
 
ok I found an excel program that computes this all for me.

haha one year my AO GPA is 0 because I only took science courses =p
 
The AMCAS website also has info about what is included in the BCPM calculation, if you have any tricky courses, like astronomy (not science).
 
So, say for example your gpa for one class is 3.6. It gets dropped down to 3.3....
 
I'm not sure what your question is.

Oh, sorry, haha. It was late and I was just wondering how amcas weights gpa. If my school has a numeric grading system, so you can get any grade between 0.7 and 4.0, for example like 3.6 or 3.2, would amcas weight a 3.6 as a 3.3? If it does, it's a shame, I'll just have to get 3.7 plus then for my last few years.
 
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