Conditional Acceptance

[JR1998]

Hello, I am new here! Just wondering how the conditional acceptance works for Western Med School?

[rmorelan]

On 12/28/2019 at 12:18 PM, JR1998 said:

Hello, I am new here! Just wondering how the conditional acceptance works for Western Med School?

under that rule you only have a single year that is above the cut off for GPA for Western. You still apply having everything else (in particular the MCAT cut off). You hopefully get an interview invite, and do well enough to get a conditional offer. When you get one of those it is conditional (hence the name) on your current year also meeting the required cut off (the year you actually doing when you are interviewed). 

We don't know exactly how the conditional are evaluated relative to everyone else - there is some form of disadvantage in scoring we can strongly infer as usually conditionals when they get in seem to have been waitlisted. That ok because it is having an avenue to advance vs not having one - and regardless of the outcome it is good practise for the following attempt. 

The fact that conditional acceptance exists implies that Western really thinks that GPA is not a particularly great tool for evaluating people (also can be inferred by the relatively lower GPA cut offs). MCAT is there preferred selection tool in a way. 

I know many people - many great people - that got in under conditional acceptance. It isn't just an abstract rule - people do use that route. 

[JR1998]

On 12/29/2019 at 10:53 AM, rmorelan said:

under that rule you only have a single year that is above the cut off for GPA for Western. You still apply having everything else (in particular the MCAT cut off). You hopefully get an interview invite, and do well enough to get a conditional offer. When you get one of those it is conditional (hence the name) on your current year also meeting the required cut off (the year you actually doing when you are interviewed). 

We don't know exactly how the conditional are evaluated relative to everyone else - there is some form of disadvantage in scoring we can strongly infer as usually conditionals when they get in seem to have been waitlisted. That ok because it is having an avenue to advance vs not having one - and regardless of the outcome it is good practise for the following attempt. 

The fact that conditional acceptance exists implies that Western really thinks that GPA is not a particularly great tool for evaluating people (also can be inferred by the relatively lower GPA cut offs). MCAT is there preferred selection tool in a way. 

I know many people - many great people - that got in under conditional acceptance. It isn't just an abstract rule - people do use that route. 

Thank you so much! If my single year is AT the cutoff for western (GPA 3.7, MCAT) can I still apply, or do they require a higher GPA or MCAT score? Would this be different in my case because I am using my last year (4th year) as my single year at cutoff, and im taking a 5th year?

[rmorelan]

9 minutes ago, JR1998 said:

Thank you so much! If my single year is AT the cutoff for western (GPA 3.7, MCAT) can I still apply, or do they require a higher GPA or MCAT score? Would this be different in my case because I am using my last year (4th year) as my single year at cutoff, and im taking a 5th year?

Not really different - the cut off for the single year is still 3.7, and the school will take your 5th year as the conditional year (make sure you still are hitting the required course levels, i.e. the 60% rule). Obviously aim to do as well as you can in the 5th year and see where you end up. 

When you have early one GPA issues it can take a bit to dig out of that hole - this is one possible way. As always you have to be prepared to do extra if you are trying catch up. If you have the mcat scores you have the base ability so you just have to figure out what else is in the way and get it out of the way ha. I have seen people do 5th or even 6th years to get in. It is helpful to know schools do have these systems in place to let you recover.