Helppp! GPA question

[lawqueen04]

I was all gung ho to attend excelsior and earn my degree when it seems like Thomas Edison might be a better fit, as I will probably recieve a few more credits there for classes such as PE and I can utilize FEMA for free.

Anyway, I know that you do not have a GPA from the college but I am wondering if I want to go to Grad school or I would really like to go to Medical school, does anyone know how a GPA would be made? I have about 65 credits from B&M and I am planning on taking graded ECE exams and DSSTs and maybe one or two TECEP.

Thank you so much for your help

[rmroberts]

I think most grad schools will get your GPA from every place you've had college credit and then average it out. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[JBjunior]

I think most grad schools will get your GPA from every place you've had college credit and then average it out. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct.

[perrik]

You are correct.

If that's correct, it would be a miracle that I got into grad school!

I had to submit transcripts from all my post-secondary schools when applying, so they did see my ancient B&M grades. However, my official graduating GPA was the one calculated by Excelsior, which excluded some credits at my request from the old transcripts. Ditching some ancient bad grades and replacing them with shiny new A's brought my graduating GPA over the 3.0 minimum required by many (most?) B&M graduate schools.

To the OP: TESC calculates your GPA based only on graded credit earned from TESC (see policy here). Your B&M credits, DSST scores, CLEP scores, and ECE exams will be on your transcript as ungraded credit. TECEP exams are ungraded, and will appear on your transcript as ungraded credit (see policy here). If having a GPA is necessary for you, you'll either have to take some TESC classes or opt for Excelsior. Check admissions policies for your targeted grad programs, though. They may have policies in place for applicants who graduated from non-traditional programs. For example, San Diego State University has a category for "special action admissions" (link goes to a .pdf file).

[lawqueen04]

Thank you for the help. Imm probably going to with excelsior because of gpa. Thank you

[cookderosa]

Why don't you think you'll get a GPA? If you have taken courses, with grades, you'll have a GPA. Whether or not EC calculates it isn't relevant. For DO/MD schools, you'll also have a GPA that's called a BCMP (biology, chemistry, math, physics) from when you do a post-bac for med school. Those courses will calculate one GPA, and your cumulative will be the other (from your degree).
If it were me, I'd be doing SERIOUS homework into where you need to do a post-bac and how hard it is to get in. With an online degree you'll need a strong university (not community college) program, and for what it's worth, I'd suggest somewhere with a formal program vs a do it yourself plan (to be more competitive).

[JBjunior]

If that's correct, it would be a miracle that I got into grad school!

I had to submit transcripts from all my post-secondary schools when applying, so they did see my ancient B&M grades. However, my official graduating GPA was the one calculated by Excelsior, which excluded some credits at my request from the old transcripts. Ditching some ancient bad grades and replacing them with shiny new A's brought my graduating GPA over the 3.0 minimum required by many (most?) B&M graduate schools.

To the OP: TESC calculates your GPA based only on graded credit earned from TESC (see policy here). Your B&M credits, DSST scores, CLEP scores, and ECE exams will be on your transcript as ungraded credit. TECEP exams are ungraded, and will appear on your transcript as ungraded credit (see policy here). If having a GPA is necessary for you, you'll either have to take some TESC classes or opt for Excelsior. Check admissions policies for your targeted grad programs, though. They may have policies in place for applicants who graduated from non-traditional programs. For example, San Diego State University has a category for "special action admissions" (link goes to a .pdf file).

What was said still stands true. It isn't EVERY course you ever took, but the courses that you took that applied to your degree. Just as you said you took courses/tests to replace the bad grades so they no longer applied to your degree. Since Excelsior counts all of the courses toward your GPA there unlike TESC then that should be an accurate GPA upon graduation.

[lawqueen04]

Thank you so much for all of your help

My big dilema is that I have a 2.7 gpa now, and because I am interested in medical school I want to raise it as much as possible (I have 65 b&m credits). As long as the medical school would be able to calculate a gpa for me with the graded dsst's and ece's than I really want to go with thomas edison.

As for the post bacc, I live in new york and I've already planned on applying to stony brook, big science university or hunter big city university for their programs well known in new york. Luckily I only took one general bio class, one physics class and statistics which will basically let me start fresh with my bcpm. I really want to attend nycom or tourocom and become a PCP lol

I was just worried that my gpa wouldn't go up, even if I took the graded tests that wouldn't receive grades on my transcript.

Thank you

[cookderosa]

Thank you so much for all of your help

My big dilema is that I have a 2.7 gpa now, and because I am interested in medical school I want to raise it as much as possible (I have 65 b&m credits). As long as the medical school would be able to calculate a gpa for me with the graded dsst's and ece's than I really want to go with thomas edison.

As for the post bacc, I live in new york and I've already planned on applying to stony brook, big science university or hunter big city university for their programs well known in new york. Luckily I only took one general bio class, one physics class and statistics which will basically let me start fresh with my bcpm. I really want to attend nycom or tourocom and become a PCP lol

I was just worried that my gpa wouldn't go up, even if I took the graded tests that wouldn't receive grades on my transcript.

Thank you

You can play around with the numbers here: Calculate Your GPA

I did a rough estimate for you. With an existing GPA of 2.7 based on 65 credits, you'll end up with a 3.32 if you take 60 more graded credits earning an "A" in each. Based on your specific goals, I can't see you pulling it up over 3.0 if you take too many CLEPs or DSSTs. TESC doesn't award grades for either, so you may want to consider using EC instead- they are the only school in the USA that I know of who offers grades for DSSTs. Of course, if you kill the MCAT it won't matter too much lol.

Good luck!