What does "two best years" mean for term based sch

[Guest babytiger]

hi everyone, i've learned and got helped so much from this site when i was entering university.. now i am back with more questions.

 

 

i'm at university of WAterloo, 3rd biomedical student

 

my first two years are not too great. in fact my first year was most horrible thing in the world (well mark wise - but it was all good times) and my second year...still not good enough for med school.

 

i've been starting to kickin up from this year. looking at the requirements that school asks... it seems like best two years at western being my most advantageous choice.

 

 

question #1

i know western looks at the "best 2 years"

so let's say

my marks look like this

3A 80

3B 87

summer

4A 90

4B 90

summer 90 (at waterloo, if you take 5 courses in summer it is counted as a term)

 

>> would they take the last 4 consecutive TERMS?

so 87 90 90 90? or do they go by the years (so regardless if i decide to do extra full term during summer?)

 

 

 

question #2

>>*if* i decide to do victory lap - would i have to take ENTIRE one extra year??? or can i just take one more term?

 

(waterloo + students in term based school please help me out)

 

 

question #3

>> oh. do other schools allow extra one year of undergrad to boost up the averages?? or is it only just western?

 

 

 

also... if you are reading this and you are a super med student who had stinky marks for first year of undergrad (and if also second year) could you possibly leave me a msg of how you got there? where you applied and what kind of marks? or extracurricular activities?

 

 

 

thanks in advance

[Guest aneliz]

1. A 'year' at UWO is the 8 months between Sept and April. It includes two terms or semesters. It must include at least 5 full credits (or ten half credits) to be counted as full-time and valid for GPA purposes. UWO does not use summer semesters as part of their GPA calculations (regardless of whether it is full time or not). So, you can't use a full time summer semester to compensate for a poor fall term. You also cannot mix and match best terms from different years to create a best year. A best year is exactly that, two consecutive semesters between Sept and April of a given school year.

 

So, it looks like your best years would have to be your third and fourth years.

 

2. If you are going to do a victory lap and you want it to count for GPA purposes at UWO, it must be a full year. An extra term won't do anything for you. UWO calculates GPA by year, not by term. And, you can't mix and match terms to create years. A victory lap must include a minimum of 5 full courses (10 half credits) with at least 4 full credits (8 half) at the third year level or higher.

 

3. I have no idea what the other schools do about victory laps.. you need to investigate the policies at the other schools that you are interested in... they are likely to all be different.

[Guest satsumargirl]

Hey

 

Ottawa looks at your last 3 years. The weighting is Year3 X 3, Year2 X 2, Year 1 X1 (add them together and divide them by 6).

 

So, after 4 years your first year is essentially dropped. And depending on how not so great your 2nd year was, it may not hurt you too much if you have a great 3rd and 4th year since your 2nd year would only be weighted X1.

 

If you do a victory lap, it will have to be full-time and part of a degree for Ottawa to look at it. So that just means you can`t graduate and go back as a special student for a year. Just don`t apply to graduate and keep taking courses and that will work. (I don`t know why!).

 

If the above and/or the info on the Ottawa site doesn`'t help. You can always contact the admissions office about your particular case. They are quite helpful

 

Good Luck