I just finished my first year at McMaster as a HUmanities Level 1 student. I took 30 units of courses but I failed Econ 1BB3 in second semester. It was not a requirement for my program. i applied for the b.a in english because my CA was too low to get into another program. My question is how many units do i need for second year? Some people are saying 24 but others say 30. I have tried contacting someone at McMaster but no one answers and I need an answer now. I only have 27 units of courses (unless my failed course counts into the units).

If anyone could help, thanks

Originally Posted by DanielaC

I just finished my first year at McMaster as a HUmanities Level 1 student. I took 30 units of courses but I failed Econ 1BB3 in second semester. It was not a requirement for my program. i applied for the b.a in english because my CA was too low to get into another program. My question is how many units do i need for second year? Some people are saying 24 but others say 30. I have tried contacting someone at McMaster but no one answers and I need an answer now. I only have 27 units of courses (unless my failed course counts into the units).

If anyone could help, thanks

You're completely fine to get into second year with 24-30 completed units - no worries!

Hey thanks for the quick response. I just got off the phone with someone from the humanities departments (just a receptionist) and she was saying that I may not be able to get in with only 27 units.... I am confused because I live 2 hours East of Hamilton so I cannot go in for summer school either to make up the course, btw the course I failed was not a prerequisite, just an elective I decided to take

Originally Posted by DanielaC

Hey thanks for the quick response. I just got off the phone with someone from the humanities departments (just a receptionist) and she was saying that I may not be able to get in with only 27 units.... I am confused because I live 2 hours East of Hamilton so I cannot go in for summer school either to make up the course, btw the course I failed was not a prerequisite, just an elective I decided to take

I got into second-year in a Social Science program with only 24 units, and was told that I'd just need to make up the six units prior to graduation. My cousin's in Humanities and did the same thing last year, with 27 units. As long as you've got 24 under your belt at the end of first year, that's all you need.

I can see why you're confused, though. The undergraduate calendar says "successful completion of 30 units from level I," which implies that you need to have finished 30 units to get into level II. To be on the safe side, keep trying to get in contact with an academic advisor, but I'm about 99% sure that you'll be fine to get into a level II program. I doubt they've changed it since last year.

Originally Posted by DanielaC

Hey thanks for the quick response. I just got off the phone with someone from the humanities departments (just a receptionist) and she was saying that I may not be able to get in with only 27 units.... I am confused because I live 2 hours East of Hamilton so I cannot go in for summer school either to make up the course, btw the course I failed was not a prerequisite, just an elective I decided to take

To be considered a full time student, you need at least 80% of a course load, which is 24 units. Don't worry, 27 is enough. You're just gonna have to take an extra elective at some point.

Although if you wanted to do summer school to improve your CA, or to make up for the lost units, you could probably do it, it would just be a very long train/bus ride. I live in Pickering and I'm still doing summer school

Originally Posted by Eternal Fire

To be considered a full time student, you need at least 80% of a course load, which is 24 units. Don't worry, 27 is enough. You're just gonna have to take an extra elective at some point.

Although if you wanted to do summer school to improve your CA, or to make up for the lost units, you could probably do it, it would just be a very long train/bus ride. I live in Pickering and I'm still doing summer school

Thank you I hope you're right because I was planning to take an extra course next year to make up for my failed elective. I am still going to speak with an academic adviser, still good to be on the safe side.

Originally Posted by alh24

I got into second-year in a Social Science program with only 24 units, and was told that I'd just need to make up the six units prior to graduation. My cousin's in Humanities and did the same thing last year, with 27 units. As long as you've got 24 under your belt at the end of first year, that's all you need.

I can see why you're confused, though. The undergraduate calendar says "successful completion of 30 units from level I," which implies that you need to have finished 30 units to get into level II. To be on the safe side, keep trying to get in contact with an academic advisor, but I'm about 99% sure that you'll be fine to get into a level II program. I doubt they've changed it since last year.

Thanks hopefully it's the same for this year too!! Because the woman I spoke to seemed unsure herself, I still emailed an academic adviser, just to be safe though. Although I am still a tad bit scared, she said they would have to look at my grades to see if they are enough. I mean, I meet all the other requirements except that I failed one course...

Originally Posted by DanielaC

Thanks hopefully it's the same for this year too!! Because the woman I spoke to seemed unsure herself, I still emailed an academic adviser, just to be safe though. Although I am still a tad bit scared, she said they would have to look at my grades to see if they are enough. I mean, I meet all the other requirements except that I failed one course...

I'm not sure why she would have said they need to look at your grades - as though they don't do that already when you apply to a program. She sounds like she was pretty unsure, you're right.

Even if you can't get into the program for some reason, shadowing it will be no problem. Just take all of the required courses for a level II English student, and at the end of the year when you've completed all of the units, apply to level III. People do it all the time when they're short on a couple requirements. If there's a course you need to take that requires registration in level II English, e-mail the professors or the department - they're almost always willing to grant you permission to take it if you're shadowing the program.