GPA Questions!!!!!

[kixkris]

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Hey everyone =)

I am a student at the University of Chicago, where the rigor and rarity of receiving an A in a course is notorious. (Some profs even make it a goal to give out only a few A's in classes as large as 100+).

Just to give a rough picture, (although this is a pre-med example) I remember talking to a Pritzker med school adcom once about uchicago vs. nationwide students entering into med school, the avg GPA for uchicago was 3.4, while nationwide was 3.7.

Therefore, my question is, when applying to pharmacy school, will the committee take this into consideration, that I have attended UChicago? I have about a 3.64 overall GPA, and pre-pharm GPA of about 3.55. I don't know how PharmCAS would recalculate that, and what that would actually turn out to be.

Further, I'm not even sure if I even calculated this pre-pharm GPA correctly, because UChicago has a 3-quarter system. For instance, USC pharm school states that you only need 1/2 semesters of calculus. I took 3 quarters (equiv to one full year) of calculus. I just included all three quarters when calculating the pre-pharm GPA. Same goes to my ochem, physics, etc.

 

[prepharm77]

Hey everyone =)

I am a student at the University of Chicago, where the rigor and rarity of receiving an A in a course is notorious. (Some profs even make a goal to give out only a few A's in classes as large as 100).

Just to give a rough picture, (although this is a pre-med example) I remember talking to a Pritzker med school adcom once about uchicago vs. nationwide students entering into med school, the avg GPA for uchicago was 3.4, while nationwide was 3.7.

Therefore, my question is, when applying to pharmacy school, will the committee take this into consideration, that I have attended UChicago? I have about a 3.64 overall GPA, and pre-pharm GPA of about 3.55. I don't know how PharmCAS would recalculate that, and what that would actually turn out to be.

Further, I'm not even sure if I even calculated this pre-pharm GPA correctly, because UChicago has a 3-quarter system. For instance, USC pharm school states that you only need 1/2 semesters of calculus. I took 3 quarters (equiv to one full year) of calculus. I just included all three quarters when calculating the pre-pharm GPA. Same goes to my ochem, physics, etc.

Schools definitely consider applicant's school background.. I have heard many times from admissions committee members that when a person going to a comm. college has 4.0 GPA and a person going to a university has 3.0GPA , PCAT scores usually define which person is a better candidate. if one has 2.9 science GPA but scored very high (90s) in PCAT in the science sections (and scoring reasonably well in non-science sections), admissions committee is going recognize the applicant competitive even if the gpa is low.

 

[starrfishes]

Hey everyone =)

I am a student at the University of Chicago, where the rigor and rarity of receiving an A in a course is notorious. (Some profs even make a goal to give out only a few A's in classes as large as 100).

Just to give a rough picture, (although this is a pre-med example) I remember talking to a Pritzker med school adcom once about uchicago vs. nationwide students entering into med school, the avg GPA for uchicago was 3.4, while nationwide was 3.7.

Therefore, my question is, when applying to pharmacy school, will the committee take this into consideration, that I have attended UChicago? I have about a 3.64 overall GPA, and pre-pharm GPA of about 3.55. I don't know how PharmCAS would recalculate that, and what that would actually turn out to be.

Further, I'm not even sure if I even calculated this pre-pharm GPA correctly, because UChicago has a 3-quarter system. For instance, USC pharm school states that you only need 1/2 semesters of calculus. I took 3 quarters (equiv to one full year) of calculus. I just included all three quarters when calculating the pre-pharm GPA. Same goes to my ochem, physics, etc.

Hello kixkris,

I'm from California and I've tried applying to schools out-of-state. 😀

From my perception, I think only the universities within Illinois would know the academic rigors amongst the schools in the same state. If you were to apply out-of-state, such as California, they probabaly won't know your school was that academically rigorous. They will still consider your bachelors, if you have a degree, like any other degree from a four year university. The fact that you have a high GPA. they'll see that too, which is a good thing. But an out-of-state admissions representative probabbly won't say, "Oh, you went to University of Chicago...must be a hard school." However, just on the basis of your GPA alone, your GPA is high and good enough for many of the California pharmacy schools.

For instance, I went to UCSD (follows a 3-qtr-system school, much about science, research and medicine, also quite rigorous) for my undergrad which belongs to a a UC (University of California) system which has 9 different UC schools in California. If I applied to Midwestern Glendale for Pharmacy, they won't make a distinction between where I got my bachelors vs. where someone else got theirs. Now unless you went to a big name school, such as Columbia or Harvard, Princeton or Yale, then they might think something more. Otherwise, it seems all 4 year degree is just a degree, no matter where had it.

Also something else to keep in mind. National averages of GPA is just a number range. When applying, it really depends on the individual in question, and what makes a strong applicant depends on the particular school. Different schools may look for different strengths.

As for USC, do not worry about how PharmCAS calculates your GPA (unless there's a mis-calculation error, which I think is rare).

USC is very use to seeing grades from quarter system classes. They'll know a 3-qtr series for a class counts as 2 semesters, or the equivalent etc, when they see your transcripts or your PharmCAS profile report.

Hope this helps! Good luck.

 

[yacom1118]

Hey everyone =)

I am a student at the University of Chicago, where the rigor and rarity of receiving an A in a course is notorious. (Some profs even make it a goalto give out only a few A's in classes as large as 100+).

Just to give a rough picture, (although this is a pre-med example) I remember talking to a Pritzker med school adcom once about uchicago vs. nationwide students entering into med school, the avg GPA for uchicago was 3.4, while nationwide was 3.7.

Therefore, my question is, when applying to pharmacy school, will the committee take this into consideration, that I have attended UChicago? I have about a 3.64 overall GPA, and pre-pharm GPA of about 3.55. I don't know how PharmCAS would recalculate that, and what that would actually turn out to be.

Further, I'm not even sure if I even calculated this pre-pharm GPA correctly, because UChicago has a 3-quarter system. For instance, USC pharm school states that you only need 1/2 semesters of calculus. I took 3 quarters (equiv to one full year) of calculus. I just included all three quarters when calculating the pre-pharm GPA. Same goes to my ochem, physics, etc.

You said it right there -- schools from coast to coast do consider the rigorous grading schemes of U Chicago.

 

[DSpagnoli]

I graduated with a 3.54 from University of Florida. I have had TWO DIFFERENT professors that were put on probation for failing majority of the class. For pre-health kids, it is also rediculous like I'm sure Chicago is.

Just for comparison, I did a transient semester at FIU/FAU and pretty much cruised through physics with calculus and a few other courses. Never really had to study to get a 4.0. I could tell a significant difference in the difficulty level of courses. It was a joke compared to UF.

So in short, I think it would be completely unfair for adcoms to compare a 3.5 from UF or UChicago with a kid who got a 3.5 from schools like FIU/FAU. Just my 2 cents. I do think they take these things into account though. I hope..

 

[medicament]

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