Cleah Posted July 15, 2011 Report Share Posted July 15, 2011 Hi Everyone, Has anyone taken any Athabasca courses while registered as a undergrad/grad student at another university? I'm wondering how admissions looks at this. I need to take a second English prerequiste for UBC and want to do it by distance as on-campus courses would take me out of the lab. I'm waiting for a response from UBC but thought I would ask in the meantime Thx!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 15, 2011 Report Share Posted July 15, 2011 Hi Everyone, Has anyone taken any Athabasca courses while registered as a undergrad/grad student at another university? I'm wondering how admissions looks at this. I need to take a second English prerequiste for UBC and want to do it by distance as on-campus courses would take me out of the lab. I'm waiting for a response from UBC but thought I would ask in the meantime Thx!! If you do it during an undergrad is just like any other course really. We have had many people take a Athabasca course during the regular school year etc - just make sure the course is wrapped up prior to end of the traditional school year if the schools you are interested in have a Sept to Apr bias Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymeddream Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 I had the same question since I will be starting a grad degree in September and need the english and orgo credits to fulfill prereq requirements for some school (especially American schools). I asked around (many grad students etc) and was told that it is usually not permitted by the graduate department to take undergrad courses online....if you happen to need a letter of permission to take the course online, they won't give it to you etc. So far, the response I have heard from other grad students is that its not really possible to be able to take online ugrad level courses while in grad degree program. I posted the same question on this forum a while back and here are the responses I got: http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48954 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EoE Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 Bah! That is so frustrating. If it doesn't compromise your work, why wouldn't they let you take a course online?! This attitude of department administration that they own you when you work there as a grad student is unhealthy. I remember signing a paper when I started grad school saying I wouldn't take part time work for more than 15 hours a week. Its school, not slave labour! If I were in this situation in grad school, I would send a polite email explaining my situation to the head of the dept if they are a reasonable person. I had a lot of trouble with our head's admin assistant who was usually on a power trip telling me there was no money for conferences or I couldn't use the electron microscope, etc. So I started just going over her head right to the dept head and he was usually quite reasonable about stuff like this. Bah! Frustration! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 I had the same question since I will be starting a grad degree in September and need the english and orgo credits to fulfill prereq requirements for some school (especially American schools). I asked around (many grad students etc) and was told that it is usually not permitted by the graduate department to take undergrad courses online....if you happen to need a letter of permission to take the course online, they won't give it to you etc. So far, the response I have heard from other grad students is that its not really possible to be able to take online ugrad level courses while in grad degree program. I posted the same question on this forum a while back and here are the responses I got: http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48954 that is kind of interesting - as a grad student I took quite a few online courses at another school. I never asked for permission - it wasn't my grad schools business as far as I was concerned Not that I am trying dodge the rules here but how does school X even know you are taking courses at school Y? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleah Posted July 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 I was just going to write the same thing- if you register for a course on Athabasca, the grad program doesn't necessarily need to know. If work is done after lab/school hours, there isn't much they could do about it. I'm considering not saying anything to my grad advisor but letting my supervisor know- I wouldn't want him to think I'm hiding anything. I've read through the Faculty of Grad Studies procedures and policies and wasn't able to find anything related to this so while it might be an unwritten rule, if you're meeting the commitments, I don't see why this would be a problem. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 I was just going to write the same thing- if you register for a course on Athabasca, the grad program doesn't necessarily need to know. If work is done after lab/school hours, there isn't much they could do about it. I'm considering not saying anything to my grad advisor but letting my supervisor know- I wouldn't want him to think I'm hiding anything. I've read through the Faculty of Grad Studies procedures and policies and wasn't able to find anything related to this so while it might be an unwritten rule, if you're meeting the commitments, I don't see why this would be a problem. Any thoughts? my main thought was as long as I meet my obligations to my grad program what I do with my free time is my business and even a grad student has free time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarathonRunner Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 From my understanding, you only need to take a course via letter of permission if you want it to be recognized by your "home" institution. If you are taking it purely for interest's sake, or for your own reasons, unrelated to your program, and you are doing it on your own time, then a letter of permission is not needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 From my understanding, you only need to take a course via letter of permission if you want it to be recognized by your "home" institution. If you are taking it purely for interest's sake, or for your own reasons, unrelated to your program, and you are doing it on your own time, then a letter of permission is not needed. well that makes sense Of course as a grad student you don't need to care about UG courses counting at the home institute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarathonRunner Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 well that makes sense Of course as a grad student you don't need to care about UG courses counting at the home institute. Well, in the graduate program I was in, there were certain fourth year courses that could count towards your graduate degree, so in that case, if they were related to your program, and you did want them to count, you needed the letter of permission. May not be typical, but it does happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 Well, in the graduate program I was in, there were certain fourth year courses that could count towards your graduate degree, so in that case, if they were related to your program, and you did want them to count, you needed the letter of permission. May not be typical, but it does happen. Yeah I should have qualified a prereq course for med school is extremely likely to serve any purpose in a graduate program in terms of progression in that degree. I actually did take 2 fourth comp sci courses during my masters which did count. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymeddream Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 Well, I don't need the courses to count for anything other than fulfill the prerequisites for American schools but some schools in the States don't take online courses into consideration so I will not be taking courses through Athabasca...given that they won't count at some places. Will see, might go back after grad degree to do orgo and english if Canada doesn't work out and if I need to apply to the States. Although, I haven't checked with my dept to see if there might be a concern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 Well, I don't need the courses to count for anything other than fulfill the prerequisites for American schools but some schools in the States don't take online courses into consideration so I will not be taking courses through Athabasca...given that they won't count at some places. Will see, might go back after grad degree to do orgo and english if Canada doesn't work out and if I need to apply to the States. Although, I haven't checked with my dept to see if there might be a concern. Waterloo doesn't make a difference between online and in class courses on transcripts just so it is out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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