My Little Green Monster: Science/DPD GPA

I'm house/dog sitting this week;
this is Levi my research assistant.

UPDATE: when I applied for DI's later in Feb 2013, my DPD GPA ended up being much higher...like a 3.2


When applying to Dietetic Internships, one of the first things schools look at is your grade point average.  Most schools will state that applicants should have a minimum 3.0, however some may use an even higher GPA as a screening tool. The process is highly competitive, remember there have been twice as many applicants as positions in the past.  I contacted the DI Director at Northridge and she said they only look at applicants with a 3.4 or higher. Anyways, in addition to an overall GPA many programs will also look at an applicant's science GPA (some may also call it a DPD GPA).  Courses included in this GPA will vary from school to school, but most will ask for grades in an applicant's nutrition, science, and math classes.  I've talked to a couple of girls I know from Cal Poly that got into amazing DI's (think Boston, Long Beach, Sacramento) and their overall GPA's ranged from 3.3 to 3.87 (their science GPA's were nearly identical to their overall).  

I am being honest with you all, I don't know my science GPA.  My overall GPA is a 3.33.  However, science has never been my strength and I have quite a few C's.  I was more focused on passing classes and getting science out of the way.  I remember finishing my chemistry series and thinking I was done. HA. Nice try Shannon, here comes the Anatomy/Physiology and nutrient metabolism series.  And Food Microbiology...no comment.  Anyways,  I wasn't aware that a science GPA existed until senior year and didn't know it was an integral part of the DI application.  I have been too scared to add everything up, hit enter, and watch my heart drop and my RD dreams with it.  But if I am serious about becoming an RD, and I most certainly am, I cannot ignore what scares me.  If my GPA sucks then I need to do something about it.  This is really embarrassing for me, but I'm going to share it with the Internet world .  It's time to face the music and my little green monster.  (I'm going to reward myself by baking something yummy today)

Here we go, Science GPA 101:
So basically a GPA assigns numbers to letter grades, an A receives 4 points, B 3 points, C 2 points, etc.  Each course you take also has an amount of units.  Multiply units by letter grade points then divide by total number of units.  You have yourself a science/DPD GPA.

I'm going to calculate mine here.  It's boring, you don't have to read it.  I just thought it might be helpful should you want to see the DPD classes I took and grade I received for comparison.  Or if you're feeling nosy.  Or if you want a  confidence boost.  I diverge. Deep breaths.

FSN 101 Fundamentals of Food: 4 units, A (16 grade points)
FSN 210 Nutrition: 4 units, A- (16)
FSN 230 Food Processing: 4 units, B+ (12)
FSN 250 Customs & Cultures: 4 units,  B+ (12)
FSN 310 Maternal & Child: 4 units,  B (12)
FSN 315 Nutrition in Aging: 4 units,  A (16)
FSN 321 Culinary Mgmt Principle & Practice: 4 units,  A- (16)
FSN 328 Nutrient Metabolism I: 4 units,  B+ (12)
FSN 329 Nutrient Metabolism II: 4 units, B (12)
FSN 343 Institutional Foodservice: 3 units, A (12)
FSN 344 Institutional Foodservice II: 3 units, A (12)
FSN 415 Nutrition Education & Communication: 4 units, A (16)
FSN 416 Community Nutrition: 4 units, B+ (12)
FSN 417 Nutrition Counseling: 4 units, A (16)
FSN 420 Critical Evaluation of Nutrition Research: 4 units, A (16)
FSN 426 Food Systems Management: 4 units, B (12)
FSN 429 Clinical Nutrition I: 4 units, A- (16)
FSN 430 Clinical Nutrtion II: 4 units, B+ (12)
FSN 461 Senior Project: 3 units, A (12)
MCRO 221 Survey of Microbiology: 4 units, C (8)
MCRO 421 Food Microbiology: 4 units, B (12)
CHEM 111 Survey of Chemistry: 5 units, B (15)
CHEM 312 Survey of Organic Chemistry: 5 units, C (10)
CHEM 313 Survey of Biochemistry: 5 units, C (10)
ECON 201 Survey of Economics: 4 units, B (12)
MATH 116 Pre-Calculus I: 3 units, A (12)
MATH 117 Pre-Calculus II: 3 units, A (12)
STAT 218 Applied Statistics in the Life Sciences: 4 units, B- (12)
BIO 111 Survey of Biology: 4 units, B+ (12)
PSY 201 General Psychology: 4 units, A (16)
ZOO 331 Human Physiology & Anatomy I: 5 units, C (10)
ZOO 332 Human Physiology & Anatomy II: 5 units, C (10)

Total grade points (me)/Units taken towards GPA: 335/128=2.6

Hm. Not that great. On a GPA scale a 2.6 is 81% or a B-.  But now I know what my GPA is and to my surprise the world did not end! My mom has always told me stressing out wastes energy when I should be using that energy to fix the problem creating the stress in the first place.  I can now look at programs and see if my GPA is competitive enough.  Another option is to retake classes at another school to improve my GPA. But for now it's baking time...