Jits101 Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 Hi Guys, I've hit a real roadblock in life due to my age (30 this year) and extremely poor performance in my undergrad many years ago. I decided to return to school to pursue medicine and most likely will still pursure it. With that being said I just want to be sure I weigh out every option available before I make my decisions. For medicine, there is a thread that states every Canadian schools academic requirements and policies (eg. will take 2nd degree gpa, lowest year dropped, 10 year exclusion rule, etc.) The link is below: http://premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47067 Is there something similar to this available for Canadian dental schools? It seems as though the information for dentistry is harder to come across. Would anyone be able to point me to a link? or mention schools that do consider more recent years of study as opposed to every class every taken. Any info would be greatly appreciated and extremely helpful. Regards, Rubin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rommel Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 I am in the exact same boat as you only one year older. The problem with dental school is it does not care about much except if you are using it as a back up for med school which probably 50% of the acceptancees are. WIth regards to 2nd degree....in the states forget it because they are stupid and would rather take someone with a cGPA of B+ than a person with a second degree of an A+. In Canada please tell me if you find more info because I would like to know. UBC - will use 2nd degree exclusively but I need to confirm this because I have no idea why i didn't get an interview based on my DAT and 2nd degree GPA (I am in my last year so technically they only had 1 year to work with so that may be why) McGill - exclusively 2nd degree as long as you have > 54 units applying with Sask - best 2 years so YES UWO - best 2 years so YES Toronto - exclusively 2nd degree and I don't know the requirements on amount of units because the lady told me they also drop lowest year which doesn't make sense since second degrees are typically only 2 years. Dalhousie - No idea Manitoba - Don't think so Calgary - No BUT you can write a letter for special consideration to ignore certain sessions so it may be possible to convince the committee in this case Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jits101 Posted January 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Hey Rommel thanks alot for this post! I really appreciate the info.. I'll keep digging around and see if we can come up with a more complete list, but I think you pretty much got it. When you say your 2nd degree is only 2 years, does that mean that courses from your 1st degree were carried over for credits towards your 2nd degree? And does this mean that if you had bad grades in your first degree, that those grades would be used in the calculation for your 2nd degree GPA. When I returned to school to do pre reqs I returned as an unclassified student and took pre reqs and other random classes (49 credits worth with about an 86% avg), but I'm wondering if there is a point in completing a second degree. Do you have any thoughts on this?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rommel Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Ok so the "undesignated year" is only useful for schools that consider this. From the top of my head wester is the only one that lets you take 1 unclassified year - they refer to it as a 'special year'....I don't think they let 2 of these to be used in calculations in your applying GPA. So that 'year' will be used on its own in combination with your other years. The only benefit to doing a second degree is some schools will "only" look at your second degree if it is within their policy to do so...So the second degree is useless if your first degree has a good GPA which will be calculated. Beware because some schools require any calculated year to be part of an Honours program so in that case it also would not count. To answer your question about the combining GPA's your second degree if it is used is calculated on its own and not in combination with the first. McMaster to be specific and probably the others have a separate cum GPA on your transcript for your second degree. Since you did a random year it probably is getting lumped in with your other years + dropping lowest etc... I have a teachers college year and that is not used for many schools as well since it doesn't fit in with their criteria. A big problem is they don't come across people like us very often so they never had to adjust the policies...which you may have wondered why they calculate an 8 year cum GPA when everyone is applying with 3 or 4...the "drop 1 year" is because everyone applies with less than 4 years....technically they should say "best 3 years in that case because that is what they are aiming towards. Sask will probably consider that year for you since they are a "best 2" school. Just beware of them...Out of province last year to get an interview was 89.6 so my 88.8 was useless lol....but again they are more lenient which which years you apply with. So your target if you do a second degree is McGill, Western, Toronto, (BC but I am waiting on a confirmation on that as I mentioned)...and Calgary if you get lucky with the letter working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jits101 Posted January 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Rommel, Thank you so much for taking the time to give me this info. It has really opened up my eyes and allowed me to really think about what I wanna do. I hope everything goes good for you and u get into the program you want. Sounds like you really deserve it. All the best to you. Rubin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dentcan2012 Posted January 28, 2013 Report Share Posted January 28, 2013 I have been trying to get a straight answer for this for quite awhile, Im hoping you can help me out! for UWO... i have a 4 year degree done + a special year at a universtiy I just started a 2nd degree at another university I am wondering if for best 2 years they would allow the special 5th year + 1st year of a new degree Would they consider this? I am confused if they would mix years like that If you could clarify this, that would be beyond helpful! Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rommel Posted January 28, 2013 Report Share Posted January 28, 2013 Yes I believe that is ok. UWO does not care if they go between different degrees. They only specify it should be part of a "program" so ie. some honours program to be safe.... the special year is ok as well to my understanding. For my situation the only reason I am finishing my second degree is because the only candidate year over 80% is my teachers college year which does not count. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drone117 Posted February 27, 2013 Report Share Posted February 27, 2013 Hello Rommel, Is it 54 credits or 45? For med, it's 45 I believe. Thanks . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rommel Posted February 27, 2013 Report Share Posted February 27, 2013 54 for McGill? I think I made a mistake... it is 45 or whatever...1.5 years I think it works out to be. but beware. I did not receive an interview and I have no idea why because my second degree years are 3.9ish. She hasn't answered the phone yet so I have no idea what they used if they did it properly or not. Just make sure you ace your second degree to keep any hopeful option open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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