Re-calculated GPAs

[Waltz]

There was a death in my family during 2nd year and I ended up getting straight Cs and Ds because of my lack of focus. I only stayed in school because I was hoping it would distract me (but the opposite happened). I'm not going to lie..for some of my courses I didn't even finish reading the textbooks and going to lectures let alone doing practice problems and that's entirely my fault. I should have known that I was dealing with something permanent and how important it was. Too late to change that now. I had a 3.88 for 3rd year and a 3.80 for 1st year. I'm planning to finish 4th year before I apply to med school but my cGPA is wrecked. I know that UofT eliminates your lowest 4 FCEs and other schools look at your best 2 years. But given the competition, do I really have a chance even if I fall into the 3.8+ competitive field with a re-calculated GPA when my cGPA is quite bad? Is it worth staying an extra year and re-taking those courses?

 

I am a UofT undergrad (but that doesn't help since we don't get preference).

[rmorelan]

FIrst IMHO Unless you have a serious objection to going to western (and why would you), you should probably apply for it next year (unless you think the mcat would stand in your way). You might get into med school and then all of this debate is useless Why wait, med school applications are a serious part luck, and simply getting more interviews improves your odds. You post 3rd year, so you have the base courses for the mcat if you haven't done it.

 

This is probably my main advise actually, if you have a shot at a school, take it. You never know when something is going to change (like Ottawa dropping the grad stream, or Mac using the MCAT as examples from this year).

 

Sounds like your cGPA is a bit messed and while you can improve it you are right that you would likely be at a competative disadvantage in someway - not a fatal one by the way, just somewhat worse off than you otherwise would be. You will have problems for Mac, a bit (just a bit) at Toronto. You many have to do a fifth year as you suggest so that Ottawa will potentially notice you, but after next year Queens and Western will be setup. Just keep at it and keep applying

 

Retaking the same course doesn't help normally - assuming you can even take a course you passed again, the old grade still counts and the new one normally won't (otherwise people would just take the same courses in general to up their GPA).

 

But in any case you are NOT out of the game by a long shot.

[silvermen85]

FIrst IMHO Unless you have a serious objection to going to western (and why would you), you should probably apply for it next year (unless you think the mcat would stand in your way). You might get into med school and then all of this debate is useless Why wait, med school applications are a serious part luck, and simply getting more interviews improves your odds. You post 3rd year, so you have the base courses for the mcat if you haven't done it.

 

This is probably my main advise actually, if you have a shot at a school, take it. You never know when something is going to change (like Ottawa dropping the grad stream, or Mac using the MCAT as examples from this year).

 

Sounds like your cGPA is a bit messed and while you can improve it you are right that you would likely be at a competative disadvantage in someway - not a fatal one by the way, just somewhat worse off than you otherwise would be. You will have problems for Mac, a bit (just a bit) at Toronto. You many have to do a fifth year as you suggest so that Ottawa will potentially notice you, but after next year Queens and Western will be setup. Just keep at it and keep applying

 

Retaking the same course doesn't help normally - assuming you can even take a course you passed again, the old grade still counts and the new one normally won't (otherwise people would just take the same courses in general to up their GPA).

 

But in any case you are NOT out of the game by a long shot.

 

Unless he is from Ottawa, his cGPA pretty much eliminated him from the competition.

[rmorelan]

Unless he is from Ottawa, his cGPA pretty much eliminated him from the competition.

 

Well he is talking about a 5th year. Once that is done the wgp should be past considering his 2nd year (the crappy one). Unless I misred something?

 

but they would need that 5th year...

[silvermen85]

True he can do that, staying extra year as full-time and do better this time around.

[Waltz]

Thanks for the advice. They review your whole transcript, right? So even if I have a high weighted GPA a low cGPA + C's and D's on my transcript will effect me. I did already write the MCAT and got 35 on it, so would I still be competitive enough even with that set back?

[cling]

Thanks for the advice. They review your whole transcript, right? So even if I have a high weighted GPA a low cGPA + C's and D's on my transcript will effect me. I did already write the MCAT and got 35 on it, so would I still be competitive enough even with that set back?

 

You could ask for an appeal.

[Meade]

What if you failed a course, and you repeated it? Do they only consider the failed course? Is that what you are implying rmorelan?

[rmorelan]

What if you failed a course, and you repeated it? Do they only consider the failed course? Is that what you are implying rmorelan?

 

 

That's a good question, but I don't know the answer to it! With the GPA cuts so high people drop the courses rather than fail them, so I am not sure it is discussed a lot. The OMSAS manual doesn't explictedly state I believe how they would deal with it either.

 

Western certainly has a no repeat course policy, which says they would not consider the repeated course and it even messes up their full course load requirement so unless you took that course above and beyond the normal 5 full time courses for the year, the entire year couldn't be used for their best two years policy.

 

Not sure about the other schools!

[Oak]

Maybe redo some of your first year courses? Some schools take the average of the attempts for each course, so if you get straight A+'s the second time around, it might save your cGPA.