McMaster March 28/29 Post MMI Reflections

[MDLD]

2 hours ago, MedGoldfish said:

Has anyone else heard anything similar?

I have not hear anything.  I would be surprised if they tell us the criteria though. I feel like they are going to be very general. 

[icymeia]

I think they'll tell us since they usually post their formula. I think the black box that allows them to do whatever they want will be Casper

[justamom]

On 3/31/2020 at 6:09 PM, Fakeabat said:

I don't think they would just replace the interview with CASPer (at 70%) for multiple reasons:

1) Although the interview and CASPer have a moderate correlation, it is not a complete replacement for the interview (i.e. the interview looks at skills in a different way). If they were confident enough in it as a measure to use it as a complete interview replacement this year, I would think that it would be worth more in the pre-interview formula than 32% (I also believe that Mac did experiment with making it worth 46% a while back, and then went down to 32%. Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but if this is the case, there're limitations that they are aware of).

2) Arguably the larger problem would be that a 70% CASPer would probably skew admissions heavily towards those who obtained interviews with low GPA/low CARS. People who received interviews despite low GPA/CARS must have a very high CASPer (relatively). Conversely, an individual with a high GPA/high CARS combo would have gotten the interview even if they performed relatively average on CASPer. If they chose to use a 70% CASPer, we would likely see the average CARS/GPA dip from previous years, as they would be accepting more preferentially from those who did well on CASPer to secure their interview. Now I cannot say if this is a good or bad thing (we all have our biases), but I would imagine that the MD program is interested in maintaining similar entrance statistics despite the change of events this year.

At the end of the day, it's still very up in the air what they'll be doing. I could be completely wrong and they may go with the 70/15/15 with CASPer, but these are the main reasons why I'd imagine them considering not doing that. 

Best of luck to everyone! I hope we do get transparency at the end of this long wait.

 

[justamom]

I think they will use the Formula 1 criteria again - it's the only one that makes sense given the circumstances 

[wolverine123]

Actually they announced to the med class in a podcast a few weeks back that they’re currently performing statistical analyses to determine which combination of Casper, CARS, and GPA best predicts MMI scores based on previous years’ data. So frankly, they probably won’t use the preinterview formula and they also probably won’t use the 70/15/15 formula. I’m guessing that it’ll probably be something in between, with Casper being weighed the most (completely a guess though, for all I know CARS or GPA might best predict MMI scores?). In the podcast, they also mentioned that they pride themselves on their transparency regarding the interview process so based on that statement, I have a feeling they’ll announce their official weighting criteria. Fingers crossed they release some more info soon!!

[hopefullythisworks]

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[redbeanbun]

5 minutes ago, hopefullythisworks said:

I'm not sure that's true. I was emailed just last week saying that although they are not doing interviews, I was still accepted off the waitlist and will be considered for admission. I don't think there would be any point to taking me off the waitlist if they were planning on just using the same formula again, as there would be 0 change of me getting an offer in the end. I could be wrong though.

I feel like being accepted off the waitlist doesn't really mean anything for whether or not they're going to use the same formula... They are still considering all the "interviewed" candidates so it's simply a matter of when someone cancels, someone else gets taken off the waitlist, regardless of whether or not there's an interview/what the criteria are. I know people who withdrew choices for all MD programs on OMSAS because they received MD/PhD offer. 

[hopefullythisworks]

2 hours ago, redbeanbun said:

I feel like being accepted off the waitlist doesn't really mean anything for whether or not they're going to use the same formula... They are still considering all the "interviewed" candidates so it's simply a matter of when someone cancels, someone else gets taken off the waitlist, regardless of whether or not there's an interview/what the criteria are. I know people who withdrew choices for all MD programs on OMSAS because they received MD/PhD offer. 

That's fair. Thanks for the input! 

[hijkl]

On 4/4/2020 at 7:08 PM, lel0101 said:

I've heard from a friend in the program that they plan on releasing the criteria next week!

i'm really hoping we hear back from them tomorrow. it'll reduce my stress once i get a better idea of my chances of acceptance.  

[MedGoldfish]

1 hour ago, inkbat said:

i'm really hoping we hear back from them tomorrow. it'll reduce my stress once i get a better idea of my chances of acceptance.  

If that user's source is correct, we should be hearing back from them tomorrow because Friday is Good Friday!

[justamom]

On 4/4/2020 at 7:08 PM, lel0101 said:

I've heard from a friend in the program that they plan on releasing the criteria next week! Not interviewing here but best of luck to everyone!

no one is interviewing here