Interview Invite & Regrets Thread 2014-2015

[AnotherThought]

Sorry if this is off topic.. 

 

But some of the folks who have high NAQs, can you please describe any "unique" activities that you have done? Ones that you think make you stand out in the pack? 

Also, does anyone know if there are resources or even folks in this forum who are willing to perhaps look over and help point out areas of improvement for an application with respect to the NAQ? 

 

Thanks 

There's several topics right now regarding NAQ that I think this discussion may be better suited for. This topic is pretty "loose", but with people surely refreshing this thread for news I think it might be best to keep it at least mostly related to interview decisions.

 

http://forums.premed101.com/index.php?/topic/80741-can-people-with-naq30-post-what-they-had/

 

Here is a good post where this discussion could be held.

[JohnGrisham]

Almost 22,000 views wow.

EDIT: 3 hours later, 27,000 views.

[med-dream]

I believe those med-students who often visit this forum will be happy to help. PM them to find out.

Sorry if this is off topic.. 

 

But some of the folks who have high NAQs, can you please describe any "unique" activities that you have done? Ones that you think make you stand out in the pack? 

Also, does anyone know if there are resources or even folks in this forum who are willing to perhaps look over and help point out areas of improvement for an application with respect to the NAQ? 

 

Thanks 

[AnotherThought]

Almost 22,000 views wow.

 

Catching up to the 67,440 last year

[ascorbic]

Do you know why the NAQ goes down like that? Does UBC change its evaluation process or is it simply lower in comparison to others?

 

Nobody knows. People's drop all the time and then they'll randomly get in a couple years down the road. It's almost like a lottery!

[desperate_premed]

nvm lol

[ascorbic]

Embrace yourself? Yeah I guess you could hug yourself

[merrychristmas]

TIME STAMP: 01 Dec 4:14
Interview Date:
Result: Reject
GPA: 81.94(adjusted) 78.55 (overall)
MCAT: 8/10/10/P
ECs: Military Service as a reserve soldier in training (9 months as of June 30th and completed Basic Military Qualification), Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (3 years with 2 competitions bronze in both); Co-founder of a start-up company consulting on Bitcoin merchant adoption and owner of Surrey's first Bitcoin ATM (1 year; I've appeared in the newspaper 4 times (Business in Vancouver (2x), Surrey Now the Georgia Straight) and wrote an Ask the Expert's column for Business in Vancouver, International field experience in Uganda villages conducting research on malaria (2 months), Volunteer with same malaria project for 5 years cumulatively with 3 years as a grad student, volunteer outreach on Bitcoin education, TAship with Pharmacy Faculty (2 years and received TA appreciation award; got accepted into pharmacy school twice but rejected the offer)  

Early/Regular Deadline: Regular
Year: Completed Masters in 2013, BSc. with distinction 
Geography: IP 

NAQ (For those with regrets): 29.73

AQ (For those with regrets): 20.07

TFR: 49.80

 

I missed the interview by 2.85. Last year I was 20 points away from the cut-off mark, so I'm actually quite happy. I'm also enjoying all the cool things I've done with med school as a motivation. 

 

I'm hoping to catch up with the 2.85 points and get the interview next cycle. Here's what I'll likely have before June 30, 2015. 

 

1) Military service 1 year and 9 Months as of June 30 with full soldier qualification!

2) I have 4 manuscripts reading for submission so hopefully 1 or 2 get accepted 

3) I am a board member on an African Women's charity group I will have 11 months as a board member

4) Many more jiu jitsu competitions (I dislocated my shoulder in a fight which is why I stopped competing)

5) I recently applied for a research coordinator job with the Pharmacy faculty, hopefully I will get some publications out of it (its actually expected).

6) Planning to join Toast masters to improve my public speaking

 

What more do I need? Is it a commitment thing? Do I not have enough years/hours offered? Is it how I tried to describe things? Do I need more clinical experience? I currently have none. 

 

Any comments, questions, and suggestions would be great!

 

- E

[JohnGrisham]

, you were accepted by the same pharmacy school twice and rejected the offer? That's an odd thing to post lol. Or different pharmacy schools? Regardless, if you put that into your app, that was probably a waste of space lol. Being offered something is different than accepting and pursuing something lol. Good luck next year!

[bruhh]

Epiclion, you got almost ~30 NAQ so your EC's are not the problem at all. Your GPA on the other hand is the most contributing factor in your lower TFR score. I don't think that you can improve your NAQ by too much, not to say there isn't room for improvement. But getting 35+ NAQ seems to be very rare (at least so far )

[JohnGrisham]

Epiclion, you got almost ~30 NAQ so your EC's are not the problem at all. Your GPA on the other hand is the most contributing factor in your lower TFR score. I don't think that you can improve your NAQ by too much, not to say there isn't room for improvement. But getting 35+ NAQ seems to be very rare (at least so far )

This.

 

I'm also a low GPA applicant, so I know the feeling! If you don't have an excessive amount of credits already under your belt, it may be worth it to take extra coursework at nights for a few years while you continue to build up your NAQ - as it looks like you are doing very well.  20-30 credits of mid 90's might do the trick to put you over the edge. It is really applicant dependent on weather or not it is worth it to do more coursework or beef up NAQ more, you might get more yield from NAQ or AQ, just varies so much.

 

A 30 NAQ is very competitive, at least in the last cycle and current cycle so far, based on the average stats document posted by UBC. So definitely be proud about that!

 

 

[merrychristmas]

UBC 2012, I don't know why I posted the pharmacy thing. Probably just an unconcious decision in trying to inflate my ego haha. Don't worry that wasn't included in the application. 

 

Shervin, thanks for the comment. I'm wondering if the list of activities listed would give me an extra bump me up to the TFR score. In other words what from what I've listed, is it worth an extra 2.85 points?

 

The grades thing seems like it may work. But I would have to ace all my future classes with flying colors with the already huge amount of ECs I committed to in order to bump up my NAQ. I already have 150 credits under my belt.  

[desperate_premed]

Nothing yet?? 

[coldpizzahotsriracha]

Nothing yet?? 

It it possible that nothing will be sent out today? I don't know if they've had gaps in the past. ~1.5 hours left I believe given yesterday's results. 

[StayHappy]

 

TIME STAMP: 01 Dec 4:14

Interview Date:

Result: Reject

GPA: 81.94(adjusted) 78.55 (overall)

MCAT: 8/10/10/P

ECs: Military Service as a reserve soldier in training (9 months as of June 30th and completed Basic Military Qualification), Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (3 years with 2 competitions bronze in both); Co-founder of a start-up company consulting on Bitcoin merchant adoption and owner of Surrey's first Bitcoin ATM (1 year; I've appeared in the newspaper 4 times (Business in Vancouver (2x), Surrey Now the Georgia Straight) and wrote an Ask the Expert's column for Business in Vancouver, International field experience in Uganda villages conducting research on malaria (2 months), Volunteer with same malaria project for 5 years cumulatively with 3 years as a grad student, volunteer outreach on Bitcoin education, TAship with Pharmacy Faculty (2 years and received TA appreciation award; got accepted into pharmacy school twice but rejected the offer)  

Early/Regular Deadline: Regular

Year: Completed Masters in 2013, BSc. with distinction 

Geography: IP 

NAQ (For those with regrets): 29.73

AQ (For those with regrets): 20.07

TFR: 49.80

 

I missed the interview by 2.85. Last year I was 20 points away from the cut-off mark, so I'm actually quite happy. I'm also enjoying all the cool things I've done with med school as a motivation. 

 

I'm hoping to catch up with the 2.85 points and get the interview next cycle. Here's what I'll likely have before June 30, 2015. 

 

1) Military service 1 year and 9 Months as of June 30 with full soldier qualification!

2) I have 4 manuscripts reading for submission so hopefully 1 or 2 get accepted 

3) I am a board member on an African Women's charity group I will have 11 months as a board member

4) Many more jiu jitsu competitions (I dislocated my shoulder in a fight which is why I stopped competing)

5) I recently applied for a research coordinator job with the Pharmacy faculty, hopefully I will get some publications out of it (its actually expected).

6) Planning to join Toast masters to improve my public speaking

 

What more do I need? Is it a commitment thing? Do I not have enough years/hours offered? Is it how I tried to describe things? Do I need more clinical experience? I currently have none. 

 

Any comments, questions, and suggestions would be great!

 

- E

 

Epiclion, check if military service makes you IP for other provinces. If you were IP in Calgary I feel you could easily get an interview there

 

EDIT: Also it is worth considering taking courses to boost your GPA as difficult as it may seem with such a huge credit base. Going from 30 to 35 NAQ seems like a gamble, but if you could gain even 1-2 points on AQ I feel this is very possible to overcome this hurdle

 

On second though, 2.85 points actually seems doable with just NAQ. Having said that, even gaining 1 point on AQ would make it that much easier. Best of luck in your future

[bruhh]

Epiclion, check if military service makes you IP for other provinces. If you were IP in Calgary I feel you could easily get an interview there

 

EDIT: Also it is worth considering taking courses to boost your GPA as difficult as it may seem with such a huge credit base. Going from 30 to 35 NAQ seems like a gamble, but if you could gain even 1-2 points on AQ I feel this is very possible to overcome this hurdle

He would need to have served in the military for a minimum of 2 years to be considered IP for calgary/Alberta

 

Epiclion, it's very hard to say how your added EC's will be evaluated. Unfortunately the Adcoms don't compare and contrast your previous applications so they won't be able to objectively add NAQ points based off your EC improvement. Of course, it is possible for your NAQ score to go up if you truly commit to more EC's and hope for at least a 2 point increase. But even then, you don't know what the TFR cut off will be next year.

 

In my opinion, even though you have a 150 credit pool, you can still bring up your AQ score if you do a heavy courseload of fairly easy subjects to bring up your GPA. The best part about your AQ evaluation is that there is 0 subjectivity. You can be 100% sure that it will increase if you do increase your GPA.

 

StayHappy, from what I understood it seems that his military service will terminate at 1 yr9months. So if he continues for 3 more months he would definitely qualify for IP status not only for alberta but also Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

[StayHappy]

He would need to have served in the military for a minimum of 2 years to be considered IP for calgary/Alberta

 

So by June 2016 he will have that; wouldn't he be eligible next application cycle? Unless I have misunderstood what he wrote and his military service stops this June

[darthvader]

It it possible that nothing will be sent out today? I don't know if they've had gaps in the past. ~1.5 hours left I believe given yesterday's results. 

 

prediction: we hear nothing today...then a wave of rejects tomorrow, early invites thursday, regular friday. 

 

i need to stop refreshing my gmail. lol

[Goku]

prediction: we hear nothing today...then a wave of rejects tomorrow, early invites thursday, regular friday. 

 

i need to stop refreshing my gmail. lol

 

I feel a wave of rejections coming within the next hour

[JohnGrisham]

UBC 2012, I don't know why I posted the pharmacy thing. Probably just an unconcious decision in trying to inflate my ego haha. Don't worry that wasn't included in the application. 

 

Shervin, thanks for the comment. I'm wondering if the list of activities listed would give me an extra bump me up to the TFR score. In other words what from what I've listed, is it worth an extra 2.85 points?

 

The grades thing seems like it may work. But I would have to ace all my future classes with flying colors with the already huge amount of ECs I committed to in order to bump up my NAQ. I already have 150 credits under my belt.  

With a 150 credit base, it is going to be pretty difficult then, but do a bunch of GPA boosters with high 90's should help even for an extra 1 point or two on AQ. Weather or not its worth it depends again on all your other things.

[starryskies]

 

TIME STAMP: 7:19 toronto time= 4:19 BC time

 

Result: Reject

GPA: 93.14

MCAT: 12/10/13

ECs: piano/guitar, teaching, tutoring, clinic and hospital volunteering, 4 labs (no pubs), CLH (certified life hater)

Early/Regular Deadline: Regular deadline

Year: 4th year UG

Geography: OOP

NAQ (For those with regrets): 16.6 LOL

AQ (For those with regrets): 36.82

 

TFR: 53.44

I hate everything and I ****** give up.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soa3gO7tL-c

 

 

There there. I understand =_=

[coldpizzahotsriracha]

What if making us wait is a test for our suitability to practice medicine...

[desperate_premed]

this is so unfair....

[JohnGrisham]

What if making us wait is a test for our suitability to practice medicine...

Or someone in the admissions office is familiar with "trolling" and just uses this as a way to get some kicks out of the long process of reviewing 2000+ apps

[Fleming]

I honestly believe they purposely release decisions right before the office closes so that they don't have to deal with a wave of appeals and complaints as soon as the emails go out.