I was wondering if anyone knew how summer school grades work for your CA. I am in 2nd year and moving onto 3rd year come September and from what I know at the end of first year if you do any course that is part of your program it will count toward your CA for September. What I have recently heard is that this is not the case for any year after the first. I need a 4 to stay in my program and might fall short of it by like 0.1. I am currently doing a course that is part of my program (not an elective) and was just wondering if this will count toward my CA so I can continue into my 3rd year in September. I am in engineering if that helps.

Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by njd123

I was wondering if anyone knew how summer school grades work for your CA. I am in 2nd year and moving onto 3rd year come September and from what I know at the end of first year if you do any course that is part of your program it will count toward your CA for September. What I have recently heard is that this is not the case for any year after the first. I need a 4 to stay in my program and might fall short of it by like 0.1. I am currently doing a course that is part of my program (not an elective) and was just wondering if this will count toward my CA so I can continue into my 3rd year in September. I am in engineering if that helps.

Thanks in advance.

All courses taken in McMaster count towards you CA. Summer courses will most likely count towards the following year's SA, unless the university randomly decides to make an academic review after the summer term but I don't think that ever happens.

Originally Posted by jhan523

All courses taken in McMaster count towards you CA. Summer courses will most likely count towards the following year's SA, unless the university randomly decides to make an academic review after the summer term but I don't think that ever happens.

Just to confirm that that would never happen...they have to do an academic review in April/May for convocation in June.

So your summer courses will count toward your next year's SA.

Originally Posted by Mowicz

Just to confirm that that would never happen...they have to do an academic review in April/May for convocation in June.

So your summer courses will count toward your next year's SA.

Is that the reason why? I always found it kind of odd why they never have a review in summer... So June is the only time for convocations at McMaster then?

Aren't summer courses its own SA? That's what I've been getting from taking courses in past summers. The grade(s) will count towards your CA for sure. Since your CA is your total average, all courses that you take that have marks written on your transcript are included, as jhan523 previously stated.

So June is the only time for convocations at McMaster then?

No, there are two convocations. Most people graduate in the spring (late May/early June), but some also graduate in the fall (November). But they need to review earlier to ensure that the potential graduands can actually graduate at Convocation.

EDIT: I think summer grades are its own sessional average, but there is no reviewing period then unless you take 18 units over the summer, which most people don't.

This is what it says in my summer school session section of my grade report:

RESULTS OF SESSION ARE DETERMINED ONLY IN MAY AND AUGUST WHEN A STUDENT HAS
ATTEMPTED AT LEAST 18 UNITS OF WORK SINCE THE LAST REVIEW.
IN THE INTERIM, STUDENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF
THEIR PERFORMANCE ON THEIR STATUS IN THIS FACULTY.

Originally Posted by nh999

Aren't summer courses its own SA? That's what I've been getting from taking courses in past summers. The grade(s) will count towards your CA for sure. Since your CA is your total average, all courses that you take that have marks written on your transcript are included, as jhan523 previously stated.



No, there are two convocations. Most people graduate in the spring (late May/early June), but some also graduate in the fall (November). But they need to review earlier to ensure that the potential graduands can actually graduate at Convocation.

EDIT: I think summer grades are its own sessional average, but there is no reviewing period then unless you take 18 units over the summer, which most people don't.

This is what it says in my summer school session section of my grade report:

RESULTS OF SESSION ARE DETERMINED ONLY IN MAY AND AUGUST WHEN A STUDENT HAS
ATTEMPTED AT LEAST 18 UNITS OF WORK SINCE THE LAST REVIEW.
IN THE INTERIM, STUDENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF
THEIR PERFORMANCE ON THEIR STATUS IN THIS FACULTY.

Oh ok, so yeah. There is no review unless you take 18 units or more in a session or you are a potential graduand.

Sessional averages are averages for the session, which is Fall/Winter or Spring/Summer.

Just got those from the McMaster glossary.

Originally Posted by nh999

EDIT: I think summer grades are its own sessional average,

Looking at the definitions, it seems you're correct:

---------


Session, for scholarship purposes, refers to the Fall/Winter session. The Fall/Winter session is the period from September to April as defined in the Sessional Dates section of this Calendar.
Sessional Average (SA) is a weighted average based on the grades attained in a session. Overload courses and Extra courses are included in the Sessional Average.

---------

But this seems like silly semantics to me, since for anything important (ie. computation of Dean's Honour, enrollment status, etc.) it includes all courses since your last academic review (given that you haven't taken 18 units since).

ie. (Hypothetical scenario)
-You take 10 courses in your first year, and have an academic review in April.

-Then you take up to 4 courses in the summer (less than or equal to 12 units) but don't have an academic review in August since fewer than 18 units were completed.

-Then you complete your 2nd year courses, say 9 of them. The next academic review, in April, determines your enrollment status and is based on all 13 courses you've taken since your last one.

Originally Posted by Mowicz

Looking at the definitions, it seems you're correct:

---------


Session, for scholarship purposes, refers to the Fall/Winter session. The Fall/Winter session is the period from September to April as defined in the Sessional Dates section of this Calendar.
Sessional Average (SA) is a weighted average based on the grades attained in a session. Overload courses and Extra courses are included in the Sessional Average.

---------

But this seems like silly semantics to me, since for anything important (ie. computation of Dean's Honour, enrollment status, etc.) it includes all courses since your last academic review (given that you haven't taken 18 units since).

ie. (Hypothetical scenario)
-You take 10 courses in your first year, and have an academic review in April.

-Then you take up to 4 courses in the summer (less than or equal to 12 units) but don't have an academic review in August since fewer than 18 units were completed.

-Then you complete your 2nd year courses, say 9 of them. The next academic review, in April, determines your enrollment status and is based on all 13 courses you've taken since your last one.

Yeah, but in terms of workload it is A LOT less for the registrar. I'm sure a lot of students take summer school because they need to boost their averages or because they need a certain course. The fact that they don't have to go through an academic review means that only students that have successfully boosted their averages or have successfully completed their required courses will go to them for processing.

hey speaking of summer school, i know people were saying that the sticker on our student card doesnt work in the summer, but that some bus drivers dont care or dont check.. is it the red fall/winter sticker that they would see and might let me on? because im about to put on my summer school green sticker and it doesnt say hsr on it so its obvious

Originally Posted by Melanieee

hey speaking of summer school, i know people were saying that the sticker on our student card doesnt work in the summer, but that some bus drivers dont care or dont check.. is it the red fall/winter sticker that they would see and might let me on? because im about to put on my summer school green sticker and it doesnt say hsr on it so its obvious

I think either is pretty obvious that you don't have a valid HSR bus pass. One is the colour of last year and the other is a different colour.

On another note, do the graduate students cards look any different and if not what colour are their stickers (if they have any)?

Grad student stickers are yellow.

@Jeremy: I'm not saying they should have another review, I'm saying the term "SA" is kind of misleading since it, in and of itself, doesn't mean much. (Courses outside of your "SA" may count toward your 'yearly average' so to speak, for dean's honour, etc.)

Originally Posted by Mowicz

Grad student stickers are yellow.

@Jeremy: I'm not saying they should have another review, I'm saying the term "SA" is kind of misleading since it, in and of itself, doesn't mean much. (Courses outside of your "SA" may count toward your 'yearly average' so to speak, for dean's honour, etc.)

Since it's yellow, I think the best bet would be to use the new lime green stickers. Although if you don't look like you could be a graduate then that could probably affect you. Either way, just bring exact change all the time.

That's true, but I believe the Dean's Honour actually says that you need a required average from x number of units starting from the last academic review. I don't think it says anything about SA, at least that's not what I remember reading last year.

Originally Posted by jhan523

That's true, but I believe the Dean's Honour actually says that you need a required average from x number of units starting from the last academic review. I don't think it says anything about SA, at least that's not what I remember reading last year.

Yep, this is what I mean...the "SA" is arbitrary and not necessarily a useful measure.

Like for individual progress, ie. "I'm doing better this year" it's good, but for 'official' purposes it's just a number which doesn't seem to show up anywhere.

Originally Posted by Mowicz

Grad student stickers are yellow.

Yeah and they get to use the HSR all year long, unlike the undergrads.

Originally Posted by nh999

Yeah and they get to use the HSR all year long, unlike the undergrads.

Yeah, that's why I asked what colour their sticker was. Lime green is much closer to that colour compared to red/orange or whatever it was last year. So that's your BEST bet, but I don't think it'll work very often.