Athabasca courses with a Masters in progress?

[graham_cracker]

Hello guys,

Just seeing whether someone is in a similar situation or have suggestions on what I should/could do.

So I applied to Mac last year (my only application) and was rejected preinterview, I'm applying again this year.

My situation is unique. So I went to a contemporary dance college for 3 years, finished when I was 21 and went on to work as a professional dancer for about 5 years or so here in Canada, Australia, and Asia. I was not happy and decided to go back to school to pursue medicine because I wanted to continue working with the body, and I also hated teaching dance.

So my college has a joint program with York where I got my Bachelors of Fine Arts with Honours in dance where I finished last April, I was able to squeeze in some science courses like first year bio and biochemistry, but came out with a garbage cGPA of 3.5. Mostly because I think I only had 2 years of undergraduate courses (66 credits) that counted, even though everything was A+/A and B+s with two Cs...

Started a Masters of Arts last September in Dance Kinesiology at York, but did not know most schools do not accept graduate credits towards GPA. This is my thesis year so I'm thinking of taking undergrad course (8 courses) through Athabasca to fulfil the necessary 90 credits for most Ontario schools, along with writing my thesis. 

Am I crazy to do this? I just want to plan ahead if I don't get an interview this year I'll have everything lined up and ready to go for the next cycle. I'm 29 now, and I might be 30, 31, maybe 32 when I start? 

What I should have done was use this past year to do the extra undergrad courses, but I was persuaded by the department to do a masters, that was a mistake. I also didn't know that undergrad GPA and courses was all it mattered to admissions.

I am applying to Mac again this year, only school I'm eligible to apply for in Ontario and some US schools (if i smash the MCAT). I was going to do Calgary also, but my GPA was 0.02 points short of their out of province cut off...

Anyways, I feel very defeated at the moment with the amount of work I'm going have to do next year, plus the cost of paying out of pocket to complete 8 courses. This whole process has just been ticking off boxes for me... But hey, I might get lucky and land an interview with Mac.

 

[adhominem]

Do you think it is realistic to assume that you can complete your thesis (which should theoretically be a full-time commitment on its own) while also completing 4 undergraduate courses per term? Considering your 3.5 cGPA when you presumably had more time to dedicate to your courses, I don't think this will go well for you. My advice would be to complete your thesis and then do your undergraduate courses the following year. Rushing and trying to cram it all in one year sounds like a recipe for a low GPA, meaning it would be a waste of your time and money.

[neurophile]

This may be late, but doing 1-2 courses max from Athabasca would be doable but 4 per term and 8 in total in one year while doing the thesis will be really hard, and will probably take its toll on your overall performance in the courses and on your thesis.