I’ve been on the road to completing my undergrad degree, just getting all my core classes done in a Junior college now before I transfer to my four year university to complete my pre-reqs. A little more quick background, I started college out of high school but didn’t take it seriously at all and eventually dropped out. I did poorly on my entrance exams so I ended up in remedial type courses, math, reading/writing and one sole intro to business class (non-remedial). Needless to say I had a couple of (U’s) and a D in the business class. Now about a year into school, I took my entrance exam and scored in all college level courses and have a 3.74 GPA with 22 credits. I have been reading on other forums such as “student doctor” where MD schools also count your remedial courses into your overall GPA? I am aware of the “no grade replacement on MD schools” but a remdial course which does not count for college credit? This would be very detrimental to my future plans since I have limited access to schools (wife with a very good career & daughter). Since I had been about 10 years out of school since I last went, the state junior college allowed me to apply for academic amnesty, where I lost all prior credit ( which was about 3 credits with a D) and reset my GPA to 0.0 with 0 credit, basically a new student, however this information is still displayed on my transcript. It reads:
Bad GPA - remedials etc (10 years old)
Academic Amnestsy
---
Then my entrance exams scores
Credits and current GPA
My biggest issue is if they count those remedial courses, even getting straight A's with the occasional couple of B's will at most get me to about a 3.1 or so. Not to mention those remedials are usually 4 credits, greater than most normal classes.
Any insight or guidance will be greatly appreciated!
Rule 10: Beware of FUD - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
Assume every course you ever took, for any reason, under any circumstances, receiving any grade from the start of the universe at the big bang until the collapse of into a single black hole counts. If you believe some course shouldn’t count see previous sentence.
Your college GPA is NOT the GPA used by AMCAS but rather calculated with every grade you ever took.
So now shake the shock out of your head.
You cant change the past courses of the affect on your GPA. So worrying about it and deciding your chances are gone because of it just waste your time, energy and resources.
you can continue to do well, especially in BCPM and show a vast improvement in your grades.
My freshman GPA was low because I had a sub-human roommate. After that, my GPA steadily improved. Does the Committee look at trends in GPAs? Of course they do. Everybody understands that unpleasant roommates, adjustment to college, girl-friend/boy-friend problems, problems at home and a myriad of other things can lead to a disastrous academic performance. Hopefully, it is a temporary problem. Be prepared to discuss any poor academic performance in your personal statement or in an interview.
limiting yourself geographically limits yourself chances into medical school. While the overall ratio is about 2.2 applicants per seat, at a specific school it could 3,000 applicants for 100 seats.
It is important to request a personal copy of your official transcript(s) to use as a reference while entering your coursework. Obtaining a copy of your transcript prior to completing this section helps ensure that your data is complete and accurate. Omitting coursework, grades, credits, or supplying incorrect grades may affect your AMCAS GPA and delay processing of your application, which could result in missed deadlines.
When entering coursework, you must include information and corresponding grades for every course in which you have ever enrolled at any U.S., U.S. Territorial, or Canadian post-secondary institution, regardless of whether credit was earned.
This includes, but is not limited to:
• All attempts at courses that have been repeated, which includes any courses removed from your transcript or GPA as a result of academic bankruptcy or institutional forgiveness policies.
• Courses removed from your transcripts or GPA as a result of academic bankruptcy, forgiveness, or similar institutional policies.
• Courses from which you withdrew.
• Courses for which you received a grade of “Incomplete” and for which no final grade has been assigned.
• Courses that you failed, regardless of whether they have been repeated.
• Remedial/developmental courses.
• College-level courses you took while in high school even if they were not counted toward a degree by any college.
• Courses taken at an American college overseas.
• Courses in which you are currently enrolled or expect to enroll in prior to entering medical school.
Thank you for the quick response - your absolutely right, I do need to take breath, just trying to be too focused. I do have the occasional FUD every now and then but then my real drive kicks in and obliterates FUD. Funny you mentioned UM, since I live in Miami and recently read that FAQ.
I know I cannot change the past so I will do my absolute best to continue that upward GPA trend, hopefully moving from a full time to part time job role so I can take on a larger load in school work, research and volunteering.
If anyone has any other comments, your are welcomed.
Funny you mentioned UM, since I live in Miami and recently read that FAQ.
Your profile listed Miami hence I picked UM on purpose. And did you know that the 12th Annual OldPreMeds and OldMeds Conference will be in Orlando this year, June 7th thru 9th?