hastilyhastingsOT Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 Hey guys, just wondering if people would be willing to talk about their experience with athabasca U? I am planning on upgrading my GPA for the 2018 intake, I am already taking a full spring/summer term but even with straight A's, my GPA isn't where I want it to be yet so that brings me to athabascaU as an option, here are some of my questions: - if I start in the fall, would I be finished and my grades counted by intake? - should I start in the summer instead, so that way I for sure will have 6 months to complete before intake? - what are some courses that you guys have taken that have interested you/related to OT? Thank you so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OThopeful18 Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 For OT, any course completed by December 31st of 2017 will be counted towards your gpa for 2018 intake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PT21 Posted May 4, 2017 Report Share Posted May 4, 2017 Hey guys, just wondering if people would be willing to talk about their experience with athabasca U? I am planning on upgrading my GPA for the 2018 intake, I am already taking a full spring/summer term but even with straight A's, my GPA isn't where I want it to be yet so that brings me to athabascaU as an option, here are some of my questions: - if I start in the fall, would I be finished and my grades counted by intake? - should I start in the summer instead, so that way I for sure will have 6 months to complete before intake? - what are some courses that you guys have taken that have interested you/related to OT? Thank you so much! Hey, I just finished several courses through Athabasca in the fall semester and so I'll share with you my experiences. Like you, I wanted to upgrade a few courses in order to bring up my GPA to a competitive level for this year to apply to PT programs. I decided that I wanted to take online classes mostly because I was too proud to just go back to my university where I completed my undergrad, which I now realize was wrong. I decided to take 2 courses through Athabasca, a nutrition class because I'm really interested in it and an anatomy and physiology course because I needed it as a prerequisite. Long story short, I wish I didn't take these classes. There was basically no instruction in either class so you have to teach yourself all of the content. There are also so many hidden fees on top of the expensive tuition fees that they don't tell you about. For example, all exams you have to take through them must be invigilated, which most of the time you have to pay about $50 for (In the anatomy and physiology class, there were 3 exams so I had to pay $50 each time just to be able to write it). Furthermore, if you have to retake an exam in order to ensure that you get an A on each one, then there is a supplemental exam fee of $150 dollars. I also found it very difficult to receive help from their "academic experts" when I needed a question answered. Most of the time they basically told me to just read the textbook and figure it out myself, which is absolutely outrageous and, in my opinion, not how any educator should be. I know that some students do well without any instruction or guidelines of what they should be studying but thats definitely not one of my strengths. With all that being said, I did finish both classes and managed to grind out an A+ and an A-. It also brought up my GPA enough that I was accepted into the UBC MPT program this year, however, I still wish that I didn't do these upgrading classes through AU. In my opinion, it would have saved me a lot of time, money, and effort if I had just gone back to my university and taken easier GPA boosters. However, if you have no other options and must take courses through AU then it is definitely possible to grind it out and get good marks, it just may end up costing lots of money and take lots of time and effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hastilyhastingsOT Posted May 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2017 Hey PT21, I appreciate the feedback and congrats on your acceptance! I am still pretty on the fence about AU, i've heard a lot of mixed reviews which were mostly on the negative side.... it seems like a hit or miss with the tutors you receive which is pretty scary considering what we are trying to accomplish. I am highly motivated and I believe I would be able to finish it within the frame of mid August - November, do you think that is possible? What was the time frame that you finished it in? I'm thinking of taking two courses as well Also, I do have the opportunity just to do online courses through my university, as I applied as a special student and it apparently carries on to the upcoming fall year. It seems like it would be about the same price as AU, maybe a little more expensive but the quality of instructors may be better and I would be on a fixed time line instead of stressing myself over booking exams and pressuring my tutor to finish marking according to my own timeline... that way I would for sure have my marks done by Dec. 31/ transcripts would be easier to transfer over The only upside of AU is the wide range of courses I could take... am I just convincing myself? Probably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PT21 Posted May 4, 2017 Report Share Posted May 4, 2017 Yeah it's completely your decision and if you're motivated enough, I'm sure you could do whatever you want. If you wanted my honest opinion though, I'd just go back to your university to save the stress Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingrad16 Posted May 4, 2017 Report Share Posted May 4, 2017 Hey PT21, I appreciate the feedback and congrats on your acceptance! I am still pretty on the fence about AU, i've heard a lot of mixed reviews which were mostly on the negative side.... it seems like a hit or miss with the tutors you receive which is pretty scary considering what we are trying to accomplish. I am highly motivated and I believe I would be able to finish it within the frame of mid August - November, do you think that is possible? What was the time frame that you finished it in? I'm thinking of taking two courses as well Also, I do have the opportunity just to do online courses through my university, as I applied as a special student and it apparently carries on to the upcoming fall year. It seems like it would be about the same price as AU, maybe a little more expensive but the quality of instructors may be better and I would be on a fixed time line instead of stressing myself over booking exams and pressuring my tutor to finish marking according to my own timeline... that way I would for sure have my marks done by Dec. 31/ transcripts would be easier to transfer over The only upside of AU is the wide range of courses I could take... am I just convincing myself? Probably. To offer a contrasting opinion, I also took two AU courses and found them fairly straightforward to complete. I took a nutrition course, and a sociology course, and found both of my tutors to be extremely helpful and accessible. Yes, it's an online course so the onus is on you to complete the work, but I found them to be well laid out and provided you put in some effort, attaining an A+ is certainly manageable. I started them in September and finished them in December so they were good to go for my PT application. If you're highly motivated and you see courses you're interested in, I'd recommend them! I know for me, my home university offered much less variety in terms of course types, and I was also less sure about getting the highest grade possible. With AU courses, I felt pretty confident about doing well. But again, it is tough to stay motivated sometimes when there are no set deadlines. I'd say go for it though if you are motivated! As the previous poster stated though, there are a lot of hidden fees with the exams etc., so that is something to watch out for. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rehab-ed Posted May 9, 2017 Report Share Posted May 9, 2017 Hi there, so I would definitely agree with the above comments that there is very little guidance so it definitely helps if you're motivated and interested in the courses. I completed quite a few courses in the past summer and fall semester, although difficult, I was able to complete half courses in a month and a full credit course in about a month and a half and got A's. You need to be very organized and understand that you need to schedule exams about 20 days from date to wish to write it so your study schedule needs to be very rigid. PM if you'd like to know more or what courses I did and such, good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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