CR/NCR - askastudent

CR/NCR, grad school

here are the 2 crumbs i found while searching for grad school policies

December 19, 2023

hi, i have 4 courses right now and i really want to CR a course (i will pass thankfully). however, i don’t know how a CR will be considered by law schools, med schools and grad schools. if i don’t CR, i end with a C and while i know uoft med school drops your lowest 2 FCEs and uoft law school only looks at your best overall 3 years of undergraduate study, i don’t know their policy on CR on a transcript. i’d really like to avoid keeping the C if i can. please let me know. thank you.

hey there,

so it seems like you’re asking whether a CR on your transcript will impact your admission into grad schools. the thing is, each law school, med school, and grad school program may have a separate policy on this. so i think the best thing you can do is just reach out to the places you’re interested in and see what they say.

this is such a valid question, by the way. you probably scoured the internet trying to find an answer and came up empty handed, because so did i.

i did however, find a couple crumbs:

some places have FAQs where they may or may not answer this question. first, uoft med school and uoft law school FAQs both do mention CR/NCR grades, though only in the context of covid-19’s impacts in 2020. second, the law school has a page last updated in 2021 that says they consider a CR grade to be a successfully completed course, and that they “will not hold CR grades against an applicant”. but, keep in mind this in regards to academic grades during 2019-2020, so it might not be relevant anymore.

so you could absolutely contact admissions directly about this, and follow up about whether this is still true. their email is on that page, and i don’t think it would hurt to ask!

i’m sorry i don’t have a better answer, but i do think it’s best if you contact the grad schools directly. programs do change their policies, so i don’t want to tell you something wrong, especially with decisions that impact your future.

anyways, i hope everything works out for you, sending lots of encouragement!!

over and out,

aska

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CR/NCR, current student, psychology, St. George

those pesky program requirements

April 15, 2023

Hi! Hope you’re doing well. For my psy major one requirement is 1.0 credits in cluster A and 1.0 credits from cluster B in 200 level classes. I did really bad in one of my cluster B credits (think 50-60s range). I was thinking of using cr/ncr since it would be bad for my gpa which is already pretty mid. Since it’s technically a program requirement I know it’s not allowed but couldn’t I just remedy that by taking a different cluster B class in a different semester? Thanks in advance

hey there,

so sorry for the late reply, i don’t think you can do cr/ncr anymore but hopefully this is still somewhat helpful. i think you’ve got it right, it should be fine to cr/ncr that course as long as you can take a different one for your program requirements (which seems to be the case for the psy major). the cr/ncr course just won’t count towards your major/program, obviously.

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best of luck!

aska

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CR/NCR, current student, late withdrawal, major, subject POST

a little cr/ncr never hurts… (unless it’s a course in your program in which case it sometimes might)

February 2, 2023

Hey! I’m a first year student that wants to double major in international relations/ political science. The thing is, I have cr/ncr 1.5 Credits and I also LWD a class. Will this affect my chances of getting into the program, even though I’m doing well in all my other classes? Basically, will my transcript look bad for entry into the program?

hey there,

in my experience, the departments only really look at the courses that they state are required to apply for the program. it could matter for things like grad school or professional school applications later on, but honestly for something like POSt, i don’t even know if they have the time to scrutinize every part of your transcript and take note of everyone’s cr/ncrs and lwds.

i know friends who’ve gotten into relatively competitive programs with 60s or 70s in some electives, but they aced the required courses for their programs. as long as you’re doing well in the courses for the international relations and polisci majors, i’d say you’re in the clear.

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some programs might also look at things like your supplementary application or overall gpa (i think? not even sure if there are any that do that, actually), but if they do, it’ll be clearly listed in the program requirements. the one other thing is to make sure that you’ll have completed 4.0 FCEs by the end of first year, which is a common requirement for pretty much all programs i think. just remember that if you got an ncr or lwd, those would not count as completed credits, so you’ll have to be careful about that.

good luck!

aska

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CR/NCR, current student, GPA

sounds familiar… hello cr/ncr my old friend

April 26, 2022

I’m ready to graduate this June, but took a couple of extra classes this sem to boost my gpa and get more writing experience. I kinda want to graduate with high distinction, but I think one class might weigh me down from that. Should I cr/ncr it or just accept missing the high distinction cut off? It’s a class within my program but doesn’t count toward any reqs as those are done. Also I’m considering grad school so idk if cr/ncr would affect that. Would high gpa look better or visible grades?

hello there,

so sorry for the late response — i’m just getting to these long-overdue cr/ncr courses, but hopefully you were able to work something out. here are my two cents, anyhow, in case it helps.

i think it depends on how much this course lowers your gpa, and whether it’s related to your undergrad or potential grad programs. i haven’t heard much about how high distinction and other titles are considered by grad schools, but gpa would definitely be a factor that is considered. i would recommend calculating your gpa with potential marks for this course to see if it is still competitive for grad programs and other opportunities you may be interested in, e.g. jobs, scholarships. if this course doesn’t lower your gpa too much, you might be better off just keeping the grade. but also, beware of grad programs that focus on only your upper years or final year, which might cause this course to hold more weight.

a CR might give the impression of a very low mark and could be a red flag, especially if it’s in a course related to your desired grad program. at the same time, just one CR/NCR in your final year (the main focus of many grad school admissions, e.g. uoft) may not be so much of an issue, especially if it saves your gpa! however, it’s best to contact your potential grad programs to ask how they consider CR/NCR in their admissions process.

in any case, i hope the rest of your semester has gone smoothly, and wish you all the best for graduation!

aska

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CR/NCR, current student, late withdrawal

save that gpa

April 26, 2022

Hey, I think one of my classes is gonna affect my gpa a bit, and I’m thinking about doing grad school in something later (probably an ma or mba if that affects anything), do you think a cr/ncr looks better on a record or a lwd? Really sad I missed the drop date :(( but I think I want to save my gpa above all

hi there,

so sorry i couldn’t get to this until now — i hope you figured something out, but i’ll just put this out there anyway in case anyone else gets in a similar situation.

if you will likely pass the course, CR may look better than a LWD (i mean, a pass is a pass!), and you can still get credit for the course. if you think you might fail the course, it may be better to go with a LWD.

it also depends on the specific programs you’re hoping to apply to for grad school. some might only look at your upper year gpa or final year gpa. actually, rotman mba and uoft master’s admissions both only require a minimum 3.0 or mid-B average in your final year, or last 5.0 FCEs.

there isn’t much info on how they look at LWD versus CR/NCR, at least for uoft, but you can also reach out to the admissions office for the programs you’re interested in to ask!

i hope that you were able to choose an option that works for you. realistically, i just wanna say that a few CRs or LWDs will likely be fine for grad school, so don’t sweat it! it sounds like you’ll be applying in later years, so there is still plenty of time to improve your academic record, especially for your final years, which will be the most important. i’d also recommend speaking to your registrar for support in your future courses.

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wishing you all the best!

aska

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CR/NCR, dropping courses, late withdrawal

to drop or not to drop

January 10, 2022

Should I drop my course, I did really bad on my final but I was not able to mark it as credit no credit and now the deadline is over. I’m really scared that this will affect my grades and everything else. But if I drop it it will be such a waste of money that I would also regret. Please help me.

hey there,

i think this might be too late for utm and utsc, but if you’re going to utsg, you may be in luck this semester as the credit/no credit and late withdrawal deadlines have been extended to january 18, which is hopefully after all your marks have come out so you can make a more informed decision.

hopefully, if you didn’t do as well as you’d hoped in that course, you’d still be able to cr/ncr it! but just keep in mind that the extended cr/ncr does not apply to program requirement courses, unless your course was one of those that had their final exams cancelled due to the new covid regulations (it seems like that’s not the case for you).

if you need the course for program requirements and can’t cr/ncr it, i’d recommend seeing how much that course impacts your grades overall using a gpa calculator like this one. that might help you to decide if you’d like to late withdrawal the course. unfortunately, a late withdrawal does mean that your fees for the dropped course wouldn’t be refunded, and you may need to pay to retake the course in the future. it’s a tough decision, but i think ultimately it comes down to what mark you need from the course to meet your goals, and how feasible it would be for you to drop the course and retake it if needed.

hope that was helpful in some way. i’d also recommend checking out some of the academic advising resources (here’s a list of resources in arts and science) on campus if you have any other concerns, they could definitely help out with questions about lwd and even financial aid or academic support which could be helpful if you end up needing to drop the course.

best wishes,

aska

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CR/NCR, scholarships/bursaries

get that bag

November 12, 2020

Hi! I was taking a look at the scholarships that Victoria College offers and I just noticed that it talks about how we’re automatically considered for a scholarship based off of our average of 5.0 credits (if I understood it correctly). Is this affected if we choose to CR/NCR a course? I’m also a first year, if that’s relevant for this questions. Thanks so much 🙂

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hey there,

according to this vic awards policy document, you’ll be able to complete the 5.0 FCEs requirement with courses designated cr/ncr!

this is the exact wording: ““Courses with a final status of CR will count as degree credits but will have no effect on the student’s GPA.” Academic records with CR/NCR will be reviewed for in-course awards whereby CR credits may be used to complete a group of 5.0 credits.”

however, i also found a stipulation about cr/ncr courses on this page: For students who opted into CR/NCR credits for Y and S courses during the recent fall/winter academic year, Victoria College will be limiting the number of CR credits in its assessments for in-course scholarships to be fair to all students. The University will make every effort not to disadvantage students and we appreciate your patience.”

i’m not sure if a similar awards policy will be in place for this fall/winter session, since the cr/ncr policy for the school year is a bit different than usual. so i’d recommend that you avoid applying the cr/ncr designation to too many courses if you’re worried about awards— but one or two should be fine.

in order to confirm any of this information, you can also get in touch with whoever’s in charge of awards at vic. this page lists vic.awards@utoronto.ca as the contact email.

i hope this helped! good luck with the rest of your first year, get that bag.

be Boundless,

aska

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CR/NCR, grad school

y’all are really testing the limits of my all-knowingness

August 10, 2020

hi there, I am going into my third year and I took a breadth course this past summer which I NCR/CR’d. I unfortunately didn’t pass and got a final grade of NCR. I am particularly concerned because I want to go to grad school (particularly masters/law). I am in humanities and the course I didn’t do well in was a science course, but its the first time I failed to get the credit for a course. Will it look bad on my transcript and will it greatly impact my admission chances?

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hello hello!

don’t feel too bad about the NCR, it happens sometimes.

i’m not sure how it’ll look on your transcript or how it will affect your grad school admissions, though. admissions questions are always the toughest for me to answer because, as a fellow student myself, i’ve never worked in admissions or gotten to go behind the scenes of the process.

something i’ve been told by academic advisors, though, is this: usually when you apply for grad school you’ll have an opportunity to explain any personal circumstances that may have affected your academic record. so if there was a serious reason you didn’t pass the course, you’ll be able to provide that reason to the grad schools you’re applying to.

other than that…

you could always try checking in with your registrar, who might know more about this subject than i do. but i have a feeling they’ll redirect you to the specific grad school programs you’re considering, since every program has different admissions policies.

be Boundless,

aska

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CR/NCR, grad school

ah yes, grad school admissions. life’s greatest mystery

March 2, 2020

Hi! I am planning on applying to grad school next year and I have a concern that might affect my decision to apply. In my last year, I’ve decided to spend summer to take a few courses so during the year I could lessen my load for a club (3 in summer, 4 per term = 5.5 credits). But, I CR one of my summer courses. The grad programs I’m looking at looks at the final 5.0 credits. Will grad school ignore my CR grade and look at the the last 5.0 credit “real” grades or will they consider the CR still?

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hey there,

it’s kind of hard to assess this– different grad schools might have different policies, and i don’t wanna toss you the wrong direction by giving you my guess! i’d encourage you to reach out to the admissions offices of the grad programs you’re interested in, and see what they say. as much as i wish i could help you, for this one i think it’s best that you go straight to the source.

wishing you all the luck (all of it!) with your grad school applications, though, and hope the admissions offices have favorable responses. after you hear back from them (or even before lol we love our registrars), i’d encourage you to drop by your registrar’s office if you have any concerns.

be Boundless,

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arts & sciences, courses, CR/NCR, credits, enrollment, enrolment, GPA, prereqs, repeating course

we love a good second chance

February 18, 2019

Hey, so I wanted to know if you can retake a course you “no credited”? I want to major in sociology but I took only SOC102, LWD SOC103, and NCR SOC150 ( first 2 yrs were tough) There’s only certain combinations allowed and my only hope really is if I’m allowed to try SOC150 again. Any advice?!

Thanks!

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hi there,

did some digging for ya, and i’m not gonna lie– initially, it looked like it was gonna be bad news. as far as the artsci website says, you shouldn’t ever cr/ncr a course if there’s even a remote chance you’ll need it for program enrolment. the implication being, you don’t have many options if you’ve already done so.

HOWEVER. i read through half of the faculty of arts and sciences rules and regulations to see if i could find you a loophole, and it looks like there might actually be one.

apparently if you’ve already passed a course, you’re not allowed to retake it; that includes courses you’ve passed with ‘CR’. but under the ‘repeating passed courses’ section, the rules allow for a single repeat of a course to achieve the minimum entry mark for a program like soc. this retake won’t count towards your gpa or graduation requirements, but it will be on your academic record.

either way, what’s important in your case is that yes, you are able to give SOC150 another shot!

in order to make it happen, you’ll need to get in contact with your college registrar. they’ll be able to give you further advice as well as enrol you in the course (from what i’ve read, i don’t think you can enrol in it yourself). i believe you’ll have lower priority to get in than students taking the course for the first time, but don’t let that stop you from going after this.

best of luck,

aska

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CR/NCR, subject POST, switching

new GPA, who dis?

May 7, 2018

Hello! I am currently pursuing an Accounting Specialization and have decided to switch programs. By switching programs, does my GPA reset if I don’t use any of my past credits in my new program? Thanks.

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hi!

so i’ve scoured the internet, looked through every u of t-sanctioned website, and basically the answer is… no. your GPA doesn’t reset if you switch programs.

according to the faculty of arts and sciences’ calendar, your GPA is the weighted sum of all the courses you’ve taken at the faculty of arts and sciences. this means that every course you take in the faculty, regardless of whether or not you switch programs of study, counts towards your GPA. bummer, i know.

however, there are certain marks that aren’t included in your CGPA (though you probably know this already!) this includes any courses that you take CR/NCR, transfer credits, credits that you took at another university on a letter of permission or on exchange, and any courses designated as “extra.”

the only way that you would be able to “reset” your GPA is if you transferred to another faculty, campus, or school. so, if that’s your case, congrats! your GPA is reset! if that’s not the case then, sorry, you’re stuck with your old GPA.

if there’s any confusion or you have any other further questions, you should get in contact with your registrar’s office, who’ll be able to answer this question (AND SO MUCH MORE!)

i hope this helps!

xoxo,

aska

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CR/NCR, polisci, UTM

escape (CR/NCR) from POL114

January 17, 2018

hi there! im a first year student at UTM and POL114 is really kicking my butt… i want to CR/NCR it but i also may want to minor in polisci in the future! by the end of the school year, i would have completed the 1 credit requirement for polisci without POL114 ( took POL111 and POL112). so… is it okay to CR/NCR a polisci course if i will complete the required 1 credit anyways?

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hi!

so, according to the poli sci department’s website, the only requirement for a polisci minor is 4.0FCE in POL courses, including 1.0 300-level course and 1.0 100-level course. that means, if you have POL111 and POL112, that you can safely CR/NCR POL114 and still enroll in the polisci minor. however, since it is still relatively early in the term, you could wait until you get a few marks (like, after the midterm or first assignment) to really make your decision. you might actually be doing way better than you originally thought! the deadline to cr/ncr a course is march 14th.

i would also be mindful of the other polisci programs. right now, you want to do the minor, but if you should ever want to switch to a major, you would need POL200, POL214, and a whole host of other requirements. though POL114 isn’t one of the courses that are covered in the “fields” for the major, it could count towards the “3.0 additional POL courses”. so, just keep that in mind.

other than that, i would also suggest talking to the registrar at UTM who would have the most information and would be able to give you the best advice. perhaps even better advice than i (gasp! i know!).

overall, as long as you keep what i said in mind, as well as the prereqs for future POL courses (courses that you would want to take), you can totally escape POL114. that’s what CR/NCR is right? escaping?

xoxo,

aska

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admissions, CR/NCR, grad school, late withdrawal, OISE

make your biggies small

May 24, 2017

Hi, How bad is getting a 1.0 LWD and 0.5 NCR (both courses not related to the program I’ll be applying to and future career) in first year? I’m seriously considering applying to uoft’s grad school (masters of teaching). And what can I do to improve my chances in getting accepted into grad school during the three years I have left of undergrad? Thank you so much.

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hello!

i would say that it’s not really a big deal! you are allowed to withdraw from up to 3.0 FCE’s and CR/NCR up to 2.0 FCE’s throughout your undergrad as safety nets. especially since you’re only in first year and neither courses are related to your future program, it really is no biggie.

as for getting into grad school, you need more than just good grades. i would suggest doing extra-curriculars that are related to teaching, like volunteering at elementary schools or working with children. i’d also suggest doing stuff with the profs in the programs that relate to what you wanna do- they can write you reference letters and really help you out when it’s time to apply for grad school.

good luck!!

xoxo,

aska

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