Hello,

I'm making this thread because it seems questions about taking Athabasca courses to get reinstated into the social science program are only in closed threads.

I have read the reinstatement page of McMaster's Faculty of Social Sciences at https://socialsciences.mcmast er.ca.../reinstatement. It states that you must take courses that are numbered 200 from Athabasca University. I wanted to err on the side of caution and check if it is literally only courses in Social Sciences that have the program code 200 that can be taken or any courses in the are of study of social sciences in the 200s. I ask because if taken literally there is only a few courses with the program code of only 200 under the "area of study" category of social sciences at Athabasca. When I examined my options it seems some of the few courses I have not yet taken with the 200 program code include Envrionmental Studies (http://www.athabascau.ca/syllabi/envs/envs200.php), World Regional Geography (http://www.athabascau.ca/syllabi/geog/geog200.php), Educational Psychology (http://www.athabascau.ca/syllabi/edpy/edpy200.php) and Feminist Research and Women's lives-Women's and Gender Studies (http://www.athabascau.ca/syllabi/wgst/wgst200.php). I also ask because there are interesting courses that I would like to take in the 200s but not sure if they would be acknowledged for reinstatement purposes, such as, INST 203 Indigenious Studies I or INTR 230 Globalization and World Politics.

Am I on the right track? Has anyone taken Athabasca courses for reinstatement into social sciences and succeeded in the reinstatement process? Does anyone have advice on courses that have been acknowledged by McMaster from Athabasca?

I tried asking this question to the department of Social Sciences McMaster. The correspondence went as follows:
To whom it may concern,

I have some questions regarding the reinstatement process I read on the Faculty of Social Scienes Reinstatement webpage:https://socialsciences.mcmast er.ca.../reinstatement. I would like to know if the courses I can apply for to use as my two distance education courses from Athabasca University must only start with 200 or can they be in the 200s? For example, would ANTH 275-Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (http://www.athabascau.ca/syllabi/anth/anth275.php) be acceptable? Do you have any specific courses you can recommend from Athabasca University that I may take as part of the reinstatement process?

Their reply:

As the Reinstatement information indicates, the only requirement is that you take two Social Sciences courses and that you do not repeat any courses that you may have already taken at McMaster. Also, you must be careful not to take courses at Athabasca that are considered high school equivalents; always check with Athabasca to make sure that the courses you intend on taking are university level courses.

Other than that, we cannot make any recommendations, as you will have to decide for yourself which courses to take.


Regards,

Melanie
Administrative Assistant
********************* *********
Faculty of Social Sciences
Office of the Associate Dean
McMaster University
KTH-129

Their reply did not answer my questions and quite frankly a cold, if not condescending, reply typical of good ol' McMaster bureacracy. I also inquired with Athabasca via phone and email and they confirmed to me that the courses I intend on applying for are all university level and not high school equivalents. I'm having doubts that the staff at McMaster know much about the Athabasca University that they recommend for returning students.

I would really appreciate any relevant input about selecting courses from Athabasca for reinstatement into the social sciences.

Thanks in advance.

INTR 230 uses the exact same textbook as Mac's POLISCI 2I03, so that should count as a social sciences 200 series class. So it seems obvious that you can take any 200-series class, not just ones with an exactly 200 course code!

Thanks for the feedback. It helps. I'm just wondering now....when did Athabasca become McMaster's sister university? It seems students are using online courses from Athabasca as equivalent courses in lieu of McMaster courses for their programs. Are some students, for example, are taking courses from Athabasca-if the credits earned will be transferable to MacMaster-to fast track or even meet a program's requirements? It may be a useful strategy if a course you need or like doesn't fit your schedule or became full but available in Athabasca.

Also for anyone wondering, Athabasca courses are expensive. First you pay an enrollment fee of $150 to the university. Afterward, you have to pay for your individual courses. When I registered each of my courses costed $796. At least the fees included the course materials.

That doesn't seem to be much of a price difference compared to Mac, per unit. As for taking that global politics course, btw, I'd recommend you take Busser's 2I03 at Mac instead because he's a brilliant lecturer.