AndreaM Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 I was looking at my transcript this evening and one semester I took 8 courses for a total of 22 credits. All of the courses were upper division, except my organic chem lab. Oddly enough my GPA for that semester sucked the big one. I wish someone had told me at the time to spread it out and make it two semesters, but I was stubborn, liked challenges and wanted to just finish my degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tennisball80 Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 wow .......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supafield Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 I was looking at my transcript this evening and one semester I took 8 courses for a total of 22 credits. All of the courses were upper division, except my organic chem lab. Oddly enough my GPA for that semester sucked the big one. I wish someone had told me at the time to spread it out and make it two semesters, but I was stubborn, liked challenges and wanted to just finish my degree. At Western you need special permission to do 6.... haha maybe if you were a superstar they'd let you do 7... but 8! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreaM Posted August 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 At Western you need special permission to do 6.... haha maybe if you were a superstar they'd let you do 7... but 8! UNBC should probably institute a rule like that to keep crazy people like me from doing things like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Man, that's rough to hear. There are ways to recover from a bad year/semester, but it does make things harder. You have to just look at weighting formulas and pray that one of the schools has one favourable to you (ex. last 2 years, best 2 years, etc etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supafield Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Man, that's rough to hear. There are ways to recover from a bad year/semester, but it does make things harder. You have to just look at weighting formulas and pray that one of the schools has one favourable to you (ex. last 2 years, best 2 years, etc etc). Western takes 10 for the entire year.... so if you were to do 11 or 14 for that matter.... you could drop 1 and 4 courses respectively in your full year gpa calculation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreaM Posted August 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Man, that's rough to hear. There are ways to recover from a bad year/semester, but it does make things harder. You have to just look at weighting formulas and pray that one of the schools has one favourable to you (ex. last 2 years, best 2 years, etc etc). I'm in BC so I've been working to tailor myself to UBC. They do look at overall GPA, but last 60 and pre-reqs are also part of the equation. I've been taking psyc since I gradded and have increased my last 60 GPA from 3.55 to 3.71. My prereq average is my highest average at 3.74, which I think is funny, because most peoples prereqs are their low area. With a total of 182 credits though it's pretty hard to bring up the cGPA. I've also worked really hard to make sure my naq's are good, cause UBC weights them as 50%, at least for getting to the interview stage. My story is a cautionary tale. If you are planning on med school never take these courses all at the same time: Cell and Molecular Biology Evolutionary Biology Conservation Biology Applied Genetics and Biotechnology Organic Chem Lab II Biochem Lab Analytical Chem II Retrosynthetic Analysis (Topics in Organic Chem) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w8kg6 Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 At Western you need special permission to do 6.... Are you serious? I did 26 credit hours in my first semester last year, which was 9 courses (accounting for the fact that one was a 5 credit hour course that included a lab). I can't imagine needing special permission to do 6... That's only 18 credits! I've only gone below that twice since I started school, lol. Courses I did first semester (sry about caps, this is copied right off my transcript and I didn't want to retype them out): GENERAL MATERIALS SCIENCE NUM.METHODS IN CHEM. ENG. ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS MASS AND ENERGY BALANCES MATERIALS SCIENCE LABORATORY ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I BIOCOMP. IN DRUG DESIGN I ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supafield Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 I should have said Health Sciences requires special permission... I'm pretty sure that's the same though in Arts, Science and Social Sci. Engineers do their own whacky schedule that is naturally overloaded so I wouldn't know about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOC_Ma Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Are you serious? I did 26 credit hours in my first semester last year, which was 9 courses (accounting for the fact that one was a 5 credit hour course that included a lab). I can't imagine needing special permission to do 6... That's only 18 credits! I've only gone below that twice since I started school, lol. Courses I did first semester (sry about caps, this is copied right off my transcript and I didn't want to retype them out): GENERAL MATERIALS SCIENCE NUM.METHODS IN CHEM. ENG. ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS MASS AND ENERGY BALANCES MATERIALS SCIENCE LABORATORY ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I BIOCOMP. IN DRUG DESIGN I ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM Engineers have crazy load we all know that, so unsuitable for medical school. (I meant the Engineering program not u) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w8kg6 Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 Engineers have crazy load we all know that, so unsuitable for medical school. (I meant the Engineering program not u) Yeah, it's true. This semester was beyond average (and definitely wasn't conducive to getting into meds last year, heh), but I saw an opportunity to vent and I took it . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a41 Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 At Western you need special permission to do 6.... haha maybe if you were a superstar they'd let you do 7... but 8! Lol at Queen's, engineering tuition was flat rate. We usually had 13 courses split between 2 semesters every year but I knew a few people who took 8 or 9 per semester (and just ran conflicts). They'd show up half way inbetween classes...and somehow know more than everyone else. One of them did a 4th year thesis AND a TEAM project (an option to do an industry project instead of thesis). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOC_Ma Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 Yeah, it's true. This semester was beyond average (and definitely wasn't conducive to getting into meds last year, heh), but I saw an opportunity to vent and I took it . I know, same here except that I saw an opportunity to be grateful for my slightly easier program Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreaM Posted September 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 Yeah, it's true. This semester was beyond average (and definitely wasn't conducive to getting into meds last year, heh), but I saw an opportunity to vent and I took it . I understand the need to vent. The 3.35 from that semester is not doing me any favours, bleh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cnussey Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 I understand the need to vent. The 3.35 from that semester is not doing me any favours, bleh. 3.35 is quite fine for that course-load! You passed and you can tell the adcom what a difficult and trying experience it was I took 6 courses my second year (2002?) and it sucked. I was drained at the end of two weeks and didn't know where to turn. Now I'm drained at 25 and know where to find a hot bath, ear plugs, and the red wine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 I should have said Health Sciences requires special permission... I'm pretty sure that's the same though in Arts, Science and Social Sci. Engineers do their own whacky schedule that is naturally overloaded so I wouldn't know about them. I needed special permission to take more than 6 at Waterloo. I think it is pretty common actually - they do try and prevent super crazy burnout causes terms to occur. They get really cautionous at the 7 course and beyond point. I certainly hope you can recover from that term! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderbread Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 This makes me wonder.. would med schools be easier on your gpa if they know you have a "harder" course load than average? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a41 Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 This makes me wonder.. would med schools be easier on your gpa if they know you have a "harder" course load than average? No. They probably wouldn't even know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
todpose Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 poor thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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