Deviating from AMCAS "Year in School" Credit Guidelines

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

Hi Nontrads! First time poster here on the forums. I am looking to find out:

  1. Are there instances I should not follow the year in school credit hour limits published by the AMCAS manual and how would I categorize classes? (Exclude repeated classes when determining “year in school”? Scale the AMCAS ranges? Etc. )

  2. If I do deviate from AMCAS ranges, how will this effect my application processing?

  3. If I don’t deviate from the published ranges, this will alter the appearance of an upward trend in my grades since most everything will be grouped in my senior year. My MCAT has been cancelled 3x and now must submit primaries prior to having my scores. How do I ensure ADCOMs see the change in my academic performance?

Background:

UG Major: Mechanical Engineering

I started at a community college in the fall of 2007 and continuously attended school there until transferring to CU Boulder; matriculating in January 2009. When I arrived at CU I received poor advising and was told I needed to repeat a semester of CC classes at CU to show I could handle the rigors of a 4 year institution. My first semester of credits at CU was a complete repeat of CC classes. I stayed at CU for 2 more semesters before returning home. I was dealing with family changes while at CU and rather than than exercising options on campus (counseling, LOA, withdrawing from classes, etc.) I took a hit on my transcripts. Up to this point I had still been taking lower division classes, but due to difference in curriculum/transferring and repeating classes, I am considered having completed my Junior year when I left CU. My cUGPA per AMCAS is follows: 2.88, 2.25, 1.80.

I took a year off of school and made personal changes before starting at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB). (I addressed this period of reflection and growth in other parts if my app.) At this time I was enrolled in a mix of lower division and upper division classes. I completed 87 credits at CSULB, which included all of my upper division engineering courses with a cGPA 3.7.

I did a masters in engineering at UCLA with a 3.55.

To complete my prerequisites, I did an informal post bacc at CSULB consisting of 38 credits GPA 3.94.

  1. Are there instances I should not follow the year in school credit hour limits published by the AMCAS manual and how would I categorize classes? (Exclude repeated classes when determining “year in school”? Scale the AMCAS ranges? Etc. )

  2. If I do deviate from AMCAS ranges, how will this effect my application processing?

  3. If I don’t deviate from the published ranges, this will alter the appearance of an upward trend in my grades since most everything will be grouped in my senior year. My MCAT has been cancelled 3x and now must submit primaries prior to having my scores. How do I ensure ADCOMs see the change in my academic performance?

Thank you!!!