Where can I retake my classes?

[dancingdoctor]

Im sure this has been answered before but hopefully someone can help me out nonetheless. 1) If I retake courses, do I need to retake them at the university where I initially took the course, or can I take them elsewhere? 2) What about the (non-science) courses, can I take them at a local community college? Is that looked unfavorably upon? 3) And if I can retake courses at a different university/college, how do I know for sure which course is equivalent to the initial course which I took? (just by similar course names?) 4) Does aacomas also calculate the "old" GPA, before the course retakes factor in? does the admissions committee consider this? 5) what if I took a course twice and recieved a poor grade but retake it later, would aacomas still only consider the MOST recent grade, and disregard both poor grades?

Thank you in advance!

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[dancingdoctor]

More questions..Im sorry! Has anyone repeated courses before? If so, by how much did these retakes raise your aacomas GPAs, and about how many courses did you repeat? My GPAs (according to AMCAS, not AACOMAS) are dreadful at cumulative 2.66 and 2.14 BCMP. I have 7 Cs, 2 Ds, and 4 F's, but I have repeated about half of those courses already (I wonder what my new GPA would be?). *cringe* Pathetic, I know, I know Can I calculate my AACOMAS GPA just like I calculated my AMCAS GPA but substituting the new grades for the old grades? Lastly, can I repeat a course more than once and still only the newest grade will be calculated? Ack, sorry for so many questions! I really appreciate anyone who can help me

 

[almo88]

Im sure this has been answered before but hopefully someone can help me out nonetheless. 1) If I retake courses, do I need to retake them at the university where I initially took the course, or can I take them elsewhere? 2) What about the (non-science) courses, can I take them at a local community college? Is that looked unfavorably upon? 3) And if I can retake courses at a different university/college, how do I know for sure which course is equivalent to the initial course which I took? (just by similar course names?) 4) Does aacomas also calculate the "old" GPA, before the course retakes factor in? does the admissions committee consider this? 5) what if I took a course twice and recieved a poor grade but retake it later, would aacomas still only consider the MOST recent grade, and disregard both poor grades?

Thank you in advance!

1. It would look better if you retook your PRE-MED REQUIREMENTS at a 4-year University. Other classes don't really matter that much.

2. Ehh...It's not stellar, but it shouldn't be frowned upon, unless you take ALL/most of them at the CC.

3. They make a "course transfer matrix." http://www.okhighered.org/student-center/transfer-stdnts/course-transfer.shtml --that's Oklahoma's. Sorry, I don't have any other state's, but I'm sure they are available as well. If you can't get your hands on one, that's what they make advisors for

4. aacomas only calculates the most recent grade.

5. I'm about 99% sure that you are correct. It should be the most recent grade no matter how many times you retook the course.

More questions..Im sorry! Has anyone repeated courses before? If so, by how much did these retakes raise your aacomas GPAs, and about how many courses did you repeat? My GPAs (according to AMCAS, not AACOMAS) are dreadful at cumulative 2.66 and 2.14 BCMP. I have 7 Cs, 2 Ds, and 4 F's, but I have repeated about half of those courses already (I wonder what my new GPA would be?). *cringe* Pathetic, I know, I know Can I calculate my AACOMAS GPA just like I calculated my AMCAS GPA but substituting the new grades for the old grades? Lastly, can I repeat a course more than once and still only the newest grade will be calculated? Ack, sorry for so many questions! I really appreciate anyone who can help me

In all honesty, retaking a course will not improve your GPA that much. When you're talking about raising a 4-credit D to a 4-credit A, and you have 90+ hours, you won't see much improvement at all. But, if you retook a substantial amount of D's and F's, there might be bit more.

If you don't mind me asking, what does the rest of your app look like? EC's, MCAT and such...

 

[dancingdoctor]

thanks almo88. I have a decent amount of ECs such as shadowing, working in biochem lab for 3 years, bunch of volunteering, and hopefully will be doing some clinical experience like a medical assistant. I also hope to study abroad at some point. I will be finishing up at my undergrad next May and then will probably enroll in a post-bacc. program to retake many of my prereqs, and the courses that I got a C or below in. I think that should have a decent impact since then I will hopefully have all As and Bs. Those Cs and especially Ds and Fs are what really bring the GPA down. (F is a 0.0 and D is a 1.0!)

 

[Meatwad]

In all honesty, retaking a course will not improve your GPA that much. When you're talking about raising a 4-credit D to a 4-credit A, and you have 90+ hours, you won't see much improvement at all. But, if you retook a substantial amount of D's and F's, there might be bit more.

If you don't mind me asking, what does the rest of your app look like? EC's, MCAT and such...

Actually, it will help a great deal to someone with multiple bad grades. If you have, let's say, a smattering of 3 F's and 2 D's, overall 3.0 average (including those D's and F's) @ 100 credits.

If that next semester you retake all 5 classes you did bad in, your GPA would go from a 3.0 to a 3.54. That takes you from below average to above average stats for most osteopathic schools in one semester. That is an extremely substantial change.

 

[Meatwad]

More questions..Im sorry! Has anyone repeated courses before? If so, by how much did these retakes raise your aacomas GPAs, and about how many courses did you repeat? My GPAs (according to AMCAS, not AACOMAS) are dreadful at cumulative 2.66 and 2.14 BCMP. I have 7 Cs, 2 Ds, and 4 F's, but I have repeated about half of those courses already (I wonder what my new GPA would be?). *cringe* Pathetic, I know, I know Can I calculate my AACOMAS GPA just like I calculated my AMCAS GPA but substituting the new grades for the old grades? Lastly, can I repeat a course more than once and still only the newest grade will be calculated? Ack, sorry for so many questions! I really appreciate anyone who can help me

If you tell me how many credit hours total you have, if your AMCAS GPA currently includes the retakes, how many credit hours each class you retook was worth, and what the original grades and retaken grades were, I can calculate your AACOMAS GPA in about 30 seconds. You can PM me if you don't want to show everyone your grades publicly.

Just to give you a ray of hope:

Let's say you have 120 credits, and your current AMCAS GPA (with the retakes included) is a 2.66. That gives you 319.2 quality points. Now, the rest is all specualtive because I don't know how many credits each class you retook was worth and what grades you got in them. For argument's sake, let's say you retook all 13 courses already and got A's in all of them the second time around.

Since AMCAS has already added the averages, we want to subtract them from your total quality points so we can then add only the retakes:

7 Cs --> 7 As, 2 Ds --> 2 As, and 4 Fs --> 4 As
319.2 - (7 * 3)(3.0) - (2 * 3)(2.5) - (4 * 3)(2.0) = 217.2

Now, add the As you got, according to AACOMAS policies:

217.2 + (7 * 3)(4.0) + (2 * 3)(4.0) + (4 * 3)(4.0) = 373.2

373.2 / 120 = 3.11

So, you could have as high as a 3.11 cGPA.

 

[dancingdoctor]

where did you get the (3.0) (2.5) and (2.0) in the following:

"7 Cs --> 7 As, 2 Ds --> 2 As, and 4 Fs --> 4 As
319.2 - (7 * 3)(3.0) - (2 * 3)(2.5) - (4 * 3)(2.0) = 217.2"


Are those the grade points? If so, isn't an F a 0.0, D 1.0 and C 2.0