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May 12 Countdown Thread 2020


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1 hour ago, MedicineLCS said:

I am eagerly awaiting the studies that are going to be done on the people who got in using the lottery to see how their career arcs are similar/differ with people selected competitively (even if they already were the top 500!)

There won't be any studies on this.  The variance in medical school applicants isn't as large as pre-meds like to believe. Most people aren't special unfortunately!  Despite what people will tell themselves, alot of getting into medical school - after all the hard work, dedication, and strategy - is dependent on luck as well. There are plenty of people with strong GPA/MCAT/ and seemingly adequate social skills for an interview, that simply dont get in, depending on what province/program you are applying to/eligible for. Too many qualified applicants, not enough spots. 

Not to mention this is just the first step... there is even more significant variability when it comes to applying to residency - where there is no MCAT, no GPA, no Casper(well, a few schools use it, but not across the board or even in a significant fashion)  that helps filter to get to the interview stage. Even more opacity and luck, with general guidelines of how to "improve and be more competitive" but of course most medical students like pre-meds arent just throwing apps in for giggles. 

 

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6 minutes ago, William Osler said:

They can try, Mac and their legal army will laugh at them. When has anyone ever successfully taken on an institution via the courts and won in recent memory? There is no legal precedence. Breach of contract? Seems like a reach. Any JDs weigh in?

Also a good way from being red-flagged for future residency match considerations informally. 

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Just now, YesIcan55 said:

Don't be that petty loser that tries to take it to the media/courts....besides making yourself look like a fool/loss of money/being flagged/etc...you would cast doubt on the medical students that get in to other schools this year with no lottery system in place

It's not being a petty loser lol. I wouldn't do it but I can definitely understand why someone would

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1 minute ago, YesIcan55 said:

you would cast doubt on the medical students that get in to other schools this year with no lottery system in place

I'm not against or for a media or legal approach but how will it cast doubts on other medical students or programs? All other programs held interviews and made accomodations which were slight tweaks in their usual admissions process. Mac was the only one to upend it in this fashion

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19 minutes ago, YesIcan55 said:

dont be that petty person that takes this to the news because this will make the public distrust/devalue not only mac med students/the system/but other medical students admitted to other schools this year....

Why not? Justice is one of the ethical pillars. If Mac stands by the fairness of their lottery system, then they should be able to defend it against the scrutiny of the news/public inquiry. 

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11 minutes ago, William Osler said:

Yea, you would expect those with near perfect CARS and GPA and with other indicators of a good CASPer like a uO interivew or UofM OOP interview for example to bein the top 100

 But it’s a little presumptive to think they’d definitely be in the top 100 out of 5000 applicants. It’s still quite likely they landed in the 100-150 or 100-200 range and were unlucky 

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8 minutes ago, YesIcan55 said:

Don't be that petty loser that tries to take it to the media/courts....besides making yourself look like a fool/loss of money/being flagged/etc...you would cast doubt on the medical students that get in to other schools this year with no lottery system in place

If the institution of medical professionals is so sacred and liable to public interest, shouldn't it even be more imperative that this is made public knowledge and let the school defend their decision? 

Like if the government officials you believe to have been democratically elected were actually chosen randomly, wouldn't you want to know that? 

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2 minutes ago, William Osler said:

I'm not against or for a media or legal approach but how will it cast doubts on other medical students or programs? All other programs held interviews and made accomodations which were slight tweaks in their usual admissions process. Mac was the only one to upend it in this fashion

The general public isn't all that smart when it comes to understanding the intricacies of a highly convoluted and selective admissions process like Medicine. 

They wouldn't understand that the top 500 people are probably not much different at all, given the hairs you split in the admission process.

Contrary to popular believe, you don't "need" a 4.0 and a 520 to be a strong medical student.  Its just an effect of supply and demand. 

Regardless of what you think, the lottery process, especially if its a one time measure, isn't as "unfair" as people are making it out to be. The general public, which is also where the primary interest lies, is not going to notice a difference if someone who other was was #458 and wouldn't have gotten in this year, is suddenly admitted due to lottery. That person likely is perfectly fine and capable of succeeding in medical school.

 

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2 minutes ago, supadupafly said:

 But it’s a little presumptive to think they’d definitely be in the top 100 out of 5000 applicants. It’s still quite likely they landed in the 100-150 or 100-200 range and were unlucky 

The whole premise of the 101st applicant being randomized to rejected is sickening to think about. Especially if McMaster would've been their preferred choice to one of their other offers or worse, if they have no other offers.

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7 minutes ago, YesIcan55 said:

medical school's don't owe you anything...they can choose how to select people...don't like it, don't apply or if you get in, don't attend. It reeks of entitlement. There are thousands that didn't even get an interview anywhere that would kill for a position. 

I appreciate your sentiment and echo it too but the medical school also has a duty to the general public (hence it was mentioned in Wendys email) to select for the next generation of future physicians esp. in Canada where healthcare is single-payer and medical school spots are funded by taxpayer dollars partially. 

Again, not for or against a media or legal approach, just exploring all stakeholders here #StillGotThatCASPerKnowledge

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9 minutes ago, YesIcan55 said:

Don't be that petty loser that tries to take it to the media/courts....besides making yourself look like a fool/loss of money/being flagged/etc...you would cast doubt from the public on the medical students that get in to other schools this year with no lottery system in place

Petty loser? Are u kidding me? The process is already broken to begin with, now a LOTTERY is being used to select our future physicians?? Nahh

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1 minute ago, William Osler said:

The whole premise of the 101st applicant being randomized to rejected is sickening to think about.

Definitely, that does suck, but thats well within McMasters right to do whatever it is they think "works for them". 

Nothing is fair about the process if you really sit down and break it all down, and now it will maybe make some different "winners" and different "not-winners". 

I'm surprised they bothered auto-approving the top 100, i gather that may have been a "compromise" on their end?

Based on the basic demographics, they likely could have just done a random lottery of the top 700 applicants, and still filled their class with perfectly qualified matriculants.

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1 minute ago, William Osler said:

The whole premise of the 101st applicant being randomized to rejected is sickening to think about. Especially if McMaster would've been their preferred choice to one of their other offers or worse, if they have no other offers.

Is it all that different from the last person left on the interview waitlist though? I don't think so. 

As I think about this, I can see why Mac made this choice. I don't necessarily agree with them, but let's at least acknowledge how random the process really is already random to a limited extent. I don't think going to the media/courts would be a good idea or effective.  

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ok, i'm going to play devil's advocate here for a second.

While I can completely understand the frustration behind the partial lottery system that has been put into place, it can actually be considered fair in some sense. For example, if you were the 455th ranked applicant prior to interviews, the interview was your chance to really show yourself. You could be amazing at the interview and now be ranked at the 88th position and receive an offer, probably even getting your first campus choice. However, now that there is no interview, it would be extremely hard to jump from the 455th position to the 88th position. To account for this perceived unfairness, they implemented the partial lottery system? 

This is just my 2 cents and I can completely understand why people are frustrated. I'm just trying to see things from a different perspective! 

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1 minute ago, JohnGrisham said:

I'm surprised they bothered auto-approving the top 100, i gather that may have been a "compromise" on their end?

With the variance introduced by MMI, in previous years the top 100 pre interview had a >70% chance of acceptance whereas the bottom 450 has ~50%. Thus, they auto accepted top 100. 

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