Hi Kwyhan!

Thanks for the vote!

First of all, I did an extra year and it didn't seem to inhibit me. I don't think schools look down upon students who do extra courses, unless it's because you didn't pass your degree or failed other courses. In fact, it may be looked upon as a good thing that you're dedicated to improve upon certain areas and get more life experiences. Whether or not you should do a fifth year is up to you. There's certainly no way for me to tell without the full picture, and even then I would give you options and not a specific answer. I never say don't apply, since it gives you experience for following times even if you don't get in.

As for what you're saying about schools only looking at your most recent two years, I'm not so sure which school you're referring to. Every school has a different weighting formula but most aggregate all your undergrad marks into a gpa. UofT gets rid of your lowest full year mark each year if you take full course loads for example. I think you should consider your gpa as a whole unless you know the specific weighting formula the school uses. If you want a specific answer you can PM me.

Hope that helped! Everyone else reading, please vote for my wedding contest! Like this post and this page!

Ahh I have a question, what program did you do in your undergrad?

Originally Posted by winter02

Ahh I have a question, what program did you do in your undergrad?

IIRC (from the other threads) Mitchell was in Kin.

Just like to chime in and say you have to be very careful about doing a fifth year to raise your GPA. Some schools don't consider any grades taken in either a) de-semestered programs (like summer school) b) non-full time semesters or (the sneakiest of all) c) courses taken while not working towards a degree. This means, if you graduate in 4 years, and take a 5th year as a "continuing student" they don't consider it.

Some schools also give incentives, such as GPA boosts, under certain circumstances. Make sure you study the OMSAS booklet if you haven't already!

http://www.ouac.on.ca/docs/omsas/b_omsas_e.pdf


In short, you should plan to apply in your fourth year, push for it and avoid the need for a fifth if at all possible.

EDIT: Also, I was a classmate of yours back in Kin...glad to see you're doing so well for yourself Mitch!

Incognitus is right about all that. You were my classmate?? Haha how random is that! Seems like ages ago... Hope you're doing well!

thank you!
Def aim for this year, but if i were to do a fifth year, you are saying i should take courses that are PREREQUISITE to my program, correct? so that it looks like i'm finishing up my program?

mitch, did you take prerequisite courses or do you mind telling me what courses you took in your fifth year?

thanks for all the replies

Sure Kwyhan,

If you are in a 4 year program, you should take all prerequisites so that you can complete that degree in 4 years. Extra courses after that can help fill prerequisites for medschools or add to your gpa in some cases. I completed my kin degree in 4 years. After that, I had many options. I decided my main focus should be to expand my options by applying to the United States; I did not consider boosting my gpa a huge concern. To do this, I took a full academic year of English and Physics at York. These marks didn't actually add to my gpa because I applied in the summer/fall when I just started taking them. Instead, my fourth year course marks were the extra marks added to the gpa which were not included when I applied to get in after my fourth year. I hope that makes sense!

But again, everyone is so different. My story is very different than most who get into medschool (you can read about it in previous threads). I hope it is used as a source of optimism and support for those who think you need all 4.0s and perfect ECs to get in.

Hey Mitch!

First of all, congrats! (and I liked the post and page for ya )

So just wondering, you don't recommend holding back a degree requirement in order to do a fifth year? In my case boosting my gpa is something I need to work on... Do you think schools tend to look disfavourably on completing a four year degree in five years?

thanks!

Hey Mitch, I voted! Twice Thank you unsuspecting family members who left facebook on....
Anyways when you say to read intellectual magazines as VR "prep" what magazines/newspaper/article providing services do you recommended?

Thanks for voting guys! We are in the lead which is AMAZING but we still need to distance ourselves from the pack! Please like this post, and this page if you haven't already

Animaniacs,
Look into the medschools that you want to apply to and check out their rules of doing extra years. Some include the marks in the gpa only if you're working toward a degree, some will take in all marks, and some won't take the marks at all. McMaster for example, will not incorporate marks into your gpa unless they're courses that are "degree courses". Wait until you get to that point, and decide what you need to work on. Many times I see students decide they rather have more life experiences in an extra year rather than boosting GPA. As for whether the schools look down upon extending the degree to 5 years, i'm not sure. You can always call the schools to find out. I'm tempted to say no, however most students that are accepted have done either 3 or 4 years, with the exception of grad students. I don't recall meeting many if any students who said they extended their degree. Maybe someone else has other information on this. So I think the best thing for you to do is to do one thing at a time, not worry about this right now and determine your situation with options later. I'd say it would probably be better if you didn't extend the degree, but you'll have to see when the time comes how important it is to you.

Philip,
Voting twice like a boss! Do some literature searches on Medline or pubmed (do you know how to get on there for free via Mac's library site?). Read scientific articles on interesting topics. Find copies of scientific journals like Nature (maybe in library?). Also, it doesn't hurt to read editorials like the New York Times and whatnot. The purpose is to help exercise your brain to read and comprehend faster since time is such a key aspect in the VR. Reading articles will help you get faster and reading tough journals with scientific language will help you comprehend better.

bump it up