mh1314 Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 Hi everyone, I am seriously considering doing a 2nd degree to raise my GPA. Here is my background. I am considering enrolling for Kinesiology at York or Health Studies at York and would like to hear your take on: 1) As an nonathletic person, is there any disadvantage to taking Kinesiology as I read that there are physical components (not sure how those are graded)? 2) From a grading perspective, can anyone who has taken the Health Studies program share the difficulty in getting good grades in the essay courses that are more prevalent in the Health Studies program than Kinesiology? 3) Does the York GPA conversion system (80-89 being 3.8 vs 85-89 being 3.9) have a debilitating impact on your GPA? May I add that both programs interest me, but I am worried about the subjective grading nature of essay courses (my first undergrad was in Math so there was right or wrong answers). Please excuse me for asking stupid questions. I appreciate any sharing / advice. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 1) There is no disadvantage. There are PKINS "courses" but you won't receive a grade for these. As far as I know, many of the kin courses that have laboratory components are computer-lab based. Since your first degree was in Math, a bunch of Kin courses should be a piece of cake for you. 2) Can't comment on this. For essay writing though, It's not about whether you can write or not but whether you write what the prof wants to read. It may sound ambiguous or stupid but this is what I've experienced. Hence making sure what exactly the prof is looking for in an essay is going to help you a lot. 3) York is a great place to go if you are a student whose marks hover in low 80s. If you are consistent in getting over 85s, you are better off at another university, unless you are a (almost) straight A+ student in which case it won't make a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mh1314 Posted June 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2012 ^Thanks Legion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zerolimits Posted June 27, 2012 Report Share Posted June 27, 2012 Two friends of mine at YorkU switched from Hons Biology to Health studies: more specifically health management i believe. You write crazy amount of essays. Averaging from 10-18 essays (excluding final exam). As math was your first undergrad. it might be difficult (just saying) since I am a mathematical type of person too. Essay grading various. BAsically, you should know how to write an effective and concise essay. my friends arent good in math, but they do well in reading & writing courses, they are pulling B to B+ avgs. This depends on your writing capabilities. If you found ENG3U to ENG4U, relatively easy and you pulled A+ without much effort, then you are good to go. Just to add, just because you get low 80s doesn't mean YorkU is the best. YorkU has bell curved marks down, in courses such as biochemistry with Dr. Bayfield, or bell curved up. This happens, its a reality. A friend of mine went from A+ to A, due to many high marks in the class. Just don't let this be a factor. Improve upon your time management skills, study habits (studying effectively). That should be good for any university, although U of T you have to up things a bit. YorkU is getting a lot of undergrads recently, so its competitive to pull high marks there now. This is from the knowledge i gained by asking friends in different majors/program of study. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mh1314 Posted June 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2012 ^Thanks zerolimits. I feel anxious about this change in direction, so I really appreciate your sharing the reality at York. By a lot of undergrads, I take it to mean that there are a lot of top students going to York and as a result, course average are high, requiring belling down. This is definitely causing me to reconsider my choice (I understand that it comes down to having good study habits, but I prefer not to have any disadvantage). Is the average for most courses at York around B? Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 Two friends of mine at YorkU switched from Hons Biology to Health studies: more specifically health management i believe. You write crazy amount of essays. Averaging from 10-18 essays (excluding final exam). As math was your first undergrad. it might be difficult (just saying) since I am a mathematical type of person too. Essay grading various. BAsically, you should know how to write an effective and concise essay. my friends arent good in math, but they do well in reading & writing courses, they are pulling B to B+ avgs. This depends on your writing capabilities. If you found ENG3U to ENG4U, relatively easy and you pulled A+ without much effort, then you are good to go. Just to add, just because you get low 80s doesn't mean YorkU is the best. YorkU has bell curved marks down, in courses such as biochemistry with Dr. Bayfield, or bell curved up. This happens, its a reality. A friend of mine went from A+ to A, due to many high marks in the class. Just don't let this be a factor. It does. York is not the only University that would bell curve down or up. Other Universities do the same where necessary. If you are low 80s student, the chances are you would be getting a higher mark in a class where the average needs to be curved down. I don't know the averages for health studies courses but if you want relatively low class averages (which you should) take Kin. Not to offend anyone that is taking Kin, but a majority of them are quite not bright. In general though, in any program, the 3rd or 4th level courses tend to have higher class averages than 1st year courses (no surprises here). ^Thanks zerolimits. I feel anxious about this change in direction, so I really appreciate your sharing the reality at York. By a lot of undergrads, I take it to mean that there are a lot of top students going to York and as a result, course average are high, requiring belling down. This is definitely causing me to reconsider my choice (I understand that it comes down to having good study habits, but I prefer not to have any disadvantage). Is the average for most courses at York around B? Thank you! No. averages range from C to B just like any other University. I have said this many times before, but I'll say it again. If you study SMART, you will get good marks regardless of the University. You'll be disappointed if you are thinking that if you go to York and study as much as you studied in your first degree, you will be getting easy A+s, just because "it's York". Not gonna happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mh1314 Posted June 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 ^Thanks for the perspective Legion. I did not want to go into an university that is harder to get good marks than others. Based on my understanding, York has not become such an university despite the recent increase in pre-adjusted class average. I also want to shy away from a program where all my peers would be premed. Kine seems to be big enough and is not a typical premed program, so I won't be surrounded by peers who are all premed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
star rise Posted July 24, 2012 Report Share Posted July 24, 2012 I have a question about second degrees. I already have a BSc. Honours in Biology and now I would like to take my second degree, in order to boost up my GPA. I would like to know if it is better to do a General Arts degree or to do a Major in German (Honours) program? Is a General degree better than another Honours degree, or does it not matter at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jojoluvsu2 Posted July 24, 2012 Report Share Posted July 24, 2012 For Western they require an Honours or equivalent to be considered. Otherwise the area of study doesn't matter. (And no other schools specify that it must be an honours program). Do what interests you, gives you the best chance at better marks and the best chance at a backup career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ema2iur Posted July 24, 2012 Report Share Posted July 24, 2012 I am just adding from my personal experience at Mac. I did my first degree in Biology and Pharmacology and because my marks weren't all that great (At least from the first two years) I decided to do a second degree in Health Studies at McMaster as well. I definitely too was anxious before taking the degree with all the essays and subjectivity, and I asked some people on here what their experiences were like (One person I asked was Supafeld--spelling???--who was a legend on here and got into medical school quite epically). Anyways I finished the degree now (4 years Honours condensed into two years) and I finished with three A-, and the other 17 courses were either an A or an A+. Personally people have told me that I write well so I don't know if that helped me to begin with, but what I can say is that I did find the courses rather easy. Especially any elective I could take outside of Health Studies where I was with 1st year students. It's pretty eye opening to see the difference between them and myself now in terms of maturity and self-motivation. Make sure to talk to your teachers and get to know them, especially if you want clarification on essays. I developed such good rapport with some teachers that it felt like it was impossible to not do well. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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