advice greatly needed - 5th year? masters?

[amar21]

This past year has been a rough one, with family illnesses taking a toll on my GPA. Through out the year i've had to travel back and forth for reasons which I wish not to mention online. It has been documented by my university, but they are unable to provide any sort of academic relief. However, they are granting me permission to return as a 'special student' in 5th year to take more courses and remain in my undergraduate program..

My question now is, what should I do? Should I re-take courses that i "bombed" in my 4th year? Or should I press on and take new courses.. I dont know what would (in the end) look better on my transcript. Up until this year my GPA has steadily been increasing.. so its a real shame that its come to this. The only thing I do know is I must KILL my MCAT's in august and absolutely anihilate my 5th year..

Any input would be greatly appreciated

also heres some background info on my academics..

- honors double major in health science and psychology
- completed MOST science-related pre-req's in intersession/summer (since orgo/gen chem were not related to either degree)
- cumulative avg (upto now) of 78% (but had 2 years of deans list)
(thats the real killer, a 78% cumulative GPA is seen as decent by canadian standards. But when you do conversions to some schools its peanuts!)

What shall I do? I've been overly worried today as I was reading admission stats/cut-offs for most schools and it seems as though my gpa alone wont even make the cut off... so any advice is appreciated.

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[armybound]

how bad was your last year? did you fail everything or just get Cs?

 

[amar21]

it wasnt even that bad to be honest, just say my third year was all above 80%, and some over 90%

my fourth year was mostly 75-80... only 2 courses were above "A" standard of 80% and 1 C (even that was a 69 - my lowest mark).

 

[armybound]

can we translate from canadianian to english and give this to me in A - F, 4.0 scale?

ok so you only got 1 C in that time period? that's not bad at all. I wouldn't retake those courses, I'd take some upper level courses to prove you can handle difficult courses. it not only shows you can rebound from the difficult times but that you can elevate your education.

 

[amar21]

In canadian standards

A+ = 90%+ (very rare)
A = 80-89
B = 70-79
etc..


So my average would translate to a B+ in canadian standards, and my fourth year consists of mainly courses that fall in the B to B+ range..

My first year at university was A's, my second was not so hot, then my third was A's, and fourth well.. we just went over that ..

 

[armybound]

so you're kind of up/down/up/down?

my recommendation still holds. take new classes, rock them, keep your head up.

 

[amar21]

Yeah. As it stands its up/down/up/down. But it should have been up/down/up/up ... my marks going into my first round of finals were HUGE .. and then came some terrible news, I had to defer some exams.. I missed a bunch of classes, etc., and there goes my year.

I guess I'll give the 5th year a shot - There's no turning back at this point. Although doing a 5th eliminates most of my chances at Canadian schools, it does leave the option open for American schools. Im writing my MCAT in august and am aiming for 30+, and hopefully that combined with all A's in my 5th year, and my experience as a research assistant in the orthopaedic surgery ward at the hospital will make my application strong.

 

[armybound]

sounds like it won't be that bad if you really work hard and explain the difficulties you had last year.

good luck.