Vmcas gpa

[pp9]

Hey all. So I'm a little confused about the VMCAS calculated GPAs.

Does anyone know which schools take these GPAs and do not calculate their own? I see a lot of schools specifying which courses they consider when calculating your science GPA, meaning the VMCAS science GPA must not be used...right?

For the record, I didn't even know that VMCAS went so far as to calculate science, gen ed, and "other" GPAs.

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[Lab Vet]

The VMCAS GPA is new this year. Because of the 'Transcript Verification' process instituted this cycle, VMCAS now has the capability to calculate not only a cumulative GPA, but also specific GPAs including:

-Cumulative science GPA (not including Math)
-Yearly Science GPAs
-Undergraduate Science GPA
-Graduate Science GPA
-Post-Bac Science GPA
-Non-Science GPA
-Other GPAs

VMCAS now offers a 'standardized' calculation of GPA which vet schools may want to move towards now that the option is available. My guess is that each school will likely still want to calculate their own pre-req GPA (as each school's pre-reqs are unique). However, it remains to be seen if the VMCAS GPA now becomes an admissions benchmark/criterion.

Hope that this was helpful!

 

[TheComfyCat]

Do they list their calculated GPAs somewhere that we can see it?

 

[WulfpackChica]

It took me sometime and google to find it 🙂 If you go to the College Designation section you can hit "preview" and scroll to the bottom and you should find it.

 

[Lab Vet]

Also, if you print a PDF of your application, they (the full compliment of the VMCAS GPAs) are listed on the 3rd page. They were listed on the 3rd page of my printed ap, that is 😉

 

[pp9]

Very helpful!! Thanks!

 

[thatsallfolks97]

Oh my God, thank you! This was so different than it was in past application cycles. Thanks so much for that helpful tip!

 

[TheComfyCat]

Thanks for the info! I'm guessing some schools still calculate GPAs themselves, especially if they need to recalculate for retaken classes, prerequisites, or the last 45 credits. Western definitely recalculates your GPA if you've retaken courses.

 

[thatsallfolks97]

Yes, Western is awesome! Love, love, love how helpful they are with re-calculating your GPA for repeated classes.

 

[Cyndia]

Hmm just looked at mine and it appears VMCAS didn't calculate in any of my masters grades since I did it abroad at the RVC. Got pretty stellar grades that I really needed to boost my gpa, I hope schools include that :X

 

[VacaMeansCow]

I just looked at my GPA as calculated by VMCAS. That was sobering.

 

[pp9]

Hmm just looked at mine and it appears VMCAS didn't calculate in any of my masters grades since I did it abroad at the RVC. Got pretty stellar grades that I really needed to boost my gpa, I hope schools include that :X

You might want to contact the schools. See Krupajl's posting under the 2018 rejections thread.

 

[pp9]

So I've been thinking about it all weekend, and I'm not sure how useful the science GPA would be to schools. For example, I am required to take a zoology seminar in order to graduate (two, actually). One was about resume building and job applications. The course is still a zoology course, but obviously this is not a "science-based" course. If I'm not mistaken, it would still be included in the science GPA solely based on its subject classification. I don't think the schools want that.

A little off topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread...what happens if all of the admission offers a school sends are accepted? A friend and I were talking about all of this and there's a lot we don't know about the whole process. Obviously you can't have a class of 200 students!

And I know VMCAS touched on this when they started the C/O 2014 thread a while back, but I still don't understand how the schools are handling applications that are still being verified. I'm not in this position, thankfully, but I'd like to be informed. It looks like VMCAS said the schools have agreed to accept apps that are not verified/mailed by October 2nd, but I don't see how that will work, especially if rolling admissions are the case. Any insight?

 

[TooLove]

Schools don't send out 200 admissions offers. Generally they send out just slightly more than they have seats for to account for those that decline and fill any needed seats with wait listers. Many lucky ducks get more than one offer of admissions so many get turned down.

 

[JaynaAli]

A little off topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread...what happens if all of the admission offers a school sends are accepted? A friend and I were talking about all of this and there's a lot we don't know about the whole process. Obviously you can't have a class of 200 students!

At my school, if they accept 100 students in the class, they will only make 100 offers after the interviews are over. But there's an extensive waiting list. So once someone declines the position they were offered, the admissions office calls up the next person on the waiting list until all spots are claimed. Maybe 200 students got offered spots in the class before every seat was accepted, but they'd never make 200 offers all at once and hope 100 declined.

 

[pp9]

Okay, to be the devil's advocate, assume they do not decline. What then? This is just pure curiosity. I know the odds of that are ridiculously low.

 

[pp9]

At my school, if they accept 100 students in the class, they will only make 100 offers after the interviews are over. But there's an extensive waiting list. So once someone declines the position they were offered, the admissions office calls up the next person on the waiting list until all spots are claimed. Maybe 200 students got offered spots in the class before every seat was accepted, but they'd never make 200 offers all at once and hope 100 declined.

Oh, that makes sense! Thanks! I assumed all of the invitations went out at once, and THEN the waitlist was made.

 

[JaynaAli]

Okay, to be the devil's advocate, assume they do not decline. What then? This is just pure curiosity. I know the odds of that are ridiculously low.

We're talking about just a few more offers than positions in that case. Not dozens. It's a risk the school has to decide to take, but like you said, it's rediculously low. Schools have wait lists for a reason-people decline.

 

[pp9]

Well I was looking at UF's statistics for the c/o 2017 and saw they sent out about 170 offers and have a class of 113, so I was confused as to how that worked out. It makes sense now that I remember that the offers are probably sent in batches. So do you guys think that the offers sent to the second round of interviewers depends on how many were sent to the first round? If none of us have to say yes/no until April, how do they know how many to offer before putting people on the waitlist? I know they have been doing this for years, so their systems obviously work.

 

[JaynaAli]

I think it would vary from school to school, and like you said is based on years of experience, class size, percentage of IS to OOS, etc. even whether or not the school interviews everyone plays in.

 

[Lab Vet]

So I've been thinking about it all weekend, and I'm not sure how useful the science GPA would be to schools. For example, I am required to take a zoology seminar in order to graduate (two, actually). One was about resume building and job applications. The course is still a zoology course, but obviously this is not a "science-based" course. If I'm not mistaken, it would still be included in the science GPA solely based on its subject classification. I don't think the schools want that.

Not necessarily true, PinkPuppy. VMCAS created a 'subject classification list' that placed courses into subject categories. Most classes made sense but some were very odd. Science classes were broken down by sub-specialty. For example, 'General Biology' was listed under 'Biology,' however, 'Physiology' was listed under 'Other life science.' I forget where Zoology classes were sub-listed. You could also petition a sub-categorization if you felt VMCAS miss-classified a course post-verification. I did this myself, and was successful. You'll need to see the classification sheet yourself to really understand how this works.

 

[Lab Vet]

Not necessarily true, PinkPuppy. VMCAS created a 'subject classification list' that placed courses into subject categories. Most classes made sense but some were very odd. Science classes were broken down by sub-specialty. For example, 'General Biology' was listed under 'Biology,' however, 'Physiology' was listed under 'Other life science.' I forget where Zoology classes were sub-listed. You could also petition a sub-categorization if you felt VMCAS miss-classified a course post-verification. I did this myself, and was successful. You'll need to see the classification sheet yourself to really understand how this works.

What I'm getting at here is that VMCAS could also see your 'Zoology' classified course 'Resume Writing' and classify it as 'General Non-science,' even though your transcript lists the course under Zoology. Is this making any sense at all? Sorry if I'm confusing you any further.

 

[TooLove]

They likely sent out 170 offers total. These could include offers made after April 15, when everyone accepts or declines offers. Then schools typically start making offers to those on their waitlists, who also accept or decline. They keep going until they fill all available seats.

 

[pp9]

What I'm getting at here is that VMCAS could also see your 'Zoology' classified course 'Resume Writing' and classify it as 'General Non-science,' even though your transcript lists the course under Zoology. Is this making any sense at all? Sorry if I'm confusing you any further.

I understand what you're saying! No confusion yet haha. VMCAS doesn't have a course description, so I'm not sure how'd they determine that or how they'd even have the time to sort through each applicant's classes. It was simply titled "Seminar in Zoo and Aquarium Science."