Undergraduate Grading Scales

[doctorkumquat]

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Hi everyone,

I'm a second-quarter freshman but I'm already freaked out about my school's grading policies. I have a 3.6 at the moment due to a really crazy grading scale in my Calculus class. All the intro courses at my school have those annoying weeder class curves, where getting a 94% on a test doesn't guarantee you an A.

Anyways, do I have a shot at vet school with a GPA like that? I haven't even started taking the high level courses yet

If it helps, my school has a grading scale from 0.0 to 4.0. An A is 3.5-4.0, a B is 2.5-3.5, a C is 1.5-2.5 and so on. I got a 4.0 and 3.9 in two classes (so high As) and a 2.9 (middle B) in the other.

Any advice?
Thanks~

 

[psilovethomas]

A 3.6 is just fine! Way better than most freshman GPAs! Keep up the good work! 3.6 is probably right smack average for accepted GPA's. That grading scale is odd. When you report your grades on VMCAS, you can manually enter cGPA and sGPA and you can enter grades like 3.5, 3.7, 4.0, etc. from a drop down (I think? don't really remember). Just remember that although a 1.5 at your school is still a C, most vet schools require you get a C (>2.0) in your prereq's.
You can check out the successful applicant threads by using the search function. That will give you an idea of what GPA's schools are looking for, as well as what other factors schools consider when making decisions. Most schools have class profiles with average GPA's for the incoming class posted on their website.
For example, here is MSU's class profile: http://old.cvm.msu.edu/documents/admiss/Class_Profile_2015.pdf
Good luck!

 

[Bismarck]

There is also an explanation section on the vet application where you could make a quick note of how your school calculates GPAs if it is unusual. Admissions people may or may not be familiar with your school depending on its size, enrollment, etc so it couldn't hurt to make a quick mention if you feel the system is not an accurate depiction of your academic ability.