Starting a new degree without completing the first?

[The_Doctor]

Hi guys,

I wanted to get your feelings about what I'm thinking about doing really soon. I want to start a new undergraduate degree at a new university (Ryerson University) but in my younger and more immature years (5-6 years ago) I had started but never finished a BSc of life sci degree from the University of Toronto. Now I'm thinking of starting fresh at Ryerson but since I've completed a lot of 1st year and 2nd year courses in Biology, Psychology, and some chem and neuro on the side I'm wondering if this will limit my choice of programs. The problem is that I did quite poorly in these courses, albeit a passing grade, and so they most likely won't be transferred to the new degree. I'm still very interested in the sciences and that's why I'd like to start a new BSc in Biology most likely. But when I'm applying to med schools I'd like to show an upward trend/change in my academics. However I don't want this to be overshadowed by the fact that I've completed many of the 1st/2nd year courses before and although it's not official, subjectively the adcoms might think, "Oh well of course you did better if you repeated courses XYZ again."

And there's also the other problem with repeat courses is that adcoms only look at the first passed attempt or the average if failures were involved and in some cases I believe they don't count the credit towards the full-time status. So if I do start a biology degree, I'd have to supplement with possibly 8 courses a term??

I've contacted some schools. Dalhousie med just replied that if I had to do it then "so be it"...

There seems to be a lot more opportunities for research in a science degree. And biology seems to be one of the most open-ended degree if med school doesn't work out. However, for practicality sake I'm throwing this last bit out there, if anyone knows of some reasonably good undergrad programs that won't leave me serving drinks to pay off my OSAP after I graduate then please do share. I've considered going into Psychology, as I really find it interesting, but I have so many friends with a degree in psych who can't find any work with their degree.

Thoughts?

[mrhumble]

In order to work as a psychologist (ex: applied), you need to at least have masters degree.
If you want to work as a clinical psychologist, you need to have a PhD.

Here's the problem that I see.
When you apply for the programs in different universities, they will look at both your high school and university marks to decide whether they will want to admit you or not.
My friend got 95% in his hs, but 1.9 cGPA (3 years) in University with one fail.
When he applied to university programs, he was rejected by all.
On the other hand, I'm not sure what your GPA is. As long as it's over 2.0 or 2.1 (I forgot the exact number) cGPA, it may be okay for some universities.

Let's be real about the science degree.
I went and graduated with a BSc in University of Toronto.
Without your masters, it's very hard to land a decent job related to science.
If you have to start all over again, maybe try to look for a degree that can help provide you with a job.

If you really want to pursue research in biology (masters, phd), then by all means, go for it...

[The_Doctor]

Thanks for the response, mrhumble.

Yes, I already knew that you can't be a psychologist without a master's or higher. I'm just saying, psychology degrees (although really interesting material and conversational pieces) tend to not be worth much after graduating. That's not to say that a BSc in biology is much better but it tends to leave more science-related grad degrees open. And there's going to always be a struggle between harder-to-obtain-a-good-GPA-but-much-more-practical degrees such as engineering (depending on what engineering) vs the less practical but easier to land a higher GPA typically found in a BA in psych or BSc in some life sci. Arguably, there's also a lot more research opportunities for the biology/psych students than for the engineers. I'm just finding it hard to find a happy medium.

You really scared me with the example of your friend not being accepted to any university. I know exactly what your friend went through because I too emailed and phoned many schools and got the same response that they wanted a minimum cGPA. However, I emailed Ryerson University and the response was that they "PRIMARILY" look at your high school marks. I know that Ryerson isn't considered one of the top schools in Canada, but I'm hoping that this will be a chance for me to get some footing again first. After a year or two and at least 30 credit hours under my belt, I was hoping to maybe transfer to another school where there might be more research opportunities. Ryerson, as I understand it, is really popular for the non-trad students and mature students.

Anyways, all of the above wasn't even really the heart of my question. I want to know if it's even possible to take a similar degree given that a lot of courses overlap but since they many won't be transferable then I'm left to repeat many of the courses. And repeat courses for most med schools are not considered for GPA purposes and, I think in many cases, are not counted in the courseload thus to maintain a full-time status for UWO I'd need to take 1 additional course for every repeat in each semester. And since I have most of the 1st and 2nd year life sci courses done before... I don't even see if taking a degree related to biology or psychology is possible anymore even though I love the subject matter.

Any ideas?