when is a trimester not a trimester?

[CremasterFlash]

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[DrMidlife]

I had a similar situation. I don't think you want to use any funny math to even things out.

I did a bunch of classes at a private school, which for 3 hours of lecture per week gives 5 quarter units. Doing my postbac at a monstrous public university, 3 hours of lecture is 3 quarter units. Totally comparable workload; totally different yardstick.

Bottom line, AMCAS/TMDSAS are going to look at what you say when you list your classes, and then they're going to compare them to your transcripts, and if they don't match, you lose time and efficiency and you'll probably lose the argument, over the course of a month while everybody else is doing their secondaries and getting interview invites. In my view it's not worth it to editorialize on the value of a credit.

Which blows. Best of luck to you.

 

[montessori2md]

Don't get too worked up about it. Let AMCAS do the math for you, don't try to do it ahead of time, and then you won't be sad when it's lower : )

I know that's insane advice to give anyone on this uber prepared, probability calculating forum, but do try.

My BCPM was based roughly half on the "quarter" or "trimester system", and half on the semester system. I believe the credit I earned on "quarters" was translated from 5 credits to 3.7 credits in semester hours, which yes, did mean that somehow that part of my GPA counted "less". Though I can tell you, I worked as hard on the class that lasted 10 weeks as the one that lasted 14, and I think I may have had as many hours in class too.

It will be okay -if you're really close to a GPA tipping point, maybe it would be worth waiting to apply a year so you can take a couple more classes to step away from the precipice.

 

[CremasterFlash]

i just discovered this in the amcas instructions:

"AMCAS will automatically convert most standard undergraduate transcript grades to AMCAS grades based on conversions provided by the institutions. The AMCAS grade provides the medical schools with a standard way to compare each applicant's background. You will be able to view the AMCAS GPA on the printed application after verification...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."

maybe the fact that one school assigns 6 credits for a trimester and another assigns 4 is adjusted for in the conversion process... i hope so.

 

[kronickm]

My undergrad was on trimester as well and each class counted for 1 credit. My post-bacc is on semester hours. I spent a while trying to do math. Eventually I looked on the back of my transcript from undergrad which states that each non-lab trimester credit is worth 3.3 semester hours and each lab is 4.3.

I would suggest looking at a transcript and/or calling the registrar of your undergrad for help.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

My undergrad was on trimester as well and each class counted for 1 credit. My post-bacc is on semester hours. I spent a while trying to do math. Eventually I looked on the back of my transcript from undergrad which states that each non-lab trimester credit is worth 3.3 semester hours and each lab is 4.3.

I would suggest looking at a transcript and/or calling the registrar of your undergrad for help.

That's how my school did it, too. I know at some schools with trimesters, the year long courses like gen chem, organic, etc. are split into 3 parts, but my ugrad, they were only 2 parts. You only took 3 classes each trimester, and each course was supposed to be the equivalent of a semester long course, so a year of organic could be 2 trimesters (or 2/3s of a year) instead of a year.

My postbacc was done at a school with quarters, and each quarter really wasn't the equivalent of a semester.

 

[kronickm]

I must add too that the three classes a trimester schedule was AMAZING! Sure our breaks didn't coincide with all my friends, but I had all my classes senior year (a full load) on tuesdays and thursdays. Lets just say my golf game benefitted nicely.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I must add too that the three classes a trimester schedule was AMAZING! Sure our breaks didn't coincide with all my friends, but I had all my classes senior year (a full load) on tuesdays and thursdays. Lets just say my golf game benefitted nicely.

Unfortunately our classes were all officially scheduled to meet everyday. All the non-science classes generally didn't meet on Wednesday -- why Wednesday I don't know, but that was the tradition, hence there was a lot of Tuesday festing. Science majors got screwed, though, because their classes met every day and then they had lab. It sucked because according to the school hours, a chemistry class that met everyday and had lab twice a week was worth the same credit as a humanities or social science class that only met 4 days a week. I've got to say my life got much easier once I ditched the science major. 🙂