I'm a first year, and I want to drop a course this semester. I see that it's mandatory to take 30 credits this year to get into Honours Kinesiology next year. However, I'm going to be taking summer school for 6 units as well, so will I still be able to apply for Honours Kinesiology?

Secondly, will graduate schools mind if I took a course in summer school to replace this credit? How does Mac count marks from those anyway? an actual mark or pass/ fail basis?

Thirdly, I know that the deadline to drop a course was last (or the one before) Friday. If I remember correctly, it was so that the dropped course won't appear on my transcript. However, when's the deadline to drop before I get a zero by default? as well, what's so bad about having a dropped course appear on my transcript? It's only for this semester's report only anyways?!

finally, how is OSAP affected and do I have to inform certain people if I were to drop it on SOLAR?
thanks so much!

Originally Posted by Joyceyblank

I'm a first year, and I want to drop a course this semester. I see that it's mandatory to take 30 credits this year to get into Honours Kinesiology next year. However, I'm going to be taking summer school for 6 units as well, so will I still be able to apply for Honours Kinesiology?

Secondly, will graduate schools mind if I took a course in summer school to replace this credit? How does Mac count marks from those anyway? an actual mark or pass/ fail basis?

Thirdly, I know that the deadline to drop a course was last (or the one before) Friday. If I remember correctly, it was so that the dropped course won't appear on my transcript. However, when's the deadline to drop before I get a zero by default? as well, what's so bad about having a dropped course appear on my transcript? It's only for this semester's report only anyways?!

finally, how is OSAP affected and do I have to inform certain people if I were to drop it on SOLAR?
thanks so much!

No, it's not just for this term's report. It will show up on your permanent transcript, which encompasses every course you take at McMaster.

Some grad/professional schools care if you take summer courses, some don't, but what they tend to care about more is you not having a full course load. Depending on the school, it can result in your average being calculated differently or you being put at a disadvantage when it comes to ranking candidates, and some don't care as long as you have completed at least one year with a full course load. It depends entirely on the school/program you're looking at.

Many programs allow conditional acceptance, where if you're missing 3-6units of requirements you can make it up in the summer. Check with an academic advisor to make sure kin allows that.

would this "full course load" problem be solved if I take 6 courses next semester? so I still have the 10 full course load courses? then would the grad/ professional school still mind?

yes it would but you would need permission to overload and they don't let a lot of first year students do it, from what i've heard

isnt a full course load 4 courses anyways

no, it's 10 courses/ yr for us

Does grad schools care if a course shows up as "cancelled" on ur transcript???

Originally Posted by Silver

isnt a full course load 4 courses anyways

Originally Posted by Joyceyblank

no, it's 10 courses/ yr for us

Full course load=30 units for everyone except engineers

Full-time student=24 units (I think it's a bit different between what the MSU considers a full-time student compared to the university itself, but 24 units is a full-time student for both)

And yes, some grad/professional schools care. Some don't. Some only care if you've got a ton of cancelled courses.

Originally Posted by nerual

Full course load=30 units for everyone except engineers

Full-time student=24 units (I think it's a bit different between what the MSU considers a full-time student compared to the university itself, but 24 units is a full-time student for both)

And yes, some grad/professional schools care. Some don't. Some only care if you've got a ton of cancelled courses.

MSU services students with 18 or more units. I never knew the university was different.

I started this year taking 6 courses in first term (this term). I ended up dropping one and adding a different course to next term (before I had 4 courses for second term; now I have 5). I don't think it counts as overloading if you have 6 courses in one term.