Technical College Degree!

[Narnian]

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Greetings all! I'll cut right to the cheese ... 😀 I have this 2 years of technical college in a computer networking program. I did not do so hot in this program. I have a two D's and some C's. None of the credits count for anything. Is it possible for me to leave off this transcript? All the other college I have is A's or B's (minus two US history courses I got F's in because I got deployed on a feild op and I could not contact the teacher to tell her I needed to drop... I dont know what to do about that). So I was wondering if I can just not submit the tech crap and just submit my community college and university transcript? That would bolster my GPA some. My current university undergrad GPA is 3.74 but thats only the courses I have taken through thier University system. I am planning to get my degree with them. So is this the only GPA they consider? Any thoughts on either dilema?

 

[EricH]

You need to contact aacomas or amcas, but if the program is not accredited, you may luck out.

Good luck

 

[njbmd]

Greetings all! I'll cut right to the cheese ... 😀 I have this 2 years of technical college in a computer networking program. I did not do so hot in this program. I have a two D's and some C's. None of the credits count for anything. Is it possible for me to leave off this transcript? All the other college I have is A's or B's (minus two US history courses I got F's in because I got deployed on a feild op and I could not contact the teacher to tell her I needed to drop... I dont know what to do about that). So I was wondering if I can just not submit the tech crap and just submit my community college and university transcript? That would bolster my GPA some. My current university undergrad GPA is 3.74 but thats only the courses I have taken through thier University system. I am planning to get my degree with them. So is this the only GPA they consider? Any thoughts on either dilema?

If you took those courses post secondary school you have to disclose them regardless of whether or not the school is accredited. You can easily explain the circumstances of why your uGPA is lower but you don't get to pick what you do or don't submit. If your program was a vocational tech high school, you wouldn't have to submit those otherwise, your grades follow you.

Most schools will take into consideration military service and how this has affected your transcript so put everything post high school out there and be ready to explain what happened (not in your personal statement) if asked. My guess is that seeing your transcript time line, this won't be a problem but don't omit anything post high school.

 

[nabeel76]

If the school is unaccredited will AMCAS still factor these grades into your cummulative GPA? or do they just want copies of the transcripts for verification or other reasons?

 

[DrMidlife]

If the school is unaccredited will AMCAS still factor these grades into your cummulative GPA? or do they just want copies of the transcripts for verification or other reasons?

I don't see what unaccredited has to do with it. If you took a class and earned (or failed to earn) a grade, it's part of your GPA.

AMCAS is very simply a transcript verification service that caters to med schools. AMCAS takes 18,000 messy inputs and renders them into standardized form.

It's med schools who will bust you if you commit fraud in failing to disclose post-high-school grades. You'll likely get caught after you've completed a year or two, and are maybe $100k in debt. Whenever the school gets around to doing an audit. Whenever you cross somebody who wants to get you in trouble. Whenever your financial aid history doesn't match your story.

If you can't get a school to release your transcript, because it went out of business etc, that means you have a lot of explaining to do, and you'd better budget some time and energy to do it, with AMCAS and then with schools. For example, there was a college (New College) in the San Francisco Bay Area that offered a postbac program. It lost its accreditation and closed its doors. One of our SDN members had to go through some hell to prove he'd done his prereqs. NOT recommended.

 

[gman33]

Technical schools are not specifically addressed in the AMCAS guidelines. I would guess you need to put these in, but there are not specific instructions. I do think accredidation has something to do with it. If not, by that logic, I'd have to report that I took a cooking class at the mall.

I would call AMCAS and try to get something in writing from them if they say you do not have to report this info.
Also, find out if and how this info will be used to calc your GPA.



http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/amcas2010instructions041509.pdf

 

[nabeel76]

I don't see what unaccredited has to do with it. If you took a class and earned (or failed to earn) a grade, it's part of your GPA.

Well in that case that would be an extreme plus because I got about 15 courses of straight A's at this school, however I don't remember if I've read or heard from somewhere that AMCAS will not factor non-accredited schools into your cum GPA?

I hope I am wrong but in some situations (clearly not mine, I worked my ass off) non-accredited grades my be easier earned and the lack of accreditation means that there are no way's to really compare their standards to the standards of university courses. So would it make sense to bunch these grades in with the rest? I am not sure but am applying this year so I will find out here soon enough whether amcas includes it or not, I hope they do however cause that will help my GPA out some.

 

[DrMidlife]

by that logic, I'd have to report that I took a cooking class at the mall.

Well in that case that would be an extreme plus because I got about 15 courses of straight A's at this school, however I don't remember if I've read or heard from somewhere that AMCAS will not factor non-accredited schools into your cum GPA?

I see no clear definition in the AMCAS instructions that says what you have to submit, in the genre of cooking classes and technical college. None of these words are hits: "accredit," "tech," "vocation," nor do I see anything else that's clear. Around page 21 we get the most help we're going to get: "every post-secondary institution." We are supposed to submit transcripts for extension programs, non-degree programs, etc.

I'm inclined to believe that if you get a transcript, you have to submit it. So if that cooking class was taken at a transcript-issuing school, there you go. If you took it at the mall, there's no transcript, right?

Regardless, for the technical college work, I'd go see if that school shows up in the AMCAS dropdown for schools attended. That would be good data.