<p>I crunched the numbers among pre-law students. That’s obviously a different pool (more engineers, fewer biology majors) than their premed pool. Nonetheless, MIT came back as the fourth-most deflated school in the country.</p>
<p>The top three: West Point, Air Force Academy, Naval Academy.</p>
<p>*Re #56: Yeah, I think broadly speaking you’ve got three tiers of schools. Tier 1 probably has like 10 schools in it. Tier 2 includes most of what you think of when you picture a “college.” Tier 3 is things like online colleges, trade schools, etc. *</p>
<p>In Tier 3, I would also include low level “real colleges” that just don’t have strong science programs. I mentioned in another post, a nearby state school where many students are education majors, and the school would be completely unheard of outside of the area. Not only do I imagine some quizzical expressions fro AdComs when they would see an app from a student from such a school, but I imagine that this student wouldn’t even have a decent MCAT either.</p>
<p>I have never heard about pre-med track being easy. It has been exceptionally hard for my D. She has great results at her state school but she has worked extremely hard to achieve them. In regard to “easy” classes, D. needed fillers for senior year, so yes her easiest class has been “Perspnal exersice”, but it has no influence on GPA (pass/fail). Another “easy” class was “Paper Making”, which ended up being not easy at all and very time consuming as all visual art classes (I have warned her about it, but it was the only visual art class that she could afford time wise after taking private art lessons all thru HS). Her Music Minor classes have been easy, but she is very interested in music and I have encourage to pursue it. Music Minor has lowered her GPA because of three “A-” in singing classes where she had to sing in duets with “real” music people who had great voices and most likely have been taking voice lessons in a past (no such case with my D.). So, “easy” classes are not always the ones that improve your GPA, opposite occurred to my D. Oh, couple very easy classes in her Major were Stats and Chem (both Med. School req., so she had to take them). Unfortunately “A+” is still just 4.0 at her school, no additional points there. The rest of science classes and especially Bio have been extremely challenging. I heard the same from another girl who is planning to go to Pharmacy and who is at state school (off charts, lower ranked, do not know Tier). Both girls have been ranked very high in their respective HS’s and both are on full tuition Merit scholarships at college. </p>
<p>So, I am not aware of any “low level “real colleges” that just don’t have strong science programs.” where students “wouldn’t even have a decent MCAT either”. D. had decent MCAT score and had been accepted to 4 Med. Schools, 2 in top 20 and one more few spots below. She is very happy.</p>
<p>I have never heard about pre-med track being easy. It has been exceptionally hard for my D. She has great results at her state school but she has worked extremely hard to achieve them. In regard to “easy” classes, D. needed fillers for senior year, so yes her easiest class has been “Personal exercise”, but it has no influence on GPA (pass/fail).</p>
<p>I agree. As long as the school falls into the one of the 2 tiers described above, it’s not easy…otherwise, so many pre-med kids wouldn’t be changing their majors somewhere during their soph/junior years after getting lowish grades in OChem or whatever.</p>
<p>My son is really enjoying his Italian class. Yes, it’s just a filler class because he already has 12 Spanish credits. But, he’s enjoying this Italian class because the prof is super popular and he’s taking it with his brother who is graduating in May. They’re having fun practicing with each other. </p>
<p>It’s a nice diversion from the harder classes that he’s taking. It’s not pass/fail…he will get a grade in it, but since (thankfully) the kids inherited the “foreign language gene” from my H, that won’t be a problem. (I totally lack the foreign language gene…LOL)</p>
<p>I think there needs to be a distinction between “GPA Gamesmanship” and simply smart decisions to manage one’s GPA.</p>
<p>The same kid who takes Bio, Chem, Physics and Calc all in the same semester and ends up with a 3.3, may have had straight As (or close) if he had not tried to do too much in one semester.</p>
<p>^Yes, I would not advise to take Bio, Chem, Physics and Calc in the same semester. Too much science all at once! D. has managed with 2 very hard classes per semester and others easier of different focus. She liked her Music and Neuroscience classes that tend to be easier.</p>
<p>
Again, this really depends on the student in question. Seriously, I know a lot of kids who handled serious courseloads with one hand tied “behind their back” (attached to an XBox).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>At all schools as far as I know, yet an A- is less than a 4.0 :(.</p>
<p>I have heard talk (treat it as a rumor for now, I have no specifics) of some schools using 4.3 for A+.</p>
<p>AAMC will reduce A+'s to 4.0 regardless of how the home institution calculates it. So it’s not a big deal.</p>
<p>Delete #68, out of context, erroneous.</p>
<p>My kids’ school does give bonuses for A+</p>
<p>4.33 for an A+
4.0 for an A
3.67 for an A-</p>
<p>However, the highest overall GPA a student can have is a 4.0…even if the student has a lot of A+'s. </p>
<p>The A+'s help out with any A-'s. </p>
<p>I think because of this bonus for A+, their graduation with Latin Honors are strict.
3.9 - 4.0 for Summa…no rounding up</p>
<p>My nephew told me that Columbia gave him bonuses for A+'s also…and here’s the link
[Calculating</a> GPA | Columbia University Registrar](<a href=“http://registrar.columbia.edu/content/calculating-gpa-0]Calculating”>Grade Point Average | Office of the University Registrar)</p>
<p>Columbia
Grade Equivalent
A+ 4.33
A 4.00
A- 3.67
B+ 3.33
B 3.00
B- 2.67
C+ 2.33 </p>
<p>I note that UCLA (and maybe the other UC’s do **not **give bonuses for A+s
[UCLA</a> General Catalog 2010-2011](<a href=“http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/catalog/catalog10-11-35.htm#pgfId-72270]UCLA”>http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/catalog/catalog10-11-35.htm#pgfId-72270)</p>
<p>UCLA Grade Points
Grade points per unit are assigned by the Registrar as follows: </p>
<p>A+ 4.0</p>
<p>A 4.0</p>
<p>A– 3.7</p>
<p>B+ 3.3</p>
<p>B 3.0</p>
<p>B– 2.7</p>
<p>*AAMC will reduce A+'s to 4.0 regardless of how the home institution calculates it. So it’s not a big deal. *</p>
<p>So, you’re saying that a students grades will get recalculated? Using what scale?</p>
<p>For instance, would they say an A- is a 3.7? a 3.67? what?</p>
<p>A is 4, B is 3, etc. A + or a - is worth 0.3. The only exception is that the A+ is a 4.0.</p>
<p>If you’re curious, the law school equivalent, LSDAS, calculates + and - as 0.33, and they do give A+'s as 4.33.</p>
<p>*A is 4, B is 3, etc. </p>
<p>**A + or a - is worth 0.3. **</p>
<p>The only exception is that the A+ is a 4.0.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>So, are you saying that an A- is a 3.7?</p>
<p>Mom2, that’s exactly right. Thats what takes AMCAS so long to verify your application. They look at each of your courses via your transcript and then calculate your GPA using their rules. For example, at my university, I have a 3.85, but my AMCAS was 3.78. The difference shouldn’t be that big though, and a tenth of a GPA point isn’t going to make or break ones application. The gpa calculation policies are available on the AAMC website and the AMCAS handbook.</p>
<p>^Yes, that’s my understanding.</p>
<p>x-posted w/kristin, I was responding to m2ck.</p>
<p>Yes .</p>
<p>So…since A+ don’t give you any bonues, that means one A- will forever keep you from a 4.0? You can get close, but never quite there. </p>
<p>For instance…
126 credits of 4.0 = 504</p>
<h1>4 credits of a 3.7 = 14.8</h1>
<p>130 credits worth 518.8 = 3.99 GPA</p>
<p>Top, 10, top 25, top 50, 1st tier, 2nd tier, 3rd tier (TTT???)</p>
<p>I think it is about respect within the academic community, top 10 = Ivyish, top 25 includes Berkeley/UVA, Top 50 = UVA, UMIch, UCI, UCSD, USC etc. All well known schools that are not totally easy for admissions.</p>
<p>In CA you have top & mid UCS & Stanford & USC plus the Claremont schools, then you have smaller privates- USD, USF, etc. They probably are all respected</p>
<p>Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Chico UCMerced, UC Riverside may be easier admissions and may provide an easier A for the kid who was also admitted to Berkeley, but are they going to work that hard? How many of the kids who were admitted to Stanford instead went to the local CC and transferred to the local CSU? And did that kid maintain the focus they had in HS at the lower intensity school.</p>
<p>Even though you can follow a cookie cutter list of what you need to do to be admitted to medical school, I think nearly every other applicant has done the same thing, the difference for the average applicant is who has had a true authentic experience and who has had more interesting experiences. It is a journey, not a just a step, I would tell a kid, don’t pick a school that might be easy, pick a school that will develop you as a person, do the right stuff and let the chips fall where they will</p>
<p>
If for some reason you wanted a 4.0, then yes.</p>