bentos123 Posted July 10, 2019 Report Share Posted July 10, 2019 So I was looking through the U of A academic requirements for GPA. It looks like how they will calculate cGPA is yet to be determined. Depending on how they calculate it, it could really help me this cycle because I have two poor years and three good ones. Anyone have any insight on what the cGPA calculation could look like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garceyues Posted July 10, 2019 Report Share Posted July 10, 2019 I was wondering the same thing. I have no idea how they will alter it, if it all. I am a first-time applicant this cycle, so I am not even completely sure if this isn't some disclaimer type thing they post on their site annually. That being said, this could be good or bad. I was definitely a fan of the drop the lowest year policy, but something like a Queens/Western style weighting also wouldn't be bad IMO. Hopefully they don't switch to something akin to U of T, or remove the weighting altogether. Changes like that would hurt my chances severely It could even be as minor as no longer assessing spring/summer courses taken on a full time basis. I don't know if anyone can truly answer this. We will probably just have to wait and see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentos123 Posted July 10, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2019 I may phone tomorrow and see if they have any timeline or information. Hopefully someone else on the forum knows something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garceyues Posted July 10, 2019 Report Share Posted July 10, 2019 2 hours ago, bentos123 said: I may phone tomorrow and see if they have any timeline or information. Hopefully someone else on the forum knows something. Keep us all updated if you learn anything of interest ! ballsortahard 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken man Posted July 18, 2019 Report Share Posted July 18, 2019 Any updates? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiconC Posted July 18, 2019 Report Share Posted July 18, 2019 I just called. They don't know yet, but they said that as soon as they do they will post it on the website. Chill people. (I'm saying that mainly to myself) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancia Stratos Posted July 18, 2019 Report Share Posted July 18, 2019 Interesting. I know they already changed the cGPA calculations last year with how they account for spring and summer courses. Hopefully they continue to change things in the direction of accepting people with "lower" GPAs. They are missing out on a lot of great applicants with the averages where they are at right now. I would hope that they eventually move to a cutoff style model, where if you have a GPA over a 3.5 or so you meet the criteria and it wont account for anything further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentos123 Posted July 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2019 I really like western’s system of calculating with the two best years or ottawa with their weighted last three year system. I feel like a lot of mature applicants who would otherwise be a great fit are locked out because of two to three poor years at the start of their undergrad. It can be almost impossible to raise your GPA after two 2.0 - 2.5 years. Many come back with an almost 4.0 GPA in subsequent years of study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken man Posted July 19, 2019 Report Share Posted July 19, 2019 3 hours ago, Lancia Stratos said: Interesting. I know they already changed the cGPA calculations last year with how they account for spring and summer courses. Hopefully they continue to change things in the direction of accepting people with "lower" GPAs. They are missing out on a lot of great applicants with the averages where they are at right now. I would hope that they eventually move to a cutoff style model, where if you have a GPA over a 3.5 or so you meet the criteria and it wont account for anything further. Sorry I'll hopefully be applying for the first time this year, did they count or not count summer courses last year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancia Stratos Posted July 20, 2019 Report Share Posted July 20, 2019 On 7/18/2019 at 6:14 PM, Broken man said: Sorry I'll hopefully be applying for the first time this year, did they count or not count summer courses last year? Spring and summer semesters that are full time (2 or more courses) are now counted towards your GPA (or they were, last cycle). Whereas before I believe it was only courses taken between September-April. Hopefully the school clarifies how they will be calculating and dealing with GPA in the future. Would be interesting to know. ballsortahard 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlteplaseStat Posted July 21, 2019 Report Share Posted July 21, 2019 As a mature applicant, I am really looking forward to them releasing the details for cGPA! It is frustrating for me, because I have a tonne of "non-transferable" coursework that messes with my cGPA. Hopefully these changes benefit more potential applicants! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentos123 Posted July 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2019 It looks like they've released the cGPA calculation for this year. The only change I see is that spring/summer term must have 12 credits in order to be used in GPA calculations. They still drop the lowest year as before. I'm a bit disappointed that no change occurred but I expected something similar to this, so I can't be too surprised. Good luck to everyone this year! Broken man 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generationunsuccessful Posted July 23, 2019 Report Share Posted July 23, 2019 "To calculate cGPA, we include all transferable post-secondary coursework to which a grade was assigned while the student was enrolled full-time (by UofA definition) during the academic year (September through April) or full-time during the Spring and Summer terms (May through August). For undergraduate students, to be considered full-time you must complete 18 transferable units of course weight (ucw) during the academic year (September through April) or 12 ucw during the Spring and Summer terms (May through August). All coursework completed as part of a thesis-based graduate program to which a grade and course weighting was assigned will be included in the calculation of cGPA. For applicants presenting 4 or more full-time academic years (September through April) of transferable post-secondary coursework, we may exclude the lowest academic year from calculation, provided that it is not the most recent full-time academic year, nor the only year in which the student earned 30 ucw." So does this mean that as a fourth year, I won't get my lowest year dropped anymore? And does this mean that master's GPA will be included as a full-year now? If so, it seems doing a thesis-based masters would be very beneficial if you don't get in. garceyues 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballsortahard Posted July 23, 2019 Report Share Posted July 23, 2019 3 hours ago, generationunsuccessful said: So does this mean that as a fourth year, I won't get my lowest year dropped anymore? And does this mean that master's GPA will be included as a full-year now? If so, it seems doing a thesis-based masters would be very beneficial if you don't get in. I think so, guess these two A-'s from my MSc are going to hurt me now.. garceyues 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garceyues Posted July 24, 2019 Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 9 hours ago, generationunsuccessful said: So does this mean that as a fourth year, I won't get my lowest year dropped anymore? Wow... this will surely hurt a lot of applicants if it is the case. Considering rumours that the U of A is moving away from "just high stats" applicants, I wonder how much this would hurt well rounded applicants with one lower year. It kind of sucks that fourth years for the last cycle would have quite an advantage on us in that scenario, but I guess that is the nature of this process Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rinzler Posted July 24, 2019 Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 20 hours ago, generationunsuccessful said: All coursework completed as part of a thesis-based graduate program to which a grade and course weighting was assigned will be included in the calculation of cGPA. Does this mean my course based masters won't count? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrubbed0ut Posted July 24, 2019 Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 20 hours ago, generationunsuccessful said: "To calculate cGPA, we include all transferable post-secondary coursework to which a grade was assigned while the student was enrolled full-time (by UofA definition) during the academic year (September through April) or full-time during the Spring and Summer terms (May through August). For undergraduate students, to be considered full-time you must complete 18 transferable units of course weight (ucw) during the academic year (September through April) or 12 ucw during the Spring and Summer terms (May through August). All coursework completed as part of a thesis-based graduate program to which a grade and course weighting was assigned will be included in the calculation of cGPA. For applicants presenting 4 or more full-time academic years (September through April) of transferable post-secondary coursework, we may exclude the lowest academic year from calculation, provided that it is not the most recent full-time academic year, nor the only year in which the student earned 30 ucw." So does this mean that as a fourth year, I won't get my lowest year dropped anymore? And does this mean that master's GPA will be included as a full-year now? If so, it seems doing a thesis-based masters would be very beneficial if you don't get in. does this mean that if you do a masters they use those years ontop of the 4 full time academic years, or would it be like year 3&4 UG and year 1&2 masters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspiring-Doctor Posted July 24, 2019 Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 1 hour ago, rinzler said: Does this mean my course based masters won't count? Only if you did not do your course based masters on a full time basis, otherwise I don't see why not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rinzler Posted July 24, 2019 Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 1 hour ago, Aspiring-Doctor said: Only if you did not do your course based masters on a full time basis, otherwise I don't see why not. Make sense, "all post secondary grades will be measured" Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demir2119 Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 In this case, a full time in fall/winter is 4 courses each right? Is this a recent change? I've always though U of C med has 4 courses each sem as full time while U of A's full time is 5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garceyues Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 2 hours ago, demir2119 said: In this case, a full time in fall/winter is 4 courses each right? Is this a recent change? I've always though U of C med has 4 courses each sem as full time while U of A's full time is 5. I believe it is 3 courses each based on what they have on their site for fall/winter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rinzler Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 11 hours ago, demir2119 said: In this case, a full time in fall/winter is 4 courses each right? Is this a recent change? I've always though U of C med has 4 courses each sem as full time while U of A's full time is 5. "For undergraduate students, to be considered full-time you must complete 18 transferable units of course weight (ucw) during the academic year (September through April) or 12 ucw during the Spring and Summer terms (May through August)." Sounds like 6 half courses for the entire year = 1 academic year Does anyone know where to find the grade conversion chart (coming from omsas)? I can't find it anywhere here or on their website Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruh Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 26 minutes ago, rinzler said: "For undergraduate students, to be considered full-time you must complete 18 transferable units of course weight (ucw) during the academic year (September through April) or 12 ucw during the Spring and Summer terms (May through August)." Sounds like 6 half courses for the entire year = 1 academic year Does anyone know where to find the grade conversion chart (coming from omsas)? I can't find it anywhere here or on their website Excellent A+ A A- 4.0 4.0 3.7 Good B+ B B- 3.3 3.0 2.7 Satisfactory C+ C C- 2.3 2.0 1.7 Poor D+ 1.3 Minimal Pass D 1.0 Failure F 0.0 It's on their general grading system page. They use that for MD applicants as well. rinzler 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rinzler Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 1 hour ago, RiderSx said: It's on their general grading system page. They use that for MD applicants as well. Do they have anything for percentages into GPA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruh Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 1 hour ago, rinzler said: Do they have anything for percentages into GPA? It's speculated to be according to this chart:https://sites.ualberta.ca/~wgiang/files/teaching/PHYS144/GradingScale.pdf Past applicants have found their percentage grades to correlate with this chart, but it's not official. You could call admissions and confirm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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