Full Course Load

[Guest drfunk123]

Hi!

 

I have a question. I am taking a full course load this year, but I want to drop a half a course so that I will have 4.5 courses this year. I had the same thing last year (4.5 courses). Can I still apply to med schools considering that they only consider the years in which we had a full course load (i think). Bear in mind that I will make up the missing course in summer school.

Any suggestions??

[Guest Ian Wong]

I would call the admissions office directly and ask them. I think that's the best approach since they will be the ones to eventually assess your application.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 4

[Guest Namgalsip]

Hi drfunk123,

 

If you are planning to apply to UofT here's some advice. UofT doesn't apply the "formula" to you if you have not taken a full course load in ALL years. (Note: formula=dropping the one course for every year of your studies.) In my case, I have taken 4 courses in my first year and a full course load in the 3 years that followed. They will not apply the formula to me even though I had a full course load in 3 of my years and was only 1 course short of a full course load in 1st year. If I only had 3 years though (ie, take out that first year), I would be allowed to drop 3 courses. Ridiculous, I know, but these are the facts. In your case, since you already don't have a full course load from previous years, I say drop the courses that are weighing you down (as UofT will not). However, if you are planning to apply to Western, I think (But I'm not sure) that they require 2 years with a full load. You should check their web site.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Nams

[Guest aneliz]

I can only answer for Western (although you will likely want to call/e-mail the admissions office to confirm that nothing has changed).

 

Western requires that you have completed three years (15 full credits) of undergraduate course work. You must also have two FULL years (years in which you completed AT LEAST 5.0 full or equivalent credits between Sept and April) with a GPA above the minimum GPA cut-off. You must also have completed all of the pre-req corses however, these can be done in the summer, by distance ed, in part-time semesters etc. As far as I know, there is no way around this requirement. So, assuming that you did a 'full year' in first year, (and the GPA was above cut-off) you will now need to do another full time year. Another 'rule', if you are applying to UWO while you are still doing undergrad work, your last year (ie the year you are doing as you are applying) must be a full time year with a GPA above the cut. Western uses only your best year (full time) and your last year to calculate your GPA, so the more 'full time' years you have to chose from, the better off you are.

 

So if you are wanting to apply to Western, you will need to have two years that have a full 5.0 course load in the regular academic year. Adding a half credit in the summer won't make the year qualify because the full 5.0 was not completed between Sept and April.

 

I would suggest that you keep the full course load if possible....remember that they have these course load requirements for a reason...(ie to make sure that you could cope with the course load that you are faced with IN med school). Even though I carried a 6.0 course load in my 3rd and 4th years of undergrad, the volume of material presented in Med I is still immense (probably pretty close to double what I am used to both in volume of material and class hours.) At UWO, Med I is the equivalent of a 10.0 credit year, with approx 30 hours of class per week. (We have 8 separate courses, two of which are double weighted = equivalent of 10 and have classes from 8-4 Monday to Friday).