AHHH, non-science pre-reqs!!!

[Guest Namgalsip]

I just found out that my non-science courses don't qualify for non-science at Western. How is this possible? They didn't even look at the course description. I have courses that are not offered at Western but are under similar designations (ie, an environment course that dealt with political government policy and philosophy...although it has an ENV designation). This is a humanities/social science course at UofT but Western said that since their environment courses are all science courses (as are most of UofT's), they will not consider it. What should I do? With these courses out I am short TWO full-year non-science credits and I really can't fit them into my schedule, nor do I have $2000 to fork out for them. How can Western admissions be this stiff and unwilling to even look at the description? Any advice?

 

Nams

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I had the exact same problem when I was applying - a couply of courses from my undergrad university were assumed to be science courses when the content was not science at all. Talk to the staff again and be polite but persistant. It took me a bit of negotiating to convince them the courses in question were not science credits, but in the end the admissions committee reviewed the credits and they were approved.

[Guest mying]

Never underestimate the power of persistence, clear explanations, and begging.

 

Phone. Explain. Get a letter from someone who taught/teaches the courses in question. Explain again. They aren't out to be kicking you in the pants, but they can't know everything about every course out there. If they're mistaken, prove that to them.

[Guest Namgalsip]

Thank you for the feedback. I emailed the admissions department again with a more detailed breakdown of the course. I hope they will re-consider it. I am a little concerned about being more persistent because if I understand correctly, the person I am speaking with is on the admissions committee (don't want to make a bad first impression). When I called, she refused to listen to my reasoning. She said I should take night school or summer school.

 

Well, I guess I'll wait and see how this turns out.

 

Nams

[Guest pp15]

western does not disqualify students if they have yet to complete the necessary prereq's right?

ie. u can get an interview and a conditional offer and then finish the requirements in the summer before you matriculate.

[Guest peachy]

I agree with pp15 - given that Western only checks prereqs *once you're admitted* it seems like that's probably a good time to bother them about it. My non-science courses are even worse than yours (one was an essay course offered through a clearly science department), but if I end up getting accepted to Western, I figure I can bother them until they agree it's good enough.

[Guest Namgalsip]

It's true. You only need to have the courses COMPLETED by mid August, which rules out second semester of summer school (ie after you get your acceptance) because most courses aren't marked by then.

 

Also, if these courses are rejected, I would have to take 2 full-year courses...kind of a heavy load for summer (especially if I want to go to meds starting Sept...I was hoping to do some backpacking in South America). Oh well, I guess no backpacking for me

 

Well, thanks for all your advice.

 

Nams

[Guest aneliz]

To echo what my fellow moderators have said, be persistent (but polite). I would suggest that you make sure that your courses ARE equivalent to what UWO considers an arts/humanities course. (Call or e-mail Darla and ask her what exactly qualifies as an arts/humanities and what the attributes of an acceptable course are.) Then you will need to find someone at your school (faculty that taught the course, chair of department, etc) to sign-off that the course in question satisfies this description. But, you really don't need to worry about proving your case until you get a conditional acceptance. You might however, want to make sure that the course in question DOES have all of the necessary attributes to give you a case to prove. I would start doing this NOW because, as you said, that is a pretty heavy load for the summer if you do end up having to make up courses. Remember that the rules have changed a bit from last year in that you need 1.0 credits in 'essay' courses. While your ENV course may be more humanities than science, it may not qualify as an essay course.

 

Good luck!

[Guest Namgalsip]

YEY!!

 

One down, one more to go. They just excepted one of my courses. Persistence works!

 

Thanks!

[Guest doctorfunk]

question: are you saying you were notified by western that you didn't fulfill the non-science prereq? does this mean they have already taken a look at your omsas application?

[Guest aneliz]

There is NO WAY (like zero) that they have looked at ANY of the applications for this year yet. I was talking to Darla today and she doesn't even have a total on the NUMBER of applications for the class of 2007 from OMSAS yet - let alone the apps themselves. OMSAS is still processing applications, and will be for a while. So you're all going to have to sit tight until Feb when interview invites usually come out. Nothing to be done until then! (except of course keep up with your current course work....)

[Guest Namgalsip]

No, she hasn't seen my app but I read some old messages on this forum, which made me realize that what I think is non-science may not be non-science through the eyes of Western. I contacted admissions myself to confirm.

 

 

Nams