Study Abroad Experience

[Doc Henry]

Just wondering...I studied abroad for a term and I know that experience looks good but my grades while in England weren't great (school there really is harder). I'm crossing my fingers that I got a 3.o....

So do you think the experience will over shadow the low GPA?

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[ADeadLois]

Just wondering...I studied abroad for a term and I know that experience looks good but my grades while in England weren't great (school there really is harder). I'm crossing my fingers that I got a 3.o....

So do you think the experience will over shadow the low GPA?

No, low GPA is low GPA.

Also, make sure you articulate what the experience was when you write it up. Just being abroad doesn't make it an automatic positive if all you did was take classes.

 

[musiclink213]

First make sure that AMCAS will even count thoser grades. I studied abroad in Paris and had a 4.0, but it didn't count in my AMCAS GPA because my home university just gave me transfer credit for those classes instead of a letter grade.

 

[JohnMadden]

Just wondering...I studied abroad for a term and I know that experience looks good but my grades while in England weren't great (school there really is harder). I'm crossing my fingers that I got a 3.o....

So do you think the experience will over shadow the low GPA?

For me, the experience far outweighed the grades for a semester of classes. However, the classes had nothing to do with science and were conducted in another language.

 

[Darkshooter326]

Yea, AMCAS won't even accept the grades from most foreign institutions, good or bad.

 

[acrunchyfrog]

I'd like to study A Broad, too. I'm heading to Vegas, first thing!

Seriously tho, I'd love to go abroad and immerse myself in another culture, primarily to learn a 2nd language. Good luck.

 

[notdeadyet]

Yea, AMCAS won't even accept the grades from most foreign institutions, good or bad.

I don't think that's true. If you are studying abroad in a program organized by your school, and you receive grades on you home university transcript for the work you completed, AMCAS does factor in the grades.

 

[musiclink213]

I don't think that's true. If you are studying abroad in a program organized by your school, and you receive grades on you home university transcript for the work you completed, AMCAS does factor in the grades.

Yea, that's true. But if you organized the study abroad on your own, or went through an organization that arranged the study abroad, then your home institution might just give you the credits without a grade, in which case AMCAS wouldn't count them. That's the route I took anyway, my school didn't have a program to Paris, so I went through a group called Cultural Experiences Abroad and my school gave me credits for the French classes I took, but no grade.

 

[Doc Henry]

i get letter grades from my school

 

[notdeadyet]

i get letter grades from my school

Then they'll definitely be factored in. Sorry...

 

[chad5871]

I'd like to study A Broad, too. I'm heading to Vegas, first thing!

 

[ssquared]

Just wondering...I studied abroad for a term and I know that experience looks good but my grades while in England weren't great (school there really is harder). I'm crossing my fingers that I got a 3.o....

So do you think the experience will over shadow the low GPA?

That's funny. When I studied abroad, the classes were a million times easier than my home institution. I got a 4.0, no prob, which is unheard of back home. I wonder why yours was so difficult.

 

[chad5871]

That's funny. When I studied abroad, the classes were a million times easier than my home institution. I got a 4.0, no prob, which is unheard of back home. I wonder why yours was so difficult.

Where did you study? From what I hear of our study abroad program specific to Biology/Chemistry/Forensic Science majors, it's supposed to be a lot different from American undergraduate. For example, their classes are each a year long, and there is only one grade each semester - the final exam. From what I understand it is not necessarily harder but much different. I guess some people do well with this format while others would have a more difficult time.

 

[Doc Henry]

I studied in the UK. And honestly it was very different. There was no one textbook..they gave you a list of like 10 and told you to choose one. My biggest problem is that my entire grade for 3/4 classes was based purely on 1 or 2 2000 word essays because, as you pointed out, the exams are at the end of the year and since I was there only for the term I couldnt take the exams. The thing about the essays is that to get a first (their version of an A) your work is supposed to pretty much be good enough to get published. Frankly I just didn't have enough experience with science writing. One of my essays was for a Functional Neuroanatomy class on the evolution of the olfactory system and another was on "The effect of benzodiazepines on nerve cell function". Big change from what I am used to!

That being said...my profs said nobody ever gets over an 80%, but an 80% there is a first, so now its up to my institution to translate the horrible percentages by our standards in to what I can only hope are good grades.

Oh, and btw...I wasn't as focused as I could have been- I got married just a few months before I left and it was harder than I expected! But still worth it =)

 

[MahlerROCKS]

Just wondering...I studied abroad for a term and I know that experience looks good but my grades while in England weren't great (school there really is harder). I'm crossing my fingers that I got a 3.o....

So do you think the experience will over shadow the low GPA?

I feel your pain: I studied at a Danish university and my program converted the 13 scale system as A=11-13, A-=10, B+=9, B=8, B-=7... The conversion chart was not accurate because double digit numbers are rarely, if ever, given out, unlike in the American system where A's aren't too common, but they are given out nonetheless. On my oral final worth 80% of my grade, I scored a 9--the highest the professor had handed out in nearly 10 years. On the one hand I was flattered, but I was also super-pissed

 

[Dr. Josh]

Yea, AMCAS won't even accept the grades from most foreign institutions, good or bad.

what?? My school added them to my transcript and they better count them because i really worked hard and got a 4.0, plus some were pre-reqs.

 

[Doc Henry]

what?? My school added them to my transcript and they better count them because i really worked hard and got a 4.0, plus some were pre-reqs.

If your school put them as letter grades on your transcript then they will get counted. The only time you get no credit for the grades is if you school just p/f you.