GPA difficulty coefficient

[Ritterbruder]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I read somewhere that some med schools will multiply your GPA by a "difficulty coefficient". This number is higher for schools considered to be difficult to get a high GPA in, and they multiply your GPA by this coefficient so that people who went to hard schools get a "boost". I go to Cornell and it's pretty damn hard to get a high GPA here.

I'm still a freshman, but I would like to know if any dental schools do the same thing.

Thanks

 

[dentalWorks]

never heard of this for dental schools..... I am not saying its right/wrong, I've been around SDN for about 2 years now and I've never seen this thing mentioned

 

[americanpierg]

I read somewhere that some med schools will multiply your GPA by a "difficulty coefficient". This number is higher for schools considered to be difficult to get a high GPA in, and they multiply your GPA by this coefficient so that people who went to hard schools get a "boost". I go to Cornell and it's pretty damn hard to get a high GPA here.

I'm still a freshman, but I would like to know if any dental schools do the same thing.

Thanks

Sadly, I don't think its true. If I had to do this all over again, I would've went to a bottom tiered state school... probably one of those unheard of private liberal arts schools.

 

[dental wahoo]

Sadly, I don't think its true. If I had to do this all over again, I would've went to a bottom tiered state school... probably one of those unheard of private liberal arts schools.

👍. grade inflated, lower tier [but accredited 4yr] universities are the way to go.

 

[yangwang]

👍. grade inflated, lower tier [but accredited 4yr] universities are the way to go.

+1, would have gone to a lower ranked school with full ride if i can go back and do it all over

 

[emu]

.

 

[ItalianPrincess]

I've heard rumors of this too, but sadly i don't think its true...my molecular biology professor yelled at me today actually for going to the school I do and picking biochemistry as my major. in her exact words she said I should have "gone to a no name school, majored in communications/business and just taken my pre-recs and gotten a 4.0 and be resting a lot easier now" ahh if only i knew then what i know now😎

 

[qkchen]

👍. grade inflated, lower tier [but accredited 4yr] universities are the way to go.

being a non-trad and having attended different universities for undergrad and grad school as well as just taking some post-grad self-interest courses at yet another school, i can definitely attest to the fact that not all schools were created equal with respect to rigor of coursework (some places are just more chill than others and the profs are more humane). as someone else had mentioned earlier and knowing what i know now, i would have just taken the route of least resistance and probably still wind up going on the dental journey anyways

 

[lululime]

I took the tougher route because I had faith that going to a good school would take you to good places. I also feared about where my degree would take me if didn't get into professional school right after. Hell, 4 years is a big expensive commitment and you can only make one choice, so you tend to choose the one with a better name.

 

[qkchen]

I took the tougher route because I had faith that going to a good school would take you to good places. I also feared about where my degree would take me if didn't get into professional school right after. Hell, 4 years is a big expensive commitment and you can only make one choice, so you tend to choose the one with a better name.

yup, it's a total trade off. if you feel confident, then going to that brand-name school and getting those grades will pay dividends. i've already noticed this biased effect from certain employers so hopefully, going to that top-notch school was a good choice, especially if you worked hard and have something to show for it. otherwise, i'd stick with your comfort level and rather get those 4.0s 👍

 

[amcmahon]

I've heard of employers doing this but not professional schools.

 

[jimlaner]

In my opinion, it doesn't matter if you have 4.0 GPAs because they will look at ur DAT scores. If you have 4.0 GPAs and have 18 on DAT, basically this proves that you went to an non-competitive school(based on the numbers). GPAs and DAT scores are the only two factors that Adcoms use to judge applicants academically. If you want the schools to give you some credit for getting 4.0s, you better get 21+ on DAT. If I were adcom, I would take an applicant with 3.5 GPA + 23 AA than 4.0 GPA + 19 AA.

 

[qkchen]

In my opinion, it doesn't matter if you have 4.0 GPAs because they will look at ur DAT scores. If you have 4.0 GPAs and have 18 on DAT, basically this proves that you went to an non-competitive school(based on the numbers). GPAs and DAT scores are the only two factors that Adcoms use to judge applicants academically. If you want the schools to give you some credit for getting 4.0s, you better get 21+ on DAT. If I were adcom, I would take an applicant with 3.5 GPA + 23 AA than 4.0 GPA + 19 AA.

nobody's arguing with you about the importance of the DAT, bro. then again, i had the draw the line somewhere with respect to admission factors and did not mention the DAT since the OP was asking exclusively about GPA. of course, one could also argue about the importance of non-academic factors (predisposition to dental field, LORs, shadowing, volunteering, ECs, etc) although these are probably overshadowed by GPA and DAT. anyways, that's the subject for another topic.

 

[Maygyver]

I've heard rumors of this too, but sadly i don't think its true...my molecular biology professor yelled at me today actually for going to the school I do and picking biochemistry as my major. in her exact words she said I should have "gone to a no name school, majored in communications/business and just taken my pre-recs and gotten a 4.0 and be resting a lot easier now" ahh if only i knew then what i know now😎

I don't know about you, but I know I would be pretty disappointed in myself if I went that route. It's one thing to not do a major because you find it interesting (even if it isn't in the sciences) but to pick a major just because it's easy so that you can get into graduate/professional school seems like a really lame way to try to get a leg up on the competition. You should be happy you actually went for a challenge.🙂

 

[schen140]

i think going to a difficult university is the best way to go, because that's where you learn the time management skills needed for the dental school curriculum. i think the jump will be too significant from an easy state school to dental school

but to answer the op, i have heard from either a ucsf or usc admissions representative (this was a few years ago so my memory is foggy) that they rank our universities on a scale from 1 to 7, 7 being the most competitive, and they somehow use that to complement our actual gpa. so yes, what university you go to does make a difference, for certain schools at least. what i dont know is, to what extent?

 

[uncbestyet]

Difficulty coeffiecient ...yeah..... it's called the DAT. Although I would assume this would only apply if the persion attended a somewhat unknown college... the DAT score may justify or degrade a high GPA.