How much affect does a post-bac gpa have on my undergrad gpa?

[Lizzi]

I will be doing a 2 year post-bac program taking ~ 44-52 semester units. Even if I got all A's, how much would that raise my gpa?

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[nick_carraway]

I will be doing a 2 year post-bac program taking ~ 44-52 semester units. Even if I got all A's, how much would that raise my gpa?

It depends on how many units you've taken and your current GPA. The best way is just to add it up yourself.

Multiply each numerical grade (4.0 = A+/A, 3.7 = A-, 3.3 = B+, etc.) by the credits that each class is worth and then add those together for your current total grade points. Now simply add in the grade points of the classes you WILL be taking to bring it all up to date.

Then divide that total number by the number of units you've taken + the number of units you WILL be taking and you'll have your predicted GPA.

It sounds tedious (and it is) but shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes to enter it into Excel.

BTW, keep the Excel file because it'll help you enter data into AMCAS when it comes time to apply.

 

[Lizzi]

It depends on how many units you've taken and your current GPA. The best way is just to add it up yourself.

Multiply your numerical grade (4.0 = A+/A, 3.7 = A-, 3.3 = B+, etc.) by the credits that class is worth and then add those together for your total grade points. Then divide that total number by the number of units you've taken.

It sounds tedious (and it is) but shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes to enter it into Excel.

I tried to do it on the AMCAS GPA Calculator, but it hardly raised it any. For two years, I would expect more than a 0.2 raise in GPA for all A's. Maybe I was just too optimistic.

 

[Jman35]

I tried to do it on the AMCAS GPA Calculator, but it hardly raised it any. For two years, I would expect more than a 0.2 raise in GPA for all A's. Maybe I was just too optimistic.

Yea that seems about right. Postbac is not going to raise your gpa by all that much. It's frustrating but that's the way it is. It will look good though to have two years (4 semesters) of all A's. So don't just look at the pure numbers.

 

[DrMidlife]

Why are people talking as if a postbac should or shouldn't do anything? This isn't ethics. It's MATH.

It won't kill you to set up a spreadsheet or put pen to paper and figure this out.

Q. If you took 100 credits as an undergrad and got a 3.0, how many postbac units do you need to get that up to a 4.0?

A. You can't. Any grade in a course that is less than 4.0 means the average can't be 4.0. (In any finite sense.)

Q. If you took 100 credits as an undergrad and got a 3.0, how many postbac credits do you need to get that up to a 3.5?

A. Depends on your postbac grades.
.....If you get a 3.5 in your postbac classes, it's impossible to get your overall average to 3.5, because you have sub-3.5 classes in your undergrad.
.....If you get a 3.7 in your postbac classes, then (do the algebra as an exercise) you need to take 250 more credits to raise a 3.0 to a 3.5. (That's 9 more years of school, most likely.)
.....If you get a 4.0 in your postbac, then you need to take 100 more credits. (That's 4 more years.)

This is high school math. You can do it. (Also, please look into the difference between "affect" and "effect" while you're at it.)

Lastly, note that if you're looking to improve your grades over your undergrad efforts, the premedical curriculum may be harder coursework than you've seen before. You might not want to plan on getting A's in this if you haven't been able to plan on A's in easier coursework.

Best of luck to you.
(and now everybody gets mad because I told the truth..)

 

[xeulee]

Yea that seems about right. Postbac is not going to raise your gpa by all that much. It's frustrating but that's the way it is. It will look good though to have two years (4 semesters) of all A's. So don't just look at the pure numbers.

Yeah, it is disappointing that your gpa doesn't increase that much but since you probably already have over 100 credits, it takes a few years to increase it. Like Jman said, they look at an upward trend so all is not lost.

 

[Isoprop]

there's a post-bacc year gpa calculated on the amcas. when adcoms look at your gpa by year, getting A's your post-bacc year will show an increasing trend.

 

[nick_carraway]

I tried to do it on the AMCAS GPA Calculator, but it hardly raised it any. For two years, I would expect more than a 0.2 raise in GPA for all A's. Maybe I was just too optimistic.

I don't know... a 0.2 GPA increase is pretty substantial in my opinion. Especially when a la carte programs are typically pretty affordable.

 

[Isoprop]

you're experiencing diminishing returns. with a 3.0 after 4 years of coursework, getting straight A's for a postbacc year will raise it to about 3.2. After 2 years of straight A's, it's a 3.33.

the higher your GPA and the more courses you take, the harder it is to raise it.

 

[Lizzi]

Why are people talking as if a postbac should or shouldn't do anything? This isn't ethics. It's MATH.

It won't kill you to set up a spreadsheet or put pen to paper and figure this out.

Q. If you took 100 credits as an undergrad and got a 3.0, how many postbac units do you need to get that up to a 4.0?

A. You can't. Any grade in a course that is less than 4.0 means the average can't be 4.0. (In any finite sense.)

Q. If you took 100 credits as an undergrad and got a 3.0, how many postbac credits do you need to get that up to a 3.5?

A. Depends on your postbac grades.
.....If you get a 3.5 in your postbac classes, it's impossible to get your overall average to 3.5, because you have sub-3.5 classes in your undergrad.
.....If you get a 3.7 in your postbac classes, then (do the algebra as an exercise) you need to take 250 more credits to raise a 3.0 to a 3.5. (That's 9 more years of school, most likely.)
.....If you get a 4.0 in your postbac, then you need to take 100 more credits. (That's 4 more years.)

This is high school math. You can do it. (Also, please look into the difference between "affect" and "effect" while you're at it.)

Lastly, note that if you're looking to improve your grades over your undergrad efforts, the premedical curriculum may be harder coursework than you've seen before. You might not want to plan on getting A's in this if you haven't been able to plan on A's in easier coursework.

Best of luck to you.
(and now everybody gets mad because I told the truth..)

Hmm, I actually did calculate the gpa. I mentioned that fact in a post just before the one you posted. Perhaps you were too busy critiquing my grammar.
Please don't respond to one of my posts if you are having a bad day.

Thanks for all the help you guys.

 

[emarem]

Why are people talking as if a postbac should or shouldn't do anything? This isn't ethics. It's MATH.

It won't kill you to set up a spreadsheet or put pen to paper and figure this out.

Q. If you took 100 credits as an undergrad and got a 3.0, how many postbac units do you need to get that up to a 4.0?

A. You can't. Any grade in a course that is less than 4.0 means the average can't be 4.0. (In any finite sense.)

Q. If you took 100 credits as an undergrad and got a 3.0, how many postbac credits do you need to get that up to a 3.5?

A. Depends on your postbac grades.
.....If you get a 3.5 in your postbac classes, it's impossible to get your overall average to 3.5, because you have sub-3.5 classes in your undergrad.
.....If you get a 3.7 in your postbac classes, then (do the algebra as an exercise) you need to take 250 more credits to raise a 3.0 to a 3.5. (That's 9 more years of school, most likely.)
.....If you get a 4.0 in your postbac, then you need to take 100 more credits. (That's 4 more years.)

This is high school math. You can do it. (Also, please look into the difference between "affect" and "effect" while you're at it.)

Lastly, note that if you're looking to improve your grades over your undergrad efforts, the premedical curriculum may be harder coursework than you've seen before. You might not want to plan on getting A's in this if you haven't been able to plan on A's in easier coursework.

Best of luck to you.
(and now everybody gets mad because I told the truth..)

People don't get mad because you told the truth, people get mad because you're being condescending. "This is high school math. You can do it. (Also, please look into the difference between "affect" and "effect" while you're at it."