I'm talking about courses that I would end up failing or getting a mark of 1-3 if I continued on with it. I continued on with those courses but that resulted to have my CA lowered. But I still had a high enough CA to continue on with graduation.

Did your graduation depend on CA or total amount of courses that you took?

For be the CA isn't really the only problem, but also the extra year I will have to do because of the cancellation. I'm in a 5 year program, so I don't really feel like doing 6.

Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas

How many years did you do in total?

I did 4 years, a co-op year and one extra year just to get my last credit and to take some courses for fun.

Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas

Did your graduation depend on CA or total amount of courses that you took?

For be the CA isn't really the only problem, but also the extra year I will have to do because of the cancellation. I'm in a 5 year program, so I don't really feel like doing 6.

It depended on my CA. Since my CA was too low to continue on to the 4th year Honours program, I graduated with a 3 year B.A. program instead. I was in B.A. Honours Linguistics but since that program itself has no B.A. program, I had to switched over to B.A. Geography (which was my pontential minor) because my CA was too low to continue on to 4th year B.A. Honours Linguistics

Originally Posted by pdel21

You see, here is the danger with that. People looking at your transcript will quickly come to the realization that you have a 10 average BECAUSE you cancelled a bunch of courses. This will be especially true if what is cancelled are the tougher courses on your transcript.

Also you've likely heard the expression that when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. What you are demonstrating by cancelling a bunch of courses is that when the going gets tough, you get going. And let me tell you, in grad school (MA/MSc/PhD) things can get very tough at times.

The attitude expressed by akikokoyoki is the admirable one and faculty members would be more open to a student like this, as long as they have the necessary average to get in to grad school.

I think otherwise, when you start going into the 10+ GPA's, anything under a 10 can really pull your average down, if you get 9 10's and 1 9, you still have a sub 10 average. In the case of an 8, you will need two 11's to pull that to a 10 average.

I think the GPA is a really important issue, and being very virtuous and continuing on with a low mark is a horrible idea. Even if you cancelled 4 courses in your undergrad, if you have a 10 GPA, that is much better than a person who had cancelled no courses and have a 8 GPA. The defining moment for many school's that puts you into a good student and bad student at many schools, is the 3.7 mark (10.0 gpa), it separates you from an A student to a B student.

Most Law School's, MBA's do not care how many you cancel as long as you didn't cancel like a crazy amount (+ classes), they just care how many courses you took and what grade. They won't access you and say "oh, he has a 8 GPA but cancelled nothing", they will say, you have an 8 GPA. There are also other accessment's such as standardized test scores, personal profiles that are much more important in terms of consideration than those 3-4 courses you cancelled.

This is of course coming from a commerce student, I am not sure how social sciences and other smaller graduate programs chose their grad students, but for MBA's and Law schools where their grad students number to the hundreds, I think they have better things to look at.

Law School and MBA may be different,but I can tell you for sure, if you are doing a Master's in a specific discipline where you will have a thesis supervisor, he or she WILL 100% look at your transcript and will take note of all the cancelled classes. They will likely not take you because your slew of cancelled courses will tell them that your average is inflated by the cancellations. First the cancelled course isn't counted in your average, and second when you drop one or two a term your other courses will benefit from the extra time that you should be spending on them. As I said in a previous post, it shows them that you are a quitter. They are left to think that you will quit on them when the going gets tough (and it will). These folks are investing their time and research money, and both are in limited supply. When you do quit on them, it reflects poorly on the supervisor, so trust me they make pretty careful selections for grad school.

I haven't cancelled any courses and I stand by my decision. We are at McMaster to learn and earn our degree, which includes going through hard courses. What do you learn by cancelling courses?

I believe it is better to stick it through and learn something rather than quit.

What do you learn by cancelling courses?

I learn what to expect when I take that course next year. Also I will learn more if there's a different prof next year.

Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas

I learn what to expect when I take that course next year. Also I will learn more if there's a different prof next year.

You think you're becoming a better student by cancelling tough courses?

You think you're becoming a better student by cancelling tough courses?

Yes. For the course that I dropped I learn how the course is structured and what I should do to counter my study shortcomings next time I take it.

For the courses that I didn't drop, I get better because I free my brain from everyday stress I get by thinking about the course that I'm thinking of dropping.

Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas

Yes. For the course that I dropped I learn how the course is structured and what I should do to counter my study shortcomings next time I take it.

For the courses that I didn't drop, I get better because I free my brain from everyday stress I get by thinking about the course that I'm thinking of dropping.

Interesting perspective, however, we are diverting from the thread topic so I shall stop discussing this.

Originally Posted by patriots4eva

You think you're becoming a better student by cancelling tough courses?

We will have to look at the main objectives of each student and why they are going to school. But having a course that is a 6 among many good marks, it is worth it to cancel the course and retake it.

Students should look at this with cost benefit analysis, feeling better for oneself just because you can say you did not cancel any courses or that you are "tough" doesn't register as a good benefit at least in my books or many admissions to graduate schools :/

I've cancelled 3 in total. in first year of commerce and second year I didn't give a crap to be honest, I had 11s, 10s,etc. But I also had a few grades below 5. I started to see how much happier I was when I got really high grades consistently.

Dropping a course can really help you focus on, and find what you love.

Best wishes.

But having a course that is a 6 among many good marks, it is worth it to cancel the course and retake it.

Engineering and Commerce are talking different languages right there dude.

I have been accepted into law school and 100% you are penalized for having a string of cancelled courses but only McMaster does this. U of T doesn't care and dropped courses do not show up on your transcript, same thing with York. I completed my undergrad at York after transferring there, dropping maybe 6-7 courses where I knew I could not get an A. None of them show up on my transcript, one less hassle to worry about. I know at Queens you can drop a course mid semester and it also does not show up on transcript.

I have held many conversations with law school and graduate admissions, having more than 2+ cancelled courses on your transcript is an automatic red flag for them. So for those still completing their undergrads at Mac, I would caution you to be very careful in your course selections to make sure that you don't drop a course. A higher GPA is much more important than cancelled courses/ withdrawals on your transcript, but having a lot of them will exclude you from being admitted into the top graduate schools where students are getting accepted with no cancelled/ withdrawals on their transcripts.

P.S- To all those ranting on about how you're in university to learn and should not cancel despite a low grade, you'll think again when you're left with a useless undergrad in the job market because you could not get into grad school.

Well to say that all undergrad degrees are useless is a bit of a stretch. Do you know what potential opportunities await or are attached to each degree?

Just remember that you reap what you sow. If you take courses that are not geared around skills then you'll be in a tough spot for sure. You really should be asking yourself one simple question for every course you take. That question is:

"What am I getting out of this course that a prospective future employer will value?"

If the answer is nothing, then why are you taking that course? 12s in Pop Music or Natural Disasters will get you nowhere in the job market. I'm not saying don't take a few of those for a break, but having too many courses of that nature will set you up for nothing. Decent grades in courses where some hard skills are developed will be much more useful for sure. Not saying you need 12s in those either. I know of several students who have been successful with grades lower than the A range. You just need the right suite of courses/degree and some good reference letters.