Originally Posted by manap3000

but pauly d, some programs require a certain average in chemistry, not just obtaining the credit.noob.

No shit sherlock? How hard is it to get a 7 in another university/online course? All marks are translated to mac's grade scale.

Originally Posted by HerbalMeds

No shit sherlock? How hard is it to get a 7 in another university/online course? All marks are translated to mac's grade scale.

no they're not, they just count as completion of the course.noob.

Originally Posted by manap3000

no they're not, they just count as completion of the course.noob.

I can't tell if you're purposely being stupid.

In any case, on your transcript they're seen as completed. But Mac requires you to send the transcript from the institution where you took the course, and keep your mark from there on file, according to faculty advisers. Thus, they look at your transcript from said university.noob.

Originally Posted by HerbalMeds

I can't tell if you're purposely being stupid.

In any case, on your transcript they're seen as completed. But Mac requires you to send the transcript from the institution where you took the course, and keep your mark from there on file, according to faculty advisers. Thus, they look at your transcript from said university.noob.

can someone clarify? im pretty sure mac is not going to take whatever average you got from athabasca university into consideration when applying for second year programs. It gives other students an unfair advantage, credits from other uni's only count as completion of the credit im pretty sure.

Originally Posted by manap3000

can someone clarify? im pretty sure mac is not going to take whatever average you got from athabasca university into consideration when applying for second year programs. It gives other students an unfair advantage, credits from other uni's only count as completion of the credit im pretty sure.

Nope, they don't just count as completion. They take your marks into consideration as well. I've met with advisers many times to confirm this, and this is how it is.

There's a loophole in every system. In high school, it was take courses in night school/private school/summer school, since no University cared where you took them, just the marks.

And this is the loophole for University. It doesn't work everywhere though, for example, lots of postbac schools won't count your grade from summer school courses in the GPA calculation. Which works out in our benefit as well Take hard courses in the summer and take the credit while not having the mark count for GPA calculations. On the other hand, should you take courses on a Letter of Perm during the school year, the marks are counted for those postbac schools.

There's many, many loopholes, you just need time to find them out

Originally Posted by HerbalMeds

Nope, they don't just count as completion. They take your marks into consideration as well. I've met with advisers many times to confirm this, and this is how it is.

There's a loophole in every system. In high school, it was take courses in night school/private school/summer school, since no University cared where you took them, just the marks.

And this is the loophole for University. It doesn't work everywhere though, for example, lots of postbac schools won't count your grade from summer school courses in the GPA calculation. Which works out in our benefit as well Take hard courses in the summer and take the credit while not having the mark count for GPA calculations. On the other hand, should you take courses on a Letter of Perm during the school year, the marks are counted for those postbac schools.

There's many, many loopholes, you just need time to find them out

This is exactly what I was told last year by one of the academic advisors in the Science office. It's like transfer credits. For example, if you don't get above a 60% in the course, even though it's completed, they wouldn't accept it. As for the completion, that's only towards your Mac transcripts/Mac degree. If you apply to a Master's/PhD or post-bacc programs, they ask for all transcripts from all schools where you've taken courses.

Originally Posted by HerbalMeds

Nope, they don't just count as completion. They take your marks into consideration as well. I've met with advisers many times to confirm this, and this is how it is.

There's a loophole in every system. In high school, it was take courses in night school/private school/summer school, since no University cared where you took them, just the marks.

And this is the loophole for University. It doesn't work everywhere though, for example, lots of postbac schools won't count your grade from summer school courses in the GPA calculation. Which works out in our benefit as well Take hard courses in the summer and take the credit while not having the mark count for GPA calculations. On the other hand, should you take courses on a Letter of Perm during the school year, the marks are counted for those postbac schools.

There's many, many loopholes, you just need time to find them out

This is part of why University is so stupid and it pisses me off.

If you want to go ahead and use the loopholes to your advantage, who am I to tell you otherwise? Good for you.

But you can't disagree that it lessens the value of the work in courses completed during the year.

It's like, you do well in a difficult course during the year and everyone else gets the same mark with half the effort by taking it in the summer or online or whatever.

Or you go into a program with tons of electives (i.e., Life Science) and you're set with mostly 11s and 12s with no work, compared to another science program (e.g., Chemical Biology) where you get owned because you're taking 9 or 10 difficult courses in the year. But they're both science programs and people don't seem to realize how different those are.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

This is part of why University is so stupid and it pisses me off.

If you want to go ahead and use the loopholes to your advantage, who am I to tell you otherwise? Good for you.

But you can't disagree that it lessens the value of the work in courses completed during the year.

It's like, you do well in a difficult course during the year and everyone else gets the same mark with half the effort by taking it in the summer or online or whatever.

Or you go into a program with tons of electives (i.e., Life Science) and you're set with mostly 11s and 12s with no work, compared to another science program (e.g., Chemical Biology) where you get owned because you're taking 9 or 10 difficult courses in the year. But they're both science programs and people don't seem to realize how different those are.

Don't hate on our program

lol sorry the thread title reminded me of this:

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

This is part of why University is so stupid and it pisses me off.

If you want to go ahead and use the loopholes to your advantage, who am I to tell you otherwise? Good for you.

But you can't disagree that it lessens the value of the work in courses completed during the year.

It's like, you do well in a difficult course during the year and everyone else gets the same mark with half the effort by taking it in the summer or online or whatever.

Or you go into a program with tons of electives (i.e., Life Science) and you're set with mostly 11s and 12s with no work, compared to another science program (e.g., Chemical Biology) where you get owned because you're taking 9 or 10 difficult courses in the year. But they're both science programs and people don't seem to realize how different those are.

And this is the reason I'm utilizing said loopholes.

Some kids enrolled in Life Sciences and are set with good grades, while others in more specialized areas are boned.

Wanna know my major reason for taking summer/online courses? Mark distributions.

I can take a course at Mac where the marks are distributed 40% midterm 60% exam, where the lecturer is terrible (this happens more in the science faculty than any other I've noticed) and they get worse as you progress from 2nd-4th year, and finally the actual lectures + resources available are absolute shit. Most of my 4th year courses at Mac have slides with just pictures, no words, and usually no book either. Past exams/tests? Don't think so. Recorded lectures? Rofl never gonna happen.

And yet, I enroll online at Dalhousie, take a course at York, etc. and I have literally 100% more resources available. Recorded lectures posted first day of class, slides that MAKE SENSE and aren't just pictures of useless shit, and mark distributions spread over WEEKLY assignments, quizzes/tests/etc. No need for all-or-nothing.

That's the reason why I'm taking my harder courses outside of Mac. Maybe that's why I think they're easier too...just because of the mark breakdown + resources available.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

This is part of why University is so stupid and it pisses me off.

If you want to go ahead and use the loopholes to your advantage, who am I to tell you otherwise? Good for you.

But you can't disagree that it lessens the value of the work in courses completed during the year.

It's like, you do well in a difficult course during the year and everyone else gets the same mark with half the effort by taking it in the summer or online or whatever.

Or you go into a program with tons of electives (i.e., Life Science) and you're set with mostly 11s and 12s with no work, compared to another science program (e.g., Chemical Biology) where you get owned because you're taking 9 or 10 difficult courses in the year. But they're both science programs and people don't seem to realize how different those are.

yes but they said many times that you shouldn't go into those programs if your looking to get into med school(I made an assumption, please tell me if im wrong). With a degree in chemical biology at least your employable.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

This is part of why University is so stupid and it pisses me off.

If you want to go ahead and use the loopholes to your advantage, who am I to tell you otherwise? Good for you.

But you can't disagree that it lessens the value of the work in courses completed during the year.

It's like, you do well in a difficult course during the year and everyone else gets the same mark with half the effort by taking it in the summer or online or whatever.

Or you go into a program with tons of electives (i.e., Life Science) and you're set with mostly 11s and 12s with no work, compared to another science program (e.g., Chemical Biology) where you get owned because you're taking 9 or 10 difficult courses in the year. But they're both science programs and people don't seem to realize how different those are.

I agree with you, I haven't had the opportunity to take these so called loopholes and it kinda sucks that others are getting 11s/12s (in what are otherwise difficult courses throughout the year) by just breezing through it in the summer.

Unfortunately though, university has become less and less about what you actually learn and more about two things:
1) The grades you come out with from a course

and

2) Holding that degree in your hands after 4 years

So the of the $500+ we pay for courses, I feel like it goes more towards wanting to get a good grade as opposed to actually wanting to learn.

I do commend those people in really difficult programs that end up having to take really hard courses and having their GPA suffer because of that, and you're right, it's unfair that theres very little consideration for that fact.

In the end, (especially for science programs), it's all about getting high marks and being able to go on to professional school. Sad, but true...