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repeating a course


Guest seonagh

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Guest seonagh

hello all,

Before I bother UWO admissions at this busy time of year, can any of you verify an aspect of the following for me?

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: UWO will NOT allow you to use ANY year in which you REPEATED a course as a full time year. Keep this in mind if you need to repeat a course! You will need to have 5.0 NEW courses in addition to the course that you are repeating for the year to count as 'full-time'.

 

I will be repeating a half course that I got an incomplete in(now a big fat zero :( ) back in 1991. I will also be taking 6 half courses each term this year. Am I reading the above correctly to mean that since I am overloading and will still have 5.5 courses with the repeated course removed that I will be ok in counting this year as a full year?

 

Secondly, for the 2006 intake UWO is requiring a 4 year honours degree. I know that the term "honours" means different things in different provinces. I am in NS and will be doing a 4 year BSc in Bio with what we call distinction (ie a 6 credit course is taken in the final year and a thesis is written based on independant research that you plan and complete). Is this the honours that UWO refers to (honours in NS refers to your marks being at a certain level as far as I know).

Thanks

Seonagh

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Guest Elaine I

Hi Senonagh,

 

Your understanding of the courseload is correct. If you take 5.5 new courses plus 0.5 repeated courses, UWO will only look at the 5.5 courses. You will still, however, be considered to be full time. UWO will count your best 5.0 courses of the new courses.

 

Aneliz has told us in the past that honours will be defined by the university where you do your degree. For that reason, it would make sense that the type of degree you are describing, which is called distinction, will be considered an honours degree.

 

Elaine

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Guest aneliz

Hi,

 

You should be fine to count your year for GPA purposes. As long as you are taking a full course load according to UWO standards (5.0 credits from Sept-April) in addition to (not including) your repeated course, it will be counted as full time. It sounds like you are doing this, so it shouldn't be a problem. The people that get into trouble are those that take 5.0 credits and 0.5 or 1.0 of them are repeats. This is not counted as a full-time year.

 

As for the new standards.... effective the fall 2006 application cycle, you will be required to have a 4 year honours degree. A four year honours degree in Ontario is the 'upper' level of undergrad degree....undergrad degrees in Ontario are either 'general' degrees (3 or 4 years) or 'honours' (4 years). Most honours programs require you to write a thesis, do an independent study/reading course or courses, and/or take a prescribed number of 4th year (400 level) courses. General degrees do not have these requirements. An honours degree is the pre-req degree for most academic graduate programs (MSc, MA, etc). If a degree with 'distinction' in Nova Scotia is these things, you should be okay.

 

Interesting that a degree with 'distinction' in Ontario means that you have a high GPA (graduating cGPA >80%) whether it is an honours degree or not...

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Guest seonagh

Thanks so much for the info, sounds like I'm on the right track!!

 

Since we're on a roll let me run this by you ;) ...

 

It looks like UWO considers only the two full years in the GPA calculation, is this true or will they also go back and consider other years. My history looks like this...

 

1991 - GPA 2.46 (2.5 credits taken)

1992 - GPA 0.00 (total of 3 credits, yes a 0.0 gpa IS possible :) one failed, two incomplete)

2003/4 - GPA 4.0 (total of 5.5 credits taken)

 

I am of course aiming at another year like 2003/4 for this upcoming year. Based on your knowledge of UWO's admission standards do you know how they will look at this. I know that I am completely ineligible for schools like Mac that rely on the cgpa but I'm hoping that most other Ontario schools including Western, will look at the new me that got 100 in organic chem:rollin rather than the old one that got a 41 in statistics :o .

Seonagh

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Guest physiology

Looking at your history, UBC would also NOT count those courses taken in 1991-1992 because of its "ten year rule."

 

With your 4.0 GPA and some decent ECs, you'd be competitive as an OOP (assuming you are).

 

Unofficially (I use this word a lot), you'd need around a 42/50 to get an interview at UBC (/25 academic score and /25 non-academic score).

 

However, UBC needs that you have 90 credits (in BC, that means 3 years of university completed by the time you enter). So you could apply to UBC following the completion of your new "second year" of undergraduate studies.

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Guest seonagh

Excellent, I didn't realize that about UBC. I know that they don't take many oop but it is at least another school I can add to the list of maybes in the hope of that illusive acceptance!!!

 

PS is there anyone else out there that is a few years from acceptance that is dying with envy watching all of the folks that are incoming this year get ready for Med 1.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I ache to be in your shoes in two years.

Seonagh

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Guest aneliz

Looks like you are on track to have a competitive application to UWO..

 

UWO considers your best two years only... and calculates a GPA for each of those two years independently. They do not even look at your other years... so your 0.00 GPA will not hurt you at all.

 

If you meet the MCAT cuts, you should be offered an interview based on your best year GPA... (you will definitely make the cut) and if you should be offered an acceptance, it will be conditional on your current year (04/05) having a GPA that is above the cut off.

 

It looks like you have really turned things around...congrats on the 100 in orgo... and hopefully we'll see you around come interview time!

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Guest physiology

Hello Seonagh,

 

Here's the official stuff from UBC regarding the 10 year rule:

 

Exclusion of Early Coursework

 

 

Applicants who have completed university-level courses ten years or more prior to the date of application can request in writing to have these grades excluded from the overall average. For applications submitted by October 1, 2004, the last year that can be excluded is 1993-94. If grades or course work are waived, all course work of that year and prior will be excluded from consideration, and any prerequisites completed during the excluded period will not be considered. If you have completed higher-level courses in the same academic area as these prerequisites, and these courses are not used to meet other prerequisites, you may not need to repeat them. Applicants must have completed at least 90 credits after exclusion of early coursework has been applied.

 

 

So you do need to re-do any pre-reqs that you completed during your "bad" undergraduate years.

 

The pre-reqs are as follows:

 

www.admissions.med.ubc.ca...&area_id=1

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