2019/2020 Application Cycle Debacle

[Willy Wonka Golden Ticket]

*Please keep any responses respectful, i don’t want this thread used to attack or criticize any group or individuals* I do not mean to rehash any old controversy, but I am just curious if anyone has heard anything regarding the admissions debacle from this application cycle (2019/2020). I know information was limited at the time, so I am wondering if there is a better understanding of the situation with Dal Med and the supposed altered admission criteria since it was brought up in April. I was entirely unaware of any controversy until just recently, and I am surprised that there hasn’t been any discussions/updates about it in the past few months. And just to clarify, so that this does not devolve into an argument,  I have heard that it affected students with with different types of degrees (Undergrad, Masters and maybe PhD), not just undergrads, and I do not want to target pharmacy, physiotherapy or any other specific groups of students. I am not calling into question the qualifications of accepted candidates, I am moreso curious about Dalhousie and their response to the situation, as well as if anyone has heard from the med community or faculty/students on the matter. I just want to know how Dal ended up handling this, and how people/professionals closely related to the program feel about Dal’s actions. 

 

 

[Smallysmalls]

Hey! Could you elucidate what the debacle was? I'm unaware 

[Willy Wonka Golden Ticket]

This is going to be kinda long, but I will recap the situation as far as I know. Dal had updated their admission criteria in 2018 to indicate that if you were currently working to obtain a degree, you had to be finishing that degree prior to July 31st before the September start of classes for the year to be eligible (ie. if i were applying for 2021/2022 academic year 2020/2021 application cycle, i would need to finish the degree by July 31st 2021 to be eligible to apply). This decision was made apparently after other faculties/programs were complaining that medicine was taking their students and disrupting their programs (entering other programs as a backup and then leaving without completing their degrees). Apparently, when people asked admissions whether they were eligible during the 2019/2020 application cycle, they were given inconsistent responses (some ppl were told they couldn’t apply, while others in an equivalent program were told they could apply). In April, when the decision letters came out, a number of students in the middle of their degrees were accepted into the program, including undergraduate, masters and i believe also PhD students (I don’t know anyone personally so i can not confirm).This upset a number of people, including those on the waitlist, those who were told they were ineligible and thus did not apply this year, those who avoided entering another degree (who otherwise would’ve) because they were told it would’ve made them ineligible, and a number of other members of the community who felt that this made the admissions process inequitable. It was initially believed to be a mistake, and Dalhousie only said that they were ‘looking into it’. Then at some point in the following weeks, Dal changed the wording on their website that clarified that those in the middle of obtaining undergrad degrees were eligible if they had already completed an undergrad degree (and if they were only using the old undergrad for GPA calculations). Some saw this as Dal clarifying a rule they already had, while others saw this as Dal making a mistake in their admissions process, and then trying to discreetly change the wording on their website to cover their mistake (creating a loophole, per se). However, the info about graduate degrees still remained ambiguous, so this change did not cover those who had been admitted who were in their first year of a 2-year masters program. Dal has every right to change their admission requirements from year-to-year, but many were upset as they felt Dal had tried to retroactively change their admission criteria so that they didn’t had to rescind the offers that they had made who were ‘supposed’ to be ineligible based on the admissions requirements that had been posted on their website for the entirety of the 2019/2020 application cycle. The conversations between those who thought it was unfair and were upset, and those who thought it should be left alone, got very heated and thus the two threads mentioning it were locked by mods. Some people felt that the people who were upset were just bitter/jealous and were just nitpicking and making a big deal about everything when they should just be ‘happy for those who got in’. Those who were upset were mostly confused/frustrated/angry at Dal for seemingly not following their own admissions criteria, and for attempting to cover up their mistake by changing the website. At the time, a few people claimed that they knew doctors that were angry and complaining to Dal that these shenanigans had made for an unfair admissions process, though I have not heard anything first hand. I am curious to know if there has been anything new that’s come to light since April, as it seems odd that something like this would pass so quietly.