Interviewing applicants - GPA verification?

[mervalbert]

Hello all. I'm currently interviewing for Schulich med in March and have a question about the GPA calculation. In one of my semesters for my best 2 years I took an extra course. In that year, if the school uses all of my courses for their GPA calculation, they will arrive at a GPA that is above the cutoff but considerably lower (something like 0.14 difference, from a 2Y GPA of 3.83 to 3.97) than if they were to use my top 10 courses from that year. This is because this was a hard course in the fall term that I made up for by taking an extra course in the winter precisely because I knew Western considers an applicant's top 10 half credit courses each academic year.

 

My question is, seeing as how it makes such a giant difference to my post-interview chances, is there anyway I can verify with the admission committee that they calculated my GPA correctly? If I receive an acceptance or high waitlist post interview, I obviously won't pursue this, but if I am normal waitlisted, what is the best way for me to go forward and verify their GPA calculation for my profile? 

 

Thank you 

[Zuk]

I would venture to guess that all it would take is an email message and they would be happy to left you know the GPA that they have calculated for you. Why do you think it will make any difference to your post interview chances? I guess it might.

The reason that I question it is that if it is really true that GPA/MCAT were used purely as a cutoff with the aABS being used to determine interviews after that. Than it would be inconsistent to bring GPA and MCAT back into the picture after interviews.

 

 

[mervalbert]

Well let's say I'm placed on the normal waitlist. What ever formula they use to rank applicants, it almost certainly uses the GPA. I imagine having a 3.83 versus a 3.97 (this is the dramatic shift in 2Y GPA that would happen in my case) would impact your position on the waitlist, probably by a significant margin but if not definitely in some capacity. 

[Zuk]

4 minutes ago, mervalbert said:

Well let's say I'm placed on the normal waitlist. What ever formula they use to rank applicants, it almost certainly uses the GPA. I imagine having a 3.83 versus a 3.97 (this is the dramatic shift in 2Y GPA that would happen in my case) would impact your position on the waitlist, probably by a significant margin but if not definitely in some capacity. 

Yeah it definitely might, I didn't mean to suggest that your question is invalid. I edited my post to explain my line of questioning better.

 

[mervalbert]

3 minutes ago, Zuk said:

Yeah it definitely might, I didn't mean to suggest that your question is invalid. I edited my post to explain my line of questioning better.

 

We definitely don't know what exact formula they use but I think we can safely assume that GPA and MCAT will play some role. This is because we can compare the school to other schools that have implemented similar qualitative aspects into the application, which all use either the GPA, MCAT or both in some capacity to rank final applicants post-interview. There is also a Dean's report from a few years back that indicated the post interview formula for Western was 50% interview, 25% GPA, 25% MCAT, but this was many years ago and now things may have changed due to the ABS introduction.

 

I'm thinking of sending them a quick email, but it will be a challenge to word it in such a way that isn't assuming incompetence on their part. I found a post from a few years back where someone asked a similar question and was advised against emailing the school by a senior moderator here. It would just really suck if my GPA Isn't being calculated correctly. 

[Zuk]

It would be a shame if making an inquiry like that was somehow counted against you. But if a more senior person advised against it, they may have a good reason. I hope your GPA was calculated properly, good luck!