The effect of my gpa from college classes I took in high school?

[One Hip Guy]

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I did a few searches with various terms and couldn't find any thread related to this, so sorry if it's been talked about a million times(I'm new here).

Anyway, I did pseo(college classes) in high school and am now in my first semester of college. I have a 3.48 career gpa so far, which includes one C+. My question is, does this put me in a position where I need to work extra hard to boost that up, or will admissions look more at my gpa during these next 4 years of college?

 

[orthomyxo]

You'll have to report all the college classes you've taken. But I wouldn't worry about it. A 3.48 isn't terrible, and I'd imagine that admission committees would give far less weight to classes taken as a high school student. So you should work hard (obviously), but don't feel like you need to compensate for your past performance. If you do well from now on, it's pretty much a non-issue.

 

[sector9]

I did a few searches with various terms and couldn't find any thread related to this, so sorry if it's been talked about a million times(I'm new here).

Anyway, I did pseo(college classes) in high school and am now in my first semester of college. I have a 3.48 career gpa so far, which includes one C+. My question is, does this put me in a position where I need to work extra hard to boost that up, or will admissions look more at my gpa during these next 4 years of college?

The short answer to your question is to do your best in college and everything will work out. Your performance in high school won't be held against you too much

The longer answer is that your application will show your GPA calculated using ALL college classes, including those taken while you were still in high school. This means that your GPA will take a hit because of those high school classes. At this point, your poor performance in a few classes is dragging your GPA way down. Once you take more and more classes (assuming you get great grades) then your GPA will reach an 'equilibrium' of sorts much closer to your performance throughout the 'normal' bachelor's degree.

Your med school application also breaks down your GPA for a variety of different academic statuses, including high school, freshman, sophomore, etc. See this post for a screenshot of the GPA matrix as displayed on an application http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=11675300
This means that admissions committee members have easy access to the true story of your GPA, which will show a weak performance in college courses while in high school but strong grades throughout the rest of your college experience. Once they notice the trend, they'll understand what happened

 

[chiapet874]

As already stated, Colleges are required to report all College level courses taken at their institution.

That said, I don't think it will be held against you. Adcoms will clearly see that you took the course in High school.

 

[JonnyL]

I think it's safe to say that if the issue does come up, you can explain that you took it in high school and it shouldn't hurt you too much.

 

[pkwraith]

Well, yes it counts. On your AMCAS application, it's going to be broken down into:
High School
Freshman
Sophomore
Junior
Senior
Postbaccalaureate Undergraduate

Most of the time it's going to be at a different institution. I took my high school classes at a flagship state school (easy A's), which yanked all my BCPM/cumulative GPA totals up.

The takeway though is that yes, GPA from high school year matters, but it is still already weighted by class hours. Unless you're taking massive amounts of college classes in high school, the credit hours are still going to be dwarfed by a normal college year. Any effects (unless major) will be swallowed up pretty early. Simple math and statistics.

 

[tiedyeddog]

does this put me in a position where I need to work extra hard to boost that up, or will admissions look more at my gpa during these next 4 years of college?

You need to work extra hard to get into medical school, anyway. All GPAs are added together. How this pertains to your overall GPA depends on how many hours you racked up in high school. I had one college years worth before actually starting freshman year, those easy As gave me a boost and cushion during college. A 3.5 isn't a bad place to start. Work hard.

 

[LizzyM]

A single C+ will have a smaller and smaller impact on your gpa as you take more classes and accumulate more grade points. It doesn't matter too much if your single C+ was a a HS student or as a junior although earning it in HS gives you the opportunity to show an upward trend which is always sweet!