Transfer credit / AMCAS GPA Calculations

[Ronsard]

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Hello,

I have a question. I went to a community college for a year, then transferred to a 4yr university. I did fine at the CC (3.95), but I haven't been doing as well at the university (school's among top 15, am majoring in Engineering, and expect around a 3.3 there).

How will AMCAS calculate my overall GPA? The CC college has five different types of credit hours (1 to 5), but the university only has two (0.5 or 1). When I was playing with this AMCAS GPA calculator (http://medschool.ucsf.edu/postbac/pdf/AMCAS GPA_Calculator Version 4 Final.xls), more weight was given to my CC classes as they had more credit hours. Is that really how AMCAS works?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bradstein]

I think they convert it. How may credit hours do you usually take? If it's say 3, they probably figure 1 credit hour at your institution = 5 "regular" hours. But I'm not sure what you're talking about.

 

[Ronsard]

I think they convert it. How may credit hours do you usually take? If it's say 3, they probably figure 1 credit hour at your institution = 5 "regular" hours. But I'm not sure what you're talking about.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Let me try again. Classes at the community college can weigh up to 5 credit hours, but classes at the university are either 0.5 or 1 credit hour. So, let's say my freshman year at the community college, I took these 4 classes:

- Math (5 credit hours)
- English (3 credit hours)
- Spanish (3 credit hours)
- Yoga (1 credit hour)

And my sophomore year (at the university), I took these classes:
- Math (1 credit hour)
- Physics (1 credit hour)
- Chemistry (1 credit hour)
- Pilates (0.5 credits)

When you fill out the AMCAS grades form, you have to enter the classes you took, the grades you got, and how many credits each class was (if I understand correctly). The problem in my case is that the classes at the community college will weigh more than the classes at the university. Will AMCAS take that into consideration when calculating my cumulative GPA?

I hope this is clearer. Thanks!

 

[Bradstein]

From the AMCAS Instruction guide at http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/amcas2009instructionmanual061808.pdf

Your AMCAS application will automatically convert most undergraduate
credit hours (also known as units, hours, etc.) to either semester
hours or supplemental hours based on conversions provided by the
institutions

I can't find anything on AMCAS, including the grade conversion guide (http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2009conversionguide.pdf).

However, if I were you and trying to determine my GPA, I would guess than you would convert "1 credit hour" at your institution into "semester units" in general. Find out the min. number of "credit hours" you need to graduate. Most universities need 120 semester units, so [number of "credit hours" to graduate] * x = 120, solve for x, where x is how many "semester units" your "credit hours" are equivalent to.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. You might also want to call AMCAS.