I'm in first year and I cancelled three courses first semester because of personal reasons but I'll take them again in the future. If I do well in these courses continue to do well overall, will I be able to get into graduate programs and professional schools like optometry or dentistry? I know my chances decreased but is there still a chance? :/

It is possible. It will just take you a bit longer than other people.

Look at the individual websites for the schools that you want to apply to. Some schools require a full course load, or else they won't factor in your GPA for the year. Others are fine with counting all your courses regardless of course load, and in this case you'll be fine as long as the GPA in the courses that you did continue with wasn't too bad.

when did you cancel these courses?

Because to me cancel = dropping the course after drop fdate = fail :/

However, I think you might be able to appeal the failures, please speak to your academic councilor.

Also, many graduate and professional schools give you the window thru your supplementary to

explain the failure. So defiantly not all hope is lost.

Work Hard the coming semester!

It may affect some courses you have to take next year. Not sure about graduate schools (no expert). If you are concerned speak to a Councillor

Originally Posted by Leeoku

It may affect some courses you have to take next year. Not sure about graduate schools (no expert). If you are concerned speak to a Councillor

Definitely speak to an advisor in your faculty's associate dean office as soon as you return. You may need to take some summer courses to avoid having to take a whole extra year.

You need to look up the specific schools and programs you're interested in and look at their requirements. As people have said, some schools require you to have a full courseload to count the marks, some require a full courseload for at least one year, some schools offer alternate grading schemes to students with a full courseload each year.
In most cases, applications have a section where you can explain any repeated courses/dropped courses/sketchy things on your transcript.

don't worry you can still me an optometry or dentist assistant

seriously though you should have thought about that before you cancelled the course.

I'm taking only 4 courses per term. Will that be a problem when applying to grad school?

Originally Posted by Alexmahone

I'm taking only 4 courses per term. Will that be a problem when applying to grad school?

If you never take a full courseload, then yes it might be. Again, look into the schools/programs you want and see what their requirements are.

Originally Posted by starfish

If you never take a full courseload, then yes it might be. Again, look into the schools/programs you want and see what their requirements are.

But why should they have a problem if I'm getting straight A's?

Originally Posted by Alexmahone

But why should they have a problem if I'm getting straight A's?

Because you're doing it with a reduced courseload. You have more time to spend on each course.
For example, the program I'm in now requires at least one year with a full courseload and satisfactory performance during that year, to prove that you can handle a full workload. They say that their program is very rigorous and they want to be sure potential students can handle it.

Same reason why in engineering, the number of units is also taken into account when competing for level two programs...if you took less courses, you need a higher average to make up for it.

Also, a full courseload doesn't count the summer, only fall/winter.