I have a graduate degree in a non-science field and my graduate GPA is about the same as my undergraduate GPA and only a little less than my BCPM GPA.
However, if I compute into my graduate GPA a course grade for a class I took as a non-degree student (not at my graduate institution), the graduate GPA appears abysmal (3.0)
Does AMCAS care about the graduate GPA, especially in an unrelated subject? Will I be at a disadvantage because of this graduate GPA if the rest of my application is more than decent?
Thanks!
First, AMCAS doesn’t care at all. They just process the applications. It’s the schools that may or may not care. 
What are your GPAs? If one class brings your graduate GPA down to a 3.0, it makes me think that your undergrad and BCPM GPA are not much higher than the 3.2ish range (which is okay, but not great).
You may need to consider doing some more upper level science coursework and knocking them out of the park (all A’s), and doing very well on the MCAT depending on your GPAs. You may also need to figure out a way to address your graduate GPA. In general, graduate GPAs don’t help an application much (because anything lower than a B is often considered failing in grad school), however low graduate GPAs CAN hurt your application.
It’s really hard to tell how each individual school will view your situation. In terms of getting an interview, I imagine they will look more at your BCPM GPA and MCAT. The graduate GPA will likely come into play more as they decide whether or not to admit you.
As always, YMMV. It never hurts to call a couple of schools and ask them directly what their opinion is.
My uGrad and BCPM GPAs are in the 3.5 range. I am worried that since grad school is my most recent academic work, that this GPA will reflect poorly on me.
Question: do med schools get copies of my transcripts from the schools I have attended or just the AMCAS from with all the grades? If the school saw my transcript from grad school, then I am fine. But if the school saw a cumulative AMCAS grad GPA, I am in trouble.
As part of the application, you enter every course you have ever taken into the application and then AMCAS will calculate your GPAs. I admit to not being sure if the schools get copies of your transcripts from AMCAS (I don’t think so), but they do get the list of all of the courses you listed in (I think) a chronological order. So, they will be able to see your graduate courses listed.
So it’s possible that your GPA as figured by AMCAS could be different than the GPA as figured by the the university you graduated from?? i.e., the school let you take a course over and “forgot” the previous grade(s) but AMCAS totals them all?
I am SO screwed if this is the case…
for AMCAS, every grade on every transcript is factored in. And since universities differ in how they calculate things like B+ vs. A- your AMCAS GPA is absolutely going to be different.
AACOMAS (for osteopathic medical schools) does wipe out the older grade if you’ve taken something twice I think. Someone with more experience with AACOMAS should comment on this.
Mary
Mary, that’s right regarding AACOMAS. They replace the grade with the second grade before calculating the GPA.
Also, they calculate a cumulative science GPA which includes grad school courses, so the numbers can end up being quite different from the AMCAS numbers.
Kate
- Mary Renard Said:
for AMCAS, every grade on every transcript is factored in. And since universities differ in how they calculate things like B+ vs. A- your AMCAS GPA is absolutely going to be different.
Mary
Mary
And AMCAS wants to know every original course grade even if you repeated the course and the original course is no longer on your transcript. It, too, gets factored in.
AMCAS does not create a "grand total gpa" with both ugrad and grad combined. They are kept separate. Med schools will see each set. And med schools do not take kindly to poor grades (e.g. Cs) in grad course work.
Cheers,
Judy
Hi Judy,
I did not finish a class I took at one university and the university’s policy was to turn it into an automatic fail after 1 year of leaving the university. I took this class “for fun” as a non-degree student when I was working at the university. This class was not part of my graduate program, which I enrolled in shortly afterwards in another university. My graduate GPA from my graduate institution is pretty good. But with the failed class that I took as a non-degree student, the cumulative grad GPA looks like 3.0.
Do you think medical schools will be very hard upon me when they just see my grad GPA and dismiss me off the bat?
Does ACMAS use the grades from a second bachelor’s degree in calculating undergrad GPA?