McMaster MPT/OT

[PTornotPT]

1 hour ago, AlliPT said:

Hey! Congrats! My name is Alli and I think I'll be accepting mac tonight! Where are you from?

Hi Alli! Thanks and congrats to you as well! So exciting to see the class beginning to form! I'm from Toronto, how about you? 

[AlliPT]

I'm from Barrie! Not too far!

[LMC]

Hey all so excited to have chosen Mac PT! I wondering where most students live in Hamilton (I'm from out of province), I like the look of Westdale South but it seems like there are no places available unless the houses have like 7 rooms. I'm also wondering if anyone can comment on living more downtown near Locke st and how it is living there. Thanks  

[HK2018]

54 minutes ago, LMC said:

Hey all so excited to have chosen Mac PT! I wondering where most students live in Hamilton (I'm from out of province), I like the look of Westdale South but it seems like there are no places available unless the houses have like 7 rooms. I'm also wondering if anyone can comment on living more downtown near Locke st and how it is living there. Thanks  

Majority of the cohort lives west of the school towards the borders of Dundas and Ancaster as well as in Westdale (lots of apartment buildings that are not houses of 7+). In regards to living downtown it has its perks ie close to restaurants but is also a longer commute (bus system is good but also not perfect) really depends what you value more! 

[LMC]

Hey everyone! This may be a silly question but how do we know what courses to enroll in? I’m having trouble finding a list. 

[AlliPT]

Hey! So for fall we enroll is physioth 741, 751, 761, and 771 - for winter we do physioth 742, 752, 762, 772, and 781, for spring we do physioth 743, 753, 763, 773, and 782. I may have a couple of those numbers a bit off, but we basically go with clinical lab 1, 2, 3, pbt 1, 2, 3, REBP 1, 2, 3, and PTPrac 1, 2, 3. The physioth 781 and 782 are our clinical placements

[PTPTPT]

Hi everyone,

This was my first year applying to PT, my sGPA needs some work so I wasn't expecting much success, but I was at least hoping I'd have a shot at Mac since I felt my KIRA was really strong (my resume is the strong part of my application). I didn't even get waitlisted so I'm just curious about accepted students' sGPAs if there's anyone who doesn't mind sharing? Regardless, I'm taking courses to upgrade but am curious about the range of sGPAs that Mac might have accepted.

Thanks!

[AlliPT]

Hi there! Sorry you weren't accepted. Mac is in some senses the most difficult school to get in to. If It makes you feel any better, mac has 1287 applicants for this year and 67 spots, which equates to a 5.2% chance of acceptance, compared to Toronto's 904 applicants and 110 spots, which is a 12.2% chance of acceptance. While mac has fewer "hurdles" (I.e. they dont use references, statements, or the casper, which is weird because mac CREATED the casper LOL), they have the most applicants every year. I was accepted to mac, queens, u of t, and western (I accepted my Mac offer), and my sGPA was 3.93. If you feel as though your application is strong, and you have good experience to discuss in the Kira, I dont see why you wouldn't have a chance next year if you upgrade your GPA! Since mac doesn't give the opportunity to truly brag about oneself through references or statements, be sure to incorporate your PT related experience into your Kira answers. Mac's first cutoff is the GPA, and while they weigh the kira more heavily at 75%, having a very high GPA puts you ahead of the crowd because they still do consider it. They interview everyone who meets the 77% cutoff, but your gpa was likely less competitive and even with a strong kira probably lowered the score. I hope this helps! Best of luck!

[PTPTPT]

20 hours ago, AlliPT said:

Hi there! Sorry you weren't accepted. Mac is in some senses the most difficult school to get in to. If It makes you feel any better, mac has 1287 applicants for this year and 67 spots, which equates to a 5.2% chance of acceptance, compared to Toronto's 904 applicants and 110 spots, which is a 12.2% chance of acceptance. While mac has fewer "hurdles" (I.e. they dont use references, statements, or the casper, which is weird because mac CREATED the casper LOL), they have the most applicants every year. I was accepted to mac, queens, u of t, and western (I accepted my Mac offer), and my sGPA was 3.93. If you feel as though your application is strong, and you have good experience to discuss in the Kira, I dont see why you wouldn't have a chance next year if you upgrade your GPA! Since mac doesn't give the opportunity to truly brag about oneself through references or statements, be sure to incorporate your PT related experience into your Kira answers. Mac's first cutoff is the GPA, and while they weigh the kira more heavily at 75%, having a very high GPA puts you ahead of the crowd because they still do consider it. They interview everyone who meets the 77% cutoff, but your gpa was likely less competitive and even with a strong kira probably lowered the score. I hope this helps! Best of luck!

Thanks for your detailed reply!! Yeah, I do realize they get SO many applicants, and like you said, it's not like GPA counts for nothing. Is it really the first cutoff, though? Like why would they interview everyone with the bare minimum if they had a cutoff (besides for $$$ lol)? And if the admission score is a combo of GPA and interview (I realize UofT does that for the CAP + GPA as well, but they're open about having a cutoff and not everyone writing the CAP). That's hilarious though that they created CASPer but don't use it  Regardless, I'll be upgrading my marks

[AlliPT]

2 minutes ago, PTPTPT said:

Thanks for your detailed reply!! Yeah, I do realize they get SO many applicants, and like you said, it's not like GPA counts for nothing. Is it really the first cutoff, though? Like why would they interview everyone with the bare minimum if they had a cutoff (besides for $$$ lol)? And if the admission score is a combo of GPA and interview (I realize UofT does that for the CAP + GPA as well, but they're open about having a cutoff and not everyone writing the CAP). That's hilarious though that they created CASPer but don't use it  Regardless, I'll be upgrading my marks

Hey! No problem! Mac does their first cutoff at the "bare minimum" which is 77% for gpa and prerequisites BUT even though they interview everyone who meets it, their gpa is "scored". So think of it like a weighted exam where 25% of the exam is from the gpa and 75% is from the interview. If you got 100% on the interview weighted at 75%, but compared to others who had better GPA you were in the lower quintiles, someone with an 85% on their interview and an 85% on their GPA may still get an acceptance due to weight. That may not make a lot of sense but it could have just been that your overall "score" was lower than others. The 77% minimum is just so everyone who qualifies gets a chance, but it does count as an "applicant pool" cutoff when weighted

[PTPTPT]

3 hours ago, AlliPT said:

Hey! No problem! Mac does their first cutoff at the "bare minimum" which is 77% for gpa and prerequisites BUT even though they interview everyone who meets it, their gpa is "scored". So think of it like a weighted exam where 25% of the exam is from the gpa and 75% is from the interview. If you got 100% on the interview weighted at 75%, but compared to others who had better GPA you were in the lower quintiles, someone with an 85% on their interview and an 85% on their GPA may still get an acceptance due to weight. That may not make a lot of sense but it could have just been that your overall "score" was lower than others. The 77% minimum is just so everyone who qualifies gets a chance, but it does count as an "applicant pool" cutoff when weighted

Ah okay yes this is what I understood too - thought you meant that, similar to other schools, they "threw out your application" if you weren't in the top x-hundred GPAs