Questions about PTCAS GPA

[DPTorDOstudent]

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Hey guys, long time lurker here.

I have two questions about PTCAS GPA calculation.

1. Is Organic Chemistry included in the science GPA calculation?

2. Since PTCAS includes all courses in GPA calculation, including retakes, hypothetically can I retake a course I already got an A in for the GPA boost? I have to retake most of my prereqs over just to bring my cGPA and sGPA up to a 3.0.

 

[Skyris]

1. Is Organic Chemistry included in the science GPA calculation?

Yes:

The Science GPA includes all courses labeled with a course subject of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Anatomy & Physiology in Biology. The Science & Math GPA includes all courses in the Science GPA, plus any courses labeled with a course subject of Math.

2. Since PTCAS includes all courses in GPA calculation, including retakes, hypothetically can I retake a course I already got an A in for the GPA boost? I have to retake most of my prereqs over just to bring my cGPA and sGPA up to a 3.0.

You can, but depending on how far you are through undergrad, it's a tiny GPA increase. I'd retake your non-A prereqs first for those programs that will calculate their own prereq GPA's using grade replacement.

 

[DPTorDOstudent]

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You can, but depending on how far you are through undergrad, it's a tiny GPA increase. I'd retake your non-A prereqs first for those programs that will calculate their own prereq GPA's using grade replacement.

I'm retaking 5 of my prereqs and after I get A's in those, all of my prereqs grades will be an A. However, because of my original grades and my orgo failure my sGPA will be around a 2.8.

Won't schools just throw away my application because I don't meet the 3.0 minimum?

 

[beyoutiful_sunshine]

1) Yes organic chemistry is included in your science gpa since you've taken it.

2) don't retake a class you've made an A in, it will not change your gpa AT ALL.
Every class you've taken is only counted ONCE for gpa calculations.
The grade they use is the average of your retakes. So if you get an A the first try and retake it and get another A, you essentially did nothing.

Basically: when you retake a class, your new grade doesn't get thrown in the mix for an overall gpa boost. It gets averaged in with your old grade and it's THAT new grade (the average of take 1 and take 2) that gets thrown into the mix for the new gpa calculations. If you retake any class and make the exact same grade, even if it's a good grade, your gpa won't be affected.
I don't know if my explanation of why it won't count made sense, please let me know if it doesn't and I'll give you a concrete example with fictitious grades and what it would look like 🙂

Retake classes you did terrible in and then you'll see an increase in your gpa. Pre-req gpa will be easier to increase because it only accounts for a couple of classes.

Yes your application won't be looked at if you don't meet the requirements.
You can work to increase your gpa to a 3.0, but you can also look at schools that don't use PTCAS gpa calculations, but that take the higher grade out of all attempts. A fair amount of schools do that, you just have to find them.

Good luck!!