Moonlight2 Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 Hello everyone, Before coming to my current university, I studied for two years at another university where I got atrocious grades (!) but did not complete a degree. When I moved here, my new university -where I will receive my undergrad degree from in a few months (with a GPA of around 3.9)- gave me some transfer credits from my old university. Now I know I should check with each school individually, but I am really wondering whether American med schools generally consider every single post-secondary course one has ever taken in their GPA calculations, or they consider the degree GPA, or the degree GPA + all of one's transfer credits. I heard from Michigan State a while back that they consider the entire post-secondary education history but they also consider progress in grades, if I'm not wrong. I wanted to know if anyone had a similar experience applying with such circumstances, and how much do they actually consider progress! Also, do they generally care about having a full course load in every year? Thank you all in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 18 hours ago, Moonlight2 said: Hello everyone, Before coming to my current university, I studied for two years at another university where I got atrocious grades (!) but did not complete a degree. When I moved here, my new university -where I will receive my undergrad degree from in a few months (with a GPA of around 3.9)- gave me some transfer credits from my old university. Now I know I should check with each school individually, but I am really wondering whether American med schools generally consider every single post-secondary course one has ever taken in their GPA calculations, or they consider the degree GPA, or the degree GPA + all of one's transfer credits. I heard from Michigan State a while back that they consider the entire post-secondary education history but they also consider progress in grades, if I'm not wrong. I wanted to know if anyone had a similar experience applying with such circumstances, and how much do they actually consider progress! Also, do they generally care about having a full course load in every year? Thank you all in advance. No schools look at "degree gpas", you have to submit all your transcripts from institutions you've attended, this is both in Canada and the US. In theory, if your current school transcript didnt include transfer credits, you could have gotten away with just not submitting your old school transcripts..but that would be dishonest and likely academic misconduct, not to say it hasnt ever happened before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonlight2 Posted February 9, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2019 21 hours ago, JohnGrisham said: No schools look at "degree gpas", you have to submit all your transcripts from institutions you've attended, this is both in Canada and the US. In theory, if your current school transcript didnt include transfer credits, you could have gotten away with just not submitting your old school transcripts..but that would be dishonest and likely academic misconduct, not to say it hasnt ever happened before. Thank you for the response. But for example in Canada McGill looks at your degree GPA; hence, a lot of people do a second degree here in Quebec. Also there are Queen's and Western which only look at two full course load years. I was wondering if there are any Canadian friendly med schools that do that. Like if someone has the same situation as me, what would they do in the US?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted February 9, 2019 Report Share Posted February 9, 2019 40 minutes ago, Moonlight2 said: Thank you for the response. But for example in Canada McGill looks at your degree GPA; hence, a lot of people do a second degree here in Quebec. Also there are Queen's and Western which only look at two full course load years. I was wondering if there are any Canadian friendly med schools that do that. Like if someone has the same situation as me, what would they do in the US?! Sure, but in the case of mcgill you would have to do a whole 2nd degree. You got a point there, i shouldn't have made a blanket statement. Yes Queens and UWO use a weighting formula, but you must still submit all your transcripts to them. In the US, you would just need to keep taking undergrad coursework and show an upward trend - they do value that. And score very well on the MCAT to show you can balance out your weaker GPA. As well as non-academics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonlight2 Posted February 9, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2019 1 hour ago, JohnGrisham said: Sure, but in the case of mcgill you would have to do a whole 2nd degree. You got a point there, i shouldn't have made a blanket statement. Yes Queens and UWO use a weighting formula, but you must still submit all your transcripts to them. In the US, you would just need to keep taking undergrad coursework and show an upward trend - they do value that. And score very well on the MCAT to show you can balance out your weaker GPA. As well as non-academics. Well, McGill accepts my current degree GPA plus the grade from courses I got transfer credits for (unless I repeated them). I really hoped there were a similar mechanism in place somewhere among the US schools! That's good that at least they say they value an upward trend. Do you happen to know what the lowest overall GPA has been that they've accepted recently (assuming there was an upward trend present)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted February 9, 2019 Report Share Posted February 9, 2019 6 minutes ago, Moonlight2 said: Well, McGill accepts my current degree GPA plus the grade from courses I got transfer credits for (unless I repeated them). I really hoped there were a similar mechanism in place somewhere among the US schools! That's good that at least they say they value an upward trend. Do you happen to know what the lowest overall GPA has been that they've accepted recently (assuming there was an upward trend present)? As i said, it also depends on the MCAT. If you can get a 520+ MCAT with your lower GPA, and strong non-academics, you can open up more options in the US Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonlight2 Posted February 9, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2019 9 minutes ago, JohnGrisham said: As i said, it also depends on the MCAT. If you can get a 520+ MCAT with your lower GPA, and strong non-academics, you can open up more options in the US Thank you for your help. I'll do my best with MCAT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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