Dalhousie and a Victory Lap (Completing an Extra Year To Raise GPA)

[EngrGuy]

Hey,

 

I just had a meeting with the assistant dean of med admissions at Dal to ask about my options to do an extra year to raise my GPA. I already have a masters degree but only my last year of undergrad passes the criteria. I was going to take a combination of classes at Dal and at Athabasca (5FCE) while working full time. I was going to take advantage of the fact I could take BIOL 1000 and CHEM 1000 since I've never taken that in my undergrad.

 

She explained that they only accept it if it's 3rd or 4th level courses. Also; Athabasca doesn't count; they all have to be at a local university. As you can imaging that ruined pretty much all my plans. I can't really take 10 3rd or 4th year courses in my undergrad stuff since I pretty much have the majority of those course completed. I can't take 3rd or 4th level classes in Bio, Chem, BioChem, MicroBio or anything as they require 2nd year courses (which in turn require 1st year that I don't have).

 

I'm going to try and take some 1st year classes this summer and then hoping to load up on 3rd or 4th year classes in the Fall / Winter (5FCE - while working full time) and hope I can pull it off...

 

Definitely a surprise to me as I thought I could load up on all my MCATish courses and be fine... guess not... ugh

[jojoluvsu2]

When I emailed asking about Athabasca I was told that it was fine to do courses with them, and the FAQ page says "from a recognized accredited university" which is true of Athabasca.

[EngrGuy]

Yah that's what I thought too; but she said if they were distance education it doesn't count. I guess Athabasca counts if you physically go there. I was really surprised when she had said that as it is 5FCE... so I'm not sure now... I will be safe and go to Dal and just have to skip classes when I have to work :S

[jojoluvsu2]

How can they tell if it's distance or in class? The courses as presented on your transcript aren't any different if you choose an inclass option or an online option (I asked Athabasca about that).

 

I think it's a good idea to be absolutely safe and do the courses at Dal if you can manage it, but I don't think there's any problem with doing Athabasca courses. I'm going to email again, though it seems people get different answers depending on who they talk to!