snazij Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 I am not sure if I qualify for the weighted GPA or not. I am currently in my fourth year of UG. I've taken five courses (0.5 credits each) each semester...however, in my second semester of first year I only took four courses (0.5 credits each). The other 0.5 credit I completed in the summer. On the UofT website it says that I need three years of full time studies to qualify for the weighted GPA. So what I'm wondering is, does the fact that I only took four courses in one semester disqualify me? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 I believe it does disqualify you, unfortunately. Toronto's wGPA formula is great but only if you took a full course load every year. In your case, you only have 2 years of full time studies (current 4th year doesn't count). Someone else might want to confirm what I'm saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD2B2019 Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 As I understand, 5 courses each semester is must for TorontoU, Western Ontario, etc. Queen's only need 3 as I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 As I understand, 5 courses each semester is must for TorontoU, Western Ontario, etc. Queen's only need 3 as I know. I don't believe it has to be 5 courses each semester. As long as you end up finishing off the Sept-Apr school year with 5 full course equivalents, you should be okay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruhh Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 The rule is as follows: At any university on a credit granting basis, 28 credits worth of schoolwork will count as full-courseload and qualifies for wGPA criteria as long as your total Full-Year-Equivalent of courses comes to 4.5. If you had less than 4.5 or 28 credits in any of your undergraduate years you are disqualified for wGPA. Summer courses are not counted towards your academic year courseload. If you completed extra courses in another year, such as 5.5 or 6 full year equivalent courseload, you will still be disqualified. Last resort, if you have a medical or reasonable extenuating circumstances that prevented (limited) you from taking on a full courseload you CAN submit an Academic Explanation Essay to request a consideration for a weighted GPA even if you had less than full courseload. You will never be told about the decision about your special consideration essay, and you may be given full, partial, or none forgiveness for a wGPA consideration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 The rule is as follows: At any university on a credit granting basis, 28 credits worth of schoolwork will count as full-courseload and qualifies for wGPA criteria as long as your total Full-Year-Equivalent of courses comes to 4.5. If you had less than 4.5 or 28 credits in any of your undergraduate years you are disqualified for wGPA. Summer courses are not counted towards your academic year courseload. If you completed extra courses in another year, such as 5.5 or 6 full year equivalent courseload, you will still be disqualified. Last resort, if you have a medical or reasonable extenuating circumstances that prevented (limited) you from taking on a full courseload you CAN submit an Academic Explanation Essay to request a consideration for a weighted GPA even if you had less than full courseload. You will never be told about the decision about your special consideration essay, and you may be given full, partial, or none forgiveness for a wGPA consideration. This is directly from Toronto's MD admissions page: If you are applying after completing three years of university and have taken a full course load in all academic years: A GPA weighting formula may be used for students who have taken a full course load (i.e. five full credits) during the regular academic session, in each year of study. This weighting is designed to encourage students to take demanding courses which advance their education during their undergraduate years. A weighted GPA will be calculated eliminating one full-course equivalent grade per full year of study. ETA: 28 credits doesn't equate to 4.5 credits according to UofT. That's just how OMSAS converts it when you enter 28 credits. 28 credits is really over 4.5 credits. OP is saying they took a semester course in the summer rather than the school year which would disqualify him/her unless they took 6 courses in the other semester that year. From Toronto's FAQ: 9) I attend a university that operates on a 30-credit system. What counts as a full course load? A full course load would be 28 credits or higher in the regular academic session. 10) I took 28 credits, but when I enter my courses on OMSAS, they are counted as 4.5 credits. Will I lose the weighting formula? No. The Admissions Office reviews the university transcript and checks the actual number of credits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruhh Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 This is directly from Toronto's MD admissions page: If you are applying after completing three years of university and have taken a full course load in all academic years: A GPA weighting formula may be used for students who have taken a full course load (i.e. five full credits) during the regular academic session, in each year of study. This weighting is designed to encourage students to take demanding courses which advance their education during their undergraduate years. A weighted GPA will be calculated eliminating one full-course equivalent grade per full year of study. ETA: 28 credits doesn't equate to 4.5 credits according to UofT. That's just how OMSAS converts it when you enter 28 credits. 28 credits is really over 4.5 credits. OP is saying they took a semester course in the summer rather than the school year which would disqualify him/her unless they took 6 courses in the other semester that year. From Toronto's FAQ: 9) I attend a university that operates on a 30-credit system. What counts as a full course load? A full course load would be 28 credits or higher in the regular academic session. 10) I took 28 credits, but when I enter my courses on OMSAS, they are counted as 4.5 credits. Will I lose the weighting formula? No. The Admissions Office reviews the university transcript and checks the actual number of credits. I get what you're getting at, but it sounds like 28 credits would be sufficient even if you truly had only 4.5 full courses. For example, my uni operates on a 30-credit system and I did have 30 credits last year but I only had 9 half year coures (4.5) so it shouldn't have to do with OMSAS but rather just the number of credits according to what #9 says there in your quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 Yeah for sure! Some universities do indeed pack more credits into a smaller time frame (mine included). This definitely applies to 30 credit universities where 6 credit courses are typically considered "full year courses" which Toronto counts as 1 credit. The way I see it, 30/6 = 5. 28/6 = 4.67 which is considered a full year because it's really over 4.5. But based on OP's post, it sounds like they took five 0.5 credit courses one semester and four 0.5 credit courses the other semester, not operating on the 30 credit system, which would disqualify them (think of it as 27 credits using the 30 credit system). The issue is with the number of credits, not so much how the credits were divided over the courses/time frame Sorry if my initial post was confusing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 I don't believe it has to be 5 courses each semester. As long as you end up finishing off the Sept-Apr school year with 5 full course equivalents, you should be okay. yup! Allows for more interesting combinations at times. Of course some schools have courses worth more than 0.5 credits as well. I should add that coop throws another wrinkle in there as you can actually still get away with doing things outside of Sept to Apr in some cases. All this is credit stuff based on the US system where the concept of a course is not quite a firm - credits are what matters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
011235813 Posted December 11, 2014 Report Share Posted December 11, 2014 I took 30 credits during my first year, but it was slightly off-balanced (12 credits in fall, 18 credits in winter). But on my transcript, it doesn't distinguish between fall and winter. For every course it just says F/W before it. I should be OK then, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArchEnemy Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 I took 30 credits during my first year, but it was slightly off-balanced (12 credits in fall, 18 credits in winter). But on my transcript, it doesn't distinguish between fall and winter. For every course it just says F/W before it. I should be OK then, right? You're fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 You're fine. absolutely - all this GPA stuff is based on a system where there was no such thing as semester courses - you took a full year of say Calculus for instance (or two courses for us). Ha, that is one of the reasons it seems we often have paired courses here - 2 first year physics, 2 first year chem, 2 first year calculus......... just equates to the same full year course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
positivetension Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 Does anyone know how this applies if you've transferred universities? My case is particularly confusing because I was in a co-op program, and then transferred to a non-co-op program. In every semester where I was actually enrolled in school, I took a minimum of 5 courses, in some cases 6. That said, I transferred to another university after my "3A" academic term, even though this term actually occurred between May-August. The reason I'm concerned is that "3A" would be considered the first half of my third academic year, even though I wasn't enrolled at the school anymore for the second half of my third year. I started school at my new institution the following May and every semester continued to be full courseload. So it is possible that they would consider this my "third year" and say that I only completed 5 half courses instead of the required 10. I think I definitely qualify for weighting in terms of the "spirit" of the rule (i.e., taking a heavy courseload while in school), but any guesses about what they would say to this? I've contacted them but have not yet received a reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.