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McMaster Waitlist Party 2020


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1 hour ago, SBrown said:

Is anybody else struggling with what to do for the year because masters programs are 2 years? I have 2 supervisors who have offered to have me as a grad student, but I can’t really accept because of the interview next spring. I wouldn’t want to jump ship on my Pi halfway through my degree. Just wondered if anyone had the same situation/any thoughts. 

I was in the exact same position last year - rejected from med school and looking at Masters programs. I decided I wanted to apply the next cycle so a Masters wouldn't work, and instead I applied to tons of research positions. I was able to do research for a year and then was accepted this year.

 

It's just one story, and it may be harder to find positions for this year due to COVID, but there are other options besides a Masters. Even just a different non-research job and volunteering to help round out your application even more. And then, worst case scenario, if you do not get in next cycle you can apply to one year Masters earlier in the cycle (e.g. McMaster Global Health). Then even in the worst case scenario, you are completing a Masters at the same time that you would have completed the two year Masters program

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30 minutes ago, westie97 said:

I'm in a similar situation. Are there negative repercussions to stopping a Master's degree early? Either in my application review or the interviews themselves? I was trying to figure out if I'd essentially get in trouble for ending my master's degree prematurely

It's considered quite unprofessional, as your supervisor is putting a lot of time and money into you and your project.

Certain schools like UofT will straight up not accept you/revoke your offer if you do not complete your degree in time to start.

Its a tough situation for sure, but maybe reach out to Mac to see if this would be grounds for deferral if you got in.

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2 hours ago, seewhathappens said:

It's considered quite unprofessional, as your supervisor is putting a lot of time and money into you and your project.

Certain schools like UofT will straight up not accept you/revoke your offer if you do not complete your degree in time to start.

Its a tough situation for sure, but maybe reach out to Mac to see if this would be grounds for deferral if you got in.

What if it's course-based instead of research-based instead? 

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2 hours ago, TheStern said:

I was in the exact same position last year - rejected from med school and looking at Masters programs. I decided I wanted to apply the next cycle so a Masters wouldn't work, and instead I applied to tons of research positions. I was able to do research for a year and then was accepted this year.

 

It's just one story, and it may be harder to find positions for this year due to COVID, but there are other options besides a Masters. Even just a different non-research job and volunteering to help round out your application even more. And then, worst case scenario, if you do not get in next cycle you can apply to one year Masters earlier in the cycle (e.g. McMaster Global Health). Then even in the worst case scenario, you are completing a Masters at the same time that you would have completed the two year Masters program

Thank you for this! You’ve helped me finalize my decision. My supervisor has agreed to have me work in the lab until (hopefully) I get into med next year. So I’m quite grateful for that. 
 

And the one year masters program is a great suggestion I also hadn’t considered. Thanks again! This has greatly improved my outlook. Good luck to everyone else with their own situations. ☺️

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The majority of schools give you a conditional offer and that you must complete the masters degree you are enrolled in. I thought of quitting my MSc many times (including 2 weeks ago LOL) but soon reminded myself that it was required for me to finish so I can secure an acceptance. I was in your position 3 years ago. committing to a lab and knowing I'd have to wait a few years before I can enrol in a med school wasnt the most fun time. Like others have mentioned, there are many other options besides a masters that dont have a strict time committment and youd still be able to do something useful with your time. In general, my advice is that if you are already asking if you can cut your MSc short before starting one, I'd just not do one to begin with. You'll thank me later haha. 

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21 minutes ago, SBrown said:

Thank you for this! You’ve helped me finalize my decision. My supervisor has agreed to have me work in the lab until (hopefully) I get into med next year. So I’m quite grateful for that. 
 

And the one year masters program is a great suggestion I also hadn’t considered. Thanks again! This has greatly improved my outlook. Good luck to everyone else with their own situations. ☺️

Really glad to have helped, good luck!! :)

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21 minutes ago, TheLegendKiller said:

 

The vote seems skewed because pretty much only unaccepted waitlisters are checking this thread.

It at least gives us a sense of how many "extra" interviewers there will be next year. We still have yet to see whether McMaster will reduce the amount of new interviewers they accept from next years pool so that we still get ~500-600 people or not. 24 votes in 1 day just from premed101 seems pretty high, if they take the usual amount of premeds next year then we might have 700+ people competing for the same amount of spots.

So either next years applicants will have a harder time getting an interview if they want to keep the 500-600 number, or next years interviews will be even more competitive than usual since there will be more people.

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There's no way they're going to interview 700+ people next year. It's a huge expense and logistical undertaking for one, and secondly, they won't need to. For one, they had 552 in their original pool. ~200 (let's say 206) have been accepted, so that leaves 346. Even if we, extremlly conservatively, say that the wait list moved only 100 seats, instead of the more usual 110-130, we're left with 246. Now, how many of those people who were not given a Mac offer removed themselves from the waitlist? A substantial chunk would reject the waitlist as well to go to another similar school (e.g. Ottawa) or a few for OOP offers. 7 people posted or indicated they were rejecting the waitlist, in comparison to 12 people posting waitlist offers (as I can tell eyeballing things). Yes, people may be more likely to post waitlist rejections to give hope, but the principle stands that a substantial number of people out of that 552 have been accepted somewhere. 

Also, Mac's formula is very predictable. 66% of the assessment is fairly constant (CARS) or typically improves (cGPA) each year. If Calgary's interview pool sees 90% of rejected interviewees invited again, using subjective ECs, then it's likely very similar for Mac, so while the number of "new" interview spots may go down next year, it won't make a massive impact since many of the autointerview people would have been likely to interview again anyway, even without automatic interviews. 

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16 minutes ago, MedicineLCS said:

There's no way they're going to interview 700+ people next year. It's a huge expense and logistical undertaking for one, and secondly, they won't need to. For one, they had 552 in their original pool. ~200 (let's say 206) have been accepted, so that leaves 346. Even if we, extremlly conservatively, say that the wait list moved only 100 seats, instead of the more usual 110-130, we're left with 246. Now, how many of those people who were not given a Mac offer removed themselves from the waitlist? A substantial chunk would reject the waitlist as well to go to another similar school (e.g. Ottawa) or a few for OOP offers. 7 people posted or indicated they were rejecting the waitlist, in comparison to 12 people posting waitlist offers (as I can tell eyeballing things). Yes, people may be more likely to post waitlist rejections to give hope, but the principle stands that a substantial number of people out of that 552 have been accepted somewhere. 

Also, Mac's formula is very predictable. 66% of the assessment is fairly constant (CARS) or typically improves (cGPA) each year. If Calgary's interview pool sees 90% of rejected interviewees invited again, using subjective ECs, then it's likely very similar for Mac, so while the number of "new" interview spots may go down next year, it won't make a massive impact since many of the autointerview people would have been likely to interview again anyway, even without automatic interviews. 

I don't think it would be such an unprecedented thing. It would be akin to an additional day or two of medical interview sessions if the auto interviews add another 50 or so people to next years pool. Of course, I would personally prefer this didn't happen since I'll be interviewing, but I would hope everything is fair for the next round of applicants too.

I'm curious what the statistics are on interviewing again across medical schools. You bring up a good point that the vast majority of people probably would have gotten interviews again regardless. Still, given Mac took a rather big action with the lottery this year, I'm curious if that'll bleed over into next year and they'll do something unconventional to tie up any "loose ends" with covid.

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