HELP! "30 units of course weight - 5 course equivalents?" What does this mean? HELP!

[KamG]

Hello, I am a Alberta Resident, U of A is my first choice for med school. I'm scared I may no longer be eligible. The website says:

 

"The minimum requirement for admission to our program is the successful completion of at least two full years of full-time university work (60 units of course weight - 10 full course equivalents) of which one year (30 units of course weight - 5 full course equivalents) must be taken during one academic year. (An academic year is September 1 to April 30 inclusive)."

 

Does this mean that only 1 of your undergrad years has to be 30 credits, or does every year have to be???

 

My first year I had 28 credits. If only 1 of the years needs to have 30 then i'll be ok since i'll take 30 this year.

 

Second Question:

Does this count as 15 credits, i'm at Simon Fraser University, its a 30 credit system but i'm not sure how UofA will accept the credits:

Organic Chem Lecture with Lab 4 credits

Physics Lecture 3 credits

Physics lab 2 credits

Psycology Lecture 3 credits

Molecular Bio Lecture 3 credits

total 15 credits if all the credits count as SFU's system

[bioboy2007]

Hmm...wrt to your first question, I think as long as you have at least one year with 5 FCE you should be fine.

 

I would check with the admissions office wrt whether the classes you took satisfy the 30 credit/year criteria. From what I can tell, you are only taking 4 classes during the semester (since lab + lecture would count as one course), but this might be considered differently at SFU, and you generally need 5/semester. So, check with admissions.

[neuro1986]

the situation outlined by the original poster is an absolute requirement? - 1 year and only 1 year has to be 30 credits (5 full courses each semester)?

[mmm5777]

Does anyone know how they treat repeated courses if the first attempt was a fail? I've sent them like 3 emails and they don't answer my exact question. They've told me that when a course is repeated, they only include the first SUCCESSFUL attempt. If I failed a course the first time and got an A- when repeated, will the fail count even though it was not a successful attempt?

[MedicineLCS]

I don't have any direct experience with this and the wording is confusing, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but based off the following statements I think they look at all of your course (With a grade, and an F is a grade) and if you repeat a course, they will only look at your first repeat (out of ALL repeats). So if you repeat a course with a F and you received a B, and tried to up it to an A with a 3rd take, they'd only take the B. On the flip side, if you had a D, retook the course, and got a B, they'd take the D.

What I wouldn't take it to mean is that if you repeat a failed course they won't look at your F since they state that they look at all coursework to which a grade was assigned. 

This is based on:

Quote

To calculate cGPA, we include all transferable post-secondary coursework to which a grade was assigned while the student was enrolled full-time (by UofA definition) during the academic year (September through April) or full-time during the Spring and Summer terms (May through August).

And the repeat FAQ:

Quote

• We do not acknowledge repeated courses; we only use the first instance in which you successfully completed a course.

That's what makes sense to me. The first policy talks about cGPA, while the second is specific to taking a course multiple times, which is a different issue. I'd imagine they wouldn't want to see someone taking a course multiple times to improve it and the 2nd policy addresses that issue. 

Then again, this is my opinion based on the reading of the policies. As painful as it may be, I would try asking (if you haven't already) with the kind of scenario above if they will count the F and the repeat A-. If they're not going to answer the question then I'm out of ideas.