RapedByLifeSci Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 Western is insane. I am not even planning on applying there for med school. They demand a full course load or else will reject your entire year. As well, they demand that 3.0 credits that you earn each year MUST be from your year level. So you're telling me I would need to take SIX 400 level courses in order for my 4th year to count? How many fourth years actually take that many 400 level courses?? can somebody tell me???? All the 4th years that I know in my program and taking 200 or 300 level courses with only a few 400 level courses. Just in case I'm talking without my head screwed on right, when western is saying 3.0 credits, then mean that THREE full year courses or SIX semester courses right? Semester being only the length of fall or winter. If they had actually weighed one semester course as 1.0 credit, that would make much more sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superking25 Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 Dude, calm down. 300 level courses count too as far as I know. I had interviews twice there (REJECTED TWICE TOO, OH BOY, but I got into med school this year) and I only took 3 400 level courses in year 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w8kg6 Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 These criteria really aren't that stringent. If you're applying to an MD program, you should really be able to hack 15 credit hours (5.0 in the other system) I did 54 credit hours last academic year (18 in other system), so any random off the street can hack full time. Also, if you're in 4th year, you should be doing 4th year classes. What's the big deal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RapedByLifeSci Posted July 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 my program requires me to have only 0.5 credits of 400 level courses by the time I graduate so as you can guess, everybody in 4th year spends their time taking birdies and plucking off easy marks. Plus, I find that I just can't take a lot of 400 level courses. Just don't have the required prerequisites of most things! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RapedByLifeSci Posted July 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 300 level courses also count in 4th year... so you could take 2 300s and 1 400 per semester, and still satisfy the requirement. It really isn't a huge deal. Are you doing LifeSci major? SSP requires 2.0 400 credits and the research stream probably needs even more.. so the majority of 4th years don't just take bird courses. You mentioned in a previous thread that your GPA isn't very high... Western gives you the chance to "start over" basically because they only count your 3rd and 4th years. You might want to take that into consideration before you write them off completely. hey thank you bubblebath. I am in Lifesci Major, yep. SSP just seemed like a harder way to live life for a title that would get me nowhere so I decided to take it easy with the major stream. But can you guys tell me what Western meant when they said "3 credits must reflect that of your year?" Because like I said, 0.5 credit is 1 semester course. 1.0 credit is 1 full year course. Did western mean to say THREE SEMESTER courses in correspondence to the year levels? What I am saying is, did they mean to take three 0.5 credit 300 level courses (adds up to 1.5 creds) if you are in third year? or did they mean take SIX 0.5 credit 300 level courses to match it up to 3.0 credits? Because i am taking four 300 level courses this year, and the rest are zero, 100, 200 level courses. I can't take any more 300 level courses unless I take biochemistry310 or neuroscience or any other ridiculously hard courses. What should I do???! Help me, oh wise ones who are more mature than I! I understand that if I do not take the extra 1.0 credits of 300 level courses, I would be missing out on a huge advantage. But then again, these hard courses might screw me over and cause me to get a lower GPA AGAIN. What's the diagnosis doctor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madz25 Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 my program requires me to have only 0.5 credits of 400 level courses by the time I graduate so as you can guess, everybody in 4th year spends their time taking birdies and plucking off easy marks. Plus, I find that I just can't take a lot of 400 level courses. Just don't have the required prerequisites of most things! summer courses to fulfill prereqs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 hey thank you bubblebath. I am in Lifesci Major, yep. SSP just seemed like a harder way to live life for a title that would get me nowhere so I decided to take it easy with the major stream. But can you guys tell me what Western meant when they said "3 credits must reflect that of your year?" Because like I said, 0.5 credit is 1 semester course. 1.0 credit is 1 full year course. Did western mean to say THREE SEMESTER courses in correspondence to the year levels? What I am saying is, did they mean to take three 0.5 credit 300 level courses (adds up to 1.5 creds) if you are in third year? or did they mean take SIX 0.5 credit 300 level courses to match it up to 3.0 credits? Because i am taking four 300 level courses this year, and the rest are zero, 100, 200 level courses. I can't take any more 300 level courses unless I take biochemistry310 or neuroscience or any other ridiculously hard courses. What should I do???! Help me, oh wise ones who are more mature than I! I understand that if I do not take the extra 1.0 credits of 300 level courses, I would be missing out on a huge advantage. But then again, these hard courses might screw me over and cause me to get a lower GPA AGAIN. What's the diagnosis doctor? They do mean you should take a 6 standard courses at the year level you are in, which doesn't sound like a good thing for you However for fourth year you can have a mix of 3rd and 4th year courses (I have been told). A lot of honours programs (most of them?) have this as the default anyway so for most people it isn't really a special additional constraint. Since western also requires you to graduate before you can attend the school most people have to pick up a significant number of 3rd/4th courses anyway to get their degrees. I should mention that Toronto has something somewhat similar - they want for you to process appropriately in your chosen program. So if you are say in Honours biology you should have completed the first three years of that program by the end of your third year etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RapedByLifeSci Posted July 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 They do mean you should take a 6 standard courses at the year level you are in, which doesn't sound like a good thing for you However for fourth year you can have a mix of 3rd and 4th year courses (I have been told). A lot of honours programs (most of them?) have this as the default anyway so for most people it isn't really a special additional constraint. Since western also requires you to graduate before you can attend the school most people have to pick up a significant number of 3rd/4th courses anyway to get their degrees. so i guess i should just go the extra distance and try to take 2 more 300 level courses. i guess if i can manage it, they should be something else OTHER than biochem and neurosci. shucks. and my course selection period just ended. great. Good thing I've still got add/drop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubblebath Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 hey thank you bubblebath. I am in Lifesci Major, yep. SSP just seemed like a harder way to live life for a title that would get me nowhere so I decided to take it easy with the major stream. But can you guys tell me what Western meant when they said "3 credits must reflect that of your year?" Because like I said, 0.5 credit is 1 semester course. 1.0 credit is 1 full year course. Did western mean to say THREE SEMESTER courses in correspondence to the year levels? What I am saying is, did they mean to take three 0.5 credit 300 level courses (adds up to 1.5 creds) if you are in third year? or did they mean take SIX 0.5 credit 300 level courses to match it up to 3.0 credits? Because i am taking four 300 level courses this year, and the rest are zero, 100, 200 level courses. I can't take any more 300 level courses unless I take biochemistry310 or neuroscience or any other ridiculously hard courses. What should I do???! Help me, oh wise ones who are more mature than I! I understand that if I do not take the extra 1.0 credits of 300 level courses, I would be missing out on a huge advantage. But then again, these hard courses might screw me over and cause me to get a lower GPA AGAIN. What's the diagnosis doctor? In short... 60% of your courseload has to correspond to your year. In one semester, that means 3/5 credits. In one academic year, that means 6/10 credits. Alternatively, you could do 4/5 in first term and 2/5 in second term. I was in your same position, though. I considered switching into Major because I had a rough experience in 2nd year Life Sci. I decided to go the SSP route in the end... mainly because I'd already taken MBIO 218 and I didn't want it to go to waste. But if you think about it, it's really not too much of an extra burden after 2nd year. You have to take BCHM, PHAR 340, a MICR course.. and that's pretty much it. Besides the 2.0 4-level courses, which you would probably end up taking anyway to satisfy the 60% rule, you can fill the rest of your schedule with electives and "easier" medical science options. When I was weighing the pros and cons, I found LISC Major to be very limiting... many students choose it to avoid BCHM, but it is a prerequisite for a lot of upper year courses. It's also a useful course to have under your belt when you get into med school. I've heard it isn't as bad as CHEM 281/282, so long as you put in a moderate effort. Anyway, that's just my personal opinion. You've already gotten through the hardest year of Life Sci... it's uphill from year. And don't feel alone; a lot of students (myself included) crash and burn in 2nd year LISC.. most had amazing grades in high school that came effortlessly.. therefore they did not adjust as well to the workload in uni. Hopefully this post helps you... my advice is to stop worrying about the past and focusing on doing well this year. Don't preoccupy yourself about potentially "having another bad year" because it's a waste of time. Choose your courses wisely and improve your work habits from last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickel Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 may be take 3 courses in each semester...dat makes it 6 by the end which is not so hard..anyways i dont have much idea of wat ur sayin since m just starting biomedical science... but i wanna ask do medschools give consideration to the courses we do in summers??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamP Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 Really though I think you don't have a leg to stand on in your argument, western is very very possible. What other school in Canada will grant you an interview with only ONE YEAR of marks >3.75?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 And what other school will drop your lowest marks after 5.0 courses? That's huge for people who need to take extra courses in the first year or two. Like me for example in first year I wasn't sure if i wanted to go in a Cellular biology program or Biochemistry so I ended up taking 7.0 classes so my B+ in one of my class just goes away and my next lowest. I wasn't able to find any other schools that did that unfortunately - and I looked as I also overloaded my years very heavily. Maybe there is one I missed though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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