<p>Are 3.7 out of 4.0 and 3.7 out of 4.3 treated equally?
If you just look at the GPA itself (3.7), they may be the same, but the percent value of 3.7 out of 4.0 (exactly 92.5%) is higher than that of 3.7 out of 4.3 (much less than 92.5%).
Do admission committees rate them differently?
Thanks.</p>
<p>...or you can look at it logically: a 3.7 in a 4.0 system is a A-. a 3.7 in a 4.3 system is a A-. Hence, a 3.7/4.0 is equal to a 3.7/4.3.</p>
<p>that was a sexy explanation. a lot, me likes it.</p>
<p>AMCAS will collapse the grades above 4.0 back to a 4.0. So a 3.7 in at 4.3 system will end up as less than a 3.7 by AMCAS methodology. It will still be in comfortable range for medical school admission.</p>
<p>Exactly where you stand depends a lot on the rest of your qualifications, MCAT scores, what courses, recommendations... Your premed advisor will be a much better source of information for compiling a list of schools to which to apply.</p>
<p>AMCAS converts letter grades into a points system. So everything your school does has to go back to a letter grade before AMCAS will deal with it.</p>
<p>If you got an A-, which your school calculates as a 3.7, AMCAS will still calculate it as a 3.7. If you got an A+, which your school calculates as a 4.3, AMCAS will still calculate it as a 4.0. A B+ is 3.3, a B- is 2.7, etc. The only change will be that an A+ is a 4.0.</p>
<p>So afan is right that if you have any A+'s on your transcript (calculated as 4.3's), then your GPA will sink slightly when AMCAS calculates it. The magnitude of this "sinking" will depend on how many A+'s there are. A straight-A+ student (as my next door neighbor was in college) will see his GPA drop by .3*. A student who never receives an A+ (as most students at my college) will see no drop at all.</p>
<p>*Actually my college was on a 4.0 system, so nobody saw any drops. But you get the idea.</p>
<p>Although if you're a straight A+ student, your GPA "sinking" by 0.3 is probably the least of your worries. The drop will most likely be negligible. I averaged approx. a A+ every semester and my GPA only dropped by 0.05.</p>
<p>In addition to AMCAS, another group also calculated my GPA; the second group does count A+'s. The different was only 0.02 GPA points, a negligible adjustment.</p>