Time Gaps in my studies: Am I in trouble?

[terry2356]

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Hello,

I am currently first year student at Faculty of Science at University of Alberta , Canada. My situation is that I attended my first semester (5 course load) in fall 2009. Took 2 courses in spring/summer 2010 and I am planning to take 3 courses in spring/summer 2011. By the start of fall 2011,I will complete 30 credits of coursework( first year) out of 120 that is required for my undergraduate degree. Now there are gaps in between my studies where I did not take any courses ( winter 2010 , fall 2010 , Winter 2011). These gaps were due to personal reasons. Now my question is , being a prospective optometry student , am I at a disadvantage for admission because of these gaps? These 7 courses plus the 3 courses I am planning to take will probly make my first year gpa at about ~2.5. I am willing to go US. Do american optometry schools count spring/summer courses in their cumulative GPA or it depends on the school?

Fall term 2009 (5 course load)
Calculus I D
General Biology I B-
Gen Chemistry C
Introductory Stat C
Humanities elective Language Punjabi A

Summer/Spring 2010
English 121 C+
English 124 B

Reason for the Gaps in my studies:

Having done no career research and enrolling in university for the heck of it. Being imature student having come straight out of high school. When i got low grades thats when it hit me. It was a wake up call. I took some time off and thats where the gaps come from. In this time I became more serious and got to know what was at stake: my career. I researched and found out what my passions were. Helping people and computing science. I also worked for couple of months to help my family financially.

 

[jc328]

Gap shouldn't be a problem as long as you can explain your situation to the admission or in your personal statement. However, you current GPA is not competitive in both the States or Canada, I'd try to get it to at least 3.0 to stay competitive in the application pool. Spring and summer courses do count in the US schools, so it is a good opportunity to improve your GPA in a short amount of time.

 

[ZEffect]

Hello,

I am currently first year student at Faculty of Science at University of Alberta , Canada. My situation is that I attended my first semester (5 course load) in fall 2009. Took 2 courses in spring/summer 2010 and I am planning to take 3 courses in spring/summer 2011. By the start of fall 2011,I will complete 30 credits of coursework( first year) out of 120 that is required for my undergraduate degree. Now there are gaps in between my studies where I did not take any courses ( winter 2010 , fall 2010 , Winter 2011). These gaps were due to personal reasons. Now my question is , being a prospective optometry student , am I at a disadvantage for admission because of these gaps? These 7 courses plus the 3 courses I am planning to take will probly make my first year gpa at about ~2.5. I am willing to go US. Do american optometry schools count spring/summer courses in their cumulative GPA or it depends on the school?

Fall term 2009 (5 course load)
Calculus I D
General Biology I B-
Gen Chemistry C
Introductory Stat C
Humanities elective Language Punjabi A

Summer/Spring 2010
English 121 C+
English 124 B

Reason for the Gaps in my studies:

Having done no career research and enrolling in university for the heck of it. Being imature student having come straight out of high school. When i got low grades thats when it hit me. It was a wake up call. I took some time off and thats where the gaps come from. In this time I became more serious and got to know what was at stake: my career. I researched and found out what my passions were. Helping people and computing science. I also worked for couple of months to help my family financially.

---> Humanities elective Language Punjabi A

Punjabi elective? No way! Never knew Alberta had that...that's awesome!

Yeah man, try and work hard from this forward and keep your focus and determination.

 

[Bioflare]

Hello,

I am currently first year student at Faculty of Science at University of Alberta , Canada. My situation is that I attended my first semester (5 course load) in fall 2009. Took 2 courses in spring/summer 2010 and I am planning to take 3 courses in spring/summer 2011. By the start of fall 2011,I will complete 30 credits of coursework( first year) out of 120 that is required for my undergraduate degree. Now there are gaps in between my studies where I did not take any courses ( winter 2010 , fall 2010 , Winter 2011). These gaps were due to personal reasons. Now my question is , being a prospective optometry student , am I at a disadvantage for admission because of these gaps? These 7 courses plus the 3 courses I am planning to take will probly make my first year gpa at about ~2.5. I am willing to go US. Do american optometry schools count spring/summer courses in their cumulative GPA or it depends on the school?

Fall term 2009 (5 course load)
Calculus I D
General Biology I B-
Gen Chemistry C
Introductory Stat C
Humanities elective Language Punjabi A

Summer/Spring 2010
English 121 C+
English 124 B

Reason for the Gaps in my studies:

Having done no career research and enrolling in university for the heck of it. Being imature student having come straight out of high school. When i got low grades thats when it hit me. It was a wake up call. I took some time off and thats where the gaps come from. In this time I became more serious and got to know what was at stake: my career. I researched and found out what my passions were. Helping people and computing science. I also worked for couple of months to help my family financially.

First off you are not at any disadvantage for having gaps. Gaps are a good source of discussion in interviews (and I don't mean bad, for me I took a year off to do internships and to find what I wanted to do -> optometry if you hadn't guessed ). When I interviewed there were many different people from different backgrounds, some had been teachers, working engineers, even a music student. So don't focus on those things, you want to just concentrate on whats ahead of you and what you need to do.

That being said, as of now you don't have a chance with that cGPA for getting into Waterloo Optometry. There is no need to worry though because the US curriculum is years ahead of Waterloo in terms of ocular disease and pathologies.
But your in your first year so you have time to prepare for your coming years of studies.
Some might suggest retaking calculus because I know some US Optom schools don't count marks below C for requirements.

US schools don't care when you take courses, whether it be spring fall or some random time period (some online courses) but they take all courses into consideration for the cGPA requirements.

Maybe its just me, but finding out you want to be an Optometrist so early in on is surprising. Have you taken your time to talk with some of the other healthcare professionals? I would suggest just talking with a few in different fields before setting your eyes on a specific field. Once you've reassured yourself, consider shadowing in multiple practices to get a sense of the field. I'm saying this because US Optom requires a lot of money to be invested. And if its into something that if you are not really passionate about, you might end up regretting it.

There are many pro's and cons. I'd suggest looking at KHE and DILLIGAF's posts or PM them, I think they are the best to ask about the field. Most of the cons talked about by other forum members really only apply to the US. In Canada its actually not that bad.