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McMaster Interview Invites/Regrets 2020

MedGoldfish
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sk8erboi
sk8erboi

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criticalthinker
criticalthinker

As a current MD student, at a top 5 university, I found it absurd that candidates of such high caliber (and many of my close friends, with 4.0 GPAs and MCATs in 515-520s) are not offered interviews (a

VigoVirgo
VigoVirgo

I don't understand the point of this post. You're already a medical student, why bother? It reads like someone who still holds a bitter grudge. McMaster have been doing things their way for decades an

conbrio Newbie

conbrio

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, sk8erboi said:

Time Stamp: 9:05 AM
Invite/Reject: Invite!!!

GPA: 3.59 (I know)
CARS: 127 (I know)
Casper: Felt super confident about it. It clearly saved me. I really hope this gives people confidence to apply regardless of their GPA and CARS. Ace Casper and you can get an interview!

Geography: IP

Wow! That's incredible. Got some Casper tips? :P Edit: 3.59 GPA gang represent

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theevilsloth Newbie

theevilsloth

Posted
Posted
36 minutes ago, sk8erboi said:

Time Stamp: 9:05 AM
Invite/Reject: Invite!!!

GPA: 3.59 (I know)
CARS: 127 (I know)
Casper: Felt super confident about it. It clearly saved me. I really hope this gives people confidence to apply regardless of their GPA and CARS. Ace Casper and you can get an interview!

Geography: IP

Do you have a masters or PhD? 

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loksda Newbie

loksda

Posted
Posted

Time Stamp: 9:06 am 
Invite/Reject: invite

GPA: 4.00 on OMSAS (it rounds up I guess)
CARS: 130
Casper: I think it was alright. I felt like I wasn't able to finish iterating my thoughts in several questions. I was rejected from Manitoba so it can't have been exceptional.
Geography: IP 

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criticalthinker Newbie

criticalthinker

Posted
Posted

As a current MD student, at a top 5 university, I found it absurd that candidates of such high caliber (and many of my close friends, with 4.0 GPAs and MCATs in 515-520s) are not offered interviews (at a school that is ranked 77th in Times Higher Education's). What makes this selection process more mind-boggling is that only one segment of the MCAT and a situational judgment tests (that is argued to be biased against certain demographics: Jerant A. et al. 2015 Academic Medicine ) have such a huge impact on chances of being offered an interview. 

My thoughts are:

1- MCAT is a comprehensive standardized exam! Why not include other MCAT sections? (Shouldn't a medical school applicant have a solid understanding of biology, biochemistry, physics, chemistry, sociology, and psychology???) 

2- As an immigrant, a person of lower socioeconomic background, and someone who english isn't his/her first language, CARS, Casper, and MMI, create Herculean barriers for people like me to overcome. 

3-  McMaster associated company (ALTUS Assessments Inc) are making a lot of money from these test and most of the pro-research on this topic is born from McMaster studies. This basically displays a financial conflict of interest in the admission process for McMaster university. 

4- Unlike what is said, it is highly possible to prepare for MMI and Casper by spending a lot of money, time, and going to prep companies. 

5- Why are people's extracurricular activities, research, and awards not considered at MAC? 

 

Please don't be rude and attack my post! I have been factual. I hope that my post acts as a primer in the minds of the applicant community and hopefully future physicians. 

 

 

P.S. Congrats to qualified applicants who are offered interviews! I wish you the best.

 

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dooogs Enthusiast

dooogs

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, criticalthinker said:

As a current MD student, at a top 5 university, I found it absurd that candidates of such high caliber (and many of my close friends, with 4.0 GPAs and MCATs in 515-520s) are not offered interviews (at a school that is ranked 77th in Times Higher Education's). What makes this selection process more mind-boggling is that only one segment of the MCAT and a situational judgment tests (that is argued to be biased against certain demographics: Jerant A. et al. 2015 Academic Medicine ) have such a huge impact on chances of being offered an interview. 

My thoughts are:

1- MCAT is a comprehensive standardized exam! Why not include other MCAT sections? (Shouldn't a medical school applicant have a solid understanding of biology, biochemistry, physics, chemistry, sociology, and psychology???) 

2- As an immigrant, a person of lower socioeconomic background, and someone who english isn't his/her first language, CARS, Casper, and MMI, create Herculean barriers for people like me to overcome. 

3-  McMaster associated company (ALTUS Assessments Inc) are making a lot of money from these test and most of the pro-research on this topic is born from McMaster studies. This basically displays a financial conflict of interest in the admission process for McMaster university. 

4- Unlike what is said, it is highly possible to prepare for MMI and Casper by spending a lot of money, time, and going to prep companies. 

5- Why are people's extracurricular activities, research, and awards not considered at MAC? 

 

Please don't be rude and attack my post! I have been factual. I hope that my post acts as a primer in the minds of the applicant community and hopefully future physicians. 

 

 

P.S. Congrats to qualified applicants who are offered interviews! I wish you the best.

 

yeah. we all know they don't care about the "individual". It's basically a computer generated list. Nobody reads your application. It's just a computer selection :-?? 

We all just desperate to get in somewhere, even if this school probably isn't too great for capturing the essence of medicine

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IMislove Apprentice

IMislove

Posted
Posted

Do want to point out that previous research showed that higher VR scores were associated with less complaints against the doc, the other sections didn’t really do much other than perhaps a threshold of how they may do in qualifying exams like the USMLE. Even Toronto doesn’t out much clout into MCAT as you learn what you need to learn in medical school. 
 

but as for CASPer, yeah I agree on the criticisms there. Big money grab, conflict of interest, etc. Sadly this is the system, can’t do much unless you get into adcom to create change, unless all applicants collectively just stopped applying or something which we know won’t happen. 

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vmed88 Newbie

vmed88

Posted
Posted

Invite! I can’t believe it:D

Time Stamp: 9:26am
Invite/Reject: Invite

GPA: 3.89 OMSAS
CARS:  129
Casper: felt iffy on that one but must have done okay!

Geography: IP

 

Congrats to everyone who got an interview. And for those who didn’t, don’t give up! There are still more Ontario interviews to come :) 

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conbrio Newbie

conbrio

Posted
Posted
33 minutes ago, criticalthinker said:

As a current MD student, at a top 5 university, I found it absurd that candidates of such high caliber (and many of my close friends, with 4.0 GPAs and MCATs in 515-520s) are not offered interviews (at a school that is ranked 77th in Times Higher Education's). What makes this selection process more mind-boggling is that only one segment of the MCAT and a situational judgment tests (that is argued to be biased against certain demographics: Jerant A. et al. 2015 Academic Medicine ) have such a huge impact on chances of being offered an interview. 

 

I think most of us are aware that the scoring systems used in medicine admissions (particularly for McMaster) have little basis in reality and have questionable supporting evidence, with weak to no correlation to future success as a physician. Unfortunately, there are far more qualified applicants than there are seats for students/residents, which in turn is determined by government health care funding. The real issue here may be the resistance to increasing the number of seats/funding to support a growing population (as well as a growing number of applicants)- an issue that's very prominent with the current Ford government in Ontario.

That being said, I agree completely that Casper (and MMI) has a conflict of interest issue, and that McMaster seems to be the odd one out for not looking at ECs, when even Western has given up on the numbers game.

Have you tried to participate in the admissions committee for your school? I don't know if medical students have a say in the matter.

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