Question about fulltime status

[Guest Peppi Lepeu]

Hi

 

Does anyone know if med schools care if you start your degree partime and then switch into fulltime. I started my degree partime (3 courses) while working fulltime. I have now started attending full time (5 courses) and have done this for 2 yrs full time. Any ideas as to whether this will be held against me, or worse give them a reason not to consider me

 

My marks are good (lowest mark is 87) but perhaps they will see my partime first year as a weakness.

 

thank you

Peppi

[Guest mying]

Your best bet is to contact the admissions offices at the schools directly and ask them.

 

Anecdotally, I had one part-time year (my second year) and quite simply the GPA from that year didn't count -- the GPA from my full-time years did.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Each school uses different formlae to determine whether to grant an interview and/or acceptance.

 

For many of them, being a full time student DOES MATTER. For example, Western needs at least 2 years FULL time (a condition which you seem to meet, BTW.) U of T, on the other hand, uses a favourable formula for calculating GPA if you've been full time the whole way through, but if you've ever been part time, that formula doesn't apply. You'll have to check out other schools for yourself.

 

Also, remember that Med schools use a "GPA" system rather than percentage scores. Each class's mark is translated to either an A+/4.0, A/3.9, A-/3.7, B+/3.3, B 3.0, B- 2.7, etc. and that's whats important for your application. If you seriously have no course with a mark below 87, all of your courses should be an A+/4.0 or A/3.9, putting your GPA in the 3.9-4.0 range; which is pretty outstanding, to be honest!