3rd year pre-med and engineering student here. In my high-school I was in a rigorous pre-engineering program where I took 20 credits of dual-enrollment classes through a local 4 year university (Calc 2 and 3, Diffeq 1 and 2, as well as two other engineering classes). Unfortunately, due to me being irresponsible, I received Cs in Calc 2, Calc 3, and Diffeq 1 as well as a B in Diffeq 2. Through 20 credits of college classes I had a 2.75 GPA before even starting university. When I attended university I flipped a switch, and now after three years my GPA at the University is a 3.92. Unfortunately, these math classes I took during high-school bring down my total GPA to around a 3.75, as well as my science GPA down to a 3.5. which makes me incredibly stressed out knowing that my GPA is being held back by classes I took 4 years ago while I was in high school. I regret the decisions to slack off during these classes immensely now. I just want to know if this is something an ADCOM would take into consideration, or if they will just accept my 3.5 and 3.75 for what they are.
They typically do care about an upward trend.
Do you have any pre-med advisors on campus?
Wondering if you transferred these DE credits to undergrad school?
@EENYMum it doesn’t matter. Graduate schools require everything you have ever taken at a college. This is one of the known risks of DE classes.
The automated pre-screening by GPAs and MCAT scores will care only whether your GPAs and MCAT score above the medical school’s threshold for priority reading by a human application reader. An upward trend may help if your application gets past the automated pre-screening to be read by a human application reader.
You may want to read through http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/2058785-confessions-of-a-med-school-app-reader-p1.html and post your questions there if you want.
Take a deep breath and stop panicking.
You GPAs are high enough to get you thru the initial computer screens and get human eyes on your application.
Adcomms do look at grade trends and will place more emphasis on your university grades than your DE grades when reviewing your application. That said, don’t get cocky and assume that your 3.75 GPA is really 3.92 for application purposes.
Once you have a MCAT score, use the MSAR to target schools where your GPAs and MCAT put you in the top 50 percentiles of the entering class stats.
I agree that you will pass the first phase of med school screening. But med school will look at ALL college level classes, including credits from CC and DE. You should use AAMC GPA calculator to calculate your GPA, what you earned in the current 4 year college does not reflect all your college level classes. Upward trend does count, but you still have to compete with all the other applicants.
You are on the borderline for acceptance in MD school, you need to apply broadly including some DO schools, unless you get a killer Mcat (over 525, that is 99%). Stop worrying, past is past, you have a whole year and half to demonstrate your capability to Med school, get all As will help.
BTW, you should not apply med school in your 4th year because the hold backs. You should take a Gap year upon graduation and prepare for Mcat and enhance your medical ECs. Make sure your Mcat practice test is 100% before taking it to increase your chances.
If it helps, although S only took one DE course in hs, he did dig himself a hole his first year of college and ended with both GPAs below 3.2. He spent the next 3 years repairing his GPAs before applying. In interest of full disclosure, being a human bio major helped a lot as his last 3 years included heavy doses of UD bio courses. I’d add to @ artloversplus post above and encourage you take at least one, maybe two gaps years to enhance your ECs. It’s best to apply one time with strongest app possible. If you do apply, apply broadly, all US med schools are good schools. Good luck.
Not to derail, but I have a question - at my son’s HS, their senior year is done at a local university. There’s no option to not do this, it’s just how the school works. Would these classes still be considered by AMCAS? I’m not sure if there’s any differentiation or not because it wasn’t a choice.
@Schadret Any dual credit University or College course taken in HS for which you can get an official transcript from a University or College should be entered and reported to AMCAS.
@Schadret Do you mean to say all the course for both semesters (6 courses for 2 semester) are dual enrollment?
Which seems very unusual. If so, then, yes, that must be reported in AMCAS app. And also will be in the GPA calculation (unlike APs)
In my D’s school, Spanish was apparently dual enrolled with local community college. Which we were not even aware until my D got a transcript from local CC, where she did an arts class in summer.
@Schadret Yes you must report the dual credit taken in hs. AMCAS reports coursework by year taken (ie hs, freshman, soph, etc) and calculates not only a yearly GPA but also calculates a separate yearly GPA for all bio, chem, physics and math (BCPM) courses. As I understand it, med schools give less weight to hs dual credit courses. A problematic issue would be any premed req (eg chem) grades below C have to be retaken and both the retake and original course grades would be used in GPA calculations. And a grade of less than an A in the retake of a premed req would be a negative.
@GoldenRock Correct - his entire senior year is done as 29 credits at the local university ( total of 10 courses ).
Since I’ve never heard of “dual enrollment” until last year when my daughter was applying to college, I just assumed it was when kids take “extra” courses at the college level, but since my son’s HS does it as the norm I wasn’t sure if it was the same thing.
@Schadret Then all 29 credits will be reported in AMCAS. Best he can do at this point is, study and do well in senior year. Interesting some school districts have this. Unfortunately schools do not explain and provide the impact of this dual enrollment, especially for students who plan to go in medicine education down the road.