Winter 2020 Not Eligible in GPA Calculation

[ramjagsingh]

I know many of us here are hoping we'll never have to reapply again.. but just in case as per the Dal website:

https://medicine.dal.ca/departments/core-units/admissions/admissions/covid-19-information.html

 

"Prospective applicants to Dalhousie Medicine entering their final year of undergraduate study will have their GPA calculated using alphanumerical grades from 60 most recent, senior level courses at the time of application, excluding Winter 2020. For all future application cycles, Winter Term 2020 will be excluded from GPA calculations."

 

Pretty unfair for those who have pulled off an excellent GPA this semester.

[redefining.girl]

This term was looking like it would pull me up GPA wise so pretty bummed right now after seeing this. 

Any idea what they mean by 60 most recent senior level courses? Would that be last 20 courses completed regardless of year-level?

[ramjagsingh]

9 hours ago, redefining.girl said:

This term was looking like it would pull me up GPA wise so pretty bummed right now after seeing this. 

Any idea what they mean by 60 most recent senior level courses? Would that be last 20 courses completed regardless of year-level?

I think this would be Fall 2019, Winter 2019, Fall 2018, Winter 2018

[WhyWearPrada]

On 4/14/2020 at 10:14 AM, ramjagsingh said:

I think this would be Fall 2019, Winter 2019, Fall 2018, Winter 2018

x

[fun]

I had no idea they will take grades from our worse semesters. Lots of people worked extremely hard and studied, and on top of that, had a job and paid for their tuition this semester just to get into medical school. I could have stayed home instead of going to university this semester and not have paid tuition or rent, or studied extremely hard, if I knew the end result would be this. I feel like if they do this, they should consider other extenuating circumstances, like mental health, tuition money, hard work and dedication that went into this semester. This process alone will disqualify a lot of people. I get if they only left out Winter 2020 term, but for them to take grades from our worse years considering their wGPA rule is plain unfair.

[Chels1267]

I may be interpreting this incorrectly, but to me "senior level" courses would be like 3rd/4th year courses, not by semester?

[ramjagsingh]

8 hours ago, LiveLifeToTheMaxillary said:

This would actually ruin me. Like really. I wasn't a full-time student during the first two years because I had to work. But during these last two years, I've been full time and have a 4.0 OMSAS GPA. Fuck COVID. I hope they won't disqualify me from applying.

I don't think this will disqualify you. Based on my understanding they take your most recent 60 credit hours. So in your case you'll be eligible due to taking 60 over the last two years. But, to calculate your actual GPA it will be 45 of those credit hours. Then from the times you weren't full time your most recent 15 credit hours. Based on the statement made by them that's what makes sense, although I could be wrong. 

 

There is a lot of time until the next application cycle. So I'm hoping they find a happy medium where those who still managed to do well don't feel this is working against them and have the opportunity to use their winter 2020 grades, and those who didn't do so well based on the circumstances have the option to drop these courses. Only time will tell.

[redefining.girl]

6 hours ago, Chels1267 said:

I may be interpreting this incorrectly, but to me "senior level" courses would be like 3rd/4th year courses, not by semester?

That's what I am having trouble with as well. Fingers crossed they are not referring to just 3rd and fourth year courses - doesn't really make sense anyway because people take tons of 2nd year courses in their third and fourth year (especially dal medical science students). I emailed admissions for clarification but no word back yet. 

[WhyWearPrada]

1 hour ago, redefining.girl said:

That's what I am having trouble with as well. Fingers crossed they are not referring to just 3rd and fourth year courses - doesn't really make sense anyway because people take tons of 2nd year courses in their third and fourth year (especially dal medical science students). I emailed admissions for clarification but no word back yet. 

Let us know what they say! 

[orlandoborn]

Does anyone know if this applies to students who are graduating this year? I was able to maintain a strong GPA this semester, so I'd be crushed if it wasn't included in next cycle's calculation. 

[alwayshungry]

I hope they amend this policy by making it an option (or automatically choosing whatever benefits the individual applicant’s GPA the most). Seems really unfair if left like this.

[WhyWearPrada]

2 hours ago, alwayshungry said:

I hope they amend this policy by making it an option (or automatically choosing whatever benefits the individual applicant’s GPA the most). Seems really unfair if left like this.

The best (and only) thing we can do right now is email them! My friends and I sent emails explaining our situation and our concern with this policy. It’s unfair. It doesn’t reward students who were resilient. It doesn’t reward students for their hard work. It doesn’t make sense. 

[WhyWearPrada]

On 4/16/2020 at 11:54 PM, orlandoborn said:

Does anyone know if this applies to students who are graduating this year? I was able to maintain a strong GPA this semester, so I'd be crushed if it wasn't included in next cycle's calculation. 

This applies to everyone. I’m graduating this year too. If they were to keep this policy, I’d be screwed. Third and fourth years were my best. 
 

I’ve sent them an email expressing my concern with this policy. You should do the same. 

[LittleMonkey101]

I think they should give an option whether or not you want to include these winter courses considering covid-19 could impact some students negatively. 

[VivaColombia]

This looks like a universal policy being adapted across Canada (Alberta, Dal). It is possible that the schools are coordinating together to have a single policy for applicants and I'm not surprised they took the easiest administrative route to implement it (removing a semester from calculations saves them a ton of work on their end when evaluating applicants in a standardized approach). Best way to get their attention is to email and bring awareness to your MPs about this but I doubt anything will change. Worth a shot though

[BBALLCBMJ]

3 hours ago, alwayshungry said:

I hope they amend this policy by making it an option (or automatically choosing whatever benefits the individual applicant’s GPA the most). Seems really unfair if left like this.

 

3 hours ago, alwayshungry said:

I hope they amend this policy by making it an option (or automatically choosing whatever benefits the individual applicant’s GPA the most). Seems really unfair if left like this.

I understand the frustration as I am also a bit bummed with the possibility of this term not being counted towards my GPA (my best term of my undergrad). However, making this term count as an option brings another layer of unfairness since there are schools that did not give students pass/fail option for their classes. I am sure there are hundreds of students who were on their way to achieve a 4.0 GPA this term, only to realize that their hard work that they put in all throughout the term will only get them credits, not numerical grades which won't count towards GPA. If you were in their shoes, wouldn't it be unfair if our classes (since we have the option to get numerical grades) counted towards GPA but their classes will not count since they don't have numerical grades to show their hard work this term? As much as I want this term's grades to count, I am not sure if there will be a way that is fair to every applicant.  

[yesmedman]

The thing most people are missing here is that it is not all about you. They also have to think about other applicants including those who have already graduated and didn’t take classes this semester. The policy makes sense to me as I’m pretty sure most people taking courses this semester will have inflated GPAs due to exams being online (can’t control cheating). I know people who had 60-70s on their in person midterms and then put up a 95+ on their final because it was online. Of course you want GPA to be counted because you had the luxury of open book online exams. If the Covid 19 situation really affected you so much you should be happy that they are omitting the grades this semester.

[alwayshungry]

1 hour ago, BBALLCBMJ said:

 

I understand the frustration as I am also a bit bummed with the possibility of this term not being counted towards my GPA (my best term of my undergrad). However, making this term count as an option brings another layer of unfairness since there are schools that did not give students pass/fail option for their classes. I am sure there are hundreds of students who were on their way to achieve a 4.0 GPA this term, only to realize that their hard work that they put in all throughout the term will only get them credits, not numerical grades which won't count towards GPA. If you were in their shoes, wouldn't it be unfair if our classes (since we have the option to get numerical grades) counted towards GPA but their classes will not count since they don't have numerical grades to show their hard work this term? As much as I want this term's grades to count, I am not sure if there will be a way that is fair to every applicant.  

That's a really good point that I hadn't considered! Kind of like putting everyone in the same (albeit, unfortunate) boat, especially if all medical schools adopt this policy.

[BernieMac]

-

[orlandoborn]

On 4/15/2020 at 9:12 AM, ramjagsingh said:

I don't think this will disqualify you. Based on my understanding they take your most recent 60 credit hours. So in your case you'll be eligible due to taking 60 over the last two years. But, to calculate your actual GPA it will be 45 of those credit hours. Then from the times you weren't full time your most recent 15 credit hours. Based on the statement made by them that's what makes sense, although I could be wrong. 

 

There is a lot of time until the next application cycle. So I'm hoping they find a happy medium where those who still managed to do well don't feel this is working against them and have the opportunity to use their winter 2020 grades, and those who didn't do so well based on the circumstances have the option to drop these courses. Only time will tell.

So you think dal will use three semesters to calculate the GPA (E.g Fall 2019, Winter, 2019, Fall 2018), assuming you had a full course load in third and fourth year? 

[yesmedman]

2 hours ago, orlandoborn said:

So you think dal will use three semesters to calculate the GPA (E.g Fall 2019, Winter, 2019, Fall 2018), assuming you had a full course load in third and fourth year? 

That would be 45 credits so they would take your most recent 15 credit hours before that.

[redefining.girl]

On 4/15/2020 at 4:25 PM, LiveLifeToTheMaxillary said:

Let us know what they say! 

Just heard back from admissions:

"To clarify, we will use your 20 most recent, senior level courses (equivalent to 60 credit hours) for GPA assessment, excluding the winter 2020 term. 4000 and 3000 level courses will be used first and then if needed to make up the 60 credit hours we will use 2000 level."

As a third year student, I emailed back stating that I would only then have 15 courses at the 2000 level or higher, and asked what would be done: would my winter term of third year be included, or would my gpa be based off of those 15 courses alone?

I am definitely concerned about the implications of this because Dal never had recommendations as to how many courses should be taken at a certain year level, plus some programs (like med sci I think) are built to include a lot of 2000 year courses in 3rd and 4th year. 

[fluffybunnyyyyy]

1 hour ago, redefining.girl said:

Just heard back from admissions:

"To clarify, we will use your 20 most recent, senior level courses (equivalent to 60 credit hours) for GPA assessment, excluding the winter 2020 term. 4000 and 3000 level courses will be used first and then if needed to make up the 60 credit hours we will use 2000 level."

As a third year student, I emailed back stating that I would only then have 15 courses at the 2000 level or higher, and asked what would be done: would my winter term of third year be included, or would my gpa be based off of those 15 courses alone?

I am definitely concerned about the implications of this because Dal never had recommendations as to how many courses should be taken at a certain year level, plus some programs (like med sci I think) are built to include a lot of 2000 year courses in 3rd and 4th year. 

I want to know the answer too, keep us in the loop!

[WhyWearPrada]

On 4/20/2020 at 3:10 PM, redefining.girl said:

Just heard back from admissions:

"To clarify, we will use your 20 most recent, senior level courses (equivalent to 60 credit hours) for GPA assessment, excluding the winter 2020 term. 4000 and 3000 level courses will be used first and then if needed to make up the 60 credit hours we will use 2000 level."

As a third year student, I emailed back stating that I would only then have 15 courses at the 2000 level or higher, and asked what would be done: would my winter term of third year be included, or would my gpa be based off of those 15 courses alone?

I am definitely concerned about the implications of this because Dal never had recommendations as to how many courses should be taken at a certain year level, plus some programs (like med sci I think) are built to include a lot of 2000 year courses in 3rd and 4th year. 

x

[redefining.girl]

1 hour ago, LiveLifeToTheMaxillary said:

That’s terrible. Honestly. That’s really really terrible. I’m in medsci so this definitely affects me because we don’t have many courses at the third and fourth-year levels. 
 

You mentioned you were in third year, why not take more upper-level courses next year? You have two semesters to kill it. 
 

Also, it’s odd that they haven’t replied to either mine or my friends’ emails...

I got this reply today and I had a couple friends hear back today as well, seems like response time is roughly a week. Fourth year marks are only included if you apply after graduation, but I will be applying for the upcoming cycle.