Should I appeal my unaccredited credits?

[injektilo]

Hi there,

I posted this thread because I would like you all to advise me in weather or not I should appeal 21 credits that were transferred over to my community college. To give some background, I am 25 now and attended a film school in 2001 and graduated 2003 with an Associates degree in Film. The school was unaccredited. Somehow, some of my credits were still able to transfer over to my current school.

The thing is that I graduated with a 3.2 from this unaccredited institution and even though it was 7 years ago, I feel that that it will bring down my cumulative GPA if I were to list it as a institution that I attended when applying to medical schools. If I were to appeal those credits by proving to the registrar at my current school that the credits are from an unaccredited institution, I would have to complete an extra semester of school in order to graduate with an Associates degree from my current institution before attending a 4 year university.

Should I do this? I calculated the best cumulative GPA with the inclusion of the 3.2 GPA that I'd get would be around 3.6-3.7. If I were to make 3.2 institution disappear, I could potentially graduate with a cumulative GPA of a 3.9.

Look forward to hearing your advice!

Thank you.

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[Pons Asinorum]

Should I do this? I calculated the best cumulative GPA with the inclusion of the 3.2 GPA that I'd get would be around 3.6-3.7. If I were to make 3.2 institution disappear, I could potentially graduate with a cumulative GPA of a 3.9.

It still has to go on AMCAS, unfortunately. No amount of appealing or not will change that. EVERYTHING goes on your application, or you roll the dice of getting caught and having an academic dishonesty asterisk next to your name.
From the AMCAS instructions:

Section Two: Schools Attended
The Schools Attended section allows you to list every post-secondary institution where you were
enrolled for at least one course, even if credits have been transferred or if no credits were
earned. List any US- or Canadian-sponsored study abroad program in which you participated as
a separate program. In addition, list any degrees that you earned or anticipate earning while
attending the school(s) as well as your major(s) and minor(s).
Misrepresentation or omissions will prompt an investigation, delay processing of your
application, and may result in missed deadlines.

 

[injektilo]

It still has to go on AMCAS, unfortunately. No amount of appealing or not will change that. EVERYTHING goes on your application, or you roll the dice of getting caught and having an academic dishonesty asterisk next to your name.

Thank you for your reply. Do you think I should worry about medical schools putting any weight on an unaccredited institution that I attended 7 years ago? If so, is there anything I could do to improve my chances of getting into a top 10 medical school like UPENN aside from great MCAT scores? Or am I **** out of luck?

 

[injektilo]

Also, if I appeal and my new transcript shows that no credits were earned from this unaccredited school. Does the unaccredited school's GPA get calculated into my cumulative GPA?

 

[DrMidlife]

School X has no control over grades you received at School Y. Transfer credit has nothing to do with med school admissions, beyond the yes/no question of whether you finish a bachelors or not.

If coursework from School Y appears on School X's transcript, med school apps don't look at the School X transcript for the School Y grades. They look on School Y's transcript.

AMCAS app instructions can be found at http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2011amcasinstructions.pdf. See Section 4, "Course Work", particularly:

Enter courses in chronological order exactly as they appear on the official transcript of the school where they were originally attempted. This is especially important to remember if the credit for a course was transferred from one U.S. or Canadian school to another. For example, say you primarily attended the University of Maryland and took “Intro to Pottery” at your local community college over the summer. You would list the community college in the “Schools Attended” section of the application (and request a transcript for it!) and “Intro to Pottery” as a course you took at the community college. You would NOT list the course under the University of Maryland.

3.6-3.7 is competitive. Also, a background that isn't pure undergrad bio makes you interesting.

Best of luck to you.

 

[injektilo]

DrMidlife, thanks for your reply. I get what your saying with showing me the excerpt fromm the AMCAS website that they check all colleges you took courses at, but I think you may be somewhat misunderstanding what I'm asking.

Originally I was wondering if I should appeal my unaccredited transfer credits so that the unaccredited school's GPA doesn't get calculated into my cumulative GPA. After being informed that AMCAS looks at all colleges you attended even if it didn't count towards your degree, I'm now wanting to know if unaccredited credit gets calculated into cumulative GPA? If not, that's awesome because then I'll be able to get a potential cumaltiive GPA of a 3.9.

The insight for having a transcript that isn't all science was helpful. I can see how that would definitely make a me an interesting candidate.

I think I'm going to go ahead and call or email AMCAS tomorrow and see what they have to say about unaccredited institutions. Thanks for your help guys!

 

[EdLongshanks]

DrMidlife, thanks for your reply. I get what your saying with showing me the excerpt fromm the AMCAS website that they check all colleges you took courses at, but I think you may be somewhat misunderstanding what I'm asking.

Originally I was wondering if I should appeal my unaccredited transfer credits so that the unaccredited school's GPA doesn't get calculated into my cumulative GPA. After being informed that AMCAS looks at all colleges you attended even if it didn't count towards your degree, I'm now wanting to know if unaccredited credit gets calculated into cumulative GPA? If not, that's awesome because then I'll be able to get a potential cumaltiive GPA of a 3.9.

The insight for having a transcript that isn't all science was helpful. I can see how that would definitely make a me an interesting candidate.

I think I'm going to go ahead and call or email AMCAS tomorrow and see what they have to say about unaccredited institutions. Thanks for your help guys!

Tell us what they reply. In my app, I didn't include some classes from a Bible school that I went to many years ago. It made almost no difference to my GPA, none of the classes were relevant, none of them transferred anywhere, and I'm not even sure you could call the school "post-secondary" since they took in students who never finished high-school.

 

[MCAT guy]

Whether*

 

[injektilo]

Tell us what they reply. In my app, I didn't include some classes from a Bible school that I went to many years ago. It made almost no difference to my GPA, none of the classes were relevant, none of them transferred anywhere, and I'm not even sure you could call the school "post-secondary" since they took in students who never finished high-school.

So I just called AMCAS and they said that I must include the unaccredited institution in my application to AMCAS. They could not answer my question on whether or not it would get calculated into my cumulative GPA. The female representative on the phone told me that my course work would go through a "verification process" in which they will determine if the course work matches their pre requisites and if it does then it gets calculated into my cumulative GPA.

After explaining to her that I was in a difficult situation because I wanted to take an extra semester to make up all the courses and didn't want to waste my time. I asked if there is any possibility of me finding out ahead of time if my unaccredited coursework would match their pre reqs or not and she said no, which for some reason I find hard to believe.

I reexplained my situation to her again in hopes of getting a suggestion on what I can do and she quickly asked me if I needed help with anything else.

There has got to be a way to find out if my unaccredited course work would match the AMCAS pre reqs or not. If they can figure out if my course work matches their pre reqs then I should be able to figure that out too.

Did this rep just seem like she didn't want to be that helpful? Should I email AMCAS in hopes to get a suggestion on what to do? I know they are there just to serve my questions for their application but that shouldn't stop someone from going a little bit on the extra mile sometime to help someone and thinking outside of the box.

 

[EdLongshanks]

So I just called AMCAS and they said that I must include the unaccredited institution in my application to AMCAS. They could not answer my question on whether or not it would get calculated into my cumulative GPA. The female representative on the phone told me that my course work would go through a "verification process" in which they will determine if the course work matches their pre requisites and if it does then it gets calculated into my cumulative GPA.

After explaining to her that I was in a difficult situation because I wanted to take an extra semester to make up all the courses and didn't want to waste my time. I asked if there is any possibility of me finding out ahead of time if my unaccredited coursework would match their pre reqs or not and she said no, which for some reason I find hard to believe.

I reexplained my situation to her again in hopes of getting a suggestion on what I can do and she quickly asked me if I needed help with anything else.

There has got to be a way to find out if my unaccredited course work would match the AMCAS pre reqs or not. If they can figure out if my course work matches their pre reqs then I should be able to figure that out too.

Did this rep just seem like she didn't want to be that helpful? Should I email AMCAS in hopes to get a suggestion on what to do? I know they are there just to serve my questions for their application but that shouldn't stop someone from going a little bit on the extra mile sometime to help someone and thinking outside of the box.

I'd try again with a different rep and a different approach to the question. The simple question is - Do classes from unaccredited institutions get included in GPA calculations?

 

[DrMidlife]

You're jumping ahead in your big pile of ifs.

IF your CC will let you un-transfer your film school credits and
...IF your CC transcript then shows no record of your previous school and
......IF you decide to risk your medical career by hiding a transcript and
.........IF you then avoid taking an extra semester to finish your AA
OR, IF you decide to get an early ruling from AAMC and
...IF you are able to get access to an AAMC authority and
......IF you don't try their patience in the middle of app season and
.........IF they want to vote on a case that won't happen for 3 years and
............IF they say your film degree won't count and
...............IF you decide to believe your exception will hold for 3 years and
..................IF you then decide you'll submit your film transcript
THEN IF you successfully finish undergrad and
...IF you don't meanwhile change your mind about medicine
THEN you can apply to med school and
...THEN you can get your AMCAS/AACOMAS/TMDSAS GPA calcs and
......THEN you can see whether nonaccredited grades are included and
.........THEN you can decide if your current crusade was worth it

OR you could accept that 2 years at a 3.2 is part of your story and move forward responsibly. Just sayin.

 

[CookDeRosa]

Hi there,

I posted this thread because I would like you all to advise me in weather or not I should appeal 21 credits that were transferred over to my community college. To give some background, I am 25 now and attended a film school in 2001 and graduated 2003 with an Associates degree in Film. The school was unaccredited. Somehow, some of my credits were still able to transfer over to my current school.

The thing is that I graduated with a 3.2 from this unaccredited institution and even though it was 7 years ago, I feel that that it will bring down my cumulative GPA if I were to list it as a institution that I attended when applying to medical schools. If I were to appeal those credits by proving to the registrar at my current school that the credits are from an unaccredited institution, I would have to complete an extra semester of school in order to graduate with an Associates degree from my current institution before attending a 4 year university.

Should I do this? I calculated the best cumulative GPA with the inclusion of the 3.2 GPA that I'd get would be around 3.6-3.7. If I were to make 3.2 institution disappear, I could potentially graduate with a cumulative GPA of a 3.9.

Look forward to hearing your advice!

Thank you.

If you are applying to any DO schools and using the AACOMAS application, any non-RA (regionally accredited) credits are listed as professional. This is in the instruction booklet, and I spoke with them just to double check (I have some non-RA credit too). These are NOT calculated in your cGPA but they ARE listed.
*when you call back, you need to say the phrase "non-regionally accredited" for clarity, that's the appropriate term.