I have to work full time during my undergrad so it's going to be almost impossible to carry a full sept to apr load. It would actually work out better for me to be jan. to aug. Based mainly on my work schedule but all the classes I want seem to be hard to get into.

I would like to graduate in (an) April like a normal person and cause I want to go to grad school. Law school in particular. My question is, will grad programs look down on or even disregard summer class credits and marks? I have read a few bits about the subject but I'm wondering about first hand knowledge.

Basically I need to figure out if I can take a lot of courses in the summer and still get into grad school or come to the realization that it might take me 5 years to get a 3 year degree.

Thanks

Originally Posted by darkstar

I have to work full time during my undergrad so it's going to be almost impossible to carry a full sept to apr load. It would actually work out better for me to be jan. to aug. Based mainly on my work schedule but all the classes I want seem to be hard to get into.

I would like to graduate in (an) April like a normal person and cause I want to go to grad school. Law school in particular. My question is, will grad programs look down on or even disregard summer class credits and marks? I have read a few bits about the subject but I'm wondering about first hand knowledge.

Basically I need to figure out if I can take a lot of courses in the summer and still get into grad school or come to the realization that it might take me 5 years to get a 3 year degree.

Thanks

It depends on the graduate school. You should contact each and every graduate school you are interested in. Although they may have similarities they also have many differences (such as if they accept summer school marks, their recommended/required courses and admission).

As far ask I know, with some special exceptions, there's no distinction between courses taken in the summer and courses taken over the fall/winter term. It wouldn't hurt to do what jhan said and check though. However, it might take a while since you're capped to six units per summer term (there are two), and even if you can snag an exemption for those one-term, 4+ unit courses, I don't think you'll be to take more than two in a term.

Not to mention the very limited selection of courses available to take in the summer. Unless you plan on taking a lot of electives, it looks like there'll be trouble your way. Since a full September-April year consists of thirty units, you'll need two and a half summers to make up for one school year of courses, so if you exclusively take summer courses, you'd take 7.5 years to graduate.

Of course, this is reduced a lot since you only said you wouldn't be able to take a full course load over the year. If you even take half a course load, that'll reduce your time a lot. I just did some rough math in my head, and I think you could finish in four years if you took fifteen units (half a full course load) over the year.

From the U of T Website:

Consideration is given to all the features of the application including, where applicable, the choice of academic institution, academic program, and courses within the program. In assessing academic records, the Admissions Committee considers carefully the difficulty and quality of the academic work as well as the grades received in relation to the average course grade. An academic record is reviewed in some detail and applicants are expected to explain any anomalies in their records including false starts, fewer than five full courses over two terms, introductory courses taken in the third or fourth years of a program, and the reasons therefor.

If law is what you want, I would take the full course load to keep your options open.