Distance Education

[leo79]

Interested in applying to UofC, UBC, Ottawa and Queens.

My first undergraduate degree has a cumulative gpa of 3.05 and it's in Mechanical Engineering. I've been working for over 5 years as a Mech.Eng in Calgary. Is it better for me to do a masters and apply to med schools or better off doing another Bachelors to improve my gpa.

 

Also, do any of the above mentioned schools accept distance education through Athabasca U or better off doing traditional UofC.

 

Thank you

[webshy]

Interested in applying to UofC, UBC, Ottawa and Queens.

My first undergraduate degree has a cumulative gpa of 3.05 and it's in Mechanical Engineering. I've been working for over 5 years as a Mech.Eng in Calgary. Is it better for me to do a masters and apply to med schools or better off doing another Bachelors to improve my gpa.

 

Personally, I believe that a second undergraduate degree does more to improve your chances than a Masters degree, if your previous GPA is lower. If you have two good years of full time studies, then a number of options open up. On the other hand, having a Masters degree does open some options, but usually more subjective ones.

 

Ottawa uses a weighted GPA that emphasizes your last three years. Queen's looks at either your overall GPA or your most recent two years of full time study. Western and Dalhousie are other schools that look at just two years worth of courses. (I'm not sure the specifics of U of C IP or UBC, as I didn't apply there.)

 

Also, do any of the above mentioned schools accept distance education through Athabasca U or better off doing traditional UofC.

 

Athabasca is a fully accredited Canadian university. As such, it's courses and programs will be accepted by Canadian medical schools. That said, some of the universities require that your courses be part of a degree, rather than just random courses. As well, Western requires that your courses be part of an honour degree. Many of Athabasca's degrees are general degrees.

 

Best wishes to you!

Elaine

[mcpherv]

Ottawa makes GPA exceptions for graduate students. If you can maintain a 4.0 GPA in grad school (which is pretty easy to do IMO) then Ottawa will review your application and may ask you to submit proof of research productivity. Based on your submission you may be offered an interview.

 

Just as a point of clarification, they want an 85% average in your graduate level classes, which isn't the same as a 4.0 GPA. You also must meet a minimum weighted GPA for your last 3 years of undergraduate study (which is currently set to 3.50 for the anglophone stream). Finally, I get the feeling from the older posts in the Ottawa forum that it is more difficult for students to get interviews based on their graduate productivity at Ottawa than it is for students applying to UoT.

 

Grad student policies for Ottawa can be found here:

http://www.intermed.med.uottawa.ca/Students/MD/admissions/Legacy/eng/AdmissionPolicy.html

[ftcnt]

I'm in a similar situation. My undergrad GPA low <3.0 and I got two masters, one clinical (3.5) and one research (3.89) based and worked. I started a second undergrad degree figuring that would be the best option given my undergrad grades and trying again for Western and Queens. Most of the other schools consider all my undergrad courses and it will drag my gpa down and pay little attention to my graduate work.

[webshy]

I'm in a similar situation. My undergrad GPA low <3.0 and I got two masters, one clinical (3.5) and one research (3.89) based and worked. I started a second undergrad degree figuring that would be the best option given my undergrad grades and trying again for Western and Queens. Most of the other schools consider all my undergrad courses and it will drag my gpa down and pay little attention to my graduate work.

 

My overall GPA is very low, but I earned a GPA of 3.78 when I went back to school at Ryerson. I did a degree-completion program, which meant it only took me two years to finish my degree. I applied to Dalhousie, Queen's and Western for 2008. Dalhousie has granted me an interview, and I'm waiting to find out if I meet the cut-offs for Queen's and Western.

 

Elaine

[ftcnt]

can you comment further on the ryerson program and what you thought of it?

[webshy]

can you comment further on the ryerson program and what you thought of it?

 

I did a Bachelor of Health Administration in Health Services Management at Ryerson. The program is designed as a part-time program; however, I took a full load. Ironically, I was considered a part-time student with 7.0 courses in my final year.

 

I quite enjoyed the program! We had classes of between 8 and 40 people (max). The class size can never increase, as the biggest room holds 40 people. The program was made up mostly of people who had some work experience in health care, who wanted a degree. Thus, I learned about all kinds of health fields (eg: RN, X-ray, ultra sound, lab tech) from my classmates. I also learned a lot about the operations of health care and hospitals - and that was even before starting my course work. My classees consisted of courses on the health care system, health law, program planning, etc.

 

One big advantage of small classes (other than a great environment to learn in) is that I really got to know my professors. My program director wrote one of my letters of recommendation for medical school. I haven't seen the letter, but I have every confidence that it was a strong letter. Even though I graduated in 2004, we continue to keep in contact. There is definately a "personal feel" to the program.

 

The program is structured such that your mandatory courses are often held in a modular format. That is, you attend classes for 5 weekends (was Thur to Sat - not sure if that has changed) and earned 3 half credits. There were also a number of web-based courses, which you could take if you prefered that format. For your electives, you could either taken them on campus (which is how I did the majority of them) or by distance or condensed format. Ryerson is known for making its classes accessible, and I agree that they lived up to their reputation.

 

There are 22 half courses in the program, which includes a practicum and a practicum seminar (1 course each). The practicum is extremely flexible, and isn't meant to take more than 10-15 hours per week. The website for the program is http://www.ryerson.ca/~hsm.

 

As a side note - Ryerson also offers a Certificate in Health Services Administration, which is essentially granted when you are done half the program (provides an "early exit option" should you choose not to complete the degree). All Health Care Administrators in the Canadian Military complete this certificate program as part of their training.

 

If you have any specific questions, please let me know.

 

Thanks,

Elaine

[ftcnt]

thanks Elaine, I've PM you some specific questions. I appreciate your help.

[leo79]

So pretty much what everyone is saying that it's better for me to enroll in an undergraduate program. I guess I'll do whatever improves my chances and my gpa.

 

Thanks a lot for all the help.

[Rock*]

Go for it. I did an extra year after my bchem degree to boost my GPA and was awarded 3 interviews vs. 0 the previous year. Fast forward 10 months and now I'm waking up at ungodly hours to go to med school daily