Question about SWOMEN

[youknownothing95]

Ok, so I know 100% that I am a SWOMEN candidate because I have lived in london since the 3rd grade and did all years of high school here. In the OMSAS application, it just says that you have to mention what high school you graduated from. I saw that they changed the requirements so that now you have to do all 4 years of highschool in a SWOMEN area in order to qualify as a SWOMEN candidate (when did this start by the way?). My question is how are they going to know which students did all 4 years of high school in a SWOMEN area vs those who did 1-3 and just graduated from a SWOMEN high school? I just don't know if I am missing something? 

[aray623]

I think it's been all 4 years of highschool for a while now. At least 4 years. On your interview day you're going to have to hand in a highschool transcript that shows that you've done all 4 years in a SWOMEN highschool. No way around it.

[youknownothing95]

2 hours ago, aray623 said:

I think it's been all 4 years of highschool for a while now. At least 4 years. On your interview day you're going to have to hand in a highschool transcript that shows that you've done all 4 years in a SWOMEN highschool. No way around it.

But how would they know before they grant an interview? They obviously grant a certain number of interviews so wouldnt they need to know before hand who is actually swomen? 

[DrMeme]

Is there an option on OMSAS to declare that you are SWOMEN?

[youknownothing95]

1 hour ago, DrMeme said:

Is there an option on OMSAS to declare that you are SWOMEN?

Not that i've seen they only ask you what high school you graduated from. Thats why I am worried that I am missing something because I'm not sure how they are verifying your status. 

[HeroX37]

On your interview day, you bring a transcript of your highschool, that would show you did your 4 years in south western ontario. 
If you lie about being SWOMEN, once they find out (by just looking at your transcript), you'll be disqualified.

[youknownothing95]

1 minute ago, HeroX37 said:

On your interview day, you bring a transcript of your highschool, that would show you did your 4 years in south western ontario. 
If you lie about being SWOMEN, once they find out (by just looking at your transcript), you'll be disqualified.

Yeah but the thing is that on the application they only ask for what high school you graduated from. There is no area that asks if you are SWOMEN. So how will they know who to assign interviews to? Because you could have graduated from a SWOMEN school but that doesnt mean you did all 4 years there. 

[HeroX37]

4 minutes ago, youknownothing95 said:

Yeah but the thing is that on the application they only ask for what high school you graduated from. There is no area that asks if you are SWOMEN. So how will they know who to assign interviews to? Because you could have graduated from a SWOMEN school but that doesnt mean you did all 4 years there. 

The high school you graduated from is either in SWO or not. If it's not, you're not SWOMEN. If it is, you're good up until interview day. Interview day is when they'll verify it from your transcript that you did 4 years at that highschool which is in SWO.

I'm not sure if I understand your question?  

[youknownothing95]

45 minutes ago, HeroX37 said:

The high school you graduated from is either in SWO or not. If it's not, you're not SWOMEN. If it is, you're good up until interview day. Interview day is when they'll verify it from your transcript that you did 4 years at that highschool which is in SWO.

I'm not sure if I understand your question?  

They assign a certain number of interviews so wouldn't it be unfair for non-swomen applicants that there are some people who have interviews who aren't even swomen and will get rejected on interview day but still take up interview spots? I mean if UWO doesnt have some specific method of determining who is SWOMEN then thats the answer to my question -that I just don't have anything specific I have to do to prove I am swomen up until a possible interview day. I was just not sure if I was missing something in my application or not. 

[rmorelan]

15 hours ago, HeroX37 said:

On your interview day, you bring a transcript of your highschool, that would show you did your 4 years in south western ontario. 
If you lie about being SWOMEN, once they find out (by just looking at your transcript), you'll be disqualified.

exactly it happens rarely enough that they haven't felt the need to do it in advance. If it became some sort of a problem then we would have to start doing it in advance. 

 

 

[rmorelan]

14 hours ago, youknownothing95 said:

They assign a certain number of interviews so wouldn't it be unfair for non-swomen applicants that there are some people who have interviews who aren't even swomen and will get rejected on interview day but still take up interview spots? I mean if UWO doesnt have some specific method of determining who is SWOMEN then thats the answer to my question -that I just don't have anything specific I have to do to prove I am swomen up until a possible interview day. I was just not sure if I was missing something in my application or not. 

They don't assign a fraction of the class to be swomen - but rather just apply bonuses to the swomen people and the rest happens as a by product. Overall that results in roughly the same fraction  of people in each category every year and it all works out in the long term.

Which means it is the other way around - it would be a cruel way to think but it is in your favour if someone got automatically removed on interview day (assuming that they don't also happen to meet the non-swomen cut offs, and to be clear that isn't uncommon at all) as the ratio of applicants to end spots moves more in your favour. 

[youknownothing95]

24 minutes ago, rmorelan said:

They don't assign a fraction of the class to be swomen - but rather just apply bonuses to the swomen people and the rest happens as a by product. Overall that results in roughly the same fraction  of people in each category every year and it all works out in the long term.

Which means it is the other way around - it would be a cruel way to think but it is in your favour if someone got automatically removed on interview day (assuming that they don't also happen to meet the non-swomen cut offs, and to be clear that isn't uncommon at all) as the ratio of applicants to end spots moves more in your favour. 

So basically there are some people (who did not do 4 years in a swomen area but graduated from a swomen high school) who are offered an interview but it is their job to let the admissions office know that they don't actually qualify under the SWOMEN rules? Because they are not lying on their application about which high school they graduated from but they still need to have done the 4 years to qualify? 

 

I was just worried at first that I was missing a part of the application where you stated how many years you attended a swomen high school but now I'm just curious. 

[rmorelan]

Just now, youknownothing95 said:

So basically there are some people (who did not do 4 years in a swomen area but graduated from a swomen high school) who are offered an interview but it is their job to let the admissions office know that they don't actually qualify under the SWOMEN rules? Because they are not lying on their application about which high school they graduated from but they still need to have done the 4 years to qualify? 

 

I was just worried at first that I was missing a part of the application where you stated how many years you attended a swomen high school but now I'm just curious. 

 

yeah it is your job to let them know that you do in fact qualify - which of course they will check at the interview to confirm

 

[tavenan]

7 hours ago, rmorelan said:

 

yeah it is your job to let them know that you do in fact qualify - which of course they will check at the interview to confirm

 

 

OP's question is the other way around; He's referring to cases where someone did graduate from a SWOMEN high school but is not actually qualified for SWOMEN status because they did not do 4 years of high school there. In this scenario, they are not lying on OMSAS when they say they graduated from a SWOMEN highschool, but Western assumes they are SWOMEN until interview day, so they could technically be getting an interview when they do not meet the cutoffs. I assume in such scenarios people should contact the school and let them know that they are NOT swomen. 

That's actually a grey area that I'm assuming occurs rarely enough that they don't have a specific procedure for. If it became a problem they could just easily verify SWOMEN status before interview weekend. The current rule-set is statistically preferable for applicants because people who are disqualified in this way reduce the overall number of applicants that the school can consider post-interview (it's not like they're going to bring in someone that was previously rejected to replace the disqualified applicant.) 

[rmorelan]

36 minutes ago, tavenan said:

 

OP's question is the other way around; He's referring to cases where someone did graduate from a SWOMEN high school but is not actually qualified for SWOMEN status because they did not do 4 years of high school there. In this scenario, they are not lying on OMSAS when they say they graduated from a SWOMEN highschool, but Western assumes they are SWOMEN until interview day, so they could technically be getting an interview when they do not meet the cutoffs. I assume in such scenarios people should contact the school and let them know that they are NOT swomen. 

That's actually a grey area that I'm assuming occurs rarely enough that they don't have a specific procedure for. If it became a problem they could just easily verify SWOMEN status before interview weekend. The current rule-set is statistically preferable for applicants because people who are disqualified in this way reduce the overall number of applicants that the school can consider post-interview (it's not like they're going to bring in someone that was previously rejected to replace the disqualified applicant.) 

OMSAS probably should be just more clear up front and ask not just if you graduated (which was the older condition) but actually ask clearly if you meet criteria based on the rules. 

you are right they could verify it if needed - i would say semi easily because having say about 150 people send in their high school transcripts and cross check each prior to actually interviewing along with confirming they arrived is not completely trivial (could be sent to OMSAS at the time of admission and have them check it but then it would be a lot more than 150 people as it would be precut off and probably some fee increase somewhere in any case). Ha - I have seen the similar issues which just confirming all of the post acceptance documents arrive and it isn't simple for the office to manage that. Admission offices have surprisingly at times few staff to work with 

Western has a lot of pit falls you have to watch out for that usually aren't a big deal - like realizing you won't actually graduate on time as you mixed up a course or the required one for you isn't available suddenly, making sure your special year is actually valid, that the conditional acceptance route will apply, your thesis will be done on time even if your supervisor suddenly vanished (all things I have seen happen in the past). Never been a big enough issue for them to really push early evaluation.  

Basically I think the issue is more theoretical than real