Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

McMaster March 28/29 Post MMI Reflections


Recommended Posts

You missed the "/s"...

Although I will admit the post did make my heart jump before I checked my inbox. To be the one to ruin the joke:

"After much consultation and reflection and in light of McMaster University’s decision to cancel all class and in-person examinations and events, we have made the difficult decision to cancel our upcoming MMI process and the pre-MMI Open House sessions with students, scheduled March 27, 2020 through and April 4, 2020. "

and

"McMaster MD Program has made a decision that we will not hold in-person or virtual interviews in 2020 given the current limitations. "

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, MedGoldfish said:

Apologies if anyone was frightened by my message! The comments above are correct, I was joking.

I wonder when Mac will tell us how they're evaluating applicants?

They might not even tell us, other schools don’t disclose their selection exact formula

I know Mac historically discloses it but it’s possible they won’t. I’m sure we’ll hear from them for campus selection soon though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Ontario have mercy said:

They might not even tell us, other schools don’t disclose their selection exact formula

I know Mac historically discloses it but it’s possible they won’t. I’m sure we’ll hear from them for campus selection soon though.

You would have to assume its a mix of GPA CARS Casper. Anything else would be unfair. Imagine if they dipped into the other MCAT sections or ABS and didnt tell anyone?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, Applicant5050 said:

Quebec schools have directly replaced the MMI in post interview formulas with CASPer. Maybe Mac will do the same?

That would be the most logical thing to do. My friend got an interview with a below average GPA and an average CARS so I assume CASPer was her saving grace. It wasnt good enough to get an UOttawa interview but with that + waitlist movement I hope that's good enough to get her in 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, swoman said:

That would be the most logical thing to do. My friend got an interview with a below average GPA and an average CARS so I assume CASPer was her saving grace. It wasnt good enough to get an UOttawa interview but with that + waitlist movement I hope that's good enough to get her in 

Does uOttawa weigh CASPer more heavily than McMaster? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, swoman said:

That would be the most logical thing to do. My friend got an interview with a below average GPA and an average CARS so I assume CASPer was her saving grace. It wasnt good enough to get an UOttawa interview but with that + waitlist movement I hope that's good enough to get her in 

I agree, and it’s probably going to be what they end up doing. If I recall correctly, there was a study out from Mac during the development of CASPer that showed a moderate correlation between CASPer and MMI performance.

Best of luck to your friend!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, HeyMrSnowman said:

Hmm.. I got McMaster with a 128 CARS and Ottawa with a very average ABS... So I'm inclined to think CASPer is weighed very heavily. Do you have a link for this?

Your ABS is subjective to the assessor. My friend, who has a near 4.0 and a 128 in CARS, got rejected from Mac but invited to uOttawa. There’s no official source but I have multiple anecdotes to support this; take it with a grain of salt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Applicant5050 said:

I agree, and it’s probably going to be what they end up doing. If I recall correctly, there was a study out from Mac during the development of CASPer that showed a moderate correlation between CASPer and MMI performance.

Best of luck to your friend!

I don't think they would just replace the interview with CASPer (at 70%) for multiple reasons:

1) Although the interview and CASPer have a moderate correlation, it is not a complete replacement for the interview (i.e. the interview looks at skills in a different way). If they were confident enough in it as a measure to use it as a complete interview replacement this year, I would think that it would be worth more in the pre-interview formula than 32% (I also believe that Mac did experiment with making it worth 46% a while back, and then went down to 32%. Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but if this is the case, there're limitations that they are aware of).

2) Arguably the larger problem would be that a 70% CASPer would probably skew admissions heavily towards those who obtained interviews with low GPA/low CARS. People who received interviews despite low GPA/CARS must have a very high CASPer (relatively). Conversely, an individual with a high GPA/high CARS combo would have gotten the interview even if they performed relatively average on CASPer. If they chose to use a 70% CASPer, we would likely see the average CARS/GPA dip from previous years, as they would be accepting more preferentially from those who did well on CASPer to secure their interview. Now I cannot say if this is a good or bad thing (we all have our biases), but I would imagine that the MD program is interested in maintaining similar entrance statistics despite the change of events this year.

At the end of the day, it's still very up in the air what they'll be doing. I could be completely wrong and they may go with the 70/15/15 with CASPer, but these are the main reasons why I'd imagine them considering not doing that. 

Best of luck to everyone! I hope we do get transparency at the end of this long wait.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/31/2020 at 11:30 AM, swoman said:

You would have to assume its a mix of GPA CARS Casper. Anything else would be unfair. Imagine if they dipped into the other MCAT sections or ABS and didnt tell anyone?

Says on the website it's 32% GPA 32% CARS 32% CASPer 4% MSc for interviews - in these extraordinary circumstances my guess would be that they would re-use this. They've tried increasing the weighting of CASPer and withdrew it - I doubt they would go down that road again. In unusual circumstances I think they would keep the interview formula, as everything else would be controversial and they have enough issues to deal with. 

Edited by justamom
clarification
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does anybody think they might evaluate references? It is more objective than ABS, everyone will have needed it, and it could assess many of the traits they might look for interviews. I know that it has just been used for checks and balances before but would it not be the best thing to look at if they go beyond just CARS/GPA/CASPer? Especially since looking at other sections of the MCAT when they have GPA seems redundant. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, 1234561234 said:

Does anybody think they might evaluate references? It is more objective than ABS, everyone will have needed it, and it could assess many of the traits they might look for interviews. I know that it has just been used for checks and balances before but would it not be the best thing to look at if they go beyond just CARS/GPA/CASPer? Especially since looking at other sections of the MCAT when they have GPA seems redundant. 

It's an interesting idea but I doubt it considering most people probably have 10/10 (or whatever the score is). I don't think it would be a very discriminating factor like CASPer would

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...