UBC not including term 2

[youbesee 43]

UBC just released an update on their blog saying they will not be considering grades from term 2 of 2020.

I've also noticed they changed the requirements for APGA. It seems that now as long as you have 90+ credits, you will get credits removed until 90 remain (ie. they will remove 10 credits if you have 100 credits completed).

[Excel-erate Your Breath 148]

Nice of them to change how AGPA is gonna work though because I had some stinkers early on. GG it is what it is

[Sharpe Ratio 0]

4 hours ago, youbesee said:

I've also noticed they changed the requirements for APGA. It seems that now as long as you have 90+ credits, you will get credits removed until 90 remain (ie. they will remove 10 credits if you have 100 credits completed).

From my quick read of their blog post today, it still seemed like the normal AGPA calculation to previous years?

They will only drop credits of your worst GPA year, according to your total credit taken and assuming you have 90+ credits.

 

EDIT:

The wording on the blog post was a bit confusing, but thankfully someone from **DELETED** emailed them asking for clarification, and this was apparently UBC's response:

Quote

 

FOR ANYONE CONFUSED ON THEIR NEW POLICY: Here’s the email they sent me

Thank you for your email and our apologies that the wording was confusing. Winter 2020 credits (whether they are graded or not) will not be included in the calculation of your credits for the AGPA purposes. To calculate your AGPA, you would subtract your Winter 2020 credits (15) from your total credits (120) to get 105. If your lowest year had 30 credits, we will remove up to 15 credits, as once we remove those 15 credits, you will have 90 credits left.

So ya basically if you want full AGPA you gotta take an extra year of undergrad :/

 

Seems like they made it even harder now to qualify for the full benefits of AGPA calculation.

Also, grades from full year courses this past year will not be counted towards GPA calculation as well. Looks like UBC took a page out of UoT's playbook.

Quote

"If you took full year courses in the 2019-2020 academic and the grade only appears in Term 2 (or equivalent term), these grades will not be considered for the calculation of OGPA or AGPA unless your institution is willing to list a grade for the course for Term 1 (or equivalent term)"

 

TL;DR: 

- Winter 2020 (Term 2) + Full Year Courses (2019-20) will not count towards any GPA calculation.

- Winter 2020 (Term 2) + Full Year Courses (2019-20) will also not count as valid credits to be qualified for AGPA calculation.

[garceyues 104]

After all those statement from schools about doing their best to accommodate applicants during these unprecedented times, it seems as though UBC has done just the opposite. I am not really sure what the rationale for this would be beyond ultimately screening for applicants with an even more flawless academic history. 

[Excel-erate Your Breath 148]

On 7/16/2020 at 6:30 PM, Hedge Fund Boy No more said:

From my quick read of their blog post today, it still seemed like the normal AGPA calculation to previous years?

They will only drop credits of your worst GPA year, according to your total credit taken and assuming you have 90+ credits.

 

EDIT:

The wording on the blog post was a bit confusing, but thankfully someone from **DELETED** emailed them asking for clarification, and this was apparently UBC's response:

Seems like they made it even harder now to qualify for the full benefits of AGPA calculation.

Also, grades from full year courses this past year will not be counted towards GPA calculation as well. Looks like UBC took a page out of UoT's playbook.

 

TL;DR: 

- Winter 2020 (Term 2) + Full Year Courses (2019-20) will not count towards any GPA calculation.

- Winter 2020 (Term 2) + Full Year Courses (2019-20) will also not count as valid credits to be qualified for AGPA calculation.

Yeah true I also initially misunderstood. It's defo now harder to qualify for AGPA + most people gradding wont get the full benefits of it that previous years had.

[Fast_Layne 86]

26 minutes ago, garceyues said:

After all those statement from schools about doing their best to accommodate applicants during these unprecedented times, it seems as though UBC has done just the opposite. I am not really sure what the rationale for this would be beyond ultimately screening for applicants with an even more flawless academic history. 

I wonder if they got input from any current undergrad students? I feel like they wanted to make this decision to make things more equitable, cuz they expected a lot of people to be negatively impacted by Covid in terms of academics. But they didn't realize that the schools were already so accommodating, and in making this decision, they were just reversing those accommodations.

Either way, I hope that at least some people who were badly affected by Covid will benefit from this policy. I do agree that this also benefits people who are consistently getting high grades over the years, and not so much for people who have struggled in the past.

[OMGsoNERVOUS 14]

7 minutes ago, Fast_Layne said:

I wonder if they got input from any current undergrad students? I feel like they wanted to make this decision to make things more equitable, cuz they expected a lot of people to be negatively impacted by Covid in terms of academics. But they didn't realize that the schools were already so accommodating, and in making this decision, they were just reversing those accommodations.

Either way, I hope that at least some people who were badly affected by Covid will benefit from this policy. I do agree that this also benefits people who are consistently getting high grades over the years, and not so much for people who have struggled in the past.

I feel like they weren't even trying to be accommodating :/ seems like all they were concerned about was grade inflation and wanted it gone

[Ss123toy 89]

Wrote an email to admissions outlining how I feel about the decision. Feel free to use as a template if you feel the same way and want to speak up about it! Also just want to say that I understand covid has been super hard for everyone and there's no good decision here, but as someone who has been waiting for AGPA for 3 years I'm crushed that I'll never be eligible for full AGPA unless I do more school. Totally understand the reasoning behind dropping Winter 2020, not really understanding the reasoning behind changing AGPA eligibility. Their decision seems to just negatively affect students who were in school this year, as we don't get this term included (which for fourth year students is often their highest term even without grade inflation) and instead get it replaced by 15 credits from our worst year.

Hello, 

I believe the changes you have made to admissions policies this year unfairly disadvantage students who were in school during the covid-19 pandemic. 

I understand that there might be concerns about grade inflation and therefore Winter 2020 grades may need to be excluded- I have no issues with this whatsoever. However, I believe the decision to only allow students to drop 15 credits of their worst year (instead of the full 30 credits) is unfair to students who were in school during the pandemic, as students who have already graduated will get to drop their entire worst year. Most students have a "bad year" whether it be due to adjusting to university or struggling through particularly tough courses, etc. Students who were not in school during the pandemic will get to drop all 30 credits of their worst year, while students who were in school during the pandemic will never be able to drop the full 30 credits, unless they take an extra year, which is not financially feasible for many students. 

I believe it would be more equitable to keep the decision to remove Winter 2020 grades from the GPA calculation, but to still count the Winter 2020 credits toward the 120 credits needed in order to drop the lowest 30 credits. This would allow students who took a full 4 years with 120 credits to drop their lowest 30 credits, just like other students who were not in school during the pandemic. In this case, gpa calculations would be done using 75 credits instead of 90.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Pterygoid 54]

31 minutes ago, Ss123toy said:

Wrote an email to admissions outlining how I feel about the decision. Feel free to use as a template if you feel the same way and want to speak up about it! Also just want to say that I understand covid has been super hard for everyone and there's no good decision here, but as someone who has been waiting for AGPA for 3 years I'm crushed that I'll never be eligible for full AGPA unless I do more school. Totally understand the reasoning behind dropping Winter 2020, not really understanding the reasoning behind changing AGPA eligibility. Their decision seems to just negatively affect students who were in school this year, as we don't get this term included (which for fourth year students is often their highest term even without grade inflation) and instead get it replaced by 15 credits from our worst year.

Hello, 

I believe the changes you have made to admissions policies this year unfairly disadvantage students who were in school during the covid-19 pandemic. 

I understand that there might be concerns about grade inflation and therefore Winter 2020 grades may need to be excluded- I have no issues with this whatsoever. However, I believe the decision to only allow students to drop 15 credits of their worst year (instead of the full 30 credits) is unfair to students who were in school during the pandemic, as students who have already graduated will get to drop their entire worst year. Most students have a "bad year" whether it be due to adjusting to university or struggling through particularly tough courses, etc. Students who were not in school during the pandemic will get to drop all 30 credits of their worst year, while students who were in school during the pandemic will never be able to drop the full 30 credits, unless they take an extra year, which is not financially feasible for many students. 

I believe it would be more equitable to keep the decision to remove Winter 2020 grades from the GPA calculation, but to still count the Winter 2020 credits toward the 120 credits needed in order to drop the lowest 30 credits. This would allow students who took a full 4 years with 120 credits to drop their lowest 30 credits, just like other students who were not in school during the pandemic. In this case, gpa calculations would be done using 75 credits instead of 90.

Thank you for your consideration.

To clarify, students who were in school during the pandemic could drop the full 30 credits in a given year, however they must have taken at least 135 credits during their undergraduate course work. From my experience, many students take more than 30 credits per year (especially if you include summer courses, which UBC Medicine does). Whether you think this is fair or not, is another discussion entirely. Personally, I was grateful that they choose to provide grade adjustments in general– they don't have to do this. There's enough competition to select students without needing to adjust grades (see McMaster). 

 

[Ss123toy 89]

15 minutes ago, Pterygoid said:

To clarify, students who were in school during the pandemic could drop the full 30 credits in a given year, however they must have taken at least 135 credits during their undergraduate course work. From my experience, many students take more than 30 credits per year (especially if you include summer courses, which UBC Medicine does). Whether you think this is fair or not, is another discussion entirely. Personally, I was grateful that they choose to provide grade adjustments in general– they don't have to do this. There's enough competition to select students without needing to adjust grades (see McMaster). 

 

This is correct- thanks for clarifying. I'm mostly disappointed with the decision because a student who took 120 credits and graduated last year will have their 30 lowest credits dropped and their (probably high) fourth term of fourth year included, while a student who took 120 credits and graduated this year will have their (probably high) fourth term of fourth year dropped and instead replaced with 15 credits from their worst year. I'm grateful that UBC does the grade adjustment and I do understand the need to drop Winter 2020 but I think the way they have decided to alter the adjustment this year puts many students who are graduating this year at a disadvantage compared to students who weren't in school this year. I think the way other schools who decided to drop Winter 2020 went about altering GPA calculations evades this problem (i.e. Queens and Western using 1.5 years and Calgary using 2.5 years).

Just thought I'd email them my thoughts on it because the decision to change AGPA requirements doesn't make a lot of sense to me but ultimately it's not the end of the world and I do appreciate the accommodations schools across Canada are making in light of the current situation. It's been a crazy stressful year and application season just adds to it- hope everyone is holding up ok!!!!! 

[Fast_Layne 86]

4 hours ago, Ss123toy said:

 Totally understand the reasoning behind dropping Winter 2020, not really understanding the reasoning behind changing AGPA eligibility.

To be fair, they changed their AGPA criteria so that more people could "partially" benefit. Prior to Covid, their policy was to remove your entire lowest year, up to 30 credits. If that happened to dip under 90 graded credits, you'd be ineligible.

For instance, if you have 115 credits overall, and your lowest GPA year had 30 credits, 115 - 30 = 85, so you'd be ineligible under the old policy. 

The new policy means that if you have 115 credits overall, they will remove exactly 25 credits from your lowest GPA year (115 - 25) = 90, so anyone who has more than 90 graded credits is now eligible for AGPA.

But either way, thank you for writing to them and voicing your concern. I totally agree with how this is a tricky situation for graduating students for whom it's not financially feasible to take extra courses to qualify for the full AGPA.

[Excel-erate Your Breath 148]

Has anyone seen/tracked down any information regarding if Winter 2020 grades would be used post-interview? i.e. yes they will not count for GPA/AGPA, but will they be used to assess grade trends?

[Fast_Layne 86]

4 hours ago, shubeydubeydoo said:

Has anyone seen/tracked down any information regarding if Winter 2020 grades would be used post-interview? i.e. yes they will not count for GPA/AGPA, but will they be used to assess grade trends?

Although I personally don't think they'd be used post-interview, I think the only people who know are the admissions committee, so shoot them an e-mail! It's not really specified on the website whether the GPA/AGPA is evaluated the same pre- or post-interview. They just say your application will be holistically reviewed, meaning they will look at all parts of your application.

[Excel-erate Your Breath 148]

51 minutes ago, Fast_Layne said:

Although I personally don't think they'd be used post-interview, I think the only people who know are the admissions committee, so shoot them an e-mail! It's not really specified on the website whether the GPA/AGPA is evaluated the same pre- or post-interview. They just say your application will be holistically reviewed, meaning they will look at all parts of your application.

Truetruetrue I guess I just dont want to email them for every little topic lmao but yeah I will

[Stressedfajita 1]

On 7/26/2020 at 7:20 PM, Fast_Layne said:

Although I personally don't think they'd be used post-interview, I think the only people who know are the admissions committee, so shoot them an e-mail! It's not really specified on the website whether the GPA/AGPA is evaluated the same pre- or post-interview. They just say your application will be holistically reviewed, meaning they will look at all parts of your application.

I attended one of those general UBC MD information sessions this week and, from my understanding, the speaker said that winter term 2 grades will still be considered when looking at grade trends post-interview. So I guess they aren't completely ignored in that sense. 

[Excel-erate Your Breath 148]

8 hours ago, Stressedfajita said:

I attended one of those general UBC MD information sessions this week and, from my understanding, the speaker said that winter term 2 grades will still be considered when looking at grade trends post-interview. So I guess they aren't completely ignored in that sense. 

Fantastic news! (I hope for everyone)?

[plsdontletthisbeawaste 12]

What if in your worst year, you took full year courses that you'd like to drop? I.e. I'd like to drop 2 full year courses in my 3rd year. With the leftover 15 credits, will they remove my worst courses in my worst year? Or will they only remove the worst semesters in my worst year? 

[miniaturebeaker 40]

-

[plsdontletthisbeawaste 12]

On 12/3/2020 at 4:52 PM, Raisin Bran said:

They remove the grades of your worst credits (courses) from your worst year (regardless of the individual semesters within that year) up until either a) 90 total credits remain, or, b) that entire year (up to 30 credits) are removed- whichever comes first. So if your full year courses are among your worst grades within your worst year, they will be removed, provided that 90 credits still remain. If they remove your 2 full year courses and you still have more than 90 total credits, then they will continue removing the grades of courses from that same worst year, until 90 total credits remain. So yes, provided you have enough credits to be eligible, and that your full year courses are the worst grades within your worst year, they will be removed from GPA calculation. Does that answer your question? 

Oh my goodness YES, that makes total sense and honestly that is such a relief to hear! I initially thought that they would only remove one semester of courses with the 15 credits, but hearing that they're removing the worst courses in that year regardless of semester is such a secret blessing in disguise. Thanks again for the quick answer, you've helped reduce some of my anxiety which I can't thank you enough for!