Hi,
I am a 3rd year Arts & Science student who needs some questions answered!
1.) Is it better to graduate and then come back for a 5th year, or post-pone graduating and do a 5th year?
2.) Will postgrad schools look at my 4th/5th year grades instead of my 3rd/4th (considering I know that they typically look at our last 10)?
3.) If I want to re-do a course, that is one of the prerequisites for my postgrad program, do they ONLY look at the better mark? (and is re-taking courses looked down upon?)
4.) If I have more than one of the prerequisite options for a postgrad program (ex; must have 0.5 credits in X or Y- but I have both), do they just look at the course I received a higher grade or both?
5.) If I want to CR/NCR a course that is not mandatory for my major/minor, can it still be used to satisfy the x amount of courses I need to successfully complete my major/minor?
6.) I am NOT a Psych student, and was told that I am unable to do summer school psych courses because of this. Is that true?
7.) Do summer school courses count towards the last 10 grades that postgrad schools look at?
7.) Does having a transfer credit look bad?
Thankyou!!
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hey there,
a good old omnibus question – i love it. as always, let’s not waste any time and get RIGHT TO IT:
- it really depends on your situation. if you want to add a subject POSt to your degree, it may be easier to postpone graduating, get that subject POSt on your transcript, and then graduate. however, if you want to take some courses that are a little bit different from what you did in your degree, or just increase your GPA, you may want to graduate and take an extra year as a non-degree student.
- depends on the graduate program. typically, they’re looking at your past year or two of study, as opposed to a specific year. however, you should take a look at the requirements for the specific schools/programs you’re interested in, because it varies. the “last ten credits” rule you quotes doesn’t always hold true – sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less, and sometimes there’s a cooky, alternate system of ranking credits that is non-chronological.
- retaking a course is never great, but again: whether they will only consider the higher mark or look at the transcript more holistically depends on the school and program.
- see #3.
- if you want a course to count towards a subject POSt in any capacity, it can’t be credit/no-credit. even if it’s just, “you need 7.0 PHL courses.”
- most psychology courses are behind an enrolment control, which means that only certain students (in this case, students in a psych POSt) can access them. once the summer timetable comes out next term, you can take a look and see if any of the courses would be available to you, but in the meantime, the fall/winter timetable should give you a good indication of what the summer one will probably look like.
- typically, yes, but if it’s the last summer directly before entering grad school, that gets kind of dicey. again, you have to contact the specific program in question.
- not usually.
cheers,
aska