<p>This could have devastating effects on some potential GRAD SCHOOL APPLICANTS, esp. for med school!</p>
<p>"Dear Uncle Ezra,
I've heard many people say that many graduate schools often re-calculate GPAs that are sent in on Cornell transcripts. Is this true? If so, how do they do it? </p>
<p>Dear number-cruncher,</p>
<p>Yes, it is true that some schools will make changes to the Cornell GPA (and other schools presumably) when evaluating applications. For example, the AMCAS [American Medical College Application Service] Common Medical School Application CONVERTS Cornell's GPA, which is out of a 4.3 TO A 4.0 system [!!??!!] so that they can evaluate all GPAs equally. Other [grad] schools may make adjustments to the Cornell GPA in less scientific ways, such as adding a point or two to the cumulative average when looking at a CU applicant's grades relative to a student from a different school.....</p>
<p>Uncle Ezra" </p>
<p>call me paranoid but Here's My Take: so a 4.3! (impossible to achieve, isnt' it?) at Cornell gets automatically CONVERTED to 4.0 by the Med School COMMON APPLICATION etc. [thus no cornell premeds have 4.0's on the med common application:( ) So when the 1st round of Med School admissions come, a premed student at cornell who worked his @$$ off and never slept to attain a 4.1 GPA may get
ONLY something like 3.89-3.93 GPA when it gets converted to a 4.0 scale where 4.0 is the ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM. maximum matches maximum (on common app then put in 4.3 (the "FORMULA" ) => 4.0</p>
<p>so on the AMCAS Common Medical School Application<br>
4.3 (ok the maximum at cornell, out of 4.3) gets converted to 4.0 maximum everywhere else. Since I believe NOBODY at cornell actually maintains a 4.3 cumulative overall GPA , then NOBODY at cornell gets to have the 4.0 as it is initially sent to medical schools for med school's ROUND 1 admissions. Some kid at state u getting a 4.0 may just trump the cornellian's actually 4.1 in the round 1's med school screening admissions (essentially state u kid 4.0 beating the converted GPA of appro. 3.7's ,3.8's,or 3.9's ). Med school adcoms are numbers whores , AND those med schools with common applications will just NOT send round 2 applications (on on invitation basis after the numbers [GPA, MCATs] are checked off) to those hard-working cornell premeds to invite them into the next round, because their lower GPAs were weeded out from the state u's 4.0's, it's mostly a computer number system in round 1 system. So even a top GPA kid at cornell may get screened out before some med/grad schools even learn about their REAL gpa strengths?</p>
<p>Nah, Cornell kids don't get screwed. They have to recalculate all the GPA's on the same scale to make it fair for everyone. Some kid at a school with a 4.0 scale may have had a 4.3 if the school gave the A+. It'd be unfair to every school on a 4.0 scale if they didn't convert the GPAs down to 4.0. And just so you know, a Cornell kid with a 3.8 would be looked upon more highly that an average state school kid with a 4.0. Medical schools multiply each student's GPA by a difficulty factor that varies depending on how hard your school is. I'm sure each medical school adjusts GPA's difficulty differently, but one school I am very familiar with multiplies a student's GPA by 1 if they are in the least difficult group of colleges. Each more difficult group of colleges gets a number greater than 1, with the most difficult group of colleges getting a 1.13. So, a 3.5 from a school in the top difficultly level is equivalent to a 3.955 from a school with the lowest difficulty level.</p>
<p>If maximum matches maximum and put in 4.3 (the "FORMULA" ) => 4.0</p>
<p>THINK about what a 3.9, or even 3.5 in Cornell GPA gets converted to on the common app. service's electronic transmissions to med/grad schools! low 3.somethings or not even since 4.3 = 4.0 , 3.9 (cornell GPA) = (say ) 3.6 with other state u etc.<br>
They will all claim cornell's GPA is out of 4.3 (even though in a class of 250 , maybe only 1 or 2 get the A+!) and other school's maximum is 4.0 etc. Other state U students achieve their maximums 4.0's while it will make cornell students look bad not achieving the same maximum grades...4.3's</p>
<p>uhh....no. They don't punish you for not having an A+. They just disregard any A+ on your transcript and count it as an A. Also, it's an advantage to go to a hard school. If you are at the easiest grouping of colleges, the highest converted GPA you could get would be a 4.0 (4.0 X 1). At Cornell, you could have a 4.52, (4 X 1.13). This is assuming that Cornell is in the hardest groups of colleges. So, while the highest GPA on the AMCAS application that you can have is a 4.0, medical schools will multiply your AMCAS GPA by a difficultly factor. This would allow you to have an adjusted GPA of over 4.0. Dude, your not getting screwed. Med Schools recognize that certain colleges are a lot harder than others and this is reflected by them readjusting your AMCAS GPA. I might choose to go to Cornell next year, so this info isn't coming from somone trying to defend a 4.0 system at another school. I'm telling you the truth.</p>
<p>Oh....I see what you were thinking. You're thinking that someone at Cornell with a 4.0 would have his GPA lowered to a 3.7 because their scale is 4.3. Nah, that's not how it works. What they do is count any A+ you have as a 4.0. They don't do anything else to your grades.</p>
<p>yeah if you have an A+ (4.3) it gets turned into an A (4.0), but if you have an A (4.0) it stays an A (4.0), a B+ (3.3) it stays a B+ (3.3), etc. </p>
<p>Kids at other schools can get a 98 (A+) but only get a 4.0 for it. They're getting the same GPA recognition as the kid who got a 94 (4.0 anywhere). So basically getting rid of the "4.3" is just grouping A+ and A together like they do at other schools with a GPA that only goes to 4.0. THEY ARE NOT SUBTRACTING 0.3 FROM YOUR GPA!!!</p>
<p>Also, law school admissions often consist of multiplying your GPA, LSAT, and a your schools standing in a ranking of colleges by some constants and adding them up. Highest numbers win. This means the kid at Podunk State U. with a 4.0 GPA will have to do really well on his LSAT to make up for his schools significantly lower ranking to compete with Mr. or Ms. Cornell.</p>
<p>Cornell makes changes to your GPA in undergrad admissions. The recalculate it to an unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale without certain classes, I think extracurriculars count, but possibly not as much.</p>
<p>If you scaled from a 4.3 scale to a 4.0 scale, you'd likely multiply the Cornellian's GPA by 4/4.3, rather than subtracting 0.3 points from it. As mentioned, they probably just turn 4.3's into 4.0's instead of doing either of those things.</p>
<p>More to the point, Cornell's med school admission rate is quite good, so it seems that either your GPA is being converted fairly, or Cornell's reputation outweighs whatever disadvantages the grading scale generates.</p>