premed55 Posted March 26, 2014 Report Share Posted March 26, 2014 My friend told me that one of her friends was rejected from a program this year and is going back to raise their GPA next semester (in September). And another friend, already graduated, is doing the same. My question is, how do you go about doing this? I have heard of a "Non-degree status" where you can come back after graduation to take more courses, but when I called my school's registrar, they told me this would have no bearing on your GPA at graduation. I've seen a lot of people on the premed and OT/PT forums discuss returning to school to raise their GPAs. Do they just delay their graduation? That seems kind of odd to me considering some OT results don't even come out until May. My registrar said I could just do a second degree. But an extra four years of being an undergrad REALLY does not appeal to me. Thanks for any advice! AspiringPhysio 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITRoller Posted March 26, 2014 Report Share Posted March 26, 2014 I did this as a non-degree student 3 years after graduating. If you apply for grad school they'll consider the non-degree courses in the same way that they consider the degree courses. Taking a second degree is an option. It's normally not 4 years because a lot of elective credits will transfer from your first degree. I could have done one in 2 years. I found that it didn't give me enough flexibility to complete my pre-requisites, though. I just enrolled in whatever I needed to. Sometimes I encountered an issue with courses that required "upper year status" but I would just contact the department and they removed the block on the registration. It's much less painful than you think!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazzyMaz Posted March 26, 2014 Report Share Posted March 26, 2014 I did this too! I enrolled in a non-degree term took 2 courses at my home university and also took 3 courses at Athabasca at the same time because the options for online courses at my uni were very limited. It's really not that bad though! I was able to increase my sub-GPA from 3.61 to 3.88 so it was 100% worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoping for OT Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 I also did this and I remember feeling so lost about how to go about it at the time. I graduated in May 2013, and signed up for courses in the Fall at the same school. The Registrar told me to just apply for a general bachelor of arts without declaring a major and only take the courses I wanted - I didn't have to finish the degree. The marks from those courses were added to the rest of my transcript and my GPA went from 3.36 to 3.67. I was told you can also take courses at other institutions as a "Visiting Student" and the grad schools usually add up all of your courses, focusing on the last 20 credits. I did have a little trouble when requesting my transcript though. In my case I re-took a few of the same classes so that my new mark would cancel out the old one (I had a few B-'s that were dragging me down). However, my university's computer system kept counting both marks in the total and so the registrar had to make the change manually for it to count only the final mark! I think each school has their own way of calculating. I would suggest you make sure to ask about your school's policy for calculating GPAs if you re-take a course in case they keep both marks. That will help you decide if you want to re-take a course or take a brand new one. Also, I wanted to mention that I was nervous about what a professor would think about me taking a course again. Most of my classes were distance, but one was at the school. So, I decided to explain my situation to my Prof. To my surprise he was very impressed as he understood how hard I was working to reach my goal of attending grad school. I would hope that most Profs feel this way and that they will do anything they can go help you get a good mark. Best of luck to you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lov8 Posted April 14, 2014 Report Share Posted April 14, 2014 ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTapplic Posted April 15, 2014 Report Share Posted April 15, 2014 I graduated, and took 5 full credits (10 half credits) in an extra year of undergraduate. The credits from my first semester were counted towards my subGPA and cumGPA. So I know courses outside of your degree count towards your application, at least for Ontario schools. Hope this helps! Hello2857 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lov8 Posted April 15, 2014 Report Share Posted April 15, 2014 ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NutritionRunner Posted April 15, 2014 Report Share Posted April 15, 2014 My registrar said I could just do a second degree. But an extra four years of being an undergrad REALLY does not appeal to me. Most second degrees do not take a full four years. Most universities will provide you with up to two full years of transfer credits that can apply towards your second degree, and so the second degree can normally be completed in two years. The exception is if you choose a degree program with a lot of required courses with strict prerequisites - then it can take longer, as you need to fit in all the required courses. This is more likely to be the case if you choose a professional-type program for your second degree. A typical BA or BSc second degree should only take most students two years, as they will get two years worth of transfer credits from their first degree. When it comes to re-taking courses, some universities will not count the grade you receive the second time around, and some will average the two grades. So definitely check the university policies. Not all universities will simply replace the old grade with the new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weenston Posted May 8, 2014 Report Share Posted May 8, 2014 What kind of courses do you guys take to boost GPA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazzyMaz Posted May 9, 2014 Report Share Posted May 9, 2014 What kind of courses do you guys take to boost GPA? Any courses that you think you can do well in. I needed a bunch of 90s so I took the birdiest courses I could find OR any courses that were similar to a course that I did well in... Athabasca has some easy ones that require very little work...cultural studies, for example. Making a bibliography was worth 15% of my mark... no paper or anything, JUST a bibliography :s haha. Anyways, bird courses are ideal if you are working full-time (in my opinion). You can make a spreadsheet on excel with your sub-gpa and play around with the numbers to see what kind of grades (and how many) you need to make your GPA more competitive...that will give you an idea of how many courses you need to take. If you want to see how I did it for myself, I can figure out how to post my spreadsheet AspiringPhysio 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AspiringPhysio Posted November 23, 2014 Report Share Posted November 23, 2014 Hi MazzyMaz Yes please post the spreadsheet I'm interested. Can we get in with mostly birdie courses? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyun Posted September 23, 2020 Report Share Posted September 23, 2020 On 3/26/2014 at 5:00 AM, MazzyMaz said: I did this too! I enrolled in a non-degree term took 2 courses at my home university and also took 3 courses at Athabasca at the same time because the options for online courses at my uni were very limited. It's really not that bad though! I was able to increase my sub-GPA from 3.61 to 3.88 so it was 100% worth it. Hi! can I please ask which courses you took from AU?! I am currently also trying to boost my gpa and looking for some course recommendations! much appreciated please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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