My D is a NMF and plans to study biochemistry on a premed track. She has narrowed down her choices to Alabama, FSU and Arizona State with FSU being her top choice. I’ve helped her research all three schools and we noticed that the grading scales differ. All three are on the plus/minus grading system, but ASU and UA both reward an A+ with a 4.33. FSU only gives a 4.0 for an A. So if she makes an A-, she is unable to balance that with an A+ to pull up her GPA (at FSU). So is it a disadvantage for those who need a high GPA for acceptance into med school to attend a undergrad program that has a less generous grading system? It would seem that those who attend schools that have more generous grading scales could end up with better GPAs. Would med schools consider this when reviewing applicants? (B+: UA=3.33, FSU=3.25, ASU=3.33)
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181676/data/amcas_grade_conversion_guide.pdf indicates that A+ grades count the same as A grades for medical school GPA calculations. Note that the undergraduate school’s numeric values for grades in calculating GPA are not relevant.
Note that law schools recalculate GPA differently from medical school; A+ grades do count for more than A grades, but the value of +/- is different than for medical school: http://www.lsac.org/aboutlsac/policies/transcript-summarization
AMCAS recalculates all GPAs for med school apps using a uniform system. So it doesn’t matter what School A or School B counts as a B+ or B or whatever. And A+'s are the same as A’s for AMCAS.
an A- doesn’t keep anyone out of med school. Med schools are going to view anything between a 3.8 and 4.0 as the same.
you need to be more concerned about Bs and Cs (from any school). The goal should be no C’s, and very few B’s…resulting in a high BCMP GPA and high cum GPA.
very good grades will result in a high GPA (both types).
As an OOS student, what would going to FSU benefit your D? Florida med schools highly favor instate students almost exclusively (except for MD/XXX) since they have a high population and large number of instate applicants.
Does FSU write committee letters? Did she get much merit from FSU? It just seems odd to choose FSU as an OOS premed. Did she visit these schools???
@mom2collegekids, We did visit several schools including FSU and UA. At the time we visited, she had not decided on a major (was considering premed or engineering). We were just trying to narrow down the school choice (visited 10 schools). She did receive merit aid including OOS tuition waiver and admission (or maybe freshman) scholarship. She was chosen as a finalist for Presidential Scholars Program at FSU and will interview later this month. While the PS program has great benefits with advising and mentoring, UA has a better scholarship offer for NMF. We will visit UA again later this month. Thanks for your input, will pm you with more details.
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decided on a major (was considering premed or engineering
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Premed isn’t a major. A student can be engineering AND be a premed student. My son was a Chemical Engineering major, so your D doesn’t have to choose one or the other.
Of course, if your D is an eng’g major at Bama (with or w/o being premed), then she gets an add’l 2500 per year on top of the big NMF scholarship…so along with the free tuition plus 3500 stipend, she’d also get 3500 per year…so practically a free ride.
Is your D aware that she can use that Bama 5th year of tuition to pay for a summer abroad? Bama will give her $12,500 (a semester of the money) to use towards a summer abroad program…so that usually pays for all of a trip, including airfare, lodging, and spending money.