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Hello! I tried to email Queen's Admissions to get a clear and accurate response but however, they were unable to provide me with further clarification. I am hoping that I'll receive some clear answers here! 

 

My question is: If I take additional courses (i.e Athabasca University) after the completion of my undergraduate degree, will the courses that I take count towards my 2 Year WGPA EVEN IF these courses are individual undergraduate courses that DO NOT count towards an additional degree or towards my completed degree? As long as these courses:

- Fulfill the requirement for full-time study (3-5 courses per semester)

- Completed between September to April

 

I plan on taking additional courses according to these guidelines however, because there is no formal term structure to follow, I would plan on simply taking these courses according to the following format:

 

- 3 to 5 courses between September to December 

- 3 to 5 courses between January to April 

 

I apologize if this question has been asked already! I was going through the forum and was unable to find the answer to this specific question.

 

Thank you in advance! 

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This is a risky manoeuvre I advise most to avoid. If you're going to spend the tuition and time, may as well do something legitimate at a legitimate university where all med schools accept. It's a sneaky way to get a high GPA but just know it comes with risks. Is it worth your time to realize it won't work? 

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2 hours ago, getrich said:

This is a risky manoeuvre I advise most to avoid. If you're going to spend the tuition and time, may as well do something legitimate at a legitimate university where all med schools accept. It's a sneaky way to get a high GPA but just know it comes with risks. Is it worth your time to realize it won't work? 

Risky in the sense that it's not a 'recognized university'? Or risky because it's not toward a 4-year degree? I don't see why they wouldn't accept it if it followed their criteria of a full-time year though (3 courses/semester in both Fall and Spring back to back). Queens doesn't have a course level requirement like other schools do. 

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I'd reckon risky because some MD schools actually don't recognize that university. I'm unsure if it's even on the OMSAS GPA scale pdf - and I'd also look into whether it's an accredited university. It could but again if you're paying good coin and putting in the hours; might be worth your investment to go to a brick & mortar uni to ascertain the credits for GPA calculation. I know UOttawa will not count it as an example - if you're sure you just want to improve odds for just one school then go ahead. But if you want to up your chances at more schools; then other unis might be a better choice.

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6 hours ago, yinners said:

Do both semesters need to be full time?  My last year was just one term with a full course load. Would they take this half year, second last full year and half of the next more recent year?

From what I understand they'd just take your most recent 2 full time years (Sept-Apr) and not break up the year into semesters like that. 

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On 12/6/2017 at 10:06 PM, helicase said:

From what I understand they'd just take your most recent 2 full time years (Sept-Apr) and not break up the year into semesters like that. 

Thanks for your replies on both my posts!

The last semester is 18 credits and although it's 5 classes, they are the equivalent of 6 normal courses. Hopefully, if they don't break up the semesters, they'll let this count. I have sent an email to clarify.

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On 10/10/2017 at 10:04 AM, getrich said:

This is a risky manoeuvre I advise most to avoid. If you're going to spend the tuition and time, may as well do something legitimate at a legitimate university where all med schools accept. It's a sneaky way to get a high GPA but just know it comes with risks. Is it worth your time to realize it won't work? 

This is wrong. AU is a very legitimate university and its courses are accepted at almost every Canadian medical school. I think only Ottawa doesnt accept online courses.. it is not specifically against AU, it is against the concept of online courses in general. What it does come down is to specific schools and their administrative processes of calculating WGPAs where it may "not" be considered, such as Ottawa. 

And considering most of pre-clinical years at many canadian med schools are done from the comfort of your own room and lecture recordings, it would be very good practice self discipline. The fact that a minority of schools are still stuck in the 20th century and against online courses(just 10-15 years ago, this would be a very legitmate concern due to being unregulated). But most big universities these days themselves have online course offerings. You do exams in person, and proctored, but otherwise you do the learning on your own with support via email /online forums with professors/tutors.

But yes 100% confirm first before enrolling, but to call the university not legitimate is a huge stretch. 

 

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19 minutes ago, JohnGrisham said:

This is wrong. AU is a very legitimate university and its courses are accepted at almost every Canadian medical school. I think only Ottawa doesnt accept online courses.. it is not specifically against AU, it is against the concept of online courses in general. What it does come down is to specific schools and their administrative processes of calculating WGPAs where it may "not" be considered, such as Ottawa. 

And considering most of pre-clinical years at many canadian med schools are done from the comfort of your own room and lecture recordings, it would be very good practice self discipline. The fact that a minority of schools are still stuck in the 20th century and against online courses(just 10-15 years ago, this would be a very legitmate concern due to being unregulated). But most big universities these days themselves have online course offerings. You do exams in person, and proctored, but otherwise you do the learning on your own with support via email /online forums with professors/tutors.

But yes 100% confirm first before enrolling, but to call the university not legitimate is a huge stretch. 

 

Just adding/clarifying to the first point regarding the online course. Ottawa accepts online courses given that it is 1 of 5 courses per semester. Ottawa just doesn't accept online degrees and virtual labs. 

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1 hour ago, CardiacArrhythmia said:

Just adding/clarifying to the first point regarding the online course. Ottawa accepts online courses given that it is 1 of 5 courses per semester. Ottawa just doesn't accept online degrees and virtual labs. 

Thanks for the clarification! I had a feeling I may have been off a bit. 

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14 hours ago, JohnGrisham said:

This is wrong. AU is a very legitimate university and its courses are accepted at almost every Canadian medical school. I think only Ottawa doesnt accept online courses.. it is not specifically against AU, it is against the concept of online courses in general. What it does come down is to specific schools and their administrative processes of calculating WGPAs where it may "not" be considered, such as Ottawa. 

And considering most of pre-clinical years at many canadian med schools are done from the comfort of your own room and lecture recordings, it would be very good practice self discipline. The fact that a minority of schools are still stuck in the 20th century and against online courses(just 10-15 years ago, this would be a very legitmate concern due to being unregulated). But most big universities these days themselves have online course offerings. You do exams in person, and proctored, but otherwise you do the learning on your own with support via email /online forums with professors/tutors.

But yes 100% confirm first before enrolling, but to call the university not legitimate is a huge stretch. 

 

Sure. I still wouldn't. I don't believe it's a legitimate university and I am not sure other universities admissions boards will look at it this way. 

 

Like I said if you can take it online at any other legitimate university why not? You already mentioned they have online courses at major universities. 

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2 hours ago, getrich said:

Sure. I still wouldn't. I don't believe it's a legitimate university and I am not sure other universities admissions boards will look at it this way. 

 

Like I said if you can take it online at any other legitimate university why not? You already mentioned they have online courses at major universities. 

Issues with enrolling in another university and priority. Unless it's your alma mater, youre going to have a tough time enrolling and just trying to take a few online courses. It just comes down to logistics. Even if its your alma mater youll likely have last priority if an unclassified student. AU gets rid of those barriers.

 

To each their own, I simply wanted to provide the perspective that there is no evidence that AU is frowned upon. Especially in the context of just a few courses, where the bulk of your academic history is in a brick and mortar.  Also as an FYI AU does have fully in person courses as well.  

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