Calculating GPA for last 20 courses?

[otapply]

Hi all!

 

I had a question about how how we should calculate our GPA for our last 20 courses. I understand that for someone who is on a typical path through university, this includes:

1) 4th year, fall semester

2) 3rd year, winter semester

3) 3rd year, fall semester

4) 2nd year, winter semester

... assuming that each semester has 5 classes.

 

However, I took two summer classes between 3) and 4). How does this get reflected in my GPA for the last 20?

 

Also, when people talk about their subGPA is this what they're referring to?

 

Thanks for your help!

[SpOt21]

Hi there,

 

I believe it works like this: So if you took 5 courses for each term and the 2 summer courses in between, they will take the 5 courses from 4th year fall term, 2 courses from the summer in between, 10 from 3rd year, and then 3 from your 2nd year. They will get the gpa for those last 3 courses by taking an average gpa of all the courses you took in your 2nd year and applying it to those 3. So if your gpa for 2nd year was 3.6, each of those last 3 courses would be 3.6.

 

I am new at this, so someone correct me if I am wrong

[otapply]

That kind of makes sense... but would the average GPA that they use for the 3 classes be the entire 2nd year average or my term average for that specific term that isn't counting as the full 5 classes?

[SpOt21]

They will use your entire 2nd year average for those 3.

 

This was from the UofT OT FAQ section, it might be helpful:

 

I am currently in my fourth year, and by December 31 I will have completed 15 half courses throughout my third and fourth years. How will you decide which courses to use from my second year?

 

We will count the 15 half courses from third year and the fall term of fourth year, plus we will take the average from your entire second year (fall and winter terms) and use that average for the five half outstanding courses. So, if you have a 3.54 average in second year overall, and we need five half credits from your second year, it’s like you received a 3.54 in five half courses. Note that this example can be applied to any academic year – if you took a fifth year, then the above example is exactly the same, except we would be taking the average from your third year instead of your second year.

[otapply]

Cool! Thanks for your quick replies!

[Pink Tulip]

That's pretty much how they do it. SubGPA refers to the last 20 credits taken. CumGPA refers to every credit taken in your undergraduate degree.

[monkeykong]

Say we stay for a fifth year (just the fall semester) and also taken full course load (5 courses) during the summer before the fifth year, how would they calculate the last 20 courses?

 

1) 5th year, fall semester

2) summer between 4th and 5th year, summer semester

3) 4th year, winter semester

4) 4th year, fall semester

 

Is that the 20 courses they would count?

[Pink Tulip]

Wherever your 20 courses lie. They will count starting from your 5th year Fall courses back. So they will go back as far as needed including summer courses. If it ends up your have 20 courses between 4th Fall-5th Fall, they will count all of them. If you are one course short or more, they will go into your 3rd year or 3rd year summer to find courses and will average them out from there from the entire year. It works the exact same as if you never took a 5th year as per calculating (It just takes different years, the method works the same I should say).

[monkeykong]

Thanks for the quick reply. I also have another question.

I emailed the schools but only UWO responded back, but my question is about courses that are repeated a second time. Do you know if they count repeated courses as long as its within the last 20 courses? UWO said they do count it as long as its in the final 20 courses, but I'm just wondering if the other schools are the same.

 

To add to that, do they count courses that you take after you already completed your bachelors degree?

[perspectives]

Do all schools take an average of your 2nd year courses to fulfill the final 5 courses? (assuming for a university student on a typical path)

[try]

Thanks for the quick reply. I also have another question.

I emailed the schools but only UWO responded back, but my question is about courses that are repeated a second time. Do you know if they count repeated courses as long as its within the last 20 courses? UWO said they do count it as long as its in the final 20 courses, but I'm just wondering if the other schools are the same.

 

To add to that, do they count courses that you take after you already completed your bachelors degree?

 

Yes all schools count repeated courses including the first mark and the second mark that you obtained as long as they fall within your last 60 credits. It is ORPAS that does the GPA calculations, not the individual schools so you will have one subGPA that will be the same for all 4 ORPAS schools. And yes, any courses that you take beyond your degree count towards your last 60 credits.

[try]

Do all schools take an average of your 2nd year courses to fulfill the final 5 courses? (assuming for a university student on a typical path)

 

Yes they do, ORPAS does this for them.

[wolf30]

I dropped out of a course at athabasca during the summer after 1 month, however those bastards decided to leave me with a "W" on my transcript. Do I need to put them down on my application form or can I just leave it out since I dropped out of the course? Will the W hurt my calculated GPA?

[try]

I dropped out of a course at athabasca during the summer after 1 month, however those bastards decided to leave me with a "W" on my transcript. Do I need to put them down on my application form or can I just leave it out since I dropped out of the course? Will the W hurt my calculated GPA?

 

I would say no they would not because you didn't complete the course and it was likely dropped before a final date where an actual grade appears on the transcript and no value is given for the W, whereas an F would be 0. Its really weird that they would put it there. I would first contact Athabasca to see if they can remove it and if not, contact ORPAS just to ensure they don't count it as an F or something. I doubt they will though. Btw, what English course was it that you took? I'm thinking about taking ENG 155.

[wolf30]

thank you for the reply. Once again, I ended up calling them yesterday and they said no I do not need to include it. Thank god for that! Athabasca university has a dumb policy whereby if you drop a course after 1 month they put an automatic "Withdrawal" on your transcript. If you drop it before 1 month, then nothing appears. You have until the date that you submit your final assignment or 6 months to drop a course if I remember correctly. Either way athabasca was a terrible university. See my previous thread on them. I took eng 255, stay the hell away from that course!