Upgrading Gpa For 2017 Cycle- Athabasca Online Courses

[PT21]

Hey Everyone,

 

First of all, congrats to everyone who was accepted into one of the PT or OT programs this year, it is an amazing accomplishment and you should all be very proud. I unfortunately was not one of the successful applicants and will have to wait another year and apply to the 2017 cycle. I imagine I am not the only one who will be upgrading their GPA before applying again and I was wondering if anyone could share some of the upper level online courses that anyone has taken from Athabasca University that you would recommend doing or had an easy time getting good grades in? 

 

Thanks

[PThopes13]

I took three courses form Athabasca last year. Basically I just took courses I thought would interest me because that is how I knew I would do well. 
I did Issues in Women's Health (essay course, no exam, finished the whole course in 2 months), Nutrition for Health (couple of easy assignments, easy exams), and Biological Psychology (basically neuroscience, people laughed when I said I was taking it to boost marks but I liked it, interesting assignments and pretty straightforward exam). I got 4.0 in all of the classes with not a lot of effort. 
So ya, take what you enjoy because the schools don't care. 

[marinaOT]

Hey PT21,

 

I was in a similar position to you last year. My grades were not high enough to get me in, so I decided to upgrade my marks.

 

I took two classes at Athabasca last year: Psych 228 and Math 215. I took them for 2 reasons: to boost my GPA and to complete pre-requisites for the Ottawa OT program. It looks like you're applying to PT - make sure you check any special requirements linked to upgrading courses. For eg. I know that UofT asks that applicants take 3rd or 4th year classes to upgrade: http://www.physicaltherapy.utoronto.ca/admissions/how-to-apply/#Upgrading. 

 

But anyway, about Athabasca. It was annoying, but fine. Keep in mind that their courses are usually spaced out for a 6-month term. You can do it in less time (I did) but their course timeline will be set for 6 months so you will need to condense it. You are really teaching yourself the material, for eg. reading out of a textbook or reading course notes. There is a class tutor assigned to you. I found mostly you only interacted with them to send them things to mark. I have very different experiences with each tutor. One was hard to get a hold of, the other was very accessible. One marked assignments promptly, the other did everything by the book according to the Athabasca service standards (which made things go by slower, even when I was progressing quickly). If I have any advice for you it's to read the service standards (timeline of when you need to book things, how long it takes for assignments to be marked, etc) and to organize your exams and midterms way ahead of time to give yourself peace of mind

 

Overall, I'm really thankful that I could take courses at Athabasca because it was hard for me to organize otherwise. I got a 4.0 in each class, but I also worked pretty hard. When you're upgrading you are paranoid that you will get less than an A+ so the pressure is different ;-) I also hope I never have to take another class, or fork over any more money to them! 

 

Just to compare, I also took an online course at the University of Guelph and one via the University of Alberta. the UofG course was open to undergrad students on campus as well and had a much more typical undergrad online course feeling (eg. there were discussion boards, updates from your prof, everyone did things at the same time). The University of Alberta one was a HUGE pain, because it wasn't through a distance education/continuing education arm of the school so I ended up having to pay all sorts of students fees (like I was enrolled and on campus). 

 

A bit rambling... but I hope it helps!

 

ps. I got into two schools this year, so it was totally worth it. I only wish I'd started upgrading sooner.