Wtf happened to my gpa? =(

[Summer Sweet]

Ugh...my cummulative GPA apparently has no bearing over my GPA's by year...I just started doing that AMCAS conversion thing.

Looks like I WILL have to have a superduperkiller MCAT score after all...*sigh* My sophomore year is down to like 3.1...I always assumed I was improving, since I pulled my gpa up 0.2 points over the past 4 years. This sucks...

What kind of MCAT score should I shoot for next year to get in with say, 3.5 cummulative and maybe 3.2 for individual years?

By the way, what does a W (withdraw--meaning dropped class after deadline) or a CR (for a credit/no credit class) count as?

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[DrBowtie]

First it is statistically impossible to have a 3.5 if you have all 3.2s for individual years.
So do you have 1 year of 3.2 and others of 3.8?

For a 3.5, you should get around a 30 for competitiveness, higher the better obviously.

W and CR have no effect on your GPA.

 

[Pipacus]

brett's right...how did u get 3.5?

 

[amoheban]

Ugh...my cummulative GPA apparently has no bearing over my GPA's by year...I just started doing that AMCAS conversion thing.

Looks like I WILL have to have a superduperkiller MCAT score after all...*sigh* My sophomore year is down to like 3.1...I always assumed I was improving, since I pulled my gpa up 0.2 points over the past 4 years. This sucks...

What kind of MCAT score should I shoot for next year to get in with say, 3.5 cummulative and maybe 3.2 for individual years?

By the way, what does a W (withdraw--meaning dropped class after deadline) or a CR (for a credit/no credit class) count as?

My research professor who is also an MD and on the admissions board for the UCI College of Medicine told me the following in regards to your questions:

W's are red flags on your transcript, as are C's. More than two of either of these arent good. Dont sweat it if you only have one.

As far as GPA, he told me that addmissions people look for upward trends in your GPA where your GPA improves over the years. Your MCAT score doesnt have to be anything extraordinary with a 3.5 GPA. Its a pretty decent GPA. Anything above a 30 and a 3.5 are good.


Also, without the right blend of research, volunteer work and other activities that set you apart from the rest, your GPA and MCAT will be insufficient. So make sure you have extracurriculars to go along with your grades.


All of this comes mostly from my experiences with doctors, residents and medical students whom I work with so I think what they say is accurate.

 

[tncekm]

My research professor who is also an MD and on the admissions board for the UCI College of Medicine told me the following in regards to your questions:

W's are red flags on your transcript, as are C's. More than two of either of these arent good. Dont sweat it if you only have one.

As far as GPA, he told me that addmissions people look for upward trends in your GPA where your GPA improves over the years. Your MCAT score doesnt have to be anything extraordinary with a 3.5 GPA. Its a pretty decent GPA. Anything above a 30 and a 3.5 are good.


Also, without the right blend of research, volunteer work and other activities that set you apart from the rest, your GPA and MCAT will be insufficient. So make sure you have extracurriculars to go along with your grades.


All of this comes mostly from my experiences with doctors, residents and medical students whom I work with so I think what they say is accurate.

I hate to go OT on someone elses thread, but, if I PM you the details is there any chance I can have you ask him a question for me? Its relatively simple, but I need to provide a little bit of background.

 

[QofQuimica]

I'm going to go ahead and move this thread to pre-allo; I think that you'll get more responses there, and it's more of a general app question as opposed to an MCAT question.

 

[geno2568]

never "shoot for an mcat score"
always push yourself to do better than you currently can
before i started studying, i was shooting to break 30

after taking some diags, i was shooting for 34+
after a few months of studying i started shooting for a 37+
i wound up with a 39
and i have a 3.5, like you

so never stop going for more
cuz you should never have a "good enough" mentality
if you think yur good, go for great; if yur great, go for exceptional
especially for mediocre gpa people like us, a high mcat can really put us back in the game with the 3.8 people

 

[Summer Sweet]

I might be calculating it wrong, but I have 2 W's (soph) and 1 C (freshman).

What does a W count as? I counted those as F's, since I'm not sure how they'll be viewed. Maybe that's why my calculated gpa was so low?

What does a Credit/No Credit course count as? I didn't change the course to be Cr/NCr, but it was set that way by default--mostly science seminars, some PE classes, etc.

 

[DrBowtie]

W's don't count. C/NC don't count either.

 

[tncekm]

Well...they don't "officially" count against you, in terms of GPA. But ADCOMs don't like 'em, right?

I dropped a humanities course a little late beforeI even knew WTF a "W" was and now its stuck on my record. I only dropped it because it was boring me out of my whits!

 

[Darth Asclepius]

Well...they don't "officially" count against you, in terms of GPA. But ADCOMs don't like 'em, right?

I dropped a humanities course a little late beforeI even knew WTF a "W" was and now its stuck on my record. I only dropped it because it was boring me out of my whits!

Patterns are more important. If you regulary withdraw from a course or two, that indicates a problem. If you withdrew from a course you hated freshman year and then another one 4 semesters later, they probably won't care. If you withdraw from classes every semester, that looks bad.

 

[tncekm]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about that W. I do, however, have a class that should have been dropped b/c I couldn't put any time into it b/c of family problems, etc. Didn't get dropped, as a result, shows as a D! Trying to have the school take care of it. One person told me they'd whipe it off of my transcript another told me they'd just take it out of my cum gpa. I'm hoping for the former of course But, other than that its straight A's and 4 B's over 100 semester units. Wasnt planning on going to med school, otherwise I would have never gotten B's in any of those classes (aside form one where I was severely sunburned during a summer course).

 

[Church]

Hey Summer,
On the AMCAS app, there's an option to put in the W... DO NOT put in an F!!!!!!!

And what the fella who got the 39 on the MCAT said was correct(good job to him, too). Study your assets off, do well, and they won't worry about the W.

 

[Anastasis]

I have a W on my transcript from withdrawing from a 1 hr rock climbing class. Moral is: If you're terrified of heights, don't take a class for a grade to get over it.

Somehow I don't think they'll hold that against me.

I agree with what the guy said earlier with the 39: I started studying hoping to break 30. I took my diagnostic and got a 35 and was just hoping to stay right around there. Ended up with a 41 - after 5 months of intense studying. Work your ass off and you never know what kind of score you'll get.

 

[jocg27]

soph year was noticeably my worst, too...but I went up just about every semester after that, and did well, but not out of this world, on the mcat. I got in..

 

[amoheban]

I hate to go OT on someone elses thread, but, if I PM you the details is there any chance I can have you ask him a question for me? Its relatively simple, but I need to provide a little bit of background.

go ahead and Ill see what I can do for you.

 

[tncekm]

Thx, I appreciate it! YGPM

 

[JourneyToMD]

I have a question. If I repeated a course, do I just put repeat and then put the new grade I got? Or do I just put in the letter grade that I got originally. For example, if I got a C in orgo the first time around but then got a B the second time I took it, how do I convey that?

Please help!!1

 

[tncekm]

I have a question. If I repeated a course, do I just put repeat and then put the new grade I got? Or do I just put in the letter grade that I got originally. For example, if I got a C in orgo the first time around but then got a B the second time I took it, how do I convey that?

Please help!!1

You put both grades.

So, it'll say

Org I - C @ 5.0 units
Org I - B @ 5.0 units

They include EVERYTHING on your transcripts, even if your college doesnt.

 

[banana5]

-

 

[amoheban]

At my school you can withdraw from any class within the few weeks as long as you don't drop below the minimum number of credits to be a full time student.

Do these dropped classes go on AMCAS? Even if they're not on the school's transcript?

I don't mean classes that you actually withdraw from late into the game; we get Ws for those.

No, classes dropped before the schools' drop deadline disapear forever and will not be seen by any school, and shouldnt be put on AMCAS.