Non-Trad GPA

[RachelD]

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Any idea how an admissions committee is going to look at GPA when you have an undergrad, grad, and post bacc undergrad GPA's? I'm worried about my grades.
Here are my stats:
Undergrad in Business from OU 1998 3.1 GPA 🙁
Grad: Master of Health Services Administration 3.52
Post Bacc (all science) 4.00.
I've heard about formulas and such. Will they just evaluate us separately from the traditional applicants?
Any ideas???????

 

[QofQuimica]

Any idea how an admissions committee is going to look at GPA when you have an undergrad, grad, and post bacc undergrad GPA's? I'm worried about my grades.
Here are my stats:
Undergrad in Business from OU 1998 3.1 GPA 🙁
Grad: Master of Health Services Administration 3.52
Post Bacc (all science) 4.00.
I've heard about formulas and such. Will they just evaluate us separately from the traditional applicants?
Any ideas???????

I'm curious about this also. I actually don't have ANY grades from undergrad because I went to one of those funky liberal arts kind of schools. I do have grades from both grad schools I've attended. When I applied to med school as an undergrad, the state schools knew about my college and didn't mind the lack of grades. The one out of state school was not interested. I hope that I can make them look this time around!

 

[efex101]

Call the schools and ask. I think that most will look at recent grades BUT some do have a strict numbers cutoff and may not take into accout old GPA vs recent GPA.

 

[njbmd]

Any idea how an admissions committee is going to look at GPA when you have an undergrad, grad, and post bacc undergrad GPA's? I'm worried about my grades.
Here are my stats:
Undergrad in Business from OU 1998 3.1 GPA 🙁
Grad: Master of Health Services Administration 3.52
Post Bacc (all science) 4.00.
I've heard about formulas and such. Will they just evaluate us separately from the traditional applicants?
Any ideas???????

Hi there,
You are NOT evaluated separately from traditional applicants. That being said, your whole application will taken into consideration. Many people had a rough start in college that is reflected in an undergraduate GPA less than stellar. They make up for their poor showing by doing graduate work or doing a post bacc. You can only do as well as you can do period. You can't undo what is in your past. You can make the best of it (as you have) and try to select schools that do not have strict numerical cutoffs. Your undergraduate work will come up as a 3.1. You postbacc stuff will not offset that but will show that you are certainly capable of handling medical school especially if your MCAT is competitive.

Non-traditional does not confer any additional advantage to your application that was is not otherwise there. You have to be competitive in terms of GPA, MCAT and extracurriculars like volunteering, letters, PS etc. Your grades especially coupled with a strong MCAT may get you into an interview where you can convince a committee member that you would be an asset to their entering class. Make the rest of your application as competitive as possible. Put your best foot forward and chose your schools carefully. Do as much homework as possible.

Good luck!
njbmd 🙂

 

[oldntired]

Sort of along the same general discussion, how are CC grades assessed? I had a great GPA until I transferred. Also, are all classes factored into the mix-- i.e. military science and other jokester classes?

 

[mshheaddoc]

To shed my opinion on this ... I have talked to two med schools, both of them led me to believe that current course work counts alot. I was told with my gpa (2.3 cum grad, actual gpa with transfers of 2.5) that with my MBA GPA high, ace my prereqs and get at least a 35 on MCATs I'd have no problem getting in. Now I just have to ace the prereqs and MCAT 😱

As a friend who is a med student told me yesterday, if they don't see what you have and that you have changed your ways ... then **** them b/c you don't want to go there anyway.

 

[PugGirl]

Any idea how an admissions committee is going to look at GPA when you have an undergrad, grad, and post bacc undergrad GPA's? I'm worried about my grades.
Here are my stats:
Undergrad in Business from OU 1998 3.1 GPA 🙁
Grad: Master of Health Services Administration 3.52
Post Bacc (all science) 4.00.
I've heard about formulas and such. Will they just evaluate us separately from the traditional applicants?
Any ideas???????

I had the same exact stats for my undergrad and post bacc GPA. They lumped my post bacc GPA into my undergrad GPA giving me a higher overall GPA. Thus far, I haven't had any problems getting interviews (except at the top tier schools 👎) so I'm sure you won't either. No idea how graduate coursework GPA gets calculated in the formula though. Some schools may screen based on overall gpa but I don't know which ones (NYU?)...although I think the BCPM GPA is considered more impt.

 

[PugGirl]

To shed my opinion on this ... I have talked to two med schools, both of them led me to believe that current course work counts alot. I was told with my gpa (2.3 cum grad, actual gpa with transfers of 2.5) that with my MBA GPA high, ace my prereqs and get at least a 35 on MCATs I'd have no problem getting in. Now I just have to ace the prereqs and MCAT 😱

As a friend who is a med student told me yesterday, if they don't see what you have and that you have changed your ways ... then **** them b/c you don't want to go there anyway.

Oh my god, they told you to get AT LEAST a 35 on the MCAT'S???????? What dimension do they live in??

 

[mshheaddoc]

Oh my god, they don't you to get AT LEAST a 35 on the MCAT'S???????? What dimension do they live in??

well that was my goal on the MCAT's anyway .... nothing like attaining your goal 😎 🙄 😀

 

[PugGirl]

well that was my goal on the MCAT's anyway .... nothing like attaining your goal 😎 🙄 😀

oops...didn't mean to imply you couldn't do it. I'm sure you can; I just can't believe they said AT LEAST a 35 to get into med school.

 

[mshheaddoc]

oops...didn't mean to imply you couldn't do it. I'm sure you can; I just can't believe they said AT LEAST a 35 to get into med school.

lol, i know what you meant. well i have a bad gpa, but good grades in MBA prg and need to do well in prereqs

 

[relentless11]

Man, i'm in the same boat as you all too. Worked during high school and continue to work to this day to support family so have always had to devote a significant amount of time to funding life.

With that said, graduated with a 2.65. Have been doing post-bacc for a year and a quarter now. Post-bacc is ~3.65. MCAT is good, 34Q. All i know is its going to be an uphill if not vertical battle to get into one med school. But hey, the jobs worth it 🙂 .

I have talked to the advisors here at UC Davis, and they recommend that i continue taking upper division science courses, rather than heading to the graduate route. Its costing me an arm and a leg, and then some to stay in school at UC Davis, and I have an option of getting into the grad program here, which would pay for tuition, however I think..if taking more upper div courses provides me a better chance of getting into med school (based on the UCD advisors), then i'll just have to take the monetary hit.

Now i've got a question for you all. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that based on 2 years of post-bacc, my GPA will pretty much never get to 3.0 or higher. A 2.65 with 224 units under its belly will take some time to overcome. By spring 2005, i'll have around 40 or so units of post-bacc, with a GPA of around 3.65 or higher. My EC's are not in question, they are derived from work done since 1998, so there's a lot and not worth mentioning at the moment.

So the question is, would the UC's or any other school that screens, would they even look at my application? I will of course mention in a positive manner that I had to work all my life to get here. Personally, I'd be ecstatic to get a secondary from the UC's, so I can explain my situation in more detail, and be supported by letters of rec.

Any thoughts?

 

[QofQuimica]

Anyone else here not have any undergrad GPA? I know it sounds weird, but I had no grades at my college, just narrative evaluations. I do have grades from grad school but I took my prereqs as an undergrad. I retook the MCAT so I don't think they will question my preparation or ability to handle the work, but I'm just curious how other people without any GPA did with applying and explaining this to the med schools.

 

[relentless11]

Wow, did you go to UCSC or something? Anyway, unless you can get the grades from the school.......its entirely possible that this is a very bad thing considering med schools have GPA cut offs, and look at both GPA and MCAT.

Med school's look at GPA/MCAT because they need a quantitative measurement. Narrative evaluations, regardless of how good they are...are merely qualitative in nature and don't help the people evaluating the application.

Additionally, I don't think the AMCAS application even has an option to get around this. So.....if AMCAS application thinks you're not done...you can't send it. However, since you have grad grades....that might be helpful. I can't recall though, if the AMCAS thing gets mad if you don't put anything for undergrad. They want to see everything, but if you entered that you went to some school, and taken classes but don't enter grades since they were narrative, thats bad.

 

[QofQuimica]

Wow, did you go to UCSC or something? Anyway, unless you can get the grades from the school.......its entirely possible that this is a very bad thing considering med schools have GPA cut offs, and look at both GPA and MCAT.

Med school's look at GPA/MCAT because they need a quantitative measurement. Narrative evaluations, regardless of how good they are...are merely qualitative in nature and don't help the people evaluating the application.

Additionally, I don't think the AMCAS application even has an option to get around this. So.....if AMCAS application thinks you're not done...you can't send it. However, since you have grad grades....that might be helpful. I can't recall though, if the AMCAS thing gets mad if you don't put anything for undergrad. They want to see everything, but if you entered that you went to some school, and taken classes but don't enter grades since they were narrative, thats bad.

No, I went to school here in Florida; it's called New College and it is part of the state university system. There is no possibibility of getting grades; they simply don't offer them period to anyone for any reason. AMCAS does have an option to get around this, because I was able to apply to the in-state schools with no problem while I was still an undergrad. (It was long enough ago that I don't remember what the instructions were now. 😛 ) I also applied to Yale, which didn't like it. I'm hoping to apply to schools like Yale this time around, so that's why I was wondering if anyone had tried to do that without grades and how it went. Maybe I will try asking in the general pre-MD forum.