#do school

Back from vacation a year older, very tired, and with blistered and swollen feet. (But also super satisfied with my weekend).

So for the past week, the medical student forms have been ablaze with the latest change: the elimination of the grade replacement policy for AACOMAS applications. Previously, if one made a bad grade in a class, they could retake the class later and get a higher grade to replace the lower one when it’s time to calculate your GPA. It was essentially a redo; the D you made in organic chemistry is replaced by the A you make when you retake it. They still see that you made the D but the A is incorporated in your GPA. This policy affects students applying for the upcoming cycle which starts in about 5 months. Now the policy is the same as for AMCAS GPA in which the original grade and the retake grade are averaged. 

I am not in DO school but I was a non-traditional student, which is why I care enough to talk about this problem. It makes me angry how this policy was put into place which such little notice. People have been spending so much money and time on retaking these classes over the past couple of years to apply DO because their GPA would be much higher with grade replacement. Yes, their GPA would go up some but not drastically enough to be competitive for admission or even get past the initial screen of 3.0. I have seen anecdotes of people having something like a 2.7 without replacement but a 3.5 with replacement.

I imagine that if people knew about this policy 1-2 years in advance, they might have changed their career trajectory. Maybe if they knew their GPA wouldn’t increase much, they wouldn’t shell out for special masters programs and other post-baccs. 

I personally feel that averaging the grades between retakes is a good policy to make it fairer for applicants but I think there should be at least 1 or 2 more cycles under the grade replacement policy. Or at least reduce the automatic screen (usually < 3.0 from what I’ve heard) lower so admission committees can see if you have extenuating circumstances to explain your GPA or so they can see an upward GPA trend in your coursework. 

Medical school admissions are brutal and I really don’t know what I would have done if I was in this situation.