GPA Calculating

[Hastur]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Okay, so I'm doing some number plugging for my late app (decided to apply this year because my MCAT score is too good to waste) and I've been using the excel spreadsheet linked in this thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=590424

But I have a question. I'm a little fuzzy on the particulars after reading the grade conversion guide. They say, "Find the conversion that most closely matches your school’s grading system." Their system has 3.7 for an A-; my school has a 3.67.

Does that mean that my A minuses will go in as 3.67 or as 3.7 when they verify my app? What should I do with this in the spreadsheet?

Furthermore, the spreadsheet doesn't seem to understand W's or my past narrative eval-based coursework.

I don't know:

(a) how to factor in W's
(b) whether the system will assign me a GPA based solely on my letter-grade coursework (which, according to this spreadsheet, would be around 3.33 general / 3.56 BCPM, which is not horrible but... does not quite capture my glowing performance in my junior and senior years, all of which was narrative!) or whether it will barf it back out stamped "It's Complicated" as other students of narrative-eval-giving colleges have described, leaving individual schools to page through paragraphs of "Hastur is totally awesome, y0."

I am indeed following the recommended method of putting in "Pass" grades but not marking the class pass/fail, btw.

What do y'all think?

 

[Hastur]

Bump. I know, the title is a bit gnomic (realized this after the fact), but I still am curious about this.

 

[aSagacious]

A) To my understanding, you enter a 'W' for a withdrawal on your application and it does not contribute to your GPA.

B) What do you mean by 'solely on letter grade course work'? Have you attended more than one school? In any case AMCAS will convert any and all grades to a 4.0 scale (often using the back of your official transcript as a guide if your school's grading scheme is unconventional). It will 'capture your glowing performance from junior and senior year' because AMCAS displays a year-by-year breakdown of BCPM, AO, and Total GPA.

C) Why would you mark your class 'pass' but not label it 'pass/fail'? That's precisely what it should be labeled.

D) I don't know if AMCAS will treat your A- as 3.7 or 3.67, but I suspect they will go off of the conversion guide associated with your official transcript.

 

[aSagacious]

I can't help you and I expect you to get a satisfactory answer.

Thank you for this wonderful contribution to the thread. Keep up the good work. 😉

 

[Catalystik]

Since a W and a Pass have no impact on your GPA, there's no need to include them when using the GPA calculator spreadsheet.

Yes, your A- will be given a numeric quantity of 3.7 by AMCAS, reagardless of what your college did.

 

[Hastur]

A) To my understanding, you enter a 'W' for a withdrawal on your application and it does not contribute to your GPA.

B) What do you mean by 'solely on letter grade course work'? Have you attended more than one school? In any case AMCAS will convert any and all grades to a 4.0 scale (often using the back of your official transcript as a guide if your school's grading scheme is unconventional). It will 'capture your glowing performance from junior and senior year' because AMCAS displays a year-by-year breakdown of BCPM, AO, and Total GPA.

C) Why would you mark your class 'pass' but not label it 'pass/fail'? That's precisely what it should be labeled.

D) I don't know if AMCAS will treat your A- as 3.7 or 3.67, but I suspect they will go off of the conversion guide associated with your official transcript.

For my junior and senior year of my first college degree, I went to a college that uses narrative evaluations rather than letter grades (Evergreen State College.)

This is not actually "Pass/Fail" grading, and people who have called AMCAS in the past about this (according to forum searches) were told to select "Pass" but not mark the class pass/fail, in order to alert the system that it is actually a narrative evaluation grading option.

I don't know why they don't just make a checkbox for it; I guess it's too uncommon among schools. My target school, however, will know about this because there are two major colleges in the area that use narrative evaluations as the only grading mode - so I'll be in the same boat as many other applicants there. 🙂

My results from using the search function also told me that when the entire transcript is from such a college, the system gives no GPA.

But I'm not sure what exactly to expect with two graded transcripts (community college and postbac), one narrative eval transcript and a pass/fail grad school transcript. Except possibly a diagnosis of college addiction.