Undergrad --> Optometry school

[gochi]

Hey

Im a bit confused.

Does it matter if you go to a well recognized school or will an ordinary school be fine?

If you take two years @ college (~70 credits) and another year to complete (20 credits) at a different univeristy and have a 3ish GPA, what are the chances of getting accepted ?

Should a BSc be pursued if one has a 3ish GPA after 90 credits ?

Does it even matter where you get your Bachelors from ?

If one recieved an F, on a course which was not a pre-requisite, then should he/she retake it ?

I noticed that ICO, does not care if you retake a course, i.e they will use the higher grade of the repeated course when calculating CGPA. If this is true then is it not better to retake 3-4 courses in which you did bad to raise your GPA, than to pursue a BSc ?

thanks alot

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[hfpepperbean47]

I'll reply quickly to a couple of points.

It does not matter what undergraduate university you go to, at least not to my knowledge, and it shouldn't. How you perform should matter...but of course that is putting us in a little grey area (is a 3.2 from college A better than a 3.6 from college B if college A is considered a "better" school) that I'd rather not have to argue over any of those hypotheticals again, but I digress...

I don't think its necessary to retake that course UNLESS it is required for a BSc if you desire to get that. If the F is in a bogus class and you choose not to retake it you might have to do a little explaining during an interview, if it came up at all.

I think there is one glaring question you have that you're debating...would it be better to apply to school after taking 90 credits or take the time to finish a degree before applying? Honestly, I think you'd have to have better than average scores to be accepted early (before having a BSc or the US equivalent) but that is pure speculation on my part. Maybe someone who has gone through that process can elaborate more??

 

[JeffChou]

I'm going to disagree with hfpepperbean47 on a few of these points.

An ordinary school will be fine (so long as your GPA is fine), but certain admissions committees have been confirmed to take note of the undergraduate institution (SUNY, among others). The impact your alma mater has is debatable, but nonetheless still there. You probably can't count on your alma mater if you have a low GPA, and don't worry about your relatively good GPA to be worth less if you don't go to a big name school.

As for retaking non-prerequisite classes for a better grade, I would do it if I had the time and needed to worry about my GPA. If you're not skirting close to any cumulative GPA cutoff for certain schools, then perhaps you don't need to worry about retaking that photo class or something. Don't forget that each school calculates your GPAs differently. Some may take all grades, some may take the higher grade for retakes, and some may calculate it according to your school's policy on grades (SCCO).

 

[OnionKnight]

An ordinary school will be fine (so long as your GPA is fine), but certain admissions committees have been confirmed to take note of the undergraduate institution (SUNY, among others). The impact your alma mater has is debatable, but nonetheless still there. You probably can't count on your alma mater if you have a low GPA, and don't worry about your relatively good GPA to be worth less if you don't go to a big name school.

Do you know which other institutions besides SUNY take your undergraduate college/university into account?

 

[gochi]

Which schools take the higher of the repeated course grade into consideration for the CGPA?

thanks

 

[blazenmadison]

Do you know which other institutions besides SUNY take your undergraduate college/university into account?

SCO considers your undergrad. It doesn't play a huge role. Just get good grades/OAT scores!

Check US News for a ranking of your school.
Top tier schools

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

 

[hfpepperbean47]

I was not saying that the university that you attend doesn't matter...but I think it is pretty much insignificant in the overall picture.

 

[luckyfool]

I was not saying that the university that you attend doesn't matter...but I think it is pretty much insignificant in the overall picture.

I can confirm with jeffchou's post that SUNY does take a student's undergrad institution pretty seriously.

for example, they value a 3.0 gpa student more from University of Chicago than another 3.6 gpa student from a community college. i think it makes sense to distinguish applicants by undergrad schools considering the disparity in the level of courses taught in each school.

 

[gochi]

I can confirm with jeffchou's post that SUNY does take a student's undergrad institution pretty seriously.

for example, they value a 3.0 gpa student more from University of Chicago than another 3.6 gpa student from a community college. i think it makes sense to distinguish applicants by undergrad schools considering the disparity in the level of courses taught in each school.

But there are some school which appear to be "easier" than some of the prestigious schools, but in fact the "Easier" schools tend to be harder. Just because one school is entitled as a University, that does not mean its any harder (or easier) than a school entitiled as a College.

Ultimatley, undergrad schools should not matter; one would have to actually take a couple of classes or compare course content to see the differences, and I dont think the admissions comittee does that.

 

[Spearmint1]

You shouldn't be allow to go to grad school if you think that a school's reputation is based on whether it's called a University or College.

 

[jefguth]

You shouldn't be allow to go to grad school if you think that a school's reputation is based on whether it's called a University or College.

Good point!

It's okay though, the poster is Canadian, a confused Canadian. In Canada there is a world of difference between "universities" and "colleges." Generally, "universities" are degree granting institutions, "colleges" are somewhat like community colleges in the USA, up until very recently none of them granted degrees (and now only in very limited fields), but rather two/three year diplomas and most often lead into technical, blue-collar fields. They're the place to learn practical skills while universities are more for those interested in an academic exercise.

The poster probably also does not understand that there is a huge variance in the difficulty among different universities/colleges in the US. For the most part, Canadian universities are all very good institutions with relatively similar levels of difficulty. Though some Canadian medical schools do give some small amount of consideration to undergraduate school.

And it's true about SUNY, I talked to Dr. Johnson about this three years ago. They do consider that some schools are more difficult / more competitive than others. Quality of undergraduate school is something that some faculty I've talked with have noticed too.

 

[still_confused]

Ultimatley, undergrad schools should not matter; one would have to actually take a couple of classes or compare course content to see the differences, and I dont think the admissions comittee does that.

I have, and there is a big difference. And the argument that the top notch schools have grade inflation is pretty irrelevant since the competition is tougher.

 

[asmaka19]

I think I posted about this in another thread. Anyway, I was speficifically told by an admissions advisor at UHCO that they take the pre-optometry institution (undergrad, masters, whatever) into consideration when looking at GPAs. The schools are classified into tiers of competitiveness.

I actually didn't even ask the advisor about universities, I was just asking him about GPAs in general since I was worried about mine and he said "well I noticed that you come from a competitive school so we take that into consideration bla bla bla"

 

[asmaka19]

So if SUNY and UHCO are doing it, I'm sure other schools do it too!