Retaking Undergrad Courses

If I have already graduated and gotten my BS in Biology, am I still allowed to retake undergrad courses in order to raise my GPA? For instance, I got a C in Genetics and a C in Evolution. I’m retaking Genetics right now but I’m concerned that since I’ve already graduated that this won’t count…can anybody advise? Thanks.

The way I understand it is that both times of genetics will count toward your GPA. And it will look good on your app. if you have retaken a course and improved the grade.

Matt - sounds like your thinking is that your undergraduate GPA is already set in stone so this won’t affect it. When you apply to medical school, they do NOT look at your GPA from your institution. As I understand it, there are three ways your undergraduate course grades are broken down.


Overall undergraduate average - all undergrad courses taken.


Science GPA. (whenever, wherever)


Post-baccalaureate GPA - undergraduate courses taken since receiving your degree.


Your retakes will figure into all three.


Kate

Do know that on a re-take, AMCAS includes BOTH grades in the gpa calculation. And you must include the original course/grade that is repeated. For AACOMAS, your newer class generally replaces the older.


You might be better off taking upper division bio classes that you haven’t already had, and, of course, nailing them.


Cheers,


Judy

  • Kate429 Said:
Matt - sounds like your thinking is that your undergraduate GPA is already set in stone so this won't affect it. When you apply to medical school, they do NOT look at your GPA from your institution.



I'm a little confused as to what you mean here. Because as an applicant you input *all* of your transcript data, including where you took every class, it's pretty easy for an admissions committee to see what your gpa probably is from each institution.

Cheers,

Judy

Judy (and Matt).


I was responding specifically to what Matt said about being worried that if he retook Genetics, it wouldn’t affect his gpa because he had already graduated.


Perhaps the college he graduated from would NOT change his final GPA because he had graduated already (that seemed to be his thinking). what I was saying is that AMCAS puts in the original grades of every course you take but does NOT record the gpa you have at each individual institution. They do their OWN calculation of GPA based on the grades reported for ALL courses you take…so retaking and improving his grade in genetics means that the new grade will be averaged along with the old. On the AACOMAS application, they do grade replacement, so it will help his GPA even more because that lower grade will not be counted.


The AMCAS and AACOMAS grade averaging actually hurt me somewhat because the school I went to for my prereqs had “pluses” - A+, B+ etc possible for courses and the plus gave you slightly more points in the school’s calculation of your gpa. But the AMCAS application recorded the same number of points for a B+ and a B, so that was disappointing


Kate

I am in the same situation. I am doing a second bachelor’s degree and repeating some prereq courses too. From what my advisors have told me, there needs to be an upward trend in your GPA from Prereqs to upper division classes. If you have a good prereq GPA, and then a decrease in your upper division science courses GPA, then I would advise retaking those courses! Have you also considered Academic enhancement Post Bac Programs?

  • Kate429 Said:
[snip]...

The AMCAS and AACOMAS grade averaging actually hurt me somewhat because the school I went to for my prereqs had "pluses" - A+, B+ etc possible for courses and the plus gave you slightly more points in the school's calculation of your gpa. But the AMCAS application recorded the same number of points for a B+ and a B, so that was disappointing Kate



Until recently, AMCAS counted all +'s and -'s except for A+'s. But in their Instruction Manual for entering class 2011 it says this:

• AMCAS counts all "+" or "-" grades, even if your school does not. At some schools, a "+"

or a "-" counts as n.3 or n.7, at others they count as n.5.

FWIW.

Cheers,

Judy

Thanks, I didn’t realize that


Kate

I wish schools had A+'s. Most I attended didn’t.

Because I thought the statement from AMCAS about giving credit for all + grades (even A+) was suspect, a colleague at Stanford called AMCAS for clarification.


As she and I suspected, that is a typo in the AMCAS Instruction Manual which will be corrected. AMCAS does NOT give an additional bump for an A+. A+s are calculated as an “A.”


Cheers,


Judy