UofC's new weighting scale

[Guest medschoolhopeful001]

What do you guys think about the UofC's new pre-interview weighting scale:?

 

Post-secondary academic record*.......................50%

 

MCAT scores ..............................................15%

 

Reference letters...........................................5%

 

Essays........................................................5%

 

Extracurricular activities and employment history....25%

 

 

 

*the entire record (undergraduate marks and, where applicable, graduate marks

 

The 65:35 academic:nonacademic surprised me.

[Guest Jag]

The heavy weight on undergrad marks is stupid. It is easy for people to pick GPA boosters or do some worthless undergrad like psychology to gain high marks, while people that actually do worthwhile undergrads that are more challanging (and are likely more qualified) get punished.

[Guest jgray2]

Just to correct: psychology is not worthless.

 

-j

[Guest ttryit]

One more correction...yes it is!

 

tt/

[Guest kaymcee]

Hi Jag,

 

Looking at your post number, it appears as though you've been around for awhile. During that time, I would have hoped that you picked up on the correllation between degree program and good marks– there really isn't one. People do well academically in fields they enjoy. As such, they generally find it easier or they don't mind putting in the extra work to study something they enjoy.

 

I'm willing to bet $10 that you've never even taken a psychology course. If you have– and I'm assuming you did well because it's "worthless" and easy to "gain high marks"– then why didn't you play the system and take more psychology to boost your GPA?

 

From taking courses across the spectrum in humanities, social sciences, arts, and sciences, I learned to respect those who majored in these disciplines. To a certain extent, much of what a science major does is memorize and regurgitate, hoping to retain a small fraction of what they "learn".

 

Unfortunately, medical schools couldn't care less about what you're studying in university; they only care about how well you scored in whatever you took. It seems to me that you haven't learned that yet, and are miserably trodding along in your challenging degree program, practically nailing yourself to the cross. Perhaps you should examine why your GPA isn't where you want it to be, put aside your academic machismo, and take some GPA booster courses to improve that aspect of your medical school application. There are many medical schools in Canada that put less importance on marks than Calgary. Find them and apply to them with your more qualifying– whatever that means– and challenging degree.

 

Not having a miraculous academic record, I don't like such a high emphasis on that part of my application. However, medical schools are careful in evaluating who they accept into their program, studying the relationship between how people do in their undergrad program and how they do in medical school. They also have to weigh the importance of objective versus subjective criteria. Although I'm not crazy about Calgary's choices, at least they take the time to evaluate the entirety of the application before deciding on an interview rather than using a combination of GPA and MCAT scores to cut the applicant pool in half.

[Guest Jag]

Hi kaymcee,

 

Sorry if I may have offended you with my comments, but I feel strongly that medical schools shouldn't place such high emphasis on undergrad marks. I thought I would dispell some assumtions you have made as well.

1)Yes I have taken psychology courses in my undergrad, not only introductory but second year level ones too, and they were easy to gain high marks

2) 'Playing the system' is exactly why I think putting such high weight on GPA isn't good in the first place, I'll address this again later

3) I agree that science does involve regurgitation, and any undergrad degree you take requires you to fulfill certain humanites and electives so you do get a taste of many areas, which is very good and I will also address later

4) I am not miserably trodding through my undergrad, I am speaking my opinion in retrospect, I'm not even involved with the current round of admissions

 

The main reason I am against using GPA in any high regard is the inconsistancies that are involved with it. What type of student would you want coming to your school and ultimately being your physician

 

Student A: Chooses a challenging major, explores some challenging science courses related to medicine as well as other unrelated fields (psychology, business, chemistry, english, etc.) to MAKE SURE they like the direction medicine leads. If they decide that medicine is what they truly want, they take more advanced and difficult courses relating to medicine (microbio, embryology, histology, anatomy) etc. to build their knowledge foundation for when they enter medical school. They come out with a decent GPA if they have the motivation (but get cut out by U of C's admission process)

 

Student B: The person who apparantly 'knows' they want to be in medicine right away. They research what the easiest undergrad is to do, and spend all their time hunting out the GPA boosting courses rather than challenging themselves. They get in to U of C after passing their initial criteria with their fabulous and astronomical GPA. When they are actually in medical school, they second guess themselves about even getting to medical school because they never really explored their options. On top of that they are getting pounded by work in medical school that they were never used to in undergrad due to their GPA boosting mentality. They are trying to build a knowledge base on an extremely shaky foundation because they decided to take courses like "introduction to computer usage" to boost their GPA rather than take something more relevant.

 

Right now you are thinking that GPA is the world and you need to do anything to build it up so you get into medicine. I had the same mentality as you at one point, but in retrospect that was horribly wrong. You have to think of the long term, and if you truly want to be a physician, then do things that will make you a 'good physician' rather than a lazy one. There is too much bias in GPA, between programs, schools, and the individual student. Hell, I knew people that took courses just because there were old exams floating around that are identical to the real one, rather than taking the class for its own merit. There are people that take computer usage even though they are computer experts just to get the A+. Even the MCAT is a better indicator than GPA, simply because it is more standardized and eliminates the bias.

[Guest kaymcee]

Hi Jag,

 

In retrospect, I shouldn't have attacked you as harshly as I did. I apologize.

 

That being said, I don't believe GPA is "the world" as you have suggested. You are preaching to the choir when you talk about the weight medical schools place on GPA. I agree that the entirety of the application should be evaluated with less emphasis on that particular section. However, those who wish to study medicine should know of this emphasis. That's not to say they should ignore the other aspects of the application, but ignoring GPA for the sake of "building their knowledge foundation for when they enter medical school" is foolish and self-defeating.

 

Your Student A and B examples are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Although Student A looks great on paper, he ignored the fact that you must have a high GPA to get accepted into an MD program. He shouldn't be a martyr just because he chose a challenging degree program. Student B is inherently lazy, and although he recognized the emphasis on GPA, he would likely be shot down in an interview when the panel picked up on his lack of desire to study medicine.

 

I suggest there exists a Student C, one who weighs his options and carefully chooses an appropriate balance of difficulty among his courses. He might enroll in both "advanced neurobiology" and "introduction to computing". Is he playing the system, so to speak? No– he recognizes that a decent GPA is a part of a successful application. Regardless of how you feel about it, achieving academically is pre-requisite for entry into med school.

[Guest Jag]

Yes, academic achievement is important, I do agree. There should be some emphasis on this area, but not such an extreme amount that U of C places. If you look at the University of Manitoba requirements, it is 10% GPA (which is where it rightly belongs), 50% MCAT, and 40% interview and the various other personal attributes. This is also not perfect, as I would have weighted interview and personal attributes higher than MCAT, but it makes more sense than putting so much emphasis on something so biased as GPA. All in personal opinion of course.

 

Cheers,

 

Jag

[Guest NRC boy]

Hey Jag, this is the U of C forum not the U of M one! I hope your just checking this out for me and Gord because if your not, you have way too much time on your hands my friend. lol. Anyways, im sure your wondering what my score is, its 442.80 and yes I am applying. Not because I think I'll get a interview but because I sent my money in a long time ago without first reading all the cutoff stats. This is my first post and I wasted it on you, I hope your happy!

[Guest Jag]

Yes, I do realize it is quite sad surfing other medical school's forums rather than actually studying for medical school itself. I can't get enough of forums damn it!

[Guest NRC boy]

I think we need to inject more booze into your system to get you off these message boards. I would think that you being in med school would keep you busy but I guess I was wrong. I bet you replied to my post while you were at school, am I right? Anyways im gonna stop leaving unrelated posts on this forum cause im just making people angry. I'll yell at you on msn later.

[Guest Breanne]

I am not so happy with the idea that they are going to look at all your years, since the first semester of my first year did not go over very well. After that semester my GPA has been above 3.8, I just don't want my first semester to put me out of the running. I hope they take into consideration the adjustment from high school to university can be hard. I think most people don't do as well their first semester or their first year, but maybe I am wrong.

[Guest geekpunk]

In the same boat.

 

My first-year GPA is 3.47.(UofC scale)

 

My combined 2nd & 3rd year GPA is 3.93. (UofC scale)

 

Overall: 3.79

 

Was hoping they would just look at best two years like I thought they did. Not liking this 50% weightage to ENTIRE undergraduate record. :\

[Guest jgray2]

As I mentioned at the bottom of this post:

p090.ezboard.com/fpremed1...D=59.topic

 

they've always looked at your overall record. If they are still using the 1-5 system of scoring your application, I'm sure that they will see a bad semester/year etc, and they will be forgiving. Just my opinion ...

 

-j