Winter 2020 grades?

[AB2]

How long until Mcgill Medicine comes out with an official statement on how this semester’s grades will be treated henceforth?

Now that UofA UofC and Dalhousie have all decided to drop W2020 from gpa calculations, do you think Mcgill/all Canadian schools will follow suit?

EDIT:

Wow I somehow missed this announcement on their website:

"2020-04-06: Information for S/U (pass/fail or credit/no credit) grade option Winter 2020 semester:
Thank you for your interest in McGill’s Faculty of Medicine. Universities and colleges around the world have offered their current students different grading and exceptional academic accommodation options in response to the unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are aware that many prospective candidates for Medicine have questions about how these Winter 2020 courses will be considered by the Admissions office, in terms of grades, courseload, prerequisite courses or other elements of the application. The MDCM Admissions Committee will be meeting this spring to address how these files will be assessed. The underlying goal is to offer accommodations that do not disadvantage candidates regardless of whether you choose an S/U (pass/fail or credit/no credit) grade option, or if your institution has imposed a single grading option on all students. Once approved, detailed information will be published on our website: www.mcgill.ca/medadmissions"

Essentially, taking S/U will likely not penalize you. Specifics will come.

[BernieMac]

-

[AB2]

6 minutes ago, YesIcan55 said:

You can assume that every Canadian medical school will follow suit. This is because before UofC UofA Dal made their statements they all said that all Canadian medical schools are currently working together to make a Canada wide policy. UofC UofA Dal are the simply the first ones who have made public statements regarding their plans for the matter.

That's what I'm thinking too, thanks for the background info on the schools coordinating (in hindsight makes sense)

American schools seem to be taking a much less coordinated approach, per a spreadsheet circulating on SDN

[fluffybunnyyyyy]

I'm a second degree student and set to have completed EXACTLY 45 graded credits (no S/U or pass fail) by fall 2020 for next application cycle so that i can use my second degree grades ... if they disregard this semester... will that make me ineligible??? UGH!  

[AB2]

3 minutes ago, fluffybunnyyyyy said:

I'm a second degree student and set to have completed EXACTLY 45 graded credits (no S/U or pass fail) by fall 2020 for next application cycle so that i can use my second degree grades ... if they disregard this semester... will that make me ineligible??? UGH!  

Those are the kind of details I would like to know as well!

[firecracker]

Also what if W2020 is your best semester yet -.- 

[chocolatecake]

5 minutes ago, shortie said:

Also what if W2020 is your best semester yet -.- 

Exactly! I understand that accomodations are necessary and the pandemic really did affect people's mental health and overall ability to maintain their academics (among other things), but simply dropping the entire Winter 2020 semester  disregards the fact that people actually worked hard for their grades for the 1st half of the semester. It also assumes that people react similarly to such conditions. Even though some schools offered to convert graded courses to pass/fail options, some people still chose the graded option, which I think is fair to say, requires more time/ effort (obviously this depends on the course and courseloads vary, I'm just speaking from my own experience). 

Alternatively, I think the fairest way to proceed is to have different gpa calculations available, and just use the highest one. For example, giving the option to drop the Winter 2020 semester, but not making it mandatory. Obviously there would be some biases associaed with that as well, but I think that would be way better then just simply assuming that everyone's grades dipped because of this pandemic. 

[Vons]

On 4/18/2020 at 4:47 PM, fluffybunnyyyyy said:

I'm a second degree student and set to have completed EXACTLY 45 graded credits (no S/U or pass fail) by fall 2020 for next application cycle so that i can use my second degree grades ... if they disregard this semester... will that make me ineligible??? UGH!  

I'm in the same boat and I emailed them yesterday asking if they had any idea at all, and they told me that they hadn't figured it out yet and they'll post an update on the website when they do. Not really useful, but it at least seemed like they're aware that some of us stand to lose a lot.

[fluffybunnyyyyy]

5 hours ago, vlk said:

I'm in the same boat and I emailed them yesterday asking if they had any idea at all, and they told me that they hadn't figured it out yet and they'll post an update on the website when they do. Not really useful, but it at least seemed like they're aware that some of us stand to lose a lot.

I feel like because they are taking so long to decide, they're not just going to fully ignore winter2020 grades... UofA, dal and UofC made their statements very quickly and over a month ago. But who knows?

[Vons]

8 hours ago, fluffybunnyyyyy said:

I feel like because they are taking so long to decide, they're not just going to fully ignore winter2020 grades... UofA, dal and UofC made their statements very quickly and over a month ago. But who knows?

Yeah right. I guess all we can do for now is to take them at their word that they're going to do their best to not disadvantage anyone based on this semester. I'd be really surprised if they decided to disregard this semester entirely at this point. But it would be great if they could decide soon so that we can stop worrying. 

[AB2]

On 5/5/2020 at 4:44 PM, chocolatecake said:

would be way better then just simply assuming that everyone's grades dipped because of this pandemic. 

I don't think that's the assumption behind dropping W2020 grades. Rather I think it's from a desire to view candidates on a level playing field. The transition has been uneven and many students were thrust into situations with a lot less resources than others, some schools adapted better than others, some schools became extremely lenient others not, etc.

I say this as someone whose grades this semester I wish will be kept

[fluffybunnyyyyy]

Omg MCGILL just updated and they’re not using winter grades  I’m so concerned for my eligibility as a second degree applicant... I’ll email them 

[abcd1288]

27 minutes ago, fluffybunnyyyyy said:

Omg MCGILL just updated and they’re not using winter grades  I’m so concerned for my eligibility as a second degree applicant... I’ll email them 

This is extremely disappointing. I wonder if they will use Fall 2019 grade as the grade for the entire year or are they just gonna exclude the year altogether...

[Vons]

1 hour ago, fluffybunnyyyyy said:

Omg MCGILL just updated and they’re not using winter grades  I’m so concerned for my eligibility as a second degree applicant... I’ll email them 

From point 2 in the document they uploaded it looks like they'll count the credits earned towards the total required, but not the specific grades earned! "Winter 2020 credits for all successfully completed courses will be counted towards degree totals as reported on the institution’s transcript." But yeah let us know what they say.

Also it looks like prereq-GPA doesn't matter anymore as a stand-alone factor in the post-interview assessment? Am I reading that right? The final admission decision will be 100% interview-based?

[verycaffeinated]

1 hour ago, wynndixie said:

From point 2 in the document they uploaded it looks like they'll count the credits earned towards the total required, but not the specific grades earned! "Winter 2020 credits for all successfully completed courses will be counted towards degree totals as reported on the institution’s transcript." But yeah let us know what they say.

Also it looks like prereq-GPA doesn't matter anymore as a stand-alone factor in the post-interview assessment? Am I reading that right? The final admission decision will be 100% interview-based?

I think they're still gonna consider prereq-GPA post interview but if you completed any of the pre-reqs during Winter 2020 and are pass/fail, they'll consider it as fulfilling the prereq but will calculate your pre-req GPA using all other courses with a grade. If you took pre-reqs during Winter 2020 and have a grade assigned, they'll consider that grade as well. This is just how I interpreted it though and might be worth confirming with the admissions office. 

EDIT: Nevermind! Just saw this: "As of Fall 2021, all basic science prerequisite courses must meet a minimum grade requirement; the GPA is not weighted in the selection process, and up to 3 courses can be in progress during the year prior to starting the program."  Looks like final admission decision is 100% interview-based.

[zackattack881]

Does anyone know if the GPA calculation is rounded up to 2 or 3 decimal points? For example, if a student has 3.937 is that rounded up to 3.94 automatically or kept at 3.937? I am wondering because on the website it only shows the average to 2 decimals, which makes me think they round it up but I'm not quiet sure.

[Vons]

1 hour ago, verycaffeinated said:

I think they're still gonna consider prereq-GPA post interview but if you completed any of the pre-reqs during Winter 2020 and are pass/fail, they'll consider it as fulfilling the prereq but will calculate your pre-req GPA using all other courses with a grade. If you took pre-reqs during Winter 2020 and have a grade assigned, they'll consider that grade as well. This is just how I interpreted it though and might be worth confirming with the admissions office. 

EDIT: Nevermind! Just saw this: "As of Fall 2021, all basic science prerequisite courses must meet a minimum grade requirement; the GPA is not weighted in the selection process, and up to 3 courses can be in progress during the year prior to starting the program."  Looks like final admission decision is 100% interview-based.

Yeah, I'm going to wait a bit for them to clarify things on the rest of the website and then maybe go drop a class I'm redoing. That seems like a pretty big change to just casually tack on to the end of the Winter 2020 grade policy lol.

Edit: maybe not going to drop that class since it says that the change is for the Fall 2021 cycle, and not Fall 2020...

[ceelbe]

2 hours ago, verycaffeinated said:

EDIT: Nevermind! Just saw this: "As of Fall 2021, all basic science prerequisite courses must meet a minimum grade requirement; the GPA is not weighted in the selection process, and up to 3 courses can be in progress during the year prior to starting the program."  Looks like final admission decision is 100% interview-based.

Just to clarify (if you know), does this mean that as of fall 2021 and onward (even if unaffected by COVID stuff) it’ll be that you can be taking 3 courses at the time of application? Or they’re saying for those applying for fall 2021 in a couple months, you can have 3 courses in progress, then goes back to 2 courses in progress as usual?

Sorry if that sounds confusing! I’m hoping that it’s forever changed to 3 courses because that would let me apply a year earlier lol

[Vons]

7 minutes ago, RN_to_MD said:

Just to clarify (if you know), does this mean that as of fall 2021 and onward (even if unaffected by COVID stuff) it’ll be that you can be taking 3 courses at the time of application? Or they’re saying for those applying for fall 2021 in a couple months, you can have 3 courses in progress, then goes back to 2 courses in progress as usual?

Sorry if that sounds confusing! I’m hoping that it’s forever changed to 3 courses because that would let me apply a year earlier lol

I don't know for sure, but it does seem like a permanent change going forward, i.e. that any future applicant can have 3 in progress prerequisite classes during the year they apply, presumably as long as they're completed before they matriculate.

On another note: I'm not sure if by "Fall 2021" they mean 1) the class entering in Fall 2021 that would apply in Fall 2020, or 2) the class entering in Fall 2022 that would apply in Fall 2021.

[zackattack881]

Is anyone else emailing admission to ask them to count the winter 2020 classes or at least take the best GPA calculation between with or without those classes?

[pharmyveg1]

I strongly urge you all to email admissions if you feel this is not fair!! 

Here is who I emailed: 

admissionsdean.med at mcgill.ca

admissions.med at mcgill.ca

[Vons]

Just for the record for anyone who's concerned about maintaining eligibility: I emailed admissions and they said that in the case of second degree applicants who need 45 graded credits by November 1 to apply, they'll still consider all the credits earned in Winter 2020 for the purpose of eligibility, even if they don't factor those grades/credits into your degGPA calculation.

[zackattack881]

Did anyone hear back from the admission office about the winter 2020 grades counting towards cGPA?

[formalawang]

So McGill just decided that Winter 2020 Grades don't count towards cGPA.

http://chng.it/4MzySP7H

I started a petition to see if I can make them count. Help me out 

If you could share this petition too, it would help out a lot. 

[conu905]

56 minutes ago, zackattack881 said:

Did anyone hear back from the admission office about the winter 2020 grades counting towards cGPA?

I heard back today. They told me at the time of application I can send them an email with my McGill ID number. However, at the moment they will not count the winter 2020 grades for the cGPA. Not sure what to make of this.