Winter 2020 Not Eligible in GPA Calculation

[med1day]

Wait, what I'm graduated, but I took a couple of 1st year courses in my 3 and 4th years? Does that mean they'll calculate gpa differently this time for everyone I don't understand?

[Pizza123]

20 minutes ago, med1day said:

Wait, what I'm graduated, but I took a couple of 1st year courses in my 3 and 4th years? Does that mean they'll calculate gpa differently this time for everyone I don't understand?

No it’s only for people who are entering their final year of undergraduate. 

[Jessletmein]

19 hours 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 bolded a portion of your last post, the Dal Med website if you look under "Course load requirements" they have stated for years that they expect prospective students to " demonstrate the capacity to carry a full program of DEMANDING HIGHER LEVEL COURSES", I realize its doesn't explicitly say to take as many 3000 and 4000 classes as you can but when I was at Dal and everyone in my program was obsessed with getting into med it was pretty common knowledge that the committee didn't want to see lower level courses or "bird courses" (GPA boosters) on your transcript.  I would say if you still have time, do what you can to take the highest level courses with the time you have left!

[Anaik]

44 minutes ago, Jessletmein said:

I bolded a portion of your last post, the Dal Med website if you look under "Course load requirements" they have stated for years that they expect prospective students to " demonstrate the capacity to carry a full program of DEMANDING HIGHER LEVEL COURSES", I realize its doesn't explicitly say to take as many 3000 and 4000 classes as you can but when I was at Dal and everyone in my program was obsessed with getting into med it was pretty common knowledge that the committee didn't want to see lower level courses or "bird courses" (GPA boosters) on your transcript.  I would say if you still have time, do what you can to take the highest level courses with the time you have left!

They really aren’t specific with their course load requirements, and given that a few paragraphs down they simply state “encourage students to pursue challenging courses” I wouldn’t worry too too much if you don’t have a ton of higher level courses @redefining.girl. I’ve never heard of this being a problem before, one of my friends (a current m2) did most of the courses for his minor in his 3rd year and hardly had any upper level courses as a result. If anything they’d just request that you submit a short essay explaining why, but I’ve never heard of this being an issue. I think the most important thing is maintaining a full course load. 
 

As I’m assuming you’re applying this upcoming cycle you can’t do anything about it now, just be sure to take 3rd/4th year courses in your final year! It’ll all workout

[redefining.girl]

Final update from admissions, just wanted to keep everyone in the loop!

"If we have included all senior level courses (3000/4000 level) then we will begin to include 2000 level course, selecting those with the highest grade first. This would also apply to 1000 level courses if required to make up the 60 credit hours."

@fluffybunnyyyyy

 

[LittleMonkey101]

That's cool. Any option that helps applicants is always welcoming.

[Eskimolimon]

On 4/18/2020 at 12:47 PM, LiveLifeToTheMaxillary said:

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. 

This. It's about demonstrating resilience in challenging times. Hopefully they will reevaluate their decision in the future.  

[Medenguoft]

Does anyone know how will GPA be calculated for someone who took 2 full year courses during Fall 19 and Winter 20 which is their final year of study?

[garceyues]

4 hours ago, Medenguoft said:

Does anyone know how will GPA be calculated for someone who took 2 full year courses during Fall 19 and Winter 20 which is their final year of study?

I had the same question except for one two-term course.

[Medenguoft]

19 hours ago, garceyues said:

I had the same question except for one two-term course.

hahaha let me know if you find an answer, I emailed the admission office, hopefully they get back to me soon!

[redefining.girl]

On 6/16/2020 at 3:49 AM, garceyues said:

I had the same question except for one two-term course.

Same here - especially with how Dalhousie does not run "full year courses" aka X/Y courses anymore (technically). So Ochem 1 and o chem 2 (which may have different professors, and have different assessments each semester, and you would receive one mark for each semester) would look the same on your transcript as a course that runs the full year (say an experiential learning course/honours that you only receive the grade for at the end of April). I'm curious as to whether they will have us submit course syllabi or links to the academic calendar so that they can make this distinction. 

*this is specific to dalhousie undergrad courses, just food for thought

[PH2Med]

Just FYI for those applying this upcoming cycle, Dal Med Admissions has revised their decision on Winter 2020 grades.

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

[garceyues]

1 hour ago, PH2Med said:

Just FYI for those applying this upcoming cycle, Dal Med Admissions has revised their decision on Winter 2020 grades.

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

I always find the wording of updates and policy changes like this to be so unnecessarily difficult to interpret lol.

U of A forced me to take CRs for my Winter 2020. It looks like this will generally harm myself and other applicants from the U of A as this would mean our winter 2018 will be used for the two-year GPA. We will see how far the "template letters" go, but the U of A has frankly never gone to bat for me over anything, and I don't expect them to put their neck out for me or anyone else here either. Perhaps uni and the med application has just made me feel like everyone is a cynic though