UofT Interview Invites/Regrets 2019

[aposter 0]

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[Antigen 0]

TIME STAMP: 2:56PM Jan 17th 2019

Interview Date: Feb 9 2018

Result: Interview (MD)

cGPA:  3.98

MCAT: 518 (130/128/131/129)

ECs: Fairly strong I think, 5 publications (none first), several oral presentations and poster presentations, extensive community involvement, leader of several clubs, athletics

Essays: I spent a good month on the UofT essays and had several people look them over

Year: MSc.

Geography: IP

[hopefullyafuturedoc 33]

TIME STAMP: 3:58 PM

Interview Date: Feb 9, 2019

Result: Interview

cGPA:  3.94

MCAT: 505

ECs: Lots of different things, lots of continued activities, leadership roles, etc. 

Essays: Spent a few weeks on them, answered questions very honestly.

Year: 4th UG

Geography: OOP

[BuildAdditionalPylons 1]

TIME STAMP: 3:12 PM, Jan 17

Interview Date: Feb 9, 2019 (MD) Feb 17 (PhD)

Result: Interview

cGPA:  3.98

MCAT: enough

ECs: Mainly research

Essays: I think not bad

Year: 4th UG

Geography: IP

 

[Nivo 1]

MD/PhD invites still coming

 

TIME STAMP: 11:54 AM Jan 18th 2019

Interview Date: Feb 23 2019 (MD/PhD), Feb 24 2019 (MD)

Result: Interview (MD/PhD)

Year: MSc conferred

Geography: OOP

 

Can message for other details! 

 

[walter sobchak 0]

TIME STAMP: January 18th at 11:54AM 

Interview Date: February 23 (MD/PhD), February 24 (MD)

Result: Invite 

cGPA: 3.97

MCAT: Met cut-offs

ECs: Lots of research...message for details on ECs

Essays: Spent more than a week on essays with lots of edits from friends

Year: 2nd-year MSc

Geography: IP

[Kala 0]

TIME STAMP: January 31st, 12:51PM

Interview Date: February 24th

Result: Invite!

cGPA: 3.98 wGPA 

MCAT: 129CP/127CARS/130BIO/128PSYSOC

ECs: pretty diverse and non-traditional! I spent a lot of time working in my campus' Residence program as a Don one year, a life-sci academic support person another etc. with lots of internal committees and community work throughout, plus a big focus on mental health and well-being with suicide prevention and intervention certifications. Also focused quite a bit on LGBTQ initiatives, and was the right hand to the faculty chair of our LGBTQ advocacy committee which included lots of events and community outreach. Arts and music throughout as well, with choirs, performing at community shows and such. No research publications. Working now full-time as a PTA in a physio clinic, and part-time elsewhere doing surgical work for eye donations from organ donors.

Essays: I didn't get them looked over which probably wasn't a good idea, but I felt good about them and true to myself. Worked on them for about a month.

Year: 4yr HBSc. grad, UofT

Geography: IP

[futureMD95 19]

Invite (Feb 24)

Timestamp: Jan 31, 12:52 PM

wGPA- not sure, somewhere between 3.9-3.95 for sure. 

MCAT- 128/128/130/130 - 516

EC’s - diverse, I think. Basically no research though (only 4 months as a research assistant back in 2014).  7 years employment as a lifeguard/swim instructor. Also worked as a liaison officer for my local university, travelling the province to recruit students and conduct presentations. Hospital volunteer hours (around 2 years), Rotary club member (also about 2 years), mission trip to Haiti to help in a medical clinic in 2014.  Numerous university clubs - was part of the mental health awareness club, a club that raised money for the homeless shelter in my hometown, an instructor for student exam review sessions for intro psych courses (students offering support club), Golden Key social media chair for my local chapter. Guest speaker at a few youth leadership events. That's kinda the gist of it. Lots of teaching experience and public speaking. 

Essays - felt good about them 

Last year of masters program

IP

Honestly shocked. Got rejected from western today (my dream school), so I really needed some good news. Third time applying, first cycle with interviews. Keep working hard everyone! I know how draining this process is but don’t give up!!

Edited February 3 by futureMD95
Adding info

[DNAhelicase 0]

Date: Feb 24
Result: Invite!
wGPA: 3.96
MCAT: Above cutoffs
ECs: NSERC CGSM and other research and academic scholarships (no pubs), music-related ECs, lots of leadership, some hospital volunteering, etc
Year: 2nd year MSc

Good luck to everyone still waiting!

[Dr.Doctor 0]

TIME STAMP: 12:51 p.m

Interview Date: February 24th!

Result: Invite

cGPA:  3.95

MCAT: (131, 127, 129, 131) 518

ECs: Quite diverse, long term, NSERC, founded a small non-profit, volunteering abroad, long-term pharmacy job, etc.

Essays: good enough apparently! I had them reviewed by current med students and advisors at my undergrad

Year: Graduated 2018

Geography: IP

[ImInABitOfAPickle_ 0]

TIME STAMP: January 31st at 12:51 P.M.

Interview Date: February 24th

Result: Interview (MD)

cGPA: 3.92

MCAT: 508 (127/125/127/129)

ECs: Several different things, but I think I have a good balance of research, community involvement, and club activities.

Essays: Very proud of them. Spent several weeks writing them from the heart and had lots of feedback from others.

Year: 2nd-year MSc

Geography: IP

 

[bt30hnr4fd 1]

TIME STAMP: February 13 at 5:00 P.M.

Interview Date: March 2nd

Result: Interview!

wGPA: 3.94

MCAT: 128/129/130/128

ECs: PM me.

Essays: Spent quite a bit of time working on them, but at least one of them I had to rewrite quite late into the process.

Year: Masters

Geography: IP

[pedant 0]

TIME STAMP: February 13 at 5:02 pm

Interview Date: March 2

Result: Interview (MD)

wGPA: 3.98

MCAT: met the cutoffs

ECs: Diverse

Essays: Felt unsure about what they were looking for

Year: 4th UG

Geography: IP

[Regretsbutgoingstrong 3]

TIME STAMP: February 13 

Interview Date: N/A

Result: Rejected

wGPA: 3.91

MCAT: Didn't meet MCAT cutoffs (received my score a month after submitting my application)

ECs: Hard to say, but I definitely through they were strong and my wording fit nicely with the four clusters

Essays: Definitely strong, spent over 2 months writing them, with multiple edits from different healthcare workers that make up a multidisciplinary team to ensure diversity in the essays. Too bad my MCAT score wasn't what I expected.

Year: Gap Year

Geography: IP

[ThePhilosopher 0]

TIME STAMP: February 13

Interview Date: Saturday March 2nd 2019

Result: Invite

wGPA: 3.98

MCAT: Surpassed cutoffs per section

ECs: 2 pubs pending, 3 pubs submitted, executive member of 5 clubs, missionary medical volunteering, clinical/hospital volunteering, private personal training

Essays: Huge focus on CanMEDS roles by choosing answers that highlight my ability to incorporate them coherently. Edits from a couple of trusted sources to ensure I was hitting the points and using med-appropriate language.

Year: 4th Year Undergraduate

Geography: IP

[greensurR 9]

TIME STAMP: February 14th 3:50 PM

Interview Date: Saturday March 2nd

Result: Invite

wGPA: 3.92 I think

MCAT: met cutoffs

ECs: a few pubs, presentations, some kind of cool employment experiences I think, somewhat of a theme in my activities I would say, no clubs 

Essays: worked on them for a couple of months, had one person review, they felt good

Year: Masters

Geography: IP

I think one of my reference letters may have been bad or at least not great. Other 2 I am 99% sure would have been excellent. Just throwing that out there in case it helps someone. 

[MashedPotato 0]

TIME STAMP: February 14th 

Interview Date: Saturday March 2nd

Result: Invite 

wGPA: 3.98 

MCAT: 513 

ECs: lots of tutoring, facilitating and mentorship roles, advocacy roles, and some but not so significant research

Year: year off after BSc

Geography: IP

[onesieluv 7]

TIME STAMP: 1:28PM Feb 20 2019

Interview Date: March 30th 2018

Result: Interview (MD)

cGPA:  3.97 ish

MCAT: 521 (131/127/131/132)

ECs: Unique and diverse (see my older posts for more info). In terms of research: one 2nd author manuscript waiting to be published, one poster presentation, one NSERC-USRA

Essays: I spent a solid week on them and had 3-4 people proofread them! Didn't mention my research in any of my essays cause I felt like most applicants would do that and I wanted to be different 

Year: 4th year BSc

Geography: Living in Ontario, permanent address in BC

[Sdocs 0]

TIMESTAMP: 12:29PM Feb 20 2019

Interview Date: March 30th, 2018

Result: Interview (MD)

cGPA:  3.97ish

MCAT: 518 (130 Chem/130 Bio/ 130 CARS /128 Psych/Soc)

ECs: Nothing extravagant, but diverse. A mix of coaching, research, mentorship, and athletics, from HS to current. Message for more info! 

Essays: Spent like 2 weeks on them, and had them proofread by a few people before submitting, same with extended ABS. Tried to maintain structure in all of them, and also related CANMEDS concepts as best I could, while still making things flow well. 

Year: 4th year BSc

Geography: OOP (Sask)

[TwilightFalcon 10]

TIME STAMP: Feb 21 2019 11:17AM

Interview Date: March 30

Result: Interview (MD)

wGPA:  3.95

MCAT: Met cutoffs

ECs: Diverse amongst all categories. PM me if you'd like to know more details. 

Essays: I worked on them for several weeks and had multiple people edit them.

Year: MSc.

Geography: IP

I was most likely placed in the grad applicant pool so I assume that they are starting to send out decisions for those applicants.

[Anderfishy 2]

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[struggling2getin 46]

I don't usually post my stats anymore since they've basically remained the same from my posts 2 years ago. I'll make an exception in this time just because of how -relatively- little data usually gets contributed here.

TIME STAMP: Feb 21 2019,  11:17 EST 

Interview Date: March 30

Result: Interview (MD)

cGPA:  3.96 (by rounding)

MCAT: Passed cutoffs

ECs: Filled up all 32 items this year, but I've had an interview back when I had 21/48 items. Diverse and met each of UofT's clusters quite well. 

Essays: Spent at least 1.5 months on them, at least 400 hours. Was it overkill? To be honest, probably. I'm not a bad writer by any means, but when it comes to pieces with word limits, I believe in the importance of articulating each idea as succulently and artistically as possible. My grades did suffer but I wanted to write essays that could stand strong among a diverse audience of readers (which is to be reasonably expected of) and leave myself without regret. All of the topics strongly resonated with my experiences and I had a lot to share.
If anything, future readers should find this observation helpful: having exchanged essay reviewing with some of my friends, I've come to realize that there isn't a single, uniform writing style that really makes the magic happen. Some of my friends briefly addressed the question within a single few sentences, then built their entire essays on how their experiences met the four clusters. Personally, I dedicated almost half my word count towards giving a thorough answer/solution before briefly sharing some personal experiences. We all got an interview. 

Year: Graduated UG 

Geography: OOP

Two years ago, I did horribly on my interview. I knew my application wasn't strong: I had a weak reference, few extracurriculars and ultimately, couldn't hold up to applicants with an amazing wealth of experience behind them. I was invited during the final week and suspected that I had only marginally scraped into getting an interview. I convinced myself that the odds weren't in my favour and let myself fall. 

Last year I didn't take my essays as seriously enough and got rejected March 16th. Firstly, the topics just didn't click with my experiences. Secondly, seeing that I already had been previously been invited, I grew extremely over-confident and complacent in my writing. I got no interviews from any school during this year.

Each interview is a privilege. Each year, med schools get more and more amazing applications, either from those who have come back strong after a previous rejection, or new talented applicants. Perhaps I'm just on this site too often, but getting accepted 4th year doesn't seem as common as it once was. In any case, I'm extremely grateful to have another chance of making things right.  

[mcpremed97 7]

Time stamp: Feb. 26, 2019 1:10PM (EST)

Interview: March 31

Result: Interview (MD)

MCAT: 128/131/131/131

GPA: 3.97

ECs: Filled them all. No publications.

Essays: Wrote in a week and had my mom proofread them lol.

Year: 4th year UG (last)

Geography (OOP)

I'm so incredibly excited! I really assumed it would be a rejection. 

[anonymouspanda 7]

Why isn't anyone posting on this 

[MyYear 0]

The wave of rejections quickly approaches.