Stupid question.. about GPA?

[MagicalCake]

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Hi all. I'm a 23 yr. old, I would say nontraditional, pre-med student. I started off my college career in fashion design and media arts at an art school. I wasn't serious at all back then, did real bad in my classes, and ended up leaving there with a pathetic two-point-something GPA. I transferred to a community college, and now, recently transferred from that community college to a 4-year university, now studying Biology. I took all my Pre-Meds at the community college and didn't do so well in a few of them, getting C's in Chem I, Physics I, and (not really considered pre-med but..) Anatomy & Physiology I. The advanced levels I did get A's on (with the exception of a B in Physics II), though my overall GPA was only a mere 3.4. I'm doing well with a 4.0 so far at the university, but my question is.. I'm thinking about retaking these classes with C's, and if I do would it be better to retake them at the community college, to help my GPA over there? Would med schools be looking at all GPAs from all schools?

 

[njbmd]

Everything that you take before your first bachelor's degree counts (community college or not) and is averaged into your GPA. Everything that you do after your first bachelor's degree unless it's in a formal graduate program is post bacc and will be averaged with your uGPA. All grades from all schools count period.

It doesn't matter if you retake those courses at your university as long as the number of hours is the same. Needless to say, anything that you retake, you need to get a grade of A. You should have no grade from here on lower than B+ and you can't get too many of those either.

If you had a C in a previous 3-hour course, a retake of that 3-hour course with an A gives you an average of 3.0 or B for those six hours total. You need another 3 hours of A to get above the 3.0 for the nine hours (brings you to 3.3 for the total of 9 hours). In short, GPA "damage control" is a long and expensive process.

If you anticipate applying to osteopathic medical school, their system will replace your previous grades thus you get a higher uGPA with the retakes much faster.

 

[ArkansasRanger]

Everything that you take before your first bachelor's degree counts...and is averaged into your GPA. Everything that you do after your first bachelor's degree unless it's in a formal graduate program is post bacc and will be averaged with your uGPA. All grades from all schools count period.

I don't really follow that. In other words, all undergraduate classes comprise your undergraduate GPA, and all graduate classes comprise your graduate GPA. Right?

 

[stoptouchingme]

I don't really follow that. In other words, all undergraduate classes comprise your undergraduate GPA, and all graduate classes comprise your graduate GPA. Right?

I hope this will help clear some questions you may have about GPA calculation:

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/amcas2010instructions080409.pdf