What else can I do? GPA Predicament

[CHEWYBAR101]

I graduated a year ago from a four-year university but didn't so well GPA-wise. I was unsure of what career path at the time and didn't really have a clear sense of direction. For the past year I've been retaking my pre-requisites for PT school at a local community college but I don't feel as if that is enough to improve upon my mistakes in my GPA.

I graduated with a double major in Neurobiology (BS) and Communication (AB) but ended up leaving with a poor GPA of 2.97. As of current, my post-bacc GPA is 4.00 as I'm retaking my prerequisites at community college. The problem I'm facing is that as a prior science major, I took a lot of upper division specialty science courses at my university and didn't pass with the greatest of grades. Even though I'm retaking all of my pre-requisites, I can't fix those upper div courses because they aren't courses offered at community colleges which greatly affects my science GPA and cumulative GPA. Are there any recommendations I can do to beef up my application? I heard there was a cut off 3.2 GPA in PTCAS where they throw away your application and I was worried/concerned 🙁

Major: Neurobiology, Communication
GPA (leaving university): 2.97
"Post-Bacc" GPA: 4.00
Pre-requisite GPA (w/ highest grade for retake): 3.64 ~ 3.74
Cumulative GPA (w/ highest grade for retake): 3.25
Science GPA (w/ highest grade for retake): 3.16
PT Hours: 40 Hours of Inpatient; I'm in the process of getting 2 more internships to hopefully attain 200 hours total
Other Experiences: 600+ Hours of Athletic Training, 150+ Hours of Massage Therapy Coursework, 200+ Hours of Community Clinic Volunteering

Thank you for reading. Any advice or shared past experiences are appreciated 🙂

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[unkownperson]

My gpa before declaring major was 2.89 with 70 plus credits switched schools and major with 86 credits with 3.56 and switch schools to finish pre req with 34 credits 3.74 and have been accepted

 

[astarblaze]

I graduated a year ago from a four-year university but didn't so well GPA-wise. I was unsure of what career path at the time and didn't really have a clear sense of direction. For the past year I've been retaking my pre-requisites for PT school at a local community college but I don't feel as if that is enough to improve upon my mistakes in my GPA.

I graduated with a double major in Neurobiology (BS) and Communication (AB) but ended up leaving with a poor GPA of 2.97. As of current, my post-bacc GPA is 4.00 as I'm retaking my prerequisites at community college. The problem I'm facing is that as a prior science major, I took a lot of upper division specialty science courses at my university and didn't pass with the greatest of grades. Even though I'm retaking all of my pre-requisites, I can't fix those upper div courses because they aren't courses offered at community colleges which greatly affects my science GPA and cumulative GPA. Are there any recommendations I can do to beef up my application? I heard there was a cut off 3.2 GPA in PTCAS where they throw away your application and I was worried/concerned 🙁

Major: Neurobiology, Communication
GPA (leaving university): 2.97
"Post-Bacc" GPA: 4.00
Pre-requisite GPA (w/ highest grade for retake): 3.64 ~ 3.74
Cumulative GPA (w/ highest grade for retake): 3.25
Science GPA (w/ highest grade for retake): 3.16
PT Hours: 40 Hours of Inpatient; I'm in the process of getting 2 more internships to hopefully attain 200 hours total
Other Experiences: 600+ Hours of Athletic Training, 150+ Hours of Massage Therapy Coursework, 200+ Hours of Community Clinic Volunteering

Thank you for reading. Any advice or shared past experiences are appreciated 🙂

There's a lot of good info in threads in the FAQ sticky towards the top of the forum about situations like yours- if you haven't already, take a look there.

If you have flexibility re: where you apply, I would suggest doing a lot of research and finding schools that will look upon your application more favorably. Specifically, try to get your last 60 credit hours up as high as you can, and look for schools that will consider that instead of cum GPA. Also look for schools that will replace grades for Pre-req GPA instead of averaging.

One thing to note is that with your science and cum GPAs, retakes don't replace the original grade, they're just both included, so your cum and science GPAs will be lower the way PTCAS and schools calculate them. Make sure you're calculating your GPAs correctly so you know where you actually stand.

 

[One Punch Man]

The GPA cutoff for most schools is 3.0. So as long as you're above that, they will see the effort you've been putting into your post-bacc.

 

[CHEWYBAR101]

There's a lot of good info in threads in the FAQ sticky towards the top of the forum about situations like yours- if you haven't already, take a look there.

If you have flexibility re: where you apply, I would suggest doing a lot of research and finding schools that will look upon your application more favorably. Specifically, try to get your last 60 credit hours up as high as you can, and look for schools that will consider that instead of cum GPA. Also look for schools that will replace grades for Pre-req GPA instead of averaging.

One thing to note is that with your science and cum GPAs, retakes don't replace the original grade, they're just both included, so your cum and science GPAs will be lower the way PTCAS and schools calculate them. Make sure you're calculating your GPAs correctly so you know where you actually stand.

Thank you for your recommendations astarblaze. I'll try to look at the threads you mentioned. Yeah, I realized PTCAS calculates grades by averaging retakes so I was worried my GPA would probably be even lower. Thanks again!

 

[CHEWYBAR101]

The GPA cutoff for most schools is 3.0. So as long as you're above that, they will see the effort you've been putting into your post-bacc.

I've read about the GPA cutoff being at 3.0 minimum for most schools, but I also heard and read that either PTCAS or some schools automatically disregard applications with GPAs less than 3.2 for cumulative, science, and pre-requisite - as in if you have any one of those three categories less than 3.2, they don't even look at your application. I'm not sure if what I read was true, unless someone can correct or confirm me.

 

[One Punch Man]

I've read about the GPA cutoff being at 3.0 minimum for most schools, but I also heard and read that either PTCAS or some schools automatically disregard applications with GPAs less than 3.2 for cumulative, science, and pre-requisite - as in if you have any one of those three categories less than 3.2, they don't even look at your application. I'm not sure if what I read was true, unless someone can correct or confirm me.

Where did you read that from? I'm just going by what most schools list as their minimum GPA on their websites. I would believe that any application above that threshold would be considered, so long as every other application requirement is met.

 

[astarblaze]

I've read about the GPA cutoff being at 3.0 minimum for most schools, but I also heard and read that either PTCAS or some schools automatically disregard applications with GPAs less than 3.2 for cumulative, science, and pre-requisite - as in if you have any one of those three categories less than 3.2, they don't even look at your application. I'm not sure if what I read was true, unless someone can correct or confirm me.

Ptcas won't automatically disregard your app based on your GPA. As long as you esubmit and pay the fees, Ptcas doesn't care if you actually fulfill any of the requirements that programs have. They'll pass your app along to the schools regardless.

Some schools have 3.0 GPA cutoffs, some schools have higher (3.2, etc) cutoffs, some schools have internal, higher GPA cutoffs that they don't publish, some schools don't have any GPA cutoffs at all. Your best bet is to look at program websites and then contact the school directly if you're concerned about whether your app will get considered.