List of How MD Schools Calculate GPA (Please Contribute)

[Gauss44]

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Please contribute: 1. Name of school. 2. How they calcluate or recalculate gpa if different from AMCAS.


This information can MAKE IT OR BREAK IT for people with certain GPAs. PLEASE BE CONSIDERATE and stay on topic. This discussion is only as good as it's content.

 

[Fivo]

Surely you can't be serious?

 

[mcloaf]

Please stop making a new thread every five minutes. Especially on topics that can so easily be answered with minimal effort on your part.

 

[Doc E Brown]

Surely you can't be serious?

"I am serious. And don't call me Shirley."😀

 

[487806]

Please contribute: 1. Name of school. 2. How they calcluate or recalculate gpa if different from AMCAS.


(Please stay on topic. I will discuss any concerns via PM.)

Have you checked MSAR?

 

[NickNaylor]

Please contribute: 1. Name of school. 2. How they calcluate or recalculate gpa if different from AMCAS.


(Please stay on topic. I will discuss any concerns via PM.)

FYI - INFORMATION (for each school) IS NOT IN MSAR OR ANY OTHER SOURCE. I have asked the moderators to erase the 2 harassing posts directly below. Please ignore them.

Rather than have everyone do work for you, why don't you just email the schools you're applying to?

(sent from my phone)

 

[DAPI]

Does it even really matter how a school calculates you GPA? It’s going to be, for the most part, similar to how AMCAS does it, and if it’s not, it’s not going to change where applicants sit in the order of highest GPA to lowest as it's all going to be relative.

The only notable exception to this that I can think of is University of Washington which used a weighted scale giving freshman year a weight of one, sophomore year two, and junior year three. They do not say how the account for senior year - if at all.

 

[phikapdoctor]

Does it even really matter how a school calculates you GPA? It's going to be, for the most part, similar to how AMCAS does it, and if it's not, it's not going to change where applicants sit in the order of highest GPA to lowest as it's all going to be relative.

The only notable exception to this that I can think of is University of Washington which used a weighted scale giving freshman year a weight of one, sophomore year two, and junior year three. They do not say how the account for senior year - if at all.

I like this.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile app please excuse punctuation and spelling

 

[Gauss44]

University of Washington which used a weighted scale giving freshman year a weight of one, sophomore year two, and junior year three. They do not say how the account for senior year - if at all.

Exactly!

This is the purpose of topic. THANK GOD SOMEONE UNDERSTOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now if someone bombed their freshman year only and thought they didn't have a chance. Now they do! And they don't have the burden of emailing hundreds of schools to find out. A life changer!

 

[DAPI]

Exactly!

This is the purpose of topic. THANK GOD SOMEONE UNDERSTOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now if someone bombed their freshman year only and thought they didn't have a chance. Now they do! And they don't have the burden of emailing hundreds of schools to find out. A life changer!

Ummm... no

I basically said it doesn't matter how schools calculate your GPA because it’s all going to be relative as everyone's will change as a school calculates it differently giving the people with the highest AMCAS GPA the highest GPA the way the school calculates it also.

UW is 1 out of ~150 schools that does it in a way that would not reflect the same AMCAS "rankings". And UW doesn't matter to 99% of people on the board as they, for the most part, only take Washington residents and WWAMI people.

 

[sector9]

Exactly!

This is the purpose of topic. THANK GOD SOMEONE UNDERSTOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now if someone bombed their freshman year only and thought they didn't have a chance. Now they do! And they don't have the burden of emailing hundreds of schools to find out. A life changer!

UWash is a very rare exception among US MD schools. I understand from posts I've read that Canadian MD schools may have different policies when it comes to calculations. US MD schools almost exclusively use AMCAS's determination of your GPA. Remember that AMCAS populates a data table that can potentially include up to 24 different GPAs on it (link to someone's verified GPA table http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=10199693&postcount=1). Very VERY few schools are going to do any formal modifications to the GPA after that point

The biggest GPA differences are going to come from a school using AMCAS vs. TMDSAS vs. AACOMAS

 

[Gauss44]

Cornell might recalculate also with a system where the rank of your undergraduate institution matters.

 

[candbgirl]

The OP writes an awful lot like AshPreMed. I wonder...

 

[mcloaf]

OPs English is better than AshPreMed. Post Content on the other hand...

 

[Gauss44]

Rather than have everyone do work for you, why don't you just email the schools you're applying to?

(sent from my phone)

Dogs have owners, cats have staff.

No, I'm looking for a needle in a haystack. As you know, there's over 100 schools. Like a lot of people here, I'm figuring out which of those hundred to apply to.

 

[DAPI]

Dogs have owners, cats have staff.

No, I'm looking for a needle in a haystack. As you know, there's over 100 schools. Like a lot of people here, I'm figuring out which of those hundred to apply to.

And you think based on the way they calculate GPA is going to help you?

 

[NickNaylor]

Dogs have owners, cats have staff.

No, I'm looking for a needle in a haystack. As you know, there's over 100 schools. Like a lot of people here, I'm figuring out which of those hundred to apply to.

But this is just an absolutely asinine way to choose which schools to apply to. No offense, but if you're relying on this to give you a leg up, you're probably going to struggle getting into ANY school.

 

[DAPI]

Can someone please toss this guy out... He is spreading 'false hope' around this board and just trying to get more people to post in this clearly off-track and useless thread.

I've heard that Cornell recalculates gpas so that upper tier schools have an advantage. In other words, a B at Harvard would be translated to a higher number, than say a B at just about anywhere else. Again I don't know this for a fact. If you find out, please let me know. I started a discussion about schools that recalculate gpas. Unfortunately it's gone a bit off-topic. Still it could potentially become a good resource.

Good luck!

I'm aware of at least one MD school that recalculates a gpa, something to the tune of 1xfirst year grades, 2xsecond year grades, etc. Look for schools that recalculate your gpa. I started a discussion about this in the MD section. I hope more people contribute. There don't seem to be many schools that recalculate. Those that do, might really save some of us. Good luck!

You might have a chance depending the grades you earned later on (years 2-4). I started a discussion about how some universities recalculate gpas (different than amcas).

University of Washington allows students to contact them if their recalculated gpa is significantly better than amcas's calculation. I wish I knew more about other school's that recalculate. I think Cornell is one. I've heard of others too.

If something happened that brought your grades down and you can explain that, it will help.

Good luck!

 

[xXIDaShizIXx]

Exactly!

This is the purpose of topic. THANK GOD SOMEONE UNDERSTOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now if someone bombed their freshman year only and thought they didn't have a chance. Now they do! And they don't have the burden of emailing hundreds of schools to find out. A life changer!

 

[Doctor Strange]

Can someone please toss this guy out... He is spreading 'false hope' around this board and just trying to get more people to post in this clearly off-track and useless thread.

👍👍👍

 

[Roxas]

I actually do have a legit gpa question tho.... How do schools calculate your science gpa? I heard somewhere that they go off of biology, chemistry, math, and physics. But I'm also a Human Nutrition major, so would those classes count towards the science gpa as well? Any input on this would be much appreciated.

 

[487806]

Can someone please toss this guy out... He is spreading 'false hope' around this board and just trying to get more people to post in this clearly off-track and useless thread.

Don't worry. OP will be soon be tatered...

 

[487806]

I actually do have a legit gpa question tho.... How do schools calculate your science gpa? I heard somewhere that they go off of biology, chemistry, math, and physics. But I'm also a Human Nutrition major, so would those classes count towards the science gpa as well? Any input on this would be much appreciated.

Unless your school considers it as social science/humanities, that's science, so yes.

 

[sector9]

I actually do have a legit gpa question tho.... How do schools calculate your science gpa? I heard somewhere that they go off of biology, chemistry, math, and physics. But I'm also a Human Nutrition major, so would those classes count towards the science gpa as well? Any input on this would be much appreciated.

AMCAS's course classification considers "Nutrition and Food Sciences" courses to be under the "Health Sciences" moniker which is not BCPM GPA. https://services.aamc.org/AMCAS2_2012/WebApp/Help/WebHelp/Course_Work_Course_Classification.htm

You can put some of your nutrition classes down as biology or chemistry if the primary course content for some of your classes was one of those subjects, but for general nutrition classes, they won't be under science GPA

Unless your school considers it as social science/humanities, that's science, so yes.

No, not really. See above

 

[487806]

AMCAS's course classification considers "Nutrition and Food Sciences" courses to be under the "Health Sciences" moniker which is not BCPM GPA. https://services.aamc.org/AMCAS2_2012/WebApp/Help/WebHelp/Course_Work_Course_Classification.htm

You can put some of your nutrition classes down as biology or chemistry if the primary course content for some of your classes was one of those subjects, but for general nutrition classes, they won't be under science GPA

No, not really. See above

Thanks for clearing up the doubt! That was non-intuitive... 😳

I'm still confused. Some schools offer "medicine" as an undergrad major/course? Is that the same as premedicine?

Computer science and engineering aren't BCPM? Doesn't make sense...

 

[sector9]

Thanks for clearing up the doubt! That was non-intuitive... 😳

I'm still confused. Some schools offer "medicine" as an undergrad major/course? Is that the same as premedicine?

Computer science and engineering aren't BCPM? Doesn't make sense...

I'm not sure about the medicine question. I think that some schools offer classes under a "medicine" department available to undergrads. You also have to think about all the people doing SMPs and stuff who are essentially taking MS1 classes.

Also, it is important to note that it is the primary course content that is important, which is not always well represented by the simple departmental classification. In the example of human nutrition, any nutrition-based classes would be best classified under the "Health Sciences" label but if you took a "Biochemistry of nutrition" class that focused on the biochem, you could put that down as Chem instead of Health Sciences even if it was taught in the Human Nutrition department.

AMCAS is very strict about what is considered BCPM GPA. Only stuff that fits under Bio, Chem, Physics, and Math counts. Engineering doesn't count. Computer science doesn't count. Health sciences doesn't count. The term "science" GPA is better used when talking about AACOMAS. They expand their definition to include a lot more classes that AMCAS doesn't include. Their course designation list can be found here https://aacomas.aacom.org/survey/views/client/aacomas/collegesInstructions4.html

 

[Roxas]

Alright, glad to get that cleared up. Thanks guys