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Chances for 2017? brutal honesty appreciated


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Hey, guys! So, I'm going to be applying to UBC this summer for the first time. I recently moved to BC and have applied for my service card so I will be an IP applicant. I applied to some Ontario schools last year and was rejected pre-interview. I'm obviously crushed and unsure about this application season especially since UBC is my dream school. If you guys can offer some critique for my application, it would help me tremendously. Need some outsider perspectives ... what are my chances? 

GPA:
Overall: 85.93, Adjusted: 86.61

MCAT: Wrote 2 times, bombed both. Latest score was 508 with a 129 CARS.

Awards: $10,000 scholarship entrance, Dean's List for 3 years, Ontario Scholar, High School Grad Awards - Academic Excellence

Employment:

1. Teaching assistant for 3 courses (300 hrs)
2. Helper at University events (75 hrs)
3.  Retail Worker (400 hrs)

Leadership:

  1. Found a club that helps children with school fees in impoverished countries, devoted to advocacy for equality in ed, etc. (500 hrs)
  2. Coordinator for a children’s program at a national park during 3 summers (250 hrs)
  3. Frosh Leader + Orientation organizer (80 hrs)

Service Ethic: 
1.ER Hospital Volunteer + trainer for incoming volunteers (200 hrs)
2. Church Volunteer - free hot weekly meals for community, assisting elderly at events etc (300 hrs)
3. Tutor for elementary school kids (60 hrs)

Capacity to Work with Others:

  1. Exec for FTC Chapter (250 hrs)
  2. Volunteer with school board - outdoor education center, indigenous events (68 hrs)
  3. Research Lab - (800 hrs)
  4. Reporter for Uni Event (30 hrs)

Diversity of Experience

  1. Trip to Asia to help orphanage (480 hrs) - my family donates to this orphanage regularly so not sure if to use a family member as a verifier or the orphanage contact who is in a third world country and doesn't speak English that well?? 
  2. Model for different projects, photographers (200 hrs)
  3. Med Camp in senior year high school (50 hrs)
  4. Advocate against Sexual Assault - includes professional workshops, training (70 hrs)
  5. Travel (500 hrs)
  6. Clinic (20 hrs)      and there's a bunch of smaller things - events, blogging, cancer society events, creating and selling art, etc (all less than 10 hrs). I also have a bunch of edX courses I took but not sure if that's reaching

Research: 2.5 years of volunteer work, wrote a thesis project, 1 poster 

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Chances look pretty good.  GPA lower than interview average (not by much), but looks like your NAQ will make up for it. It's a pretty big lottery pre-interview, but you can help minimize the NAQ fluctuations if you spend a lot of time wording your entries. Try to keep it concise while showcasing your specific responsibilities so it doesn't look generic.

Other than that, you have quite a few empty entries for diversity of experience. You don't have to fill it all out, but there's opportunity to show that there's more to you than philanthropic and academic interests (eg. Music, sports, language). I'm not saying pad your application with useless things, but there may be things that you at first think it would not add value to your app because it's not medically related, but if you think about it again it may show more diversity in your character. 

Just my two cents! Might be totally off, but good luck!

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7 minutes ago, TARS said:

Chances look pretty good.  GPA lower than interview average (not by much), but looks like your NAQ will make up for it. It's a pretty big lottery pre-interview, but you can help minimize the NAQ fluctuations if you spend a lot of time wording your entries. Try to keep it concise while showcasing your specific responsibilities so it doesn't look generic.

Other than that, you have quite a few empty entries for diversity of experience. You don't have to fill it all out, but there's opportunity to show that there's more to you than philanthropic and academic interests (eg. Music, sports, language). I'm not saying pad your application with useless things, but there may be things that you at first think it would not add value to your app because it's not medically related, but if you think about it again it may show more diversity in your character. 

Just my two cents! Might be totally off, but good luck!

That's really helpful, thank you! I agree - I want to seem more engaging on paper. I do have a few languages under my belt so definitely going to include that. Thanks for the insight! 

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I also think you have a solid chance. Since you're an IP, your GPA falls right along the ballpark to get an interview; I think the key is to really make sure your NAQ score is high since that's the subjective component and so even if your NAQ activities are strong, if you don't write them out well, you may get a lower NAQ than you'd like. Message me if you need any help and good luck with the application! 

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14 hours ago, doctorUBC said:

I also think you have a solid chance. Since you're an IP, your GPA falls right along the ballpark to get an interview; I think the key is to really make sure your NAQ score is high since that's the subjective component and so even if your NAQ activities are strong, if you don't write them out well, you may get a lower NAQ than you'd like. Message me if you need any help and good luck with the application! 

Messaged you. And thank you so much! Congrats on your acceptance :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I am not too too sure. They are looking for length (Years) of commitment to volunteer projects. Seems you have 2.5 years which is a good start but depending on the candidate pool they may want more. Also they don't weight more on abroad experiences (it says it on their website) and travel is helpful to create stories for the interviews but it doesn't really give you any point I don't think. You should definitely apply though! You never know how things will turn out. 

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On 2017-06-28 at 5:57 PM, TARS said:

Chances look pretty good.  GPA lower than interview average (not by much), but looks like your NAQ will make up for it. It's a pretty big lottery pre-interview, but you can help minimize the NAQ fluctuations if you spend a lot of time wording your entries. Try to keep it concise while showcasing your specific responsibilities so it doesn't look generic.

Other than that, you have quite a few empty entries for diversity of experience. You don't have to fill it all out, but there's opportunity to show that there's more to you than philanthropic and academic interests (eg. Music, sports, language). I'm not saying pad your application with useless things, but there may be things that you at first think it would not add value to your app because it's not medically related, but if you think about it again it may show more diversity in your character. 

Just my two cents! Might be totally off, but good luck!

Agreed, try to flesh out the diversity of experience with things that demonstrate your interests outside of volunteering and school (edit: because you have a lot of this already that looks pretty good!), especially if they're things you put considerable time into and give more insight into who you are. My sense has always been that UBC is looking for diversity in their applicants, and they seem to value a lot of non-academic things. So I think you can be pretty creative here, although it helps to also include things you can use verifiers for other than friends/family. I had some extra spots last year after entering all the more typical things, so I also included hobbies like cooking and physical fitness and playing dungeons and dragons (I put my DM as the verifier ;) ) -- I like to think those things helped my successful application, because I think they say a lot about who I am as a person, but even if they didn't I can't imagine they hurt!

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Throw in a few more (random) activities for the diversity of experiences section and you're good to go.

I'd be surprised if you don't get an interview. I have similar experiences (founder of clubs, president of clubs, travelling, clinical, research) with a bit more hours and nearly got a 35 on NAQ.

Be mindful of your wording of the activities though!

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