Making up non-full courseload with summer credit

[nivethanv]

I'm in my first year of university.

I only got 2.0 credits in the fall semester and will be getting 2.5 credits in the spring semester. That leaves me with 4.5. I plan on getting another half credit in the summer, which will bring me to a total of 5.0 by 2nd year.

 

What does this mean for me? Am I at a huge disadvantage? My extracurriculars are great and my marks in my courses are great.

[RandomGuy]

You are at a disadvantage for U of T, because you will not have the weighting formula applied to your GPA. Students who took a full course load all years of university are allowed to remove two one-semester grades from their transcript for every year of study (i.e. remove their 8 lowest grades after completing a four year degree). You, however, will have to include all of your grades.

 

At Western, you won't be able to use this year towards meeting the GPA requirements. Western requires two full course load years at or above their GPA cutoff to be offered admission.

 

At McMaster you'll be fine, because they consider all courses you've ever taken and don't seem to worry about course load. I don't know what the policy is at the remaining schools.

 

Cheers!

[nivethanv]

if i take an extra credit this semester so that i have 6 courses this semester and 4 courses in the first semester, does that count as a full course load?

 

Also, if anyone knows the policies for Ottawa, Queens, and other schools, that would be great

[RandomGuy]

Just to clarify my comment about Western: you may not be able to use this year towards the GPA requirements, but you could use subsequent/previous years - as long as you have at least two at the cutoff, it doesnt matter.

 

And yes, you could take an extra class this semester to get up to a full course load.