"Special Year" for schools other than Western?

[Guest LC]

Hi all,

I applied to Cdn med schools this year and was rejected by all of them without interview. The main reason for this was obviously my too-low GPA. I received my HBSc last year, and took this year off to work in Africa for a health NGO. I want to reapply but I will need to do a 5th "special" year to get my marks up (or enter a masters program but I just got back to Canada last week and it's too late to apply to most programs). I was hoping to do this 5th year at Ottawa U (my hometown), although I got my degree at U of T. Ottawa U regards non-degree students as "special students" and therefore restricts them to 2 courses only. Does anyone know the ins and outs of "special years"? Do schools other than Western recognize them, or am I stuck in limbo between a degree and - well, nothing specific? Can I do a 'special year' at any school I choose, and reapply?

Thanks!

LC

[Guest skiboot]

LC,

 

I ran into that problem (late application) as well. You may want to try U of C. As an 'unclassified student', you are not restricted to the number of courses that you can take, although depending on what you are planning o take, certain courses are restricted to students who are in an actual major / minor or degree program at the school.

 

Good Luck!

[Guest aneliz]

UWO doesn't care what school you do your special year at...but it must be a full time year (5.0 NEW credits) and 4/5 must be 3rd year level or higher. This may be hard to do at a school that you have not attended or are an 'unclassified' student at...given that many restrict certain 3rd and 4th year level course enrollments to certain majors/minors...(ie restricted enrollment courses)...

 

Good luck!

[Guest byjude]

I believe that a special year can be useful for a few schools, not just Western - it's just that Western is probably the only one that sets out such specific restrictions on a special year. Unless otherwise specified in the calendar or admissions info, most schools should accept a 5th year in GPA calculation, especially if it's one spent further studying the area in which you did your undergrad degree (ie, a year that meets the Western guidelines). In Ontario, I can't think of a school where this would be a problem, although some schools in other provinces may specifically state that they use the GPA from your 4 undergrad years of study.

 

Also - if you want to apply the 5th year to Western, hopefully you will already have one other year that already meets their cutoff (assuming it's approximately the same as last year's cutoff).

 

If doing a special year at UOttawa is a problem, have you considered Carleton? They seem to have fewer restrictions about that sort of thing in general, but perhaps you've already considered but rejected the idea if they don't offer enough high level courses in your area.

 

Obviously, you could return to U of T, but I imagine they're not the only school that will be open to the idea of a special year. Probably the best idea would be to find a home department at a school of interest, and talk to the departmental advisor. That person can help you out with the whole admissions process, but more importantly, can help you get waivers to get into upper-level courses without prerequisite courses from that particular school. But I would act quickly - some schools may have had deadlines for admission already, and I think most would want to know by June 1 or mid-June.

[Guest lex]

western has the strictest policies about including a 5th year. they're 200 level courses translate into 300 everywhere else. most if not all of the other schools accept a 5th as no different than years 2-4. some however have restrictions on taking 100 level courses (unless you take them to fulfill a prereq) but that shouldn't be a problem.

 

ubc and uvic offer unlimited unclassified studies with few restrictions on registration.