Coursework & Transcripts

Part of your medical school application will require you to provide a detailed academic history, including: 

  • All UChicago courses 

  • Any courses taken at other colleges or universities, regardless of whether it transferred to UChicago or another college for credit 

  • Dual enrollment college credit earned as a high school student 

  • Post-bac courses 

  • Graduate courses  

Transcripts

In order to complete this portion of the application process, you'll need to take the following steps:  

  • Request your official transcripts from all schools  

  • Enter courses in chronological order, exactly as they appear on the official transcript of the school where you originally attempted them 

  • For AMCAS, use UChicago’s credit system. AMCAS will automatically convert UChicago credits to semester hours. 

  • For AACOMAS and TMDSAS, convert your UChicago credits to semester hours. 100 units = 3.3 semester hours or 5 quarter hours.  

Classify Your Courses

You are responsible for classifying your courses based on the guidelines provided by the primary application services you use. 

In most cases, this is simple and straightforward – a course you took in the biology department should be classified as biology. However, a biostats course would be classified as mathematics. Moreover, a course outside the biology department could be classified as biology, as is the case with neuroscience courses.   

Classify your courses based on the criteria provided in the following databases, and reach out to your CIH adviser if you have any questions along the way: 

Review the 2023 MSAR Premed Course Requirements for in-depth information on all medical schools' expectations for coursework. Guidelines for classification of courses on transcripts can be found here.

GPA Calculation 

As part of the verification process, the primary application services calculate GPAs based on your course classifications. AMCAS, for example, calculates the following GPAs: 

  • BCPM GPA: Courses classified as biology, chemistry, physics, and math/statistics 

  • Cumulative GPA: All courses 

  • All Other (AO) GPA: Courses not classified as BCPM 

In addition, they provide these GPAs broken down by academic status:  

  • High School (HS): College courses completed in high school  

  • Undergraduate: All undergraduate and postbaccalaureate courses 

    • Freshman (FR): Courses completed the summer before 1st year and autumn, winter, and spring quarters of 1st year 

    • Sophomore (SO): Courses completed the summer between 1st and 2nd year and during the autumn, winter, and spring quarters of 2nd year 

    • Junior (JR): Courses completed the summer between 2st and 3rd year and during the autumn, winter, and spring quarters of 3rd year 

    • Senior (SR): Courses completed the summer between 3rd and 4th year and during the autumn, winter, and spring quarters of 4th year 

    • Postbaccalaureate (PB): Any undergraduate level course taken after earning your bachelor's degree. These are also included in the Undergraduate GPAs. 

  • Graduate (GR): Graduate level course work taken during undergraduate and/or after graduation.  

CASS Resources

AMCAS Bootcamp: Held the first week of May, these virtual and in-person bootcamps offer applicants a chance to drop in and ask questions about AMCAS, work on the application with advisers on hand, and listen to the questions and concerns of their peers.