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Workbook help


cc11

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Hello,

I just finished filling out my workbook history but the gpa calculated by the excel sheet is way lower than my current gpa. I have about 3.9/4.3 and the workbook showed 3.6 for mcgill and 3.7X for the local gpa. What can explain that gap ? Anyone else had this problem ? Am I panicking for nothing ? Please send help.

 

EDIT: Idk what I did the first time but now it's working

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Are you 100% certain that you converted your grades properly? Is there any way that you could have incorrectly identified the school that you studied at (maybe the workbook internally doesn't know that you go to a school that uses a 4.3 scale? idk if thats possible since idk how the thing works)? If you have any A+s that are raising your GPA at your home institution, this could cause your McGill cGPA to fall once all the A+s are converted to As, but that wouldn't really explain the incorrect local gpa. Unless you've inadvertently made some sort of error I'm not really sure what it could be. Have you tried emailing admissions?

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  • 2 weeks later...

The workbook GPA takes out the winter 2020 grade from calculation because of COVID. Try calculating your local GPA yourself without including the winter grades and see if it makes sense with what you see on the workbook. I suspect that may be why there is a difference.

And as @Vons said in their message, the difference between McGill and local is probably a different scale 4.0 vs 4.3 so meaning you had some A+ that got converted to A.

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20 minutes ago, TomorrowsMD said:

The workbook GPA takes out the winter 2020 grade from calculation because of COVID. Try calculating your local GPA yourself without including the winter grades and see if it makes sense with what you see on the workbook. I suspect that may be why there is a difference.

And as @Vons said in their message, the difference between McGill and local is probably a different scale 4.0 vs 4.3 so meaning you had some A+ that got converted to A.

Thanks for your reply I started over and now it makes more sense. I think I moved some cells in the excel sheet and it messed up the whole thing lol. I now have 3.7X for my McGill gpa but I'm not sure it's going to be enough for this cycle. What do you think ?

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57 minutes ago, cc11 said:

Thanks for your reply I started over and now it makes more sense. I think I moved some cells in the excel sheet and it messed up the whole thing lol. I now have 3.7X for my McGill gpa but I'm not sure it's going to be enough for this cycle. What do you think ?

I'm glad you figured out the problem. Your GPA is below the average, but if you get points for academic context and/or have a solid CASPer and CV then you still might be in the running! Good luck.

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1 hour ago, cc11 said:

Thanks for your reply I started over and now it makes more sense. I think I moved some cells in the excel sheet and it messed up the whole thing lol. I now have 3.7X for my McGill gpa but I'm not sure it's going to be enough for this cycle. What do you think ?

It's always a very difficult question to answer and frankly I don't think there can ever be a clear-cut answer, as disappointing as it may sound. The applicant pool can be vastly different or similar from year to year and your situation may be extremely different to others.

Now if we talk about the general average of applicant, you GPA is below average (3.85+). But don't let that stop you from applying. There are a multitude of factors that can influence your results. A professional degree is a boost. Honors is a boost. Course getting more difficult during the bachelor is also a boost. Masters is a boost. Also, the CV, even though it's "only" worth 20%, it may well be what will be the tipping point to get that interview invite. Also keep in mind the Casper score is used as a pre-selection, meaning people scoring under an undisclosed score don't even have their files reviewed (about 75% go on to get the files reviewed)

As you can see, there are so many things that are at play that you might as well apply and just try! Make sure every single thing you can do to help yourself is done. Make sure your CV uses the canmeds framework as keywords (look it up on google, is a document made by the Royal College of Physicians and surgeons of Canada) and that you also use the non-academic criteria McGill are looking for (they are listed on their website). Also try to have research and clinical experience because you know a lot of people do so you have to at least match them 

Realistically, I've seen people with 3.5s be accepted (granted with a strong CV, Casper and interview) and I've also seen 4.0s being rejected because their Casper was too low for pre-selection. Apply and you never know, you may have a pleasant surprise! In my humble opinion, 3.7X is more than enough to be considered provided you do everything to help yourself!

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/30/2020 at 9:34 PM, TomorrowsMD said:

It's always a very difficult question to answer and frankly I don't think there can ever be a clear-cut answer, as disappointing as it may sound. The applicant pool can be vastly different or similar from year to year and your situation may be extremely different to others.

Now if we talk about the general average of applicant, you GPA is below average (3.85+). But don't let that stop you from applying. There are a multitude of factors that can influence your results. A professional degree is a boost. Honors is a boost. Course getting more difficult during the bachelor is also a boost. Masters is a boost. Also, the CV, even though it's "only" worth 20%, it may well be what will be the tipping point to get that interview invite. Also keep in mind the Casper score is used as a pre-selection, meaning people scoring under an undisclosed score don't even have their files reviewed (about 75% go on to get the files reviewed)

As you can see, there are so many things that are at play that you might as well apply and just try! Make sure every single thing you can do to help yourself is done. Make sure your CV uses the canmeds framework as keywords (look it up on google, is a document made by the Royal College of Physicians and surgeons of Canada) and that you also use the non-academic criteria McGill are looking for (they are listed on their website). Also try to have research and clinical experience because you know a lot of people do so you have to at least match them 

Realistically, I've seen people with 3.5s be accepted (granted with a strong CV, Casper and interview) and I've also seen 4.0s being rejected because their Casper was too low for pre-selection. Apply and you never know, you may have a pleasant surprise! In my humble opinion, 3.7X is more than enough to be considered provided you do everything to help yourself!

Hey there! What do you mean when you say honours? I'm currently doing my undergraduate degree in Ontario and the term we use for our 4 years bachelors degree is an honours degree so I was wondering is that what you meant? Or am I completely wrong lol

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8 hours ago, TheHopefulMD said:

Hey there! What do you mean when you say honours? I'm currently doing my undergraduate degree in Ontario and the term we use for our 4 years bachelors degree is an honours degree so I was wondering is that what you meant? Or am I completely wrong lol

Honours is what uOttawa call in French "Spécialisé approfondi". It means a Bachelor degree with most of its credits under one discipline (no major, no general with 2 minors). Some Honours bachelor degrees come with a Honours thesis. So at least half (even 2/3) of your Bachelor degree most be done within your main discipline.

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