Grades post acceptance/II?

[mwsapphire]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi everyone,

I applied this past cycle with all the prereqs/requirements for my biology degree complete. I am taking Computing II w/ lab and Calc for the life sci II with lab, both of which are needed for bioinfo but not for the biology degree.
Would it be a deal-breaker to get less than a B in those classes? For DO they don't count towards the sci GPA, and for MD , only Calc for the life Sci II does. I have more than my pre reqs done.
Thoughts? I have two Interview Invites and am just catastrophizing I guess.

 

[Dr panda]

You should be fine as long as your grades don’t fall significantly after acceptance

 

[mwsapphire]

You should be fine as long as your grades don’t fall significantly after acceptance

Okay. My concern is these classes are much harder for me since they're outside of my comfort zone. I already have a biology degree, so it's not like getting my degree is the issue. Like, what if I get my first C in computing II, which has nothing to do with med school and is a weeder course for CS majors?

 

[Dr panda]

Okay. My concern is these classes are much harder for me since they're outside of my comfort zone. I already have a biology degree, so it's not like getting my degree is the issue. Like, what if I get my first C in computing II, which has nothing to do with med school and is a weeder course for CS majors?

Schools don’t care about whether it is a weeder class or no, just that you do well. Nobody knows difficulty of course X at school Y with professor Z. If your gpa doesn’t drop from 3.8 to ~2.7 after acceptance there is no need to worry. Downward trend could be an issue, basically, the whole pre med game is about gpa protection at any cost. Every year here are few threads from engineering majors complaining about how difficult it is to be an engineer and hence, schools, owe them some gpa discount, but it doesn’t work that way.

 

[mwsapphire]

Schools don’t care about whether it is a weeder class or no, just that you do well. Nobody knows difficulty of course X at school Y with professor Z. If your gpa doesn’t drop from 3.8 to ~2.7 after acceptance there is no need to worry. Downward trend could be an issue, basically, the whole pre med game is about gpa protection at any cost. Every year here are few threads from engineering majors complaining about how difficult it is to be an engineer and hence, schools, owe them some gpa discount, but it doesn’t work that way.

I'm only in 2 classes tho- so those difference will be stark for this one semester, but after 122 credits the actual GPA change will be next to nothing.

 

[Dr panda]

I'm only in 2 classes tho- so those difference will be stark for this one semester, but after 122 credits the actual GPA change will be next to nothing.

You should be fine good luck on interviews

 

[Goro]

Hi everyone,

I applied this past cycle with all the prereqs/requirements for my biology degree complete. I am taking Computing II w/ lab and Calc for the life sci II with lab, both of which are needed for bioinfo but not for the biology degree.
Would it be a deal-breaker to get less than a B in those classes? For DO they don't count towards the sci GPA, and for MD , only Calc for the life Sci II does. I have more than my pre reqs done.
Thoughts? I have two Interview Invites and am just catastrophizing I guess.

Why don't you:
A) check school's individual admissions websites and see what their policies are for post-acceptance
B) take two of these:

 

[mwsapphire]

Why don't you:
A) check school's individual admissions websites and see what their policies are for post-acceptance
B) take two of these:
View attachment 288505

Have had a hard time finding thos post-acceptance policies on the UMASS and NYITCOM websites. But I will relax. Im adduming that info will make itself clear soon but also this semester is almost over so I guess its understood not much can change now.
Edit: Just realized that if there no "post acceptance grades" rules on the website than maybe there is no hard GPA cutoff...huh.

 

[Goro]

Have had a hard time finding thos post-acceptance policies on the UMASS and NYITCOM websites. But I will relax. Im adduming that info will make itself clear soon but also this semester is almost over so I guess its understood not much can change now.
Edit: Just realized that if there no "post acceptance grades" rules on the website than maybe there is no hard GPA cutoff...huh.

It just dawned on me that if you haven't been accepted to those schools, then you might have not been sent a list of policies.

 

[mwsapphire]

It just dawned on me that if you haven't been accepted to those schools, then you might have not been sent a list of policies.

True. But if this semester is almost over it doesn't make sense for an offer to be contingent on it, and as I said, these aren't sci GPA classes and I already have my Bio degree. And since I already have so many credits, even if I tank these classes it won't destroy my GPA. I think I'm gonna heed the rest of the advice on this thread.

Also, still prescribing Xanax, Goro? Didn't you read the " Thoughts after leaving med school" thread? XD
I'm hoping at least one school that sent me an II will find this to be a non-issue, even if another one does take issue with it.

 

[Med.School.Hopeful]

Just don't fail any classes. You fine.

 

[Select All That Apply]

@mwsapphire Drop out of the comp sci class if there is a remote possibility of it ruining your GPA. What have you been working so hard for? It's not worth it to double major in bioinformatics, there are no jobs that require a "bioinformatics major" or "bioinformatics degree." There are no adcoms who really sympathize with the road less traveled, if that travel path resembles a remotely bad path to begin going down. If you understand how to apply concepts of perl or python to blast when it comes to a sequence related analysis then there is no reason why this single class really matters when it comes to looking at bioinformatics jobs. To be honest, most of the time even people with bioinformatics majors straight from uni will be slotted into laboratory roles that involve more broad concepts in biotechnology. Having java and data structures in your barn as something you've exposed to is nice, but when you combine that with life science you are often dealing with a demographic that has no taste or appreciation for the challenge of learning a field that has significant implications in current research and will continue to have a bigger impact when combined with machine learning and other complex algorithms.

It's been a decade since bioinformatics degrees started rolling out. I suspect that these programs were largely encouraged by the federal government through support like research grants and NSF scholarships. I really do think that opening this niche to students is almost a "trap degree" in which expecting students to have the capacity to be adequate in both programming and the sciences within a four year time span is woefully an inadequate amount of time to really fulfill the concept of the major/degree.

 

[mwsapphire]

@mwsapphire Drop out of the comp sci class if there is a remote possibility of it ruining your GPA. What have you been working so hard for? It's not worth it to double major in bioinformatics, there are no jobs that require a "bioinformatics major" or "bioinformatics degree." There are no adcoms who really sympathize with the road less traveled, if that travel path resembles a remotely bad path to begin going down. If you understand how to apply concepts of perl or python to blast when it comes to a sequence related analysis then there is no reason why this single class really matters when it comes to looking at bioinformatics jobs. To be honest, most of the time even people with bioinformatics majors straight from uni will be slotted into laboratory roles that involve more broad concepts in biotechnology. Having java and data structures in your barn as something you've exposed to is nice, but when you combine that with life science you are often dealing with a demographic that has no taste or appreciation for the challenge of learning a field that has significant implications in current research and will continue to have a bigger impact when combined with machine learning and other complex algorithms.

It's been a decade since bioinformatics degrees started rolling out. I suspect that these programs were largely encouraged by the federal government through support like research grants and NSF scholarships. I really do think that opening this niche to students is almost a "trap degree" in which expecting students to have the capacity to be adequate in both programming and the sciences within a four year time span is woefully an inadequate amount of time to really fulfill the concept of the major/degree.

So, it's too late to drop. Also, like I said, I have too many credits for it to ruin my GPA. It would just "look" like a drop due to only 8 creds this semester. But I don't think adcoms are stupid and they likely would figure it out- i do recall something similar being posted on SDN along the lines of " took just one more class and got a B so does it look like a GPA drop" and Gonnif said something like " no."
Edit: I made a B in Computing I after tanking the final due to minimal preparation- if I actually prepare this time I should be able to get a B in Computing II.

 

[Select All That Apply]

@mwsapphire Sounds good, hang in there! In retrospect, the post came across as being more negative than I wanted it to be.

 

[mwsapphire]

@mwsapphire Sounds good, hang in there! In retrospect, the post came across as being more negative than I wanted it to be.

No problem, I know what you meant.