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How Many People Don't Meet Cutoff?


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Western's applications stats provide some useful insight here. Like Queen's, Western has a hard cutoff that's pretty high MCAT-wise and low on GPA that's relatively static year-to-year (though Queen's cutoffs aren't actually announced). For quite a few years, ~2300 people applied and only ~425 got interviews. That's over 1800 people who realistically had no chance of an interview who applied anyway, likely because they were close to the cutoffs.

 

Queen's cutoffs are a bit lower, but I'd still expect 2000+ of those 4000 to not be making the hard cutoffs. More will have poor ECs that make getting an interview very unlikely.

 

It never hurts to throw in an application for those near the cutoffs, but it's a long shot. And if you do make the cutoffs and are, on paper, a reasonably competitive applicant, your chances of admissions to Queen's are far better than 40:1.

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Toronto eliminated 1750/3500 of their applicants for not meeting 3.8+9/9/9. Queen's has higher cutoffs than this, so it's higher than that.

 

Ottawa wipes out 1/2 of the applicants prior to the full file review on just GPA alone - they don't even need the MCAT to do it (source - ottawa's admissions director, 2014/2015 cycle). There is a lot of simply cutting at every school.

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Toronto eliminated 1750/3500 of their applicants for not meeting 3.8+9/9/9. Queen's has higher cutoffs than this, so it's higher than that.

IIRC from their admissions debrief following last cycle, that cutting in half also had to do with people with inappropriate referees (family friends, peers, etc.) and maybe illegitimate verifiers (?)--I don't remember about the verifiers part.

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IIRC from their admissions debrief following last cycle, that cutting in half also had to do with people with inappropriate referees (family friends, peers, etc.) and maybe illegitimate verifiers (?)--I don't remember about the verifiers part.

This. I think the total number might include incomplete applications (eg. late LOR) as well, but don't quote me on this.

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IIRC from their admissions debrief following last cycle, that cutting in half also had to do with people with inappropriate referees (family friends, peers, etc.) and maybe illegitimate verifiers (?)--I don't remember about the verifiers part.

 

^ interesting - how do they check that? Would they look very closely at things like that?

 

Do you think the above is the case? :huh:  I was under the impression (from what I've read/heard here) that if you can't find a suitable ref, that you could put yourself down - if for ex. you did it a long time ago and everyone who was there with you has left, or some similar situation of the sort... 

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IIRC from their admissions debrief following last cycle, that cutting in half also had to do with people with inappropriate referees (family friends, peers, etc.) and maybe illegitimate verifiers (?)--I don't remember about the verifiers part.

 

This. I think the total number might include incomplete applications (eg. late LOR) as well, but don't quote me on this.

It includes incompletes and inappropriate LORs. Though this doesn't change anything because if an application/LOR is incomplete/inappropriate for Toronto, the same goes for Queen's since they have the same deadlines (last year they did anyway).

 

I don't think anyone has ever been disqualified for an inappropriate verifiers since it's common place to put friends, family, and even the applicant themself. If a verifier is inappropriate I think the school would be more likely to ask the applicant for another one than to eliminate them outright.

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Does it really matter what the numbers are? For example, would you try harder or less if it was 4000+ applicants for 100 spots vs. 500 applicants for 100 spots? As long as you meet the cutoffs, you have a shot and that's all that matters. 

 

But how do you know if you meet the cut offs? That's why I asked if a 127 in CARS meets the cut off. Tough situation. 

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My bad, I was referring more to the original post which talked about applicant vs. seat numbers. A 127 is basically a 10 in the old MCAT VR, which is what some of my friends and I had last year and we all got through to interviews. Hope that helps =)

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Thanks charmander. Definitely would put the same effort into an application regardless (although Queens doesn't really require effort per se to list research/volunteering/activities), just always curious to look at it stats-wise! Realistically there's a better shot at getting an interview if you're in a pool with 2000 vs 4000 applicants who meet the cut offs. Always try to go into it optimistically, but you never know!

Awesome, hopefully a 127 CARS will makes the cut! I'm a grad applicant, and my 2y GPA is right on the fence probably (3.83), so if I don't meet that cut off then hopefully the MCAT is enough (other subsection scorse should be fine for me), as they'll be forgiving on GPA if grad students meet the MCAT cut offs .

Thanks =)

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IIRC from their admissions debrief following last cycle, that cutting in half also had to do with people with inappropriate referees (family friends, peers, etc.) and maybe illegitimate verifiers (?)--I don't remember about the verifiers part.

^ interesting - how do they check that? Would they look very closely at things like that?

 

Do you think the above is the case?  :huh:  I was under the impression (from what I've read/heard here) that if you can't find a suitable ref, that you could put yourself down - if for ex. you did it a long time ago and everyone who was there with you has left, or some similar situation of the sort... 

 

 

Uhh sorry bump! :)

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