I go to King’s College at Western University (UWO). My previous grades were poor but my fourth year average is very high and I will be taking fifth year for undergrad in September to raise my GPA. I am interested in applying for graduate school in Criminology after I finish my fifth year. However, I have some questions:
1) For 5th year, I want to retake a couple courses that I took in the previous years/summer school because my grades were low and I wanted to retake them to improve my grade. Will the new mark be still counted in my GPA and will I still have a chance of being admitted to Grad school if I repeated some courses as long as my grades are very high?
2) For the criminology graduate school admission requirements, is there any specific undergrad courses that needs to be taken in order to be admitted? Or can it be any criminology/sociology undergrad courses, as long as the grades are very high? The UofT website did not mention anything about specific undergrad course requirements for admission to graduate programs.
3) Also, I’m not in honors specialization of criminology. I’m in double majors of Childhood and Social Institutions and Criminology, Bachelor of Arts 4 years Degree. I have taken the required cours for the Criminology major and I will be taking criminology and sociology courses in my 5th year before graduation. Do I still have a chance of getting esin if I’m in major of criminology and my grades are very high?
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hey there,
as much as i appreciate the enthusiasm, there’s no need to send me this through all my different inboxes, dude. it’s not gonna make my answer annny quicker. aska’s stubborn that way.
1) i don’t know how UWO does it, but if the old marks appear on your transcript, they will likely be considered along with thenew marks. according to criminology, “admission decisions are based on a holistic reading of applicant files by a committee of graduate faculty. This includes grades, reference letters, statements of intent, and courses taken.”
as long as your undergrad degree was somewhere within the ballpark of criminology, it should be fine. they do say they look at your courses as part of their admission consideration, but they haven’t specified any courses that they prefer. my guess is that they’re just looking to see whether you’ve taken any criminology courses, and how many, and also if you’ve taken courses that might be relevant to the field, like law courses, for example.
3) see above. if your fifth year bumps up your CGPA over your last 2-3 years of school to the range they’re looking for (at least an 80%) and you’ve taken relevant courses, based on the “holistic approach” the department advertises, i’d say you have a solid chance (obviously i’m not on the admissions committee, so i can’t say for sure, etc. etc., but, you know. that’s my educated guess of an opinion).
best of luck in applying! i hope you become a master criminologist. just…don’t visit my house…once you do…
cheers,
aska