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Past marks held against you?


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Considering the fact that many schools have some sort of weighting formula (looking at your most recent/ best two years, dropping a certain number of credits, etc) I'm wondering how the 'bad' marks are looked at- are they automatically dropped and never looked at? Or can they be held against you? For example, if someone completely blew the first two years of undergrad but then aced the final two, would the schools that consider best/most recent two years even look at the first two?

 

In my case, I have an average GPA from my earlier years (great marks in some courses, terrible marks in others), so I'll probably end up doing an extra year/ second degree. Western, for example, calculates your GPA from the two best years. Will they even look at my early (crappier) years?

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i'm thinking if the schools explicitly said they'll only consider the last 2 years, they'll do that.

 

I'm sure they'll have access to the earlier years, but they won't enter those marks into the algorithm for invites to the interviews.

 

If schools don't explicitly outline that, then probably they do look at those marks.

 

Each school has their own policies you can probably look up on internet

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AFAIK schools like queens/western/ottawa that look at a certain number of years ONLY look at those years and disregard every other year regardless of how bad you've done. It only makes sense that this is an automated process.

 

As for UofT and their dropping formula, I'm pretty sure it's automated and I highly doubt they go back and look at what was dropped. That said, I remember reading somewhere a while back that UofT flags people with low marks in a particular subject (chem for ex). Not sure how true that is though, and imo it seems improbable/unlikely. Come to think of it, I might have read that they do that for pharmacy instead. I dunno. Bottom line is, I wouldn't worry about it. Focus on the future, forget the past.

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I dont know the answer to this but I'd like to know this as well.

 

Really just wanted to post to tell you that I lold at your username. I love it.

 

It's an unfortunately accurate username :rolleyes: Maybe next year I can upgrade to MyGPAisMediocre

 

AFAIK schools like queens/western/ottawa that look at a certain number of years ONLY look at those years and disregard every other year regardless of how bad you've done. It only makes sense that this is an automated process.

 

As for UofT and their dropping formula' date=' I'm pretty sure it's automated and I highly doubt they go back and look at what was dropped. That said, I remember reading somewhere a while back that UofT flags people with low marks in a particular subject (chem for ex). Not sure how true that is though, and imo it seems improbable/unlikely. Come to think of it, I might have read that they do that for pharmacy instead. I dunno. Bottom line is, I wouldn't worry about it. Focus on the future, forget the past.[/quote']

 

I guess I'm just worried that it might raise red flags if my overall GPA is crappy, but gets boosted thanks to a weighting system/formula. So I'm definitely hoping it's automated. If I get into med school, it'll be 'back door detour route' style :)

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What is considered a year though?

 

What if you do 4 courses per semester, 8 a year? Is the next year technically your 2nd year since you aren't on your 11th course? (and I realize some med schools don't allow you to take 4..but just curious)

 

Don't over think things :) Your second year is the second Fall-Winter year you attend school. If you're a part time student (<3.0 FCEs?), things would be different but schools which employ a weighting formula won't allow you to be a part time student (ie. you can be a part time student and apply to McMaster but they don't have a weighting formula).

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I guess I'm just worried that it might raise red flags if my overall GPA is crappy, but gets boosted thanks to a weighting system/formula. So I'm definitely hoping it's automated. If I get into med school, it'll be 'back door detour route' style :)

 

It won't raise any red flags. If AdComs didn't want you to be able to use this "back door route" they wouldn't have a weighting formula built in to their admission process.

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