Questions about Pre-Req GPA, Observation Hours, and Extracurriculars

[kicensi]

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I couldn't find an introduction forum for this section so hi! I'm a community college student/also simultaneously a high school senior due to a program called running start in Washington State that allows high schoolers to attend full time C.C. for 2 years and I plan to earn an AA degree by the time at the end of senior year. Nice to meet you all 🙂

So...I'm probably going to a get a 3.2-3.4 in my first gen. chemistry class (out of the 3 part quarter series) due to a car accident (was not hurt thankfully!) that prevented me from taking a unit exam (therefore got a 0)...That sucks since the professor basically said I could've gotten a 4.0.

But, does this matter in the overall spectrum of pre-req GPA? I'm fairly confident that I can get a 3.9 or 4.0 for the next two part of the sequences for chemistry and I already got a 4.0 for the general psychology course, 1st part of the physics series, general sociology course, and general anthropology as well (some schools may not require the anthropology or sociology though)... My overall GPA was not heavily affected (it will go from a 3.98 to a 3.92 at the very worst).

Basically, I'm wondering if this class will hurt me.

Also, a university I got accepted to has a 15 credit course during the summer for their kinesiology major that is a job shadow of physical therapist(s) of a guaranteed 360 hours at the least. This is good for me since I'll be jumping from a high school senior to a college junior so my time is short. This class specifically is pass/fail ,however; would that affect how the graduate schools calculate my G.P.A. and look at my courses overall?

Lastly for extracurriculars could I potentially use activities done in my time during community college? I thought that later I could put in participation in Phi Theta Kappa (community college honor society) and being a student tutor for the writing center for a whole year (job).

Also would it be possible for a high school senior/community college student to get hours of observation/volunteering that can be verified by a physical therapist now? Universities seem so competitive for hours these days (Puget Sound's average amount of hours is in the 900s!) So I'm wondering how many verifiable hours I should aim for total...

Thanks if anyone answers/guesses or has links to a similar thread because community college advisors (and high school) don't really get that in depth into graduate school preparation...

 

[ATCplusDPT]

It seems that you will not have much of a problem at all with your GPA as long as you keeping making those types of grades. Keep in mind that you need to take the GRE as well and depending on the school, that can be an important factor. I wouldn't see why the honor society and tutoring job couldn't be put down as extracurriculars, but I would look to add a couple more once you start at a university. Because you are technically enrolled in a college, I would think that those observation hours should count. The only way to know for sure would be to contact someone about it. Taking that summer course would definitely be beneficial (360 hours.. wow!). I was just accepted this week after only having the bare minimum 100 hours, that probably wasn't the best decision on my part, but just so you know, it's possible! The only thing that could possibly hold you back is being younger than most traditional students. Other than that, I don't see why you couldn't be a very competitive candidate.

 

[kicensi]

It seems that you will not have much of a problem at all with your GPA as long as you keeping making those types of grades. Keep in mind that you need to take the GRE as well and depending on the school, that can be an important factor. I wouldn't see why the honor society and tutoring job couldn't be put down as extracurriculars, but I would look to add a couple more once you start at a university. Because you are technically enrolled in a college, I would think that those observation hours should count. The only way to know for sure would be to contact someone about it. Taking that summer course would definitely be beneficial (360 hours.. wow!). I was just accepted this week after only having the bare minimum 100 hours, that probably wasn't the best decision on my part, but just so you know, it's possible! The only thing that could possibly hold you back is being younger than most traditional students. Other than that, I don't see why you couldn't be a very competitive candidate.

Thanks for your answers, I was more freaking out over everything due to my time constraints.

By the way do you know if the internship (15 credits) being pass/fail will hurt me because that's the only way to grade that course? It will be calculated in non-pre req GPA (so overall) but I'm wondering if some PT schools would dislike that. For example, I know some graduate schools (in general) put pass/fail courses as 3.0 which would hurt my overall GPA.

I'm curious, what graduate school did you get accepted to? All the ones in my state are crazy competitive now T.T (UPS, UW, and EWU) so now I'm looking at out of state schools.

 

[ATCplusDPT]

I'm not sure about the pass/fail course affecting your GPA. I took one pass/fail course in undergrad but it was only 1 credit hour so regardless it wouldn't have affected me much. I got into Georgia Regents University and I am a student at the University of Georgia now.