Will I be eligible to apply?

[cp3k]

Hey everyone,
I am currently in my third year at York University and I have sent a request to get my courses verified as pre requisites. I have heard this takes a long time to get done, is this true?

I am looking to apply next year however I am missing one pre requisite course that needs to be filled next Fall semester (1st semester). With that being said, assuming all my pre reqs are filled and everything else is okay with my application checklist, will I be able to apply next year? Or will I have to apply two years from now?

in addition to this, if I am taking one full year course along side this pre requisite that needs to be completed, will my semester count?

[dreizehn]

Before I say anything else, I'm just going to put out the caveat that Ms. Lundmark (who, good on you, you've said you have already contacted) is the only one who can definitively answer these questions for you. While I can give answers that are generally applicable and true, there are numerous complex rules and regulations, and far too many variations in individuals' academic histories, to give anything more than that.


"...I have sent a request to get my courses verified as pre requisites. I have heard this takes a long time to get done, is this true?"

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From my experience, I'd say (in most cases): yeah, most definitely. On the OVC admissions pages, the statements regarding course evaluations for external students basically state that you need to allow "...at least 8 weeks..." as they "...may take up to 2 months to process." With that said, in my own experience and in speaking with others, I have found this to be a very rough guideline at best, and the more time you have allowed, the better. Especially at times of the year when they are likely quite busy (e.g., around now when dealing with all the applications for fall entry), I've found it often took over two months to even get a response or any form of acknowledgment, let alone a completed course evaluation. Here's a previous thread where I and one other poster wrote on this a bit: fvc.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=admissions&thread=6470&page=1#11722. With that said, all you can really do is wait, as Ms. Lundmark is the only one who can officially evaluate your courses and semesters for acceptability.


"I am looking to apply next year however I am missing one pre requisite course that needs to be filled next Fall semester (1st semester). With that being said, assuming all my pre reqs are filled and everything else is okay with my application checklist, will I be able to apply next year? Or will I have to apply two years from now?"

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"...assuming all [your] pre reqs are filled and everything else is okay...," I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to apply next year (i.e., for admission in 2014). Assuming this one outstanding pre-req you are to finish this fall is deemed an acceptable pre-req in a full-time semester (see my answer below to your next question), from what you have described this would fulfill all the requirements for an application. Is there any particular reason why you are worried that you would only be eligible to apply "... two years from now"?


"In addition to this, if I am taking one full year course along side this pre requisite that needs to be completed, will my semester count?"

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Here's a previous post (started by you actually) that addresses this question: fvc.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=admissions&thread=6421

In short:

• The full-year course itself won't be acceptable as a pre-req (as its final, official grade won't be available by the time transcripts are due).
  
• Following from this, the semester as a whole won't count for the "Last Two Acceptable Semesters," as the full-time course won't have a grade.
  
• However, the remaining courses in the semester will be eligible for use as pre-requisite courses (assuming all other conditions are satisfied), as the full-year course still counts for the full-time semester weight requirements.

[cp3k]

I have nothing more to say but thank you!
you have answered my question in thorough detail and I couldn't be more grateful.


Just for future reference, if I am able to apply next year, when is a good time to re send in my courses for verification? As I believe I do have to resend in a request...?

[dreizehn]

Glad that helped.

If you're currently in the process of getting all your relevant semesters and pre-req courses approved by Ms. Lundmark (i.e., for the "Last Two Acceptable Semesters" and "8 Prerequisites" requirements, respectively), which appears to be the case from your first post in this thread, then I see no reason why you would have to resend them in for "verification". As you are not applying in the current admissions cycle, you are, for all intents and purposes, getting everything approved for the next cycle (i.e., 2014 entry).

Also, nowhere on the admissions page for course evaluations (www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/recruitment/en/applyingtodvm/Makingacourseevaluationrequest.asp) does it state a need for "verification", and in my experience going through the process, there was indeed no such requirement (I started the approvals process about two years before applying, and used course approvals from the start of that process without any need for "verification"). Honestly, very little tends to change from year-to-year in university courses, so as long as the approvals are relatively recent (i.e., within a few years), I would think they are probably still valid. So, unless Ms. Lundmark specifically informs you differently, I would say once you finish your current process of getting everything evaluated and approved (i.e., probably sometime during this summer or early fall), you should be good to go for the next application cycle.

[cp3k]

Thank you for all the help.

Sorry to ask so many questions but I noticed in a different thread you stated a 3.5 is approximately 87.5%, how did you arrive at this?. As i go to York University, will my grades be converted to a 4.0 scale and then to a percentage or to a percentage then averaged?

[dreizehn]

The person in that thread said they had "...around a 3.5 GPA...," which I took to be on the more widespread 4.0 scale. Hence:

(3.5/4.0) x 100% = 87.5%

How they will calculate your grades (and same for when you enter them into the BIF yourself) depends on how your university reports them on the transcript. In quickly searching for York, it appears you have the following grading system:

Percentage.............Letter Grade......Grade Point
90-100...........................A+....................9
80-89.............................A......................8
75-79.............................B+....................7
70-74.............................B......................6
65-69.............................C+...................5
60-64.............................C.....................4
55-59.............................D+...................3
50-54.............................D.....................2
40-49.............................E.....................1
0-39 ..............................F.....................0

So, I take you are asking this question because York reports grades as letters and/or GPAs, not percentages. Assuming this is the conversion scale York also records on their transcripts, your grades will be converted to the midpoint of the corresponding percentage range. For example:

9 or A+ --> (90+100)/2 = 95%
8 or A ---> (80+89)/2 = 84.5%
7 or B+ --> (75+79)/2 = 77%
6 or B ---> (70+74)/2 = 72%
etc.

You may also note that on the BIf there is a section on "Other Grading Systems" that briefly (and incompletely) discusses how grades are calculated for schools that don't report percentages. It also has one particular conversion table, but do be aware that that table is ONLY applicable for schools "...with an A+, A, A-, B, B+, B- system," which doesn't appear to be the case with York, who looks to have an "A+,A,B+,B..." system (i.e., no "A-, B-, etc.").

Hence, I based my answer above on using the midpoint off my own experience reporting grades from McGill, who also used a letter grade system that did not correspond to the provided table in the BIF. For example, at McGill "A = 85%-100%," so I would have reported a grade of: (85+100)/2 = 92.5%.