What's the down side to not taking full 5 credits first yr?

[Guest joonboy]

Hi, guys!

 

I'm going to be a first year student at UofT and I'm thinking of taking less than 5 full credits. How would this affect my med school applications later on?

 

Thank you very much and any advise will be appreciated!

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

One of the major ways that this can affect you is if you wish to apply to UofT for medicine and they still have their policy re: GPA calculation (and if that policy remains in place at the time of your application). That is, if you take less than a full courseload during any year, then UofT will not use the drop-the-lowest-mark formula to calculate your GPA. Instead, they will include all of your course marks, so you would not be able to benefit from having your lowest marks dropped.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest megs29]

Not sure if you are planning on applying to the U of Saskatchewan, but for their requirements, you need to be taking 5 classes each semester in a year for it to count towards your application. If you only took 4 classes first year, you would only be able to apply after you took 5 classes in 2nd and 3rd year to meet the minimum 2 year full time course load requirement.

 

I only took 4 classes in my first two years and I really wish I wouldn't have. It made life a lot harder in terms of applications.

 

Megs

[Guest satsumargirl]

For Ottawa I believe they will not count that year unless you make up the extra courses either during the summer or the fall of the next year (so you would need to take 6 courses in that case). Coursework done in the summer would not be counted toward your GPA.

 

Each school will be different so check the requirements for all schools you are interested in.

 

MAC will just count any and all undergrad courses ever taken, full-time/part-time/summer.

[Guest blinknoodle]

For UWO, they only need 2 years above the cut-offs, but both of these years need to be with at least 5 full year courses from Sept-Apr (with no repeated courses).

 

It is in your best interest to keep a full-time course load (eg, 5 full-year courses in fall and witner terms) to keep your options open for as many schools as possible.

[Guest joonboy]

One of the major ways that this can affect you is if you wish to apply to UofT for medicine and they still have their policy re: GPA calculation (and if that policy remains in place at the time of your application). That is, if you take less than a full courseload during any year, then UofT will not use the drop-the-lowest-mark formula to calculate your GPA. Instead, they will include all of your course marks, so you would not be able to benefit from having your lowest marks dropped.

Thank you Kirsteen and all others for your replies!

So for UofT, if I take 4 courses in the first year, the GPA calculation policy does not apply. What if I take full course load in the second year? Will they apply that formula for the second year?

Thank you very much!

[Guest peachy]

For U of T, if you take less than 5 courses in any year, then they will never apply the weighting formula, even if you take a full (or more than full) courseload from then on. It's really the best idea (imho) to take a full courseload--the vast majority of full-time students do it, and courses are designed for it, so you should be able to handle it.

[Guest joonboy]

Thank you peachy.

 

What about Queen's? I went to the website, but I don't think they have any restrictions about less than full course load, do they?

 

Thanks for your replies again!

[Guest Elaine I]

If your overall GPA meets the cut-offs at Queen's, then you are okay, regardless of your course load. If you will be applying based on your most recent two years (both completed prior to the application deadline), then you must have at least 3.5 courses in each of those two years.

 

Elaine