So, the new MCAT dates have been released by the AAMC and I am trying to register for it before all of the slots statewide are taken. All of the Southern California slots for January 2012 are already gone; they went in 2 days. It looks like I will have to fly or drive to the Central Valley or Northern California to take the test if I want a January test date.
But another question came up during registration:
It asks for my undergraduate college and major. I went to two undergraduate schools at two different times, earning 3 degrees. Ten years ago, from the first institution, a “prestigious public school,” I received an anthropology degree with a relatively high GPA. Either this semester or next semester (my choice), I will be receiving from a state college, two science degrees simultaneously, biochemistry and microbiology, but with a lower GPA. This was my post-bacc, but these degrees are bachelors degrees, not masters.
I was told that medical schools will see these degrees and schools. So, should I pick the “name” school with the non-science degree with decent GPA done a decade ago OR the no-name school with the double science degree but not-so-stellar GPA done recently?
Perhaps it does not matter.
BTW, I was recently told that I will be the last person that will be allowed to get second bachelors with double majors at this state school. In the words of one administrator, “Somehow you slipped through the cracks and we never caught you.”
It really doesn’t matter. Pick whichever one you like. AMCAS links MCAT scores with the AMCAS application using social security number, date of birth, and name. Not by undergraduate college.
The reason why it is asked is for data analysis: How students from one college score versus another college. How students at certain college and with a certain major score. And more inane tabulations like that.
Also, the med schools won’t see your score attached to “anthropology major” or “bio major”. Will see ALL your grades at all undergraduate institutions and any completed degrees.
They will also NOT see the institution calculated GPA. They will get an AMCAS calculation of your GPA averaging ALL your undergrad courses and an AMCAS calculation of your science GPA.
Unfortunately, I think your second and third majors will show as a postbacc GPA which ideally should be higher than your initial undergrad GPA, but there is nothing to be done about that now.
Kate
- Kate429 Said:
They will also NOT see the institution calculated GPA. They will get an AMCAS calculation of your GPA averaging ALL your undergrad courses and an AMCAS calculation of your science GPA.
Unfortunately, I think your second and third majors will show as a postbacc GPA which ideally should be higher than your initial undergrad GPA, but there is nothing to be done about that now.
Kate
on the AMCAS and AACOMAS, your first degree earned will be undergraduate GPA. Any undergrad work earned after having a bachelors will be listed as postbacc. Both UG and PB will then be combined for a cumulative GPA (I have to double check that). Additionally at all stages there will be breakout by science and non science (in AMCAS it includes math, in AACOMAS it does not.)
As I suggest to all nontrads there is a bit too much focus on overall cumulative GPA. The postbacc and trends after original should be emphasized in your application.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I was in the same boat a few years back. I ended up just listing my first school that I graduated from and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
- Kate429 Said:
Unfortunately, I think your second and third majors will show as a postbacc GPA which ideally should be higher than your initial undergrad GPA, but there is nothing to be done about that now.
Kate
I wanted my post-bacc GPA to be higher than my undergrad GPA, but I found the sciences too challenging, for some reason. I just kept missing A's in most of those courses. I did take some non-science social science and anthropology courses during post-bacc and did well in those, all A's. Maybe there was a reason that I was not a science major the first time I went through undergrad. Oh well.