Desperate for Help: Issue with ORPAS's Response about my sGPA

[PThopeful18]

So long story short if you backtrack all the course i've taken from my most recent semester to Spring/Summer of 2016, I have 19 courses in total. Now in the Fall 2015/Winter 2016 year, for some personal reasons I ended up completing only 7 courses. My train of thought was those 7 would be averaged for my 20th "course" since it goes backwards from the end of your transcript, or at worst take my summer courses from 2015 and combine those with fall/winter to have a full 9 or 10 to average from. However, what happened instead was of the 4 course that I completed in summer 2016, two counted towards my sub GPA, and two (which were my 18th and 19th courses towards my sGPA) were combined with the 7 from my fall/winter year to garner an average which applied for 3 of the 20 courses in sub GPA.

Thus instead of having 19 singular course grades and 1 "yearly" average in my GPA, I end up having 17 singular courses grades and 3 "yearly" averages dropping my sub GPA to 3.80 from 3.85. 

Can they really do that? Isn't is supposed to go backwards and not work forwards and split the courses in a term like they have with me? They just decided to split the courses in one of my terms. This is very pressing matter for me that has me really stressed

When I contacted ORPAS all they told me was they combined two of my summer courses into fall/winter because I wasn't full time with 7 courses. If anyone can help me here it will be very very appreciated

 

[EmilyPT]

It does seem strange that they would split a semester. I would have assumed the entire year from Fall 2016 to Summer 2016 would have been averaged. For me, the only courses where GPA was counted individually were the ones I took between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017 (11 courses). I also took 4 courses in Summer 2016, and only took 6 courses in Fall 2015/Winter 2016, but my entire year from Fall 2015 to Summer 2016 was averaged to make up the 9 remaining courses, not split like in your case. Adding two of your summer courses to the 7 fall/winter courses doesn't even sum to a full year, so I'm stumped. Sorry I can't be more helpful!

[BecomingAnOT]

Maybe check how the subGPA is calculated for each of the school you applied for and tell ORPAS what each site says (assuming they are calculated the same) ? 

For example this is what UofT has on their site:
Will my summer courses be counted separately or as part of my fall/winter average?
If you took eight courses or more in the preceding fall/winter terms, summer courses are counted as their own average.

If you took 7 courses or fewer in the preceding fall/winter terms, your summer courses are combined with your preceding fall/winter courses for one total average. For example, if you took 7 courses in your second year, and then 1 course the following summer, the 7 courses in the second year and the 1 course in the summer would be added together for one weighted average.

I'm assuming this is how they should calculate your 20th course, as you said. 

Maybe you can tell orpas what the site said? 

[d.m]

15 minutes ago, BecomingAnOT said:

Maybe check how the subGPA is calculated for each of the school you applied for and tell ORPAS what each site says (assuming they are calculated the same) ? 

For example this is what UofT has on their site:
Will my summer courses be counted separately or as part of my fall/winter average?
If you took eight courses or more in the preceding fall/winter terms, summer courses are counted as their own average.

If you took 7 courses or fewer in the preceding fall/winter terms, your summer courses are combined with your preceding fall/winter courses for one total average. For example, if you took 7 courses in your second year, and then 1 course the following summer, the 7 courses in the second year and the 1 course in the summer would be added together for one weighted average.

I'm assuming this is how they should calculate your 20th course, as you said. 

Maybe you can tell orpas what the site said? 

It wouldn't hurt to contact a second representative. While I realize that seeing 3.8 instead of 3.85 might feel like a total shock, I must say that you have an excellent subGPA. Even if you end up being stuck with the 3.8... you should be proud of yourself. You are a competitive candidate and adcoms will see that. 

[Rehab4Life]

On 2018-02-07 at 5:46 PM, d.m said:

It wouldn't hurt to contact a second representative. While I realize that seeing 3.8 instead of 3.85 might feel like a total shock, I must say that you have an excellent subGPA. Even if you end up being stuck with the 3.8... you should be proud of yourself. You are a competitive candidate and adcoms will see that. 

3.80 to 3.85 is a massive jump when it comes to PT applications, and could be the difference between getting in or not to UofT/Western/Mac, as their cutoffs last year were around 3.81-3.83. 

[NorthernOntarioGal]

Based off what BecomingAnOT said, I would at least ask to have your two highest marks of the spring semester be counted as the individual ones, since this whole system seems like a lottery anyways. Also I second getting a second opinion. My condolences though, that is a huge difference in GPA