Low UG GPA and more complications- Canadian

[Misty92]

To make a long story short my UG GPA is pretty low. After UG I went to an offshore medical school where I did very well (however those marks won't be taken into account for grad school admission), I only attended the first two years when I decided this pathway wasn't for me.I would really like to pursue  a Masters in Science at a Canadian institution, but I know I don't have the marks. I looked into UofT where they take the last 10 credits, which is great since I really don't mind taking 10 new science courses. 

 

I want to know is whether schools like UofT really just look at the last 10 courses and how much it would overall GPA affect me. 

[Loric]

What do you mean.. take?

 

I think you're misunderstanding transfer of credit with wanting to see your transcripts - your full transcripts.

 

They want to see every school you've ever attended, even if you didn't get any grades from the school. They even want the paperwork saying you didn't receive grades. Seriously, I've had the "Why am I looking at a blank piece of paper for you transcript?" conversation with every grad school I've applied to and/or been accepted to - because they ask for all the paperwork. I went to an undergraduate school for all of a few weeks right after high school - it has no grades or even courses listed.. just that I attended and left.

 

What you seem to think has no bearing, will have a bearing from everything I understand about graduate programs.

 

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[Loric]

And for the record - I'm not at all saying "Don't bother."

 

You just need to craft your application materials to make this look good for you.. somehow. That part is up to you.

[TakeruK]

I think what the OP might mean is that for many MSc programs in Canada, they will mostly (or only, depending on particular schools) consider the most recent X credits of courses in your relevant field for computing your admission average. The school will still want to see all of your transcripts and grades for all of your post-secondary schools, though.

 

Since credits mean a lot of different things at different schools, I found that most of the programs I applied to will generally compute your admission average (for competition purposes) based on your grades for all the upper level courses (3rd and 4th year courses) relevant to your field*. 

 

*"relevant to your field" for me (Astronomy MSc) would have meant all of my Physics, Astronomy, and Math courses. Not sure what that would mean for you, though.
 

If your last completed degree is a BSc, then they will mostly care about your BSc grades, not so much your offshore medical school grades. Also, if you attend a school as an unclassified student just to take 10 science courses, it might help if you do really well, but I think they will still consider your BSc grades in determining your admission average. However, since by the time you apply to grad school, your BSc would be long behind you, the committee would likely care about both your actual admission average and how your grades have changed over time. That is, doing well in the 10 extra science classes would show the committee that you are serious about improving your studies and are capable of doing better than you did in undergrad. There is no way to completely erase the past though. 

[Caylynn]

TakeruK is correct.  Most of the programs I'm applying to (all in Canada) will look at my most recent 2 years to compute my admissions average (so third and fourth year if they were full-time, if not, they go back as far as they need to in order to get the same numbers of courses that you would normally take in 2 years).  In my field, they don't really care what level those courses were or which courses they were - although they do assume everyone is following a "typical" course sequence for a Dietitians of Canada accredited program.  A few programs also look at your grades in specific courses, such as statistics and research methods (they want to see at least a 75% in those courses, in the past three years, and if you don't have that, your application will be thrown out).

 

The programs won't look at the third and fourth year courses I took in second year, even though they are relevant to my field, because they weren't taken in the past two year full-time equivalent.  Yet they will include the unrelated first year required course I had to take in third year (a ridiculous first year computer course that is required to graduate, but has nothing to do with nutrition or dietetics).  That's just the way things work. 

[Misty92]

Thank-you for the information. 

 

I have been thinking and I think other than GPA my next biggest factor will be to show dedication to the field. The information Caylynn has been provided has  been what I have been told from some of the grad school admission officers. Its last ten credits regardless of degree status. So if I take 6 credits now, they will go back and take the last 4 credits after that fact. 

 

Either way I need to show dedication to the field so I have been focused on that aspect, so I will be heading back to undergrad to work on that.