Plus/Minus GPA

[preopgirl91]

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I just completed my sophomore year of undergrad as a biology major and am now pursuing pre-optometry. I was wondering if the admissions committee uses a plus/minus grading system when calculating your GPA.

Is the prestige of your undergrad university taken into consideration when reviewing your application?

Also, has anyone had experience applying to or attending University of Houston College of Optometry? Any advice on that specific school would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MidnightOil]

As far as plus/minus grading I think they take into account of the overall strength of your class schedule on some of your lower grades... but no I don't believe they set there and tally it up.

The prestige of a university is not that big of a factor, simply because the OAT takes that out of the equation. IMHO as long as you have above a 3.0 and the prereqs, all that will matter is your OAT score.

 

[preopgirl91]

thank you for the response.
what i meant by the plus minus grading question is, does your GPA include the grades as a A- or B- or do those turn into just A and B when you enter them into the application?

 

[Mewcakes]

Yes, they take into account -/+ when calculating your GPA.

Prestige CAN have an effect, but I'm not sure how consistently. At least that's what my admission interview (@SCO) made it seem like.

 

[mintyjulep]

As far as plus/minus grading I think they take into account of the overall strength of your class schedule on some of your lower grades... but no I don't believe they set there and tally it up.

The prestige of a university is not that big of a factor, simply because the OAT takes that out of the equation. IMHO as long as you have above a 3.0 and the prereqs, all that will matter is your OAT score.

Yes, prestige does matter. Many opto admissions committees will multiply your GPA by a certain factor or add points to your "application score" depending on the difficulty level of your undergrad institution.

 

[QueenieCSS]

Is the prestige of your undergrad university taken into consideration when reviewing your application?

I didn't end up applying to Houston but when I requested information they sent me pre-req sheets for both my undergrad and the school I was finishing up my pre-reqs. They ranked my undergrad (which was a private school) 7 for difficulty level/competitiveness, and the state school where I was finishing up my pre-reqs (I was a humanities major in undergrad and decided to do optometry later in life) a 3 for competitiveness. I think 7 or 8 was highest and it went all the way down to 1. But it has been a couple of years so you probably want to double check with them.

So I would assume that Houston takes prestige into account but as I didn't end up finishing up my application there I can't say for certain.

 

[Visualizer]

Also, has anyone had experience applying to or attending University of Houston College of Optometry? Any advice on that specific school would be greatly appreciated.

From my experience, if you have a decent all-around application and you apply early, you will get an invite to interview. From there, as long as you're not crazy, you will get accepted. This happened to my friend who is a year ahead of me. She didn't even have an interview. When it came around for mine, my interview group was late October, but I wouldn't even call my experience an interview. I was asked the typical "Why optometry?" and then "What is your favorite TV show?" That was about the extent of my "interview." They offered a seat to all 20 of the students in my interview group. I think they just know what they want and they do a good job selecting based on your application alone. Houston is a good school and their 6 story expansion should be finished right around the time you would start, which would be nice.