Calypsoo Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 Can someone comment/provide more information on this? https://twitter.com/drsoup09/status/1135929438032617472 theevilsloth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
targaryen Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 That would definitely relieve a lot of burden on professors/mentors/bosses. But I'm curious how you would distinguish applicants if everyone ranks their students as 5/5 Calypsoo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calypsoo Posted June 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 1 minute ago, targaryen said: That would definitely relieve a lot of burden on professors/mentors/bosses. But I'm curious how you would distinguish applicants if everyone ranks their students as 5/5 Yea that's mind-boggling, but maybe it will be weighted less? It's reassuring to know that we aren't the only ones who are stressed concerning reference letters... targaryen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckduckgoose18 Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 It's probably going to become a pass fail thing then, since people will likely only approach profs who'd be willing to give them 4/5s. I'd imagine this won't change anything for Mac, since they don't care about LORs very much, but interesting to see how it'll shift things at U of T/other schools that normally put quite a bit of weight on the letters. Calypsoo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calypsoo Posted June 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 1 minute ago, duckduckgoose18 said: It's probably going to become a pass fail thing then, since people will likely only approach profs who'd be willing to give them 4/5s. I'd imagine this won't change anything for Mac, since they don't care about LORs very much, but interesting to see how it'll shift things at U of T/other schools that normally put quite a bit of weight on the letters. Yea it could turn out to be more competitive, I can't tell if it's a step forward or a step backwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruh Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 Seeing how most referees will rank you around 4-5/5 (as long as they don’t have a strongly bad opinion of the applicnt) this should make discerning between applicants based on Ref’s more of a pass/fail matter than anything. This would be a good thing for those without the strongest referees, and a bad thing for those with very strong referees - only for schools that would have used reference letters competitively. From what I understand, Ottawa and Mac were already using reference letters as pass/fail anyways. Calypsoo and WunderBar 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
destiny deoxys Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 So will ottawa removed completely reference letters for this cycle ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Instagrammar Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theevilsloth Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 https://meds.queensu.ca/academics/undergraduate/prospective-students/applying/method-selection this looks like it is updated from last cycle, at least visually. Under reference letters it still outlines referees writing a letter, might still be old info though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplemermaid Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 How would this impact grad applicants? Would we still need to have our supervisor write a letter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WunderBar Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 I just called the OUAC to try to confirm this, and the gent who answered said that I would have to "contact the schools individually" to determine whether they will require written letters. He didn't seem to want to elaborate on it much. Strange. theevilsloth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calypsoo Posted June 6, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2019 10 hours ago, WunderBar said: I just called the OUAC to try to confirm this, and the gent who answered said that I would have to "contact the schools individually" to determine whether they will require written letters. He didn't seem to want to elaborate on it much. Strange. That's a bit strange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apple94 Posted June 6, 2019 Report Share Posted June 6, 2019 Great change. Reference letters are the stupidest part of this whole process. Absolutely no objectivity nor standardization across applicants. theevilsloth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pakoon Posted June 6, 2019 Report Share Posted June 6, 2019 I mean, individual schools could still ask for references letters to be uploaded via SAM, or some other 3rd party system. I wasn't a fan of the letters when I was applying, but I can't see schools just abandoning reference letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HisLovePerfects Posted June 6, 2019 Report Share Posted June 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Pakoon said: I mean, individual schools could still ask for references letters to be uploaded via SAM, or some other 3rd party system. I wasn't a fan of the letters when I was applying, but I can't see schools just abandoning reference letters. Dalhousie abandoned reference letters several years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
destiny deoxys Posted June 6, 2019 Report Share Posted June 6, 2019 1 hour ago, HisLovePerfects said: Dalhousie abandoned reference letters several years ago. McGill no ref letter as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I_AM Posted June 6, 2019 Report Share Posted June 6, 2019 Apparently, OMSAS responded to someone and said that reference letters are still required for the corresponding schools, its just the process will be simplified for the referees, whatever that means. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymouspls Posted June 9, 2019 Report Share Posted June 9, 2019 From what I've been told by one of my referees for the 2018 cycle, she thinks you still will need 3 referees, but they might not have to write a letter and will only have to fill out the evaluations form, or they will have to write a shorter letter. In my personal opinion reference letters were one of the most annoying things about the application cycle so I hope they phase them out in the future. It's also kind of unfair how certain schools like Queens rank you for interview invites based on reference letter scores. Calypsoo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeDayDream Posted June 9, 2019 Report Share Posted June 9, 2019 What's the point of references if they just rank you out of 5. lol Calypsoo, VladTheLad and TorontoGoose 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frenchpress Posted June 9, 2019 Report Share Posted June 9, 2019 6 hours ago, WeDayDream said: What's the point of references if they just rank you out of 5. lol I’ve done a lot of form references for students over the years, mostly for graduate schools but also for medical schools. A standard approach used by many schools is to get you to rank students out of percentiles or compared to the average - e.g. top 1%, top 5%, top 50% etc. Or average, above average, etc - or other methods of comparison to all the students you have experience working with. Very few of my students would end up in the top 5%, for example, but a number every year might be in the top 20%. If all I really had was a student’s grades I report their position with respect to the whole class. I usually found I could differentiate where students performed based on these forms pretty well, and from the other side they worked well when we were making admissions decisions too. I don’t know what the OMSAS form will look like, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re moving in this direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VladTheLad Posted June 14, 2019 Report Share Posted June 14, 2019 Is this 100% confirmed? I think if reference letters are completely eliminated, it is pretty ridiculous overall. It matters what professionals in the field think about your potential candidacy as colleagues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Instagrammar Posted June 14, 2019 Report Share Posted June 14, 2019 12 minutes ago, VladTheLad said: Is this 100% confirmed? I think if reference letters are completely eliminated, it is pretty ridiculous overall. It matters what professionals in the field think about your potential candidacy as colleagues. From what I gather, it will likely just be more check boxes for the referee with some comment boxes (i.e This candidate is in the top 1%, 5%, 20% of the class; I believe this candidate will be well suited to practice medicine). UBC has this format although they allow a space at the bottom for an actual reference, but each question has a comment box that a referee can elaborate slightly on. I think the letters will follow a similar format, albeit very succinct and only ask questions where the referee can just check box rather than giving a detailed letter. I still think the reference letters will be important, but much easier to fill out by asking the referee specific questions that are easily answered with a checkbox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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