Professional students

[Guest rphm]

I completed my BSc.Phm degree this year at the University of Toronto. I will be a licensed pharmacist after completing my board exams and internship. I am interested in UT meds its says that they encourage all disciplines to apply and it specifically mentions pharmacy and engineering in their website. They are looking for rigorous and coherent fields of study and pharmacy fits that criteria as a professional I know arts and science takes 5 full courses an year we are required to take 9 or 10 full courses an year, and most are professional courses or in the health sciences. When calculating GPA it states on the website you are ranked relative to your standing in your particular program, so will I be compared to pharmacy students? Or ranked with arts and science students who may have not completed a rigorous professional program like pharmacy. In addition I think the clinical experiences and knowledge of a pharmacist would be beneficial when preparing the U of T sketch. I was told by a friend in med that the GPA calulation is now subjective based on your programs intensity and coherence, your GPA is adjusted and ranked acording to your program. Is this true?

[Guest Chieka]

I am aware of no such differential weighting in the U of T application process. I think all programs are treated the same when it comes to calculating GPA. They will calculate GPA after dropping one course each year I believe. It doesn't matter how many courses you took (as long as you meet the minimum). I believe your GPA will be compared to everyone's - both professional students, and arts and science students.

 

The nature of your program may factor into your app in terms of the "non-academic factors" that are considered.

 

Lastly, U of T encourages apps from students in all fields. There are several students with pharmacy backgrounds in my class, and several with engineering, and even some with law backgrounds. It's all about diversity, remember.

 

C.

[Guest rphm]

Thanks for the clarification. I think you are right diversity is always nice in a large class. But can you please explain what they mean by this statement posted on the U of T med web site. I cut and paste this straight from the academic requirements section.

 

Direct quote from UT meds website

 

"Undergraduate academic achievement is assessed through MCAT scores and GPA. The coherence and rigour of the program of study, and the relative standing of the applicant in that program will be assessed in the interpretation of GPA."

 

End quote

 

Can you please explain what is meant by this statement I am a little confused. Thanks a lot.

[Guest Steve U of T]

I asked about that statement on the U of T website a while ago on these boards, and didn't get a satisfactory answer. I think U of T is a bit secretive about their admissions process, and the people who are aware of the behind-the-scenes policies for determining your admissions score wouldn't be posting those policies here. I don't think U of T would put that on their website if it was completely untrue, so there must be some sort of adjustment to your gpa. It is unlikely they keep records of the 'difficulty' of every program, because there are so many different programs at so many universities, but there may be a small list of known programs. I think it's possible they compare your grade in each course with the class average. U of T puts course averages on transcripts (for classes with at least 12 students), and other universities presumably do the same. That's the only information that is readily available on your application, so I think it could be a likely candidate. Perhaps they also compare your grades to those of other people in your program who also applied for medicine at U of T, either at present, or in the past. This is all speculation, but I believe that if U of T would say on their website that rigour and coherence of your program are considered, there must be some way that they do that.

[Guest rphm]

Thanks for the input. Does any pharmacy, enigneering. law or other professional student who applied to UT med or who is the med school have any insight into this topic? Its kind of a mystery.

[Guest gonzo23]

I don't know... I think maybe you guys are reading a bit too much into the statement.

 

IMHO I think that all they are saying there is that they will look at your GPA to determine whether you have been able to succeed in your program. The rigor of the program may be a bit subjective but in my interview they highlighted the fact that I was a biochem major and my transcript showed that I had taken a large number of difficult courses (I only had room for 5 free electives my whole academic career). Now this becomes subjective since who determines what is considered academically rigorous (I would have died as a history major).

 

I think everything comes down to your numberical GPA when they are looking at GPAs. It would be very difficult to set other parameters and I think it would create a lot of ethical issues if the information wasn't published to applicants. As said before maybe when scoring the non-academic stuff they will take the difficulty of your program into account when evaluating your ability to get involved in extracurriculars and looking at your overall achievements outside of school.

 

cheers.

[Guest rphm]

Hmmm very interesting perspectives. I talked to a friend in UT med (4th year) and they stated that their previous policy was to only look at your GPA regardless of your program, it was a hard score and you were rated accordingly. But recently just last year they said it was changed to a more subjective overall look at your program your courses etc and then based on "interpretation" a GPA score is given and ranked. I do not know if this is true. However this would make sense becasue the statement on the site does say the rigor of your program, coherence and your relative standing in that particular program will be used to "interpret" or I guess rank or score your GPA. I think this is why certain students with lower GPAs have been recieving interviews from UT meds over the past couple oy years. Thats what I personally think it means, but I could be way off. I would love to hear more ideas.

[Guest bj]

Hey,

 

I by no means am representing the administration, since I don't know what their perspective is on the matter, but I did want to add a bit of the U of T med student perspective.

 

There are people in our class from a wide range of background including law, engineering, pharmacy, in addition to the typical pre-med/sciences background (or arts, like myself). I would be hard pressed to say, however, that they have a different "standard" for those from a given program. University is hard and some more than others. Ditto for programs of study. I think it would be impossible to judge how difficult it was to earn an "A" in say McGill Environmental Studies (yah!) vs. Harvard law vs. Ottawa engineering, yet they are all the backgrounds of people in our class. I would go out on a limb and say that EVERYONE in our class had a competitive GPA, however you want to define that.

 

U of T is secretive in their admissions process and for good reason. There are a lot of people who aim to "play the system" when it comes to admissions, which really defeats the whole purpose. By not publishing "rules" they take the advantage away from those who decide to play, and in effect favour everyone based on merit/GPA/essays. I see the benefits of this program in the faces of my classmates--all very accomplished and articulate and compassionate people.

 

Sorry that it didn't answer your question, but maybe does help to reframe the need for an answer.

 

Can you tell I love U of T?

bj