Greetings all. I’m starting the journey to securing what it is I dream of like so many of you. First things first, however. I’m concerned with a course of action. I just graduated in 2010 with a bachelor’s in English and a 3.39 GPA. I went on to take a fellowship to study urban planning at a pretty good state grad school. Long story short, I hated the program and decided against a roundabout way to becoming a doctor. I finished the semester with a 2.875 GPA (3 Bs and 1C+).
Now, I’m set to start a post-bac program this summer at UNCG to boost GPA and get those prereqs. My question is how will that grad program GPA be calculated in with the overall/science GPAs with med school apps? Also, should I do two years of post-bac to really show commitment and perhaps get a generally competitive gpa? Oh and will the post-bac courses and my undergrad courses be all calculated together for science/overall gpa? I guess I’m generally in dark regarding the gpas. Thanks guys.
(double click on picture to enlarge)
The above is from an AMCAS 2005 application worksheet. The current 2011 instructions are essentially the same:
- AMCAS 2011 INSTRUCTIONS, p.8 ©2010 AAMC Said:
"The GPA calculations are presented by BCPM codes (Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math), by AO codes (All Other), and by Academic Status."
"AMCAS reports to the medical schools a GPA for each Academic Status (HS, FR, SO, JR., SR, PB, GR) subdivided into courses listed as "BCPM" or "All Other" in the BCPM/AO Column"
"AMCAS reports to the medical schools a GPA for each Academic Status (HS, FR, SO, JR., SR, PB, GR) subdivided into courses listed as "BCPM" or "All Other" in the BCPM/AO Column"
- thundabolt Said:
Greetings all. I'm starting the journey to securing what it is I dream of like so many of you. First things first, however. I'm concerned with a course of action. I just graduated in 2010 with a bachelor's in English and a 3.39 GPA. I went on to take a fellowship to study urban planning at a pretty good state grad school. Long story short, I hated the program and decided against a roundabout way to becoming a doctor. I finished the semester with a 2.875 GPA (3 Bs and 1C+).
Now, I'm set to start a post-bac program this summer at UNCG to boost GPA and get those prereqs. My question is how will that grad program GPA be calculated in with the overall/science GPAs with med school apps? Also, should I do two years of post-bac to really show commitment and perhaps get a generally competitive gpa? Oh and will the post-bac courses and my undergrad courses be all calculated together for science/overall gpa? I guess I'm generally in dark regarding the gpas. Thanks guys.
Now, I'm set to start a post-bac program this summer at UNCG to boost GPA and get those prereqs. My question is how will that grad program GPA be calculated in with the overall/science GPAs with med school apps? Also, should I do two years of post-bac to really show commitment and perhaps get a generally competitive gpa? Oh and will the post-bac courses and my undergrad courses be all calculated together for science/overall gpa? I guess I'm generally in dark regarding the gpas. Thanks guys.
To answer your specific questions:
1) The grad in urban planning would be a non-BCMP, and would show up in the Grad GPA AO column and would NOT be in the cumulative GPA with the undergrad.
2) Doing the basic prereqs as a postbacc undergraduate level will show up in the PBU. However, these should be considered just that: basic. Most medical schools typically list recommended advanced or additional courses in biology and life sciences, such as biochemistry, genetics, etc. It advisable to have some of these at least.
Taking two full years of post-bacc in order to raise your overall GPA is certainly a strategy to consider and that others have used. I think that a range of 40 to 45 post-bacc credits of excellent to outstanding work, plus a good MCAT, will make you a competitive candidate.
3) A good graduate non-science GPA is not really that helpful to most applicants as the adcoms expect people to do A/B work at that level. However, the corollary of really poor graduate non-science work can hurt you. This is for two reasons. One is simply straight forward GPA. The second is quitting a programs raises the question of commitment. Not only will have to explain how you quit that but how you then decided on medicine.
4) At the risk of contradicting my previous comment, perhaps a full two years of postbacc will be a good buffer of the commitment question.
BTW, the AACOMAS/DO GPA calculation and presentation is a little different then AMCAS/MD but I will cover that later.
Hope this answers your question. Good luck on the postbacc. Keep us informed of your progress. With your undergraduate degree in english, we will expect regular, well-written, and grammatically correct updates posted in the forums
Attached files
