GPA MD addition calc.

[gladlyfocused]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Okay, I have a question regarding GPA improvement and calculations. Currently, I'm doing an informal post-bacc, trying to improve my 2.82 GPA. After this semester of straight A's, I've managed to raise it to a 3.02 cumulative. BUT do I have to continue to repeat C classes until the GPA calculations for MD schools reaches at least a 3.0 (since they add repeated credit to GPA, not replace)?

I planned on attending a SMP once I reached a 3.0, so would SMP suffice?

Thanks

 

[gladlyfocused]

Sorry if this is a stupid, obvious question....but please help me and answer it anyway, so I can have a peace of mind knowing if I'm right or wrong.

Thanks

 

[NuttyEngDude]

hello!

happy holidays 🙂
repeating C classes is maximally beneficial for DO applications. for MD, which you wrote, it does not matter any more than taking another class and averaging it in. in a nutshell, DO's will "replace" grades whereas MD's will just average them all together, even if they are the same class or not. The risk with MD, and DO too i'd assume, is that if you retake the class and dont ace it, then that looks pretty bad.

good luck!

 

[gladlyfocused]

Thank you NuttyEngDude! You're always kind enough to answer my questions... 🙂 Happy Holidays to you and your family as well!

So okay, I understood from your post that for MD schools, it really doesn't matter if the classes are new or repeated, they still add the credit without replacement. So I'm guessing some may argue that taking higher level courses would be better than repeating classes...it seems more beneficial actually. But I still don't have the exact answer to my previous question, let me see if I understand this...prior to repeating these 3 classes (total of 11 credits), I had a total of 352 grade points and 125 GPA hours. After taking the courses, it totaled to 396 grade points and 131 GPA hours....this is considered addition of the courses right? They are not replacing the previous grades. If this is the case, would that mean whatever my transcript GPA is, that's what the MD schools would calculate as well?

I'm sorry for these questions. I was never taught what GPA was and how important it is during my undergrad (hence the low GPA) and I would really like to learn all there is to know about it. I actually started to "wake up" to its meaning and importance in my senior year in college unfortunately (and embarrassingly). This is a learning process for me and forgive me if this seems little annoying 😳

 

[NuttyEngDude]

No problem gladlyfocused!

Yes, you are calculating the cumulative GPA. AMCAS (for med school) also breaks it down into per year and postbacc. Additionally they do not count A+'s anything more than A's (both count as 4.0). Because of the way they handle A+'s your GPA may be different on your transcript than what AMCAS recalculates and sends to the med schools.

see here for more info:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181676/data/amcas_grade_conversion_guide.pdf

take a look at the chart that says "sample verified GPA" that is what med schools will see.


Also note that AMCAS and AACOMAS (for DO school) calculate science GPA differently. AMCAS uses whats on the last page of this guide:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/182162/data/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf

AACOMAS is more or less the same but without math. I dont have as much detail on AACOMAS but I probably will after i take the mcat and before this app cycle 😛

 

[IslandStyle808]

No problem gladlyfocused!

Yes, you are calculating the cumulative GPA. AMCAS (for med school) also breaks it down into per year and postbacc. Additionally they do not count A+'s anything more than A's (both count as 4.0). Because of the way they handle A+'s your GPA may be different on your transcript than what AMCAS recalculates and sends to the med schools.

see here for more info:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181676/data/amcas_grade_conversion_guide.pdf

take a look at the chart that says "sample verified GPA" that is what med schools will see.


Also note that AMCAS and AACOMAS (for DO school) calculate science GPA differently. AMCAS uses whats on the last page of this guide:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/182162/data/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf

AACOMAS is more or less the same but without math. I dont have as much detail on AACOMAS but I probably will after i take the mcat and before this app cycle 😛

I too don't know the AACOMAS that well but I do have how they factor in the different GPAs.

https://aacomas.aacom.org/survey/views/client/aacomas/collegesinstructions4.html

I hope this helps OP