Hello,
I am a prospective medical student entering my first year of undergrad. I hope to go to med school, but I am worried because I am starting off a bit behind GPA wise due to community college credits I have received during high school.
I took a lot of community college classes during high school because I did not go to traditional high school and taking community college classes was the best way to get the mandatory high school credits complete.
I have 31 units currently which includes classes like PE, and my GPA of these community college classes I took my junior and senior year of high school is around 3.58. This is because I got B/B-'s in two PE classes and in the online classes I took over the summer after my junior year.
At the time I took these classes I did not realize that the grades I got would matter for anything other than applying to undergrad, but I am now reading that when applying to med school all college level courses, including community college classes taken in high school, are used as a factor in the GPA.
Is there anything that I can do to rectify this situation? Is it possible to withdraw the credit for PE and history so that I can start with a clean slate? The PE classes were required to graduate high school, but they are not needed in college. Or is it possible to not submit the transcripts from these online classes? I was hoping to aim for a 3.9-4.0 GPA my first two years at undergrad, but now that is not possible because even if I got all A’s in my classes for the next 2 years, I would still have a GPA of around 3.8. I understand that is still a good GPA, but chances are I will not get A’s in every single class and I want to position myself to go to the best medical school I possibly can. I think it is silly that me getting B’s in two PE classes at the age of 16 would negatively impact my GPA when applying for med school.
Sorry if this is unclear; I am happy to clarify. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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You cannot hide the fact you took specific DE courses since there is a National Clearinghouse which would have a record of all college courses taken so do not even think about not submitting the transcripts.
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There are three types of GPA that medical schools calculate, and you need to know about each:
Overall GPA – The raw GPA calculation of all of your undergraduate coursework combined.
BCPM – “Science GPA.” Your GPA for all of your science coursework. This is the big one.
AO GPA – “All Other” GPA. Also known as your “non-science” GPA because this calculation only includes non-science college courses.
- PE is a non-academic class so it will have not huge impact for Medical school admissions.
Just do the best you can as an Undergrad and your HS courses will have a lesser effect on your overall chances if you excel in your major/science courses while at your 4 year university. I would also suggest you visit the pre-professional advising center at SDSU where all your concerns can be addressed.
Frankly, ALL your college level classes will impact your chances at med school, credited PE included. Your current cGPA of 3.58 is undeniable, but if you do well in the rest of college years, you still have a good chance to be accepted by med schools. Just do as well as you can, you can change the future, not the past.
FYI, attempting to conceal credits from AMCAS has severe penalties. They range from delaying your application for several weeks to months until the matter is resolved to a permanent lifetime ban on ever applying to medical school.
You cannot withdraw retroactively from coursework, except for serious medical reasons which requires a physician’s letter. Besides removing those PE credits will result in you not having fulfilled your high school graduation requirements and your high school diploma would be revoked which means your college admission would be revoked.
Bad idea all around.
Just do the best you can going forward.
Should you get to the point of applying to medical school, your grades will be displayed chronologically. Adcomms will be able to see that some of your coursework is from DE and will take that into consideration when making decision about interviewing/admitting you.
Interesting that PE is considered dual credit.
^^There are still a number of colleges that require PE for graduation.