<p>I've read that undergraduate GPA is very important when applying to law school, medical school, graduate school, etc. Can anyone explain how this GPA is calculated?</p>
<p>Let's say a student gets A's in several community college classes before enrolling at Grade Deflation University. The university accepts the transfer credits but doesn't show those grades on its transcript, and those A's are not calculated into the university's GPA.</p>
<p>When applying to graduate school, does the student get "credit," so to speak, for those A's? Or is everything based on the official transcript from Grade Deflation U?</p>
<p>...and is the major GPA more looked at, or no more evaluated than the overall undergrad GPA of a student who attends a 4-year institution straight through?</p>
<p>I believe that for Ph.D. programs (not professional schools such as law or medicine), the grades that count the most are those in the major. In other words, a physics department may overlook the C in English composition, but a C in physics or math would be detrimental to the applicant.
But the GPA is only one component, and not necessarily the most important, part of an application. Recs, GRE scores, overall transcript, statement of purpose are as important.</p>
<p>For medical school, AMCAS (American Medical College Application Service) requires transcripts from all post-secondary schools attended, so those grades from a CC are known and are part of the calculation for the GPA. </p>
<p>As far as medical schools go, the overall GPA and the science GPA are examined. In a sense, science classes count "double" because of this. It's not very clear cut to say that one is more important than the other, because, obviously the overall is tied to the science GPA. The global picture and how the GPA's fit with the rest of the candidate's application and interview is what really matters.</p>
<p>For law school, all UG grades are sent to a "clearinghouse" (LSAC?) which will convert all UG grades using the same standard. So if a college uses 3.75 as an equivalent to an A - and another college converts it to a 3.66, it doesn't matter as LSAC will calculate all A -'s as a 3.66 regarless of how YOUR UG school calculates it. So in many instances a students LSAC GPA which is sent to the law schools can differ from the GPA that shows on the college transcript due to a different grading scale. Community college courses are on equal footing with 4 year school's too. An "A " grade regardless of whether it was earned at a community college or from Harvard are weighed in as a 4.0.<br>
The law school may look differently if whether a kid has a 3.7 GPA from Harvard or from 2 year community college with an easy major. GPA and LSAT score are the most important factors for law school admission. So in some instances a 3.7 is still a 3.7 no matter how it is derived at.</p>
<p>If you mean by graduate school, a department of a faculty of arts and sciences, what counts the most--not in order of importance, see later:
GRE scores
statement of purpose
preparation (languages, courses, degree of difficulty of the courses)
grades in the major
recommendations
fit with the department.
Prior contact with relevant faculty member.
writing sample (especially for humanities and social sciences)</p>
<p>In the universities about which I know something, admissions are handled by departmental committees; these are made up of faculty representing different subfields. While they have general guidelines (such as how to rank order applicants), they have their own biases and preferences. For example, some will give more weight to the GRE scores than others. Some will only consider the GRE score deemed most relevant (verbal for humanities and social sciences; quantitative for sciences); others will take all GRE scores into consideration.
Some profs will only want to admit applicants about whom they know something; this is why applicants are often asked if they've had contact with a faculty member.
Prior preparation is considered important, but some departments may be willing to take the risk of admitting a promising if not necessarily well-prepared student. I know at least two historians who were science majors as undergraduates.</p>
<p>'nother fact I recently learned for law school (and I'm including that as Graduate school). All college credits earned in HS are counted towards your GPA for law school admission. So even if you took Spanish 5 for college credit instead of AP, or a community college Art course for enrichment while in HS, the transcripts must be sent to LSAC/LSDAS to be calculated into your overall GPA that is sent to law school.<br>
so while it is a great idea to take enrichment programs while in HS, those grades will be considered for law school admission!!</p>
<p>Community college courses taken in high school , part of a dual-credit program or not, are also counted for medical school GPA. This applies even if the same courses are given zero credit by your UG school and don't even appear on the UG transcript. You have to provide a copy of your "community college" transcript. Catches some by surprise but helps others.</p>
<p>For MD PhD programs the things dh looks at most are MCAT scores, science grades and recommendations. Those recommendations generally come from professors whose labs you've done research in. The interview counts for a lot too, and you can kill your chances if you don't seem to understand the research you did.</p>
<p>didn't know it applied for medical school too.</p>
<p>it is good info for parents and HS students to know NOW while the kids are still in HS. So let your kids know that grades from these college classes will be considered for law and medical school admission.</p>
<p>Don't these kids have enough stress already??</p>
<p>Most grad schools in humanities, science, or engineering, aren't actually sticklers for grades, especially at the PhD level. They want you to have adequate grades, but after that they care more about the rest of your application.</p>
<p>A CMU prof has written an interesting essay for students applying to top PhD programs in CS, about what the programs look for in an applicant, that can probably be extrapolated to other fields.</p>
<p>When I did graduate admissions for economics (PhD program) we barely noticed the overall GPA. This is entirely different from med or law school.</p>
<p>We focused solely on grades in the harder econ and math courses and how many high level econ/math courses the student took.</p>
<p>We also looked at what school they went to, their major (physics or math >> history or poli sci), the letters of recommendation, whether substantial research had been conducted, and whether any publishable papers emerged. We sometimes factored in the known difficulty of certain programs. We also looked at a student's stated research interests and GREs scores. Less than outstanding scores in the GRE Quant got a student disqualified except in extremely rare circumstances. We weighed the Verbal differently for Americans vs. foreign students. The statement of purpose was mostly ignored except in the rare case that indicated the students really, really understood why they wanted to come to grad school and had a good, precise reason for coming to our program.</p>
<p>What Jessiehl says about the way grad committees look at grades is correct. But keep in mind that recommendations are taken seriously, and recommenders do care about grades. The grade an applicant received in a particular course will often be mentioned in the rec ("one of the four As given in this class of xxx students"). A prof may also decline to write a rec if s/he does not feel that the rec will be strong.</p>
<p>^^OP: as several people have already mentioned, admissions criteria for Ph.D. programs are different from admissions criteria for medical school or law school. I have the impression that GPA counts for quite a lot for medical school or law school, but it is less significant for Ph.D. programs.</p>
<p>marite and Not quite old have given a clear picture of the admissions criteria for graduate work in their fields. </p>
<p>To throw a physical science into the mix, in my university a faculty committee in the department decides Ph.D admissions, looking at:</p>
<p>1) specific courses in physical sciences and math; roughly 12 specific courses are required for admission--not counting the associated labs, which are also required, but which may be incorporated along with the lectures or not, depending on the undergraduate institution
2) grades in those specific courses
3) recommendations
4) undergraduate research experience
5) research goals that mesh with the program of at least one faculty member
6) GRE scores, viewed differently for "domestic" and foreign students (GRE math is most important; the GRE subject score is vital for foreign applicants, and for domestic students to receive special fellowships; strong performance on an English speaking test is required of foreign applicants whose native language is not English)</p>
<p>The first two criteria operate mainly as a "filter," while criteria 3-6 are decisive. Outstanding recommendations and research experience outweigh grades by quite a lot.</p>
<p>Is anyone aware of how grades from overseas are calculated? My child's school either does or doesn't include grades from a semester overseas (I can't remember).</p>
<p>How might a law or medical school consider grades from overseas study?</p>
<p>I'm kind of wondering about this too. I'm concerned about my GPA for PA school, because Wake Forest has pretty significant grade deflation, and my GPA isn't as great as it would be if I had picked a school with less harsh grading. </p>
<p>I'll be applying to in-state (NC) schools via the CASPA, a universal application that you can send to the different schools. I assume that they should be aware of Wake's rep and thus will probably either recalculate or see my GPA in a different light, but I'm not sure. I've thought about retaking some of my classes at a CC during the year off I'm planning to take postgrad, but I feel like they might look down on my needing to retake things...</p>
<p>My mom says that I can always just apply during my year off, and if I don't get in the first year, then I can retake some courses at a CC during the second year...</p>
<p>my kid did semester abroad too. The transcript was from the college that sponsored her program. The GPA that she received from study abroad is not calculated into her "home school" GPA, but she has to send the transcript from the sponsoring school to LSDAS. They in turn will "combine" grades from both transcripts and come up with a GPA to send to the law schools.
If your kid gets a transcript directly from the foreign school (i.e University of Paris), that too may have to be sent directly to LSDAS and in its translated form.
Many foreign schools have LSDAS codes, so it is not unusual for them to receive transcripts from overseas institutions.
There are a # of exceptions, when foreign grades may not be counted. I think it is basically if there grading system is totally out of whack with ours.
so let your kid check with their law school/study abroad advisor.</p>
<p>juba- if I knew then what I know now:
my kids college is also a bit harsh on grades, so I might have advised her to take a few summer courses at the community college to get her GPA up a bit. Don't go too crazy with it, but one or two summer school courses wouldn't look too suspicious.
we were also lucky with the study abroad program. She didn't work nearly as hard in her classes and got a 4.0 that semester. So actually her study abroad semester probably brought her GPA up too.</p>