How Did You Rank the McMaster Campuses? (Poll and Discussion)

[MedGoldfish]

Now that campus rankings have been submitted, how did you rank the McMaster campuses? Feel free to answer the poll and discuss the reasons for your selection! The campuses are listed in order of most preferred to least preferred. All answers are anonymous.

I know that May 12 is still a few weeks away, but I figured that this thread would be a nice way to pass the time! 

[BigHoss]

McMaster says that offers will be given our based off rankings of the campuses. So does that mean it's actually more competitive to rank the campuses, rather than saying, "no preference"?

[RejectedAgain]

46 minutes ago, BigHoss said:

McMaster says that offers will be given our based off rankings of the campuses. So does that mean it's actually more competitive to rank the campuses, rather than saying, "no preference"?

It's not more competitive for the first round of acceptances, but it is more competitive if you get put on the waitlist. In the campus selection survey they said if you put "no preference" it might prevent you from getting an offer off the waitlist. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I remember reading! 

[SnowmanTheSWOMEN]

That doesn't make any sense. Your offers off the waitlist is solely based on your application score. If you are next in line, you will be offered admission to whichever campus is vacant.

[MD_endgame]

5 minutes ago, RejectedAgain said:

It's not more competitive for the first round of acceptances, but it is more competitive if you get put on the waitlist. In the campus selection survey they said if you put "no preference" it might prevent you from getting an offer off the waitlist. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I remember reading! 

I took it as meaning that you might not receive an offer in the first round if you only rank one campus. I believe waitlist offers are given without consideration for campus preference! So if you are waitlisted, you receive an offer based on whatever opens up rather than based on your preference. I could be wrong though!

[SnowmanTheSWOMEN]

You just had to drag and drop the three campuses right? Not the no preference option?

[RejectedAgain]

35 minutes ago, HeyMrSnowman said:

That doesn't make any sense. Your offers off the waitlist is solely based on your application score. If you are next in line, you will be offered admission to whichever campus is vacant.

You could say the same for the first round offers too tho right. So campus preference has no bearing at any stage?

[BigHoss]

8 minutes ago, RejectedAgain said:

You could say the same for the first round offers too tho right. So campus preference has no bearing at any stage?

I never thought that how I rank a campus could actually NEGATIVELY affect whether or not I get in to an MD program. THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE.

[SnowmanTheSWOMEN]

What were the five options again: Hamilton, Niagara, Waterloo, No preference, and something else?

 

[redbeanbun]

1 hour ago, RejectedAgain said:

It's not more competitive for the first round of acceptances, but it is more competitive if you get put on the waitlist. In the campus selection survey they said if you put "no preference" it might prevent you from getting an offer off the waitlist. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I remember reading! 

If you select "no preference" for the first question, it should not negatively affect you. It just means you are equally okay with any of three campuses. What does negatively affect you is if you put that you do have a campus preference, then for your ranking, you rank, say, Hamilton first, and then rank "no second choice" and/or "no third choice." In THAT case, your chances might be slimmer because you would essentially only be considered for the Hamilton campus. 

[Psych]

26 minutes ago, redbeanbun said:

If you select "no preference" for the first question, it should not negatively affect you. It just means you are equally okay with any of three campuses. What does negatively affect you is if you put that you do have a campus preference, then for your ranking, you rank, say, Hamilton first, and then rank "no second choice" and/or "no third choice." In THAT case, your chances might be slimmer because you would essentially only be considered for the Hamilton campus. 

Even in that case though, wouldn't it just mean that you prefer Hamilton first but you're equally okay with the other two? I didn't put that, but I can't imagine campus preferences of any sort impacting admission- that just don't make sense

[ejvrei]

My understanding was that as long as you ranked all the campuses then you would be considered in all scenarios (maximize chances of getting in)... Hoping this is correct?? Don't want this of all things to be the reason I don't get in haha

[redbeanbun]

16 minutes ago, Psych said:

Even in that case though, wouldn't it just mean that you prefer Hamilton first but you're equally okay with the other two? I didn't put that, but I can't imagine campus preferences of any sort impacting admission- that just don't make sense

I agree if you put Hamilton = choice 1 and Waterloo/Niagara = tied for choice 2, it wouldn't make sense for it to negatively impact your admissions. However apparently it's possible (according to my friends at macmed) to put down preference for only one or two campuses... as in you don't even want to be considered for the campus(es) you didn't put down. As another commenter mentioned, the survey itself also said something about how not ranking a campus might prevent you from getting an offer off the waitlist (I forgot how exactly it was worded). I'm not clear on the details though, and not sure how that would be differentiated from the scenario you mentioned 

[SnowmanTheSWOMEN]

40 minutes ago, redbeanbun said:

I agree if you put Hamilton = choice 1 and Waterloo/Niagara = tied for choice 2, it wouldn't make sense for it to negatively impact your admissions. However apparently it's possible (according to my friends at macmed) to put down preference for only one or two campuses... as in you don't even want to be considered for the campus(es) you didn't put down. As another commenter mentioned, the survey itself also said something about how not ranking a campus might prevent you from getting an offer off the waitlist (I forgot how exactly it was worded). I'm not clear on the details though, and not sure how that would be differentiated from the scenario you mentioned 

How can you tie two choices? We simply dragged and dropped to the right box, with preferences in descending order. Unless I am missing something

[BigHoss]

Anyone wanna email Mac for us? HAHAHA because if someone truly wants to study Medicine, campus choice shouldn't be a black/white situation. But it seems like it's being valued to be picky -- which is extremely confusing. 

[redbeanbun]

2 minutes ago, HeyMrSnowman said:

How can you tie two choices? We simply dragged and dropped to the right box, with preferences in descending order. Unless I am missing something

I don't think there was an option to tie two choices... which is why I said that I don't know the details of how one would indicate that. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear enough! As far as I know/was told, if you dragged and dropped the options "no second choice" "no third choice", it just means that you don't want to be considered for campuses other than your first choice. 

[justamom]

12 hours ago, HeyMrSnowman said:

What were the five options again: Hamilton, Niagara, Waterloo, No preference, and something else?

 

there's a new one called "sofa at home "

[ijustwantanmd]

I thought it said you might not be given preference of campus at all if waitlist, nothing about affecting chances of getting in

[RawRxD]

9 minutes ago, ijustwantanmd said:

I thought it said you might not be given preference of campus at all if waitlist, nothing about affecting chances of getting in

Thats what i understood too lol 

[MedGoldfish]

Wow! Hamilton > Waterloo > Niagara seems to be a very popular choice for people.

[SoftTings]

21 minutes ago, MedGoldfish said:

Wow! Hamilton > Waterloo > Niagara seems to be a very popular choice for people.

It makes sense to me. Hamilton is the main campus, so most people would have that first. And then Waterloo is more of a university town than St. Catharine's is, and is larger (if you count Kitchener-Waterloo)

At least that was part of my thought process

[X Æ A-12]

Niagara as a campus is low-key slept on fr. Every year, students love it without fail and they treat students so so well. They really want to attract folks to be retained in the area. 

[IMislove]

My buddy went to St cats campus and had a great experience. I myself enjoyed visiting, they do have Brock over there, and it’s a beautiful town. Lots to do as well including comedy, night life, board games, just helps having a car. But then same could be said for KW. Can’t go wrong with any of the choices imo. Then again I’m not from the GTA and don’t use it as my standard lol.

[Edict]

On 4/29/2020 at 7:22 PM, MedGoldfish said:

Wow! Hamilton > Waterloo > Niagara seems to be a very popular choice for people.

As an alum, i'm surprised at how high the number but also not surprised. Agree with all the factors mentioned above but would also add the factor of GTA, many students are from the GTA and would rank Hamilton Waterloo Niagara based on closeness to GTA.