How do med schools like it when...

[BulletproofMONK]

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Hey everyone, I have a general question about GPA. Specifically retakes of classes. For instance I know if you take a class twice and get a 3.0 the first tiem and a 4.0 the second time med schools average the two together. But what do they do if say you took a class twice but the first time you withdrew from the class and the second time you got a 4.0? Does it look bad? Do they average the 2 somehow? Can anyone give me a broader perspective on this? Thanks!

 

[Polar girl]

If you withdraw, you don't get a grade and therefore they have nothing to average together. They just go by the one grade you have. They don't like it if you have a bunch of W's on your transcript, though.

 

[gower]

There may be other issues associated with withdrawals.

One or two withdrawals over three years are not too many to be concerned about. A pattern of withdrawing and retaking courses for higher grades is. Whether or not both grades are or are not included in the GPA is trivial, although repeat courses are seldom deleted from transcripts even if grades are. You don't have to be on an admissions committee to know what that implies.

It is also not a good habit to get into. In medical school, you can't pull that stuff. Fail or barely pass a few courses, you are already in trouble, even if you are given permission to repeat a course or the whole year. Even in medical schools which give P/F grades in the basic sciences, that does not mean that they are unaware of your performance.

If you were on the promotions committee in a medical school, woulfd any of you behave differently.

 

[HouseHead]

Withdrawals are not the best of things, but aren't all that big a deal if you only have a few. If you are re-taking a class after getting a low grade, keep in mind that AMCAS includes *all* grades in their GPA calculations, regardless of your school's policy.
<rant>My school's policy was to not include the lower grade in GPA calculations, and therefor re-taking a course was thought of as no big deal, to the point that they often wouldn't allow withdrawals because of this "easy" solution. They also didn't allow incompletes to stand, so anyone who was in a situation where they COULD NOT make up a course (like the prof left the school before the following semester started, as in my situation 😡 ) was given given an 'F', given a pat on the head, and told it was no big deal, just re-take it later. Because AMCAS follows their own set of rules, they take away the autonomy of the undergraduate institution in determining GPA. Result? Theoretically, you could graduate summa cum laude and have AMCAS report your GPA as 3.3. AMCAS says my GPA is 0.15 lower overall than it actually is, all because of 1 class.
This policy of AMCAS is, IMO, just plain WRONG. But I don't know what can be done about it. Not like it kept me out of med school- I got in- but it seems like something that should have a legal challenge coming in the (hopefully) not-so-distant future.</rant>

 

[Polar girl]

Honestly, I'm glad AMCAS counts all grades like it does. It's not really fair that someone could get a D in a class, retake it for an A, and only have the A show, while someone else may get a B+, and look like they did worse.

I agree that it really sucks in your case, but I think that's more the fault of your school than AMCAS. They should not be able to force you to take an F. I'm glad you were able to explain it to med schools, or at least not be hurt by it.

 

[BulletproofMONK]

ok so it's better to have a bad grade and a good grade averaged together then a withdrawl and a good grade on your record? if that's the case then I don't mind taking classes over. I don't mind how the whole med school GPA system works I just don't really understand everythign about it. I'm trying to apply within the next year or so, so I've been kinda nervous about my transcripsts from freshemen year (it was kinda crappy). I'm hoping the withdrawls that i do have won't hurt me too much in the long run if i end up doing really good on the MCAT's. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks!