Science GPA question

[cantthink]

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This is sort of a follow up to the last thread I started....

regarding the Science GPA: I have a BS in mechanical engineering...so suffice to say i have a lot of credit that would be counted as part of the science GPA.

I know my science GPA need fixing....too many C's in there


Three Questions:

1) When looking at sGPA, do schools weigh the difficulty? For example...I have some 400 level engineering classes with C's....can I balance them out by taking some low level Astronomy class? or is that frowned upon?

2)I have taken a few easy science classes at community colleges. I know CCs are looked down upon, but how do they effect the sGPA? any difference from a university in the value of the grade regarding the GPA?

3)would it be better to have a much higher sGPA (lets say 3.7) including community college classes (risking the adcom looking down on the community college experience)......or would it be better to slightly lower sGPA (say 3.4) from all university classes?


let me know your thoughts! Thanks!

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

Technically, yes you can balance a C with A's that are lower level. However, here is the thing.... Adcoms are looking for you to be able to handle the "academic rigors" of medical school. This is why the GPA and MCAT are important. This means you really need to take upper-level courses, maybe a few 100/1000 (Fr)-200/2000 (Soph) level courses. You have to prove that you can hold a decent average in medical school, and lower level A's don't show anything. If you have many C's you need to take at least 2 courses with A's to balance it at a 3.5, a 3.0 isn't going to cut it. So, for every C you have, find two courses you can take to get the numbers up. As far as CC credits, you can take them, they will count in your science GPA, but, I would recommend against this. Most schools, (and I personally agree) feel that CC credits are not going to prepare you for med school or the MCAT. In addition, CCs don't have many courses past the sophomore level and so wouldn't count as UL courses.
As far as weight, no, I doubt your major will have any bearing on their decision. Basically, if you have a 4.0 in an art history major, and you took your prereqs and have As in those, you are a competitive applicant. Also, private universities inflate their grades more, so if you went to a private school and have a 4.0, it looks better because you are less likely to get a 4.0 at a public university...
best of luck to you

 

[phltz]

This is sort of a follow up to the last thread I started....

regarding the Science GPA: I have a BS in mechanical engineering...so suffice to say i have a lot of credit that would be counted as part of the science GPA.

I know my science GPA need fixing....too many C's in there


Three Questions:

1) When looking at sGPA, do schools weigh the difficulty? For example...I have some 400 level engineering classes with C's....can I balance them out by taking some low level Astronomy class? or is that frowned upon?

2)I have taken a few easy science classes at community colleges. I know CCs are looked down upon, but how do they effect the sGPA? any difference from a university in the value of the grade regarding the GPA?

3)would it be better to have a much higher sGPA (lets say 3.7) including community college classes (risking the adcom looking down on the community college experience)......or would it be better to slightly lower sGPA (say 3.4) from all university classes?


let me know your thoughts! Thanks!

You have a bit of discretion in how you categorize your classes when you're filling out your secondary application. I had quite a few undergrad classes that straddled the Computer Science / Math line, and I was able to get away with strategically calling the As math and the lower grades computer science. There is a chance that AMCAS will change your categorizations, but it's generally not a big deal when they do.

All that said, engineering classes do not generally count towards your BCPM (biology, chemistry, physics and math), which is what people mean when they talk about their science GPA. And classes you took in the mechanical engineering department that don't have a word like "physics" in the title will be a shoe-in for getting categorized as engineering, and thus not part of your science GPA. You might be able to get away with categorizing a class with a title like, for example, "Waves and vibrations" as physics if it had a good grade and you want to pull it in, but you could also probably call it engineering and keep it out if you don't like the grade.

As far as the GPA goes, an A in astronomy from your community college counts for just as much as an A in Advanced astrophysics from MIT. However, once you make it past a (possible) automated screen, and actual people sit down to read your application and talk about it, they'll be a lot more impressed by advanced classes at good schools.

You graduated at least a few years ago, I wouldn't worry too much about your cumulative averages. What's in the past is in the past. Do well now. Be prepared to tell a good story. If you can say something like, "I was immature and flaky as an undergrad, yes, and so I had a 2.7 GPA. A few years passed, I matured, pulled myself together, and decided that medicine is what I want to do. With a new sense of purpose, I applied myself diligently to my studies, got a 3.9 in all these science classes, and kicked butt on the MCAT.", you'll be in decent shape. Your cumulative averages may still be weak, but if your have a solid chunk of recent classes with a great GPA, I think people will be willing to overlook what happened back in your wayward youth.

 

[cantthink]

Thanks...i didnt realize I could count the engineering not as science classes...

Since I havent applied to anywhere (will be looking at DO schools only) yet I didnt realize the sGPA only applied to biology, chemistry, physics and math.... If this is the case then my Science GPA should be rocking by the time my prereqs are done....

i've heard that even some/all math is not included in the sGPA?...is that correct?

 

[cantthink]

FOLLOW UP QUESTION!!!!

i'm looking in the AACOM info book (looking at DO only, not MD)....

it says "Other Science" includes engineering. Does that mean I MUST list ALL my engineering as "other science" I plan to list them....but some are not sciencey-at-all so I don't feel they should bring my Science GPA down.

I put together a spreadsheet of my grade that calculates my GPA and sGPA....it makes a big difference!

 

[augeremt]

You have a bit of discretion in how you categorize your classes when you're filling out your secondary application. I had quite a few undergrad classes that straddled the Computer Science / Math line, and I was able to get away with strategically calling the As math and the lower grades computer science. There is a chance that AMCAS will change your categorizations, but it's generally not a big deal when they do.

Finally some good news 🙂

How did you manage that? I also have a few math classes that were either taken in the Engineering & Applied Science (ENAS) department or the Mechanical Engineering (MENG) department. On my official transcript, the course numbers are listed as ENAS and MENG, and luckily (or as lucky as this can be), those happen to be my lower-grade classes. But the course titles are obviously math: Differential Equations, for example, or Fluid Dynamics.

So, would they be classified by course title (Differential Equations, for example) as BCPM or by course number (ENAS in this case) as non-science?

I'm hoping for the latter, since it's a difference of 0.10 in BCPM GPA. That gives you an idea of how much damage control I need to do. So as you can see, I need any help I can get.

 

[phltz]

Finally some good news 🙂

How did you manage that? I also have a few math classes that were either taken in the Engineering & Applied Science (ENAS) department or the Mechanical Engineering (MENG) department. On my official transcript, the course numbers are listed as ENAS and MENG, and luckily (or as lucky as this can be), those happen to be my lower-grade classes. But the course titles are obviously math: Differential Equations, for example, or Fluid Dynamics.

So, would they be classified by course title (Differential Equations, for example) as BCPM or by course number (ENAS in this case) as non-science?

I'm hoping for the latter, since it's a difference of 0.10 in BCPM GPA. That gives you an idea of how much damage control I need to do. So as you can see, I need any help I can get.

When you fill out your AMCAS primary, you assign each class a category from a drop-down list of options. Later, someone at AMCAS goes through your transcripts to verify everything is accurate. They may change some of your categorizations if they disagree with them. I believe they use both the course name and number to make their decisions.

I'm not an expert on this, but for my case, I was able to call Advanced Topics in Cryptography a math class, but Theory of Computation a computer science class. Both were cross-listed in the math and computer science departments, although they were only listed as being in the math department on my official transcript.

For what it's worth, my guess is that if the title of the class is simply "Differential Equations", they'll reclassify it as math if you try to call in engineering, even if it was offered by an engineering department. Maybe if it was called "Differential Equations for Engineering" or something, you'd have a chance. You can work the gray area a bit, but there has to be some gray to the situation.