Grad students and AMCAS GPA

[zinjanthropus]

Hello Everyone-

This should probably be straightforward but my situation has made my understanding of the AMCAS GPA calculation a little confusing.

On my AMCAS,I have an undergraduate GPA, a postbaccularete undergraduate GPA, a graduate GPA, and a cummulative undergraduate GPA.

It seems as though the AMCAS GPA calculator combines your postbacc undergrad work and your undergrad work when calculating your science and non-science cummulative undergrad GPA, however, the AMCAS also calculates an additional non-science and science GPA using only your graduate GPA. I guess my basic question is - how do adcoms look at these two seperate GPAs? If your undergrad GPA is below some magic cut-off number (say 3.5), but your grad GPA is higher, how do they weight these?

Are there any sucessful applicants out there who have a similar background (graduate school, postbacc prereqs, etc)?

I wish they just mashed it all together as one GPA - it would just make life easier to have a single test statistic.

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[neofight]

How your undergrad/gpa is viewed really depends on the med school. Some med schools don't take much stock in graduate GPAs as they know that these GPAs tend to be more inflated than undergraduate GPAs. Also, some med schools view the level of competition for grades in graduate programs to not be at the same level of "premed competition" for grades in undergraduate programs. However, keep in mind that other schools take considerable weight of an MS GPA especially those that have special masters programs leading into admission into their med school.

 

[mute360_CO]

I took a year after undergrad to do a year long MS program in Colorado. The interviewers at CU med liked that I took grad level classes in anatomy and phys, etc... and did well. My interviews and extracurriculars were solid so I don't know how much the MS weighed in their decision to accept me. I can tell you though that my grad GPA was a bit better than my undergrad.

Generally speaking, my opinion is that if you can demonstrate a favorable progression in GPA, maturity, etc... adcoms will see the "big picture." During interviews, just be honest and be able to directly explain any discrepancies.

Hope this helps.

 

[ma-bas]

Hey zinjanthropus and everyone else,

I'm in a similar boat as you. I certainly wish my grad school grades were blended with my UG grades. It will be interesting for me to see how you application process goes compared to mine, as well as anyone else out there applying with lower UG gpa and better grad gpas.

I have a BS from UC Berkeley in Nutrition, and then I went on to get a MS in Nutrition and became a registered dietitian. About a year and a half after working as a nutritionist I decided to apply to med school. I had to go back and take physics. I'm a little nervous about the process so it will be good to hear from others with similar situations. I guess if I had my MCAT scores back I would feel a little better or worse (and then postpone applying.)

Good luck!

 

[usmaple]

I'm in a similar situation - extensive courses taken in UG, Grad, and Postbacc. I also thought that it was kind of strange that grad courses were calculated separately. I've asked a few people about how grad GPA's are looked at by AdCom's and have been told everything from grad grades don't matter at all to they're weighted equally. I'm guessing that different schools have different policies that lie somewhere in between that range.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

It might depend on what your grad program is in. My grad GPA was good (although meaningless--I have no idea how AMCAS calculated it), but not as good as my undergrad GPA. This was nothing to be ashamed of, as in economics graduate programs, very few people get the "A" equivalent, especially in the core classes (it's more like med school that way). However, adcoms had no way of knowing this, but no one seemed to care. I would think they might pay more attention to a grad GPA for a biology program, though. If I were an adcom, I would look at the actual courses and grades for a graduate program (which has far fewer classes than UG) rather than the AMCAS GPA.

 

[pathdr2b]

Originally posted by VienneseWaltz
It might depend on what your grad program is in. My grad GPA was good (although meaningless--I have no idea how AMCAS calculated it),

Did you happen to attend UNC-Chapel Hill which doesn't issue standard grades? My grad GPA consists of H's and P's from Chapel Hill which I think may a problem this year


My Grad GPA a few years ago was determined by AMCAS and I was wondering if they are still doing the conversions or not. I think I read that I have to submit some form from the university "converting" the grades into traditional letter grades, A, B, ect. The problem with that is as of when I was last there (1999), the "conversion" to traditional letter grades varied from dept. to dept. with in the university.