GPA Calculation???

[scottj72]

Ok, guys I have finally decided to give it a shot. Seems I have always been non-traditional throughout my education. I have a few questions about how grades would be calculated on applications. First off I always worked fulltime while going to school, so some quarters( state schools used quarter system back then) I was classifed as partime. First question is how to determine the exact cutoffs for freshmen/soph/jr/senior years.
The second deals with grades I recieved in a post-bac teacher certification program. I had to be accepted in to the graduate school for the program, but 16 semester hours were at the 3000-4000 level and 14 semester hours were at the 5000-6000 level. So...would all the grades be post-bac or graduate? Or maybe 16 hours post bac and 14 hours graduate? i think it may be the last option because the 3000-4000 classes were not included in my graduate GPA. But I know sometimes aamc/aacom do things differently, but reallydid not find any info on the gpa guides online,
Thanks for any guidance. I am just try to get an idea where I stand.

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[st0w]

First question is how to determine the exact cutoffs for freshmen/soph/jr/senior years.

It's based on credits. Whatever number of credits your undergrad institution required you to have complete to be considered a Soph/Jr/Sr determines it.

The second deals with grades I recieved in a post-bac teacher certification program. I had to be accepted in to the graduate school for the program, but 16 semester hours were at the 3000-4000 level and 14 semester hours were at the 5000-6000 level.

The answers to both your questions can be found in the AMCAS Instruction Book at http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2008amcasinstructionsrevised.pdf (see the Course Work section). Most questions you have can be answered somewhere in there.

 

[relentless11]

Anything after you graduated from undergrad is considered graduate (except a designated postbacc program).

Not exactly correct. All undergrad coursework taken after receiving your bachelors degree is considered post-bacc work. All graduate level or professional level coursework during your undergrad program (if not for your degree), or after your bachelors program is counted in your graduate GPA.

There is no differentiation between a "designated" (official) post-bacc program vs. taking more undergrad classes after your bachelors...hence the term "post-bacc". To emphasize this point, if one does a PhD program, but also took undergrad classes as electives, then those undergrad classes would actually be considered as post-bacc. However if you took med school classes after your bachelors degree, it would be considered as graduate/professional coursework, which is counted in your grad GPA.

The second deals with grades I recieved in a post-bac teacher certification program. I had to be accepted in to the graduate school for the program, but 16 semester hours were at the 3000-4000 level and 14 semester hours were at the 5000-6000 level.

Nobody here can understand what a 3000-4000 level course is vs. a 5000-6000 level course. Here at UC Davis, we don't even have course numbers that high. A 200 level course is graduate, while a 400 level course is professional (veterinary or medical school). Therefore it varies between schools. However since you appear to be in a graduate program due to being accepted into a graduate school, this may be graduate level GPA. You will have to clarify that with your school. However most certification/professional programs that I know of are graduate level. There are exceptions though.

Or maybe 16 hours post bac and 14 hours graduate? i think it may be the last option because the 3000-4000 classes were not included in my graduate GPA. But I know sometimes aamc/aacom do things differently, but reallydid not find any info on the gpa guides online,
Thanks for any guidance. I am just try to get an idea where I stand.

You may be correct, however AMCAS does things differently. As noted above, a PhD student can take undergrad classes. In terms of their transcript, it would show up as their "graduate GPA". In terms of AMCAS, you will have to seperate out the undergrad courses and count them as post-bacc GPA. The reason why I know this is (1) I am doing exactly that, and (2) i asked our director of admissions here at UC Davis School of Medicine about this option. I'm sure its also defined in the AMCAS manual too. The best way to clarify this is to contact your school and ask if they are undergrad classes or graduate/professional classes. Good luck!

 

[DrMidlife]

Anything after you graduated from undergrad is considered graduate (except a designated postbacc program).

I don't think that's correct - I was recently corrected on my (completely opposite of the above) understanding of undergrad vs. grad credit.

Any postbac undergrad work counts as undergrad, regardless of whether it's taken in a designated postbac program. This is in the doc on page 11.

Undergrad work done under the auspices of graduate study counts as grad work. If the undergrad work done during grad school isn't related to your grad program, it's undergrad. This is on page 43, and LifetimeDoc can attest to it.

Page 42 describes the year cutoffs, such as that freshman coursework is your first 32 semester hours.

 

[scottj72]

I got the years straight and the undergrad classes. On the graduate classes believe they count as graduate because they are not applied to an undergraduate degree. These were all education classes to for teacher certification in secondary education. So not actually attached to an undergraduate or graduate degree. Thanks guys. That was what I thought initially. Just seen something some where that made me question it. LOL and maybe some possible help to my undergrad GPA.

 

[Flopotomist]

I was part time at multiple schools - went to a few with TRImesters (try figuring those out!) quarters, semesters - some military... got far far to confusing to try to figure out where the lines between frosh/soph etc were.

I just did my best, entered the grades and course names accurately - and then AMCAS corrected nearly all of my classifications wrt year I took them. *SHRUG* It didn't really matter.