<p>I guess I'll just start this off by saying hi and giving a bit of a background. I just finished my first year at McGill this year as part of the Faculty of Science. I got transfer credits in addition to being accepted last year and subsequently skipped both freshman chemistry and biology only to take organic chemistry 1 & 2 and 2 different 2nd year biology courses (over the course of two semesters of course along with the other typical freshman science courses ie. physics and math). Around the end of first semester I started suffering some deep personal problems (I don't think the subject matter is too important to be discussed here) and so my marks somewhat suffered near the end where I ended up with a term GPA of 2.8. </p>
<p>I set out second semester to try to fix-up my year and was aiming really high in order to raise my GPA to a level I found acceptable. January was ok but as soon as February hit my life completely fell apart as my personal problems became worse and I eventually started seeing a psychiatrist on a weekly basis as well as taking anti-depressants. As much as I tried to turn myself around throughout the entire semester it only started happening near the end where I pulled up all my marks from failing to just passing; I got 2 C's and 2 C+'s with a term GPA of 2.14 and a cumulative GPA of 2.46.</p>
<p>Everything is a lot better now and I can safely say that horrible chapter of my life is closed. What happened over the semester is documented but I feel like people don't have time anymore to listen to one's life story. I graduated from my high-school having received my IB diploma and with a 90% average. I'm capable of doing well academically I have no doubt about it and before this year I always had the prospective of going to medical school not because someone else wanted me to go but because I've always wanted to become a physician. </p>
<p>My dilemma now is that even if I get a perfect 4.0 GPA for the rest of my college career my GPA can only go up so much that I'm afraid that this year ruined some of my options. I do have the choice of transferring to another university (albeit it would be a smaller, less known one) and having my GPA reset and the possibility of some of my course credits (the really low ones) not being counted. Should I transfer or am I just simply over-reacting over my marks? I really don't think there is anything that can be done to fix/mend what happened this year. Any comments/suggestions would be really appreciated, perhaps there is something I overlooked even. If this is not the best forum to post in I really apologize and I'm really looking forward to your input because I really don't know anymore. Thank you very much in advanced.</p>
<p>my gpa “reset” on my unofficial transcript when i went to NYU from CUNY. i don’t have letter grades for my CUNY classes, just the number of credit hours.</p>
<p>i started my first semester at NYU with a clean slate.</p>
<p>I know some of my friends that were able to “reset” their coursework but I’m not willing to let people know about how that works because that’s the wrong thing to do.</p>
<p>dusares - Spare me the personal problems. You’re unfortunately going to have to live with your mistakes. When it’s time for applying for med school, you will have to report all of your past post-secondary coursework and institutions attended to gain admission. So there is no “reset” on how you’re doing it. If you don’t report your past attendance and coursework you will be blacklisted.</p>
<p>missamericancreampie - sounds like you just transferred your coursework. NYU is not suppose to roll over your GPA, they will just take the coursework and articulate it for credit. But when you’re applying for graduate school you will have to report all your college coursework to gain admissions.</p>
<p>Maybe you can reset a GPA in Canada. If you can I would transfer. For med school the college you went to matters far less than your GPA. Talk to an advisor at McGill to see what it takes to get into Canadian med schools. 1 bad year would probably put you out of the running in the US.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your replies they’re definitely giving me some more insight to this situation. </p>
<p>MakeBank24 - I think you misunderstood part of my post. I do not want to do anything out of legal and moral boundaries. I was implying that I read on some college websites that if you do get accepted for transfer and decide to attend that your GPA starts over from scratch and coursework with a grade below a certain level will not be transferred over (for example lower than 2.3). If your friends were able to illegally fix their past mistakes that’s good for them, I don’t need to be reminded that some people find success through dishonesty. As for personal problems I’m not asking for your pity, there are more qualified people out there at my disposal I was merely being truthful in my post. </p>
<p>hmom5 - To my knowledge the policies in Canada and the United States regarding transferring, GPA, and whatnot are not that very different but I will look into it thank you for your suggestion.</p>
<p>There’s also the option of sparing myself this headache and just staying at McGill and mending things over here. It’s not like I’m on probation or have failed any of my courses that I have attempted. Would that be an advisable thing to do?</p>
<p>dusares - I didn’t misunderstand your post. What you’re basically doing is transferring which in turn causes your GPA to start over and some of your coursework to transfer as credit. BUT when applying to transfer again and for applying for graduate school you will have to inform that graduate school of all of your post-secondary institutions you’ve attended and transcripts. Which in turn means that your crummy past GPA will still affect your graduate admissions. My advice is to try to fix your GPA at McGill by doing academic renewal or something and showing a much better progress.</p>
<p>MakeBank24 - Now I understand where you’re coming from, I actually didn’t know that both GPAs would be factored even though the one you graduated with would be different. Would you please explain to me what you mean by academic renewal? I apologize but there are some terms I’m not completely familiar with. Thank you.</p>
<p>dusares - Yes, both GPA’s are factored in when applying to a graduate school. Just sending your transferring instituitions transcript will cause pondering on what grades you received on those courses and will cause an automatic denial.</p>
<p>Academic renewal is basically to repeat a course for a better grade. Usually the grade was previously a D+ to F- to be retaken for a higher grade. This will replace your previous grade received with a higher grade. When applying to some graduate schools, they might not accept academic renewal so they will average out the grades or something of that matter.</p>
<p>I guess I can’t consider academic renewal as my lowest grade thus far has been a C (2 in fact which is equivalent to a 2.0 here) and I did not fail any courses in order to be given the option to take it again. Out of curiosity in situations like this is it more desirable for a person to pass a course even though they will receive the lowest possible grade for a pass or to fail the course and be given the option of taking it again?</p>
<p>I’m considering just staying at McGill as I would rather try to mend things here but transferring is still a side option I guess. Is there actually any benefit to transferring at all under these circumstances? I’m content with the university itself and have no problems with it but was originally just thinking of doing so for the sole purpose of my GPA. Does anybody have any other suggestions on what else could be done should I stay (if any)? Thanks for your replies.</p>
<p>Lots and lots of people have tough first years of college. (The grades I earned my freshman year would make most people here at CC absolutely weep.) If you have your personal issues under control, and you like McGill, I would encourage you to stay there. You have time to improve your GPA before applying to med school. People get into med school every year with less than perfect grades.</p>
<p>Even admissions officers at grad schools do not expect kids to have a perfect college record. You got sick. Your grades suffered. You are better now and your grades will get better. Good luck!</p>