UBC MD Interview Invites/Regrets Thread - 2020/21

[patfussy 1]

with a few days left before invites/regrets go out I started browsing the internet and found this forum. I am a nontrad with 3+ years of experience as a RN. I was feeling pretty confident about my chances until i read some of the posts on this forum lol. My GPA during school was pretty mid around 84-85% but no research and/or publish experiences. MCAT was pretty mid too at 512. Got me kinda stressing

[Fast_Layne 73]

On 12/9/2020 at 7:14 PM, Coviduh19 said:

Your friends sound like those ideal candidates for med school. They seem to have it all. Such impressive and well-rounded applicants! Unfortunately, my application doesn’t come close to what they have. I have zero research experience and am definitely not part of a varsity team! As a first time and nontraditional applicant , I am curious how my ECs pan out compare to the general application pool. 

Honestly, I don't think there's really such things an ideal candidate. I had none of those things (am terrible at athletics, minimal research, no long-term health experience) and I was still able to get in. There's so much diversity in our class as to where people are coming from, so many non-trad applicants, so many mature students, so many people from alternate careers, etc.

So yeah, don't get into the mentality that they're only looking for 1 type of person! 

On the topic of research, publications aren't always the best measure of research experience, I know some people who've gone through Bachelor's and research-based Master's degrees (so they have tons of research hours) but have not published at all, or minimally. 

[WaitingTooLong 7]

1 hour ago, Excel-erate Your Breath said:

Can confirm that AQ is just a standardized way of measuring GPA, i.e. AQ is only affected by GPA. NAQ is everything that is in Research Pubs/Presentations, Awards, Employment, and Non-Academic Activities (as far as we know)

Did you find it on the UBC website? I had a hard time finding such information. I read on another thread from a few year ago that anything that you received school credits for would be considered in AQ. Maybe things have changed. 

[Excel-erate Your Breath 142]

1 hour ago, WaitingTooLong said:

Did you find it on the UBC website? I had a hard time finding such information. I read on another thread from a few year ago that anything that you received school credits for would be considered in AQ. Maybe things have changed. 

If you try to ask UBC, they say that they don't disclose info about AQ/NAQ directly. However, yes, from a history of people on these forums, we can be pretty sure that AQ is just a fancy way of saying GPA. Which means that the credits for your research would indeed play into your AQ if you received a course mark (I'm assuming thesis credits?), whereas the non-academic portion of your research that you would have written about in your experiences would play into your NAQ

[WaitingTooLong 7]

9 minutes ago, Excel-erate Your Breath said:

If you try to ask UBC, they say that they don't disclose info about AQ/NAQ directly. However, yes, from a history of people on these forums, we can be pretty sure that AQ is just a fancy way of saying GPA. Which means that the credits for your research would indeed play into your AQ if you received a course mark (I'm assuming thesis credits?), whereas the non-academic portion of your research that you would have written about in your experiences would play into your NAQ

I will try to find the thread I read sometime ago and link it here. It made me think whatever you did as a part of your degree is considered in AQ. Otherwise it does not make any sense to ask whether someone received credits/done as part of a degree on the application no? 
 

Edit: please check out the link below.

 

[Excel-erate Your Breath 142]

2 minutes ago, WaitingTooLong said:

I will try to find the thread I read sometime ago and link it here. It made me think whatever you did as a part of your degree is considered in AQ. Otherwise it does not make any sense to ask whether someone received credits/done as part of a degree on the application no? 

Not too sure, I just assumed that they ask that to assess your level of commitment i.e. if you received credits for something then that's generally a lower level of commitment than something you chose to do on your own time - because receiving credits/grades would mean you had external motives to do that activity. Could be wrong though, and I wouldn't mind having the (albeit only 1) activity that I had to tick that box for count in my AQ. Doubt it though

[WaitingTooLong 7]

11 minutes ago, Excel-erate Your Breath said:

Not too sure, I just assumed that they ask that to assess your level of commitment i.e. if you received credits for something then that's generally a lower level of commitment than something you chose to do on your own time - because receiving credits/grades would mean you had external motives to do that activity. Could be wrong though, and I wouldn't mind having the (albeit only 1) activity that I had to tick that box for count in my AQ. Doubt it though

That’s probably why they don’t disclose how they do the conversions so that people don’t abuse it. Also doesn’t make sense to assume course credit = lower commitment. A graduate student with 5 first author publications from grad school (which they received school credits for) still sounds like a pretty big commitment to me. 

Guess we will never find out lol 

[Thefirem4ster 6]

I'm pretty sure that if you did a 4th year UG thesis and published a paper, the course mark in the thesis will factor into the AQ. The publication will factor into the NAQ.

[Excel-erate Your Breath 142]

1 hour ago, WaitingTooLong said:

That’s probably why they don’t disclose how they do the conversions so that people don’t abuse it. Also doesn’t make sense to assume course credit = lower commitment. A graduate student with 5 first author publications from grad school (which they received school credits for) still sounds like a pretty big commitment to me. 

Guess we will never find out lol 

Does the thread you quoted not pretty much just say that AQ is a standardized measure of GPA?

Also, I agree with you, however look at it this way: if you're in grad school with 5 first-author pubs, you also have 5 first author pubs in the Pubs section of your application. So that would (one would think) more than surpass the amount of points 'docked' for putting credit-based research experiences from their Masters in the Non-Academic Activities section.

What I was kinda thinking of moreso is the following example: let's say Applicant A and Applicant B have both volunteered at a homeless shelter for 50 hours each over the course of 6 months. Applicant A volunteered just because they wanted to, whereas Applicant B volunteered as part of a course practicum and received credits.

I could see Applicant A getting more 'juice from the squeeze' of those 50 hours in this type of case because they went out of their way to volunteer and weren't incentivized to do it

BUT I AM PURELY WAFFLING and speculating, we know nothing about how NAQ is actually scored at the end of the day lol.

To answer your original question, AQ itself is indeed based on GPA. It's when you start to look at post-interview "holistic assessments" do they factor in other things into your academic 'value' as an applicant other than GPA. One of the major ones being MCAT, another one that we know for sure is grade trends, etc

 

 

EDIT: The site bugged out for me, idk why this comment posted twice

[Excel-erate Your Breath 142]

49 minutes ago, WaitingTooLong said:

That’s probably why they don’t disclose how they do the conversions so that people don’t abuse it. Also doesn’t make sense to assume course credit = lower commitment. A graduate student with 5 first author publications from grad school (which they received school credits for) still sounds like a pretty big commitment to me. 

Guess we will never find out lol 

Does the thread you quoted not pretty much just say that AQ is a standardized measure of GPA?

Also, I agree with you, however look at it this way: if you're in grad school with 5 first-author pubs, you also have 5 first author pubs in the Pubs section of your application. So that would (one would think) more than surpass the amount of points 'docked' for putting credit-based research experiences from their Masters in the Non-Academic Activities section.

What I was kinda thinking of moreso is the following example: let's say Applicant A and Applicant B have both volunteered at a homeless shelter for 50 hours each over the course of 6 months. Applicant A volunteered just because they wanted to, whereas Applicant B volunteered as part of a course practicum and received credits.

I could see Applicant A getting more 'juice from the squeeze' of those 50 hours in this type of case because they went out of their way to volunteer and weren't incentivized to do it

BUT I AM PURELY WAFFLING and speculating, we know nothing about how NAQ is actually scored at the end of the day lol.

To answer your original question, AQ itself is indeed based on GPA. It's when you start to look at post-interview "holistic assessments" do they factor in other things into your academic 'value' as an applicant other than GPA. One of the major ones being MCAT, another one that we know for sure is grade trends, etc

33 minutes ago, Thefirem4ster said:

I'm pretty sure that if you did a 4th year UG thesis and published a paper, the course mark in the thesis will factor into the AQ. The publication will factor into the NAQ.

You're absolutely correct! And even if you didn't publish, your Non-Academic Activities entry of being an Honours student and conducting the study etc. will factor into NAQ

[WaitingTooLong 7]

34 minutes ago, Excel-erate Your Breath said:

Does the thread you quoted not pretty much just say that AQ is a standardized measure of GPA?

Yes, but they also said (i don’t know why they said it and where they got their info from): 

• The UBC system also takes into account any NAQ activities that you received course credit for into their AQ calculation. These equations do not take this into account. 

that’s what got me kind of confused. Again that person might be incorrect, since there is no way we can know for sure. But I agree with you on the second part.

[ImReadyNextCycle 9]

First time applying UBC and OOP as well! I don't feel really hopeful due to my GPA but still very curious about my NAQ scores. Good luck everyone!

[acrylicblue 19]

It says very clearly on the UBC admission website:

Pre-Interview: The first cut-off for invitation to interview is based on a score derived from applicants’ Overall Academic Average or Adjusted Academic Average (if applicable) and a Non-Academic Qualities Score.

[Excel-erate Your Breath 142]

9 minutes ago, WaitingTooLong said:

Yes, but they also said (i don’t know why they said it and where they got their info from): 

• The UBC system also takes into account any NAQ activities that you received course credit for into their AQ calculation. These equations do not take this into account. 

that’s what got me kind of confused. Again that person might be incorrect, since there is no way we can know for sure. But I agree with you on the second part.

Oh good catch I did not see that in that top comment there. Yeah idk why that person said that, if that is true then great but if not then oh well

[practically.apoptotic 1]

7 hours ago, Fast_Layne said:

Honestly, I don't think there's really such things an ideal candidate. I had none of those things (am terrible at athletics, minimal research, no long-term health experience) and I was still able to get in. There's so much diversity in our class as to where people are coming from, so many non-trad applicants, so many adults, so many people from alternate careers, etc.

So yeah, don't get into the mentality that they're only looking for 1 type of person! 

On the topic of research, publications aren't always the best measure of research experience, I know some people who've gone through Bachelor's and research-based Master's degrees (so they have tons of research hours) but have not published at all, or minimally. 

Agree - honestly, the only people who know what UBC is looking for are the adcom themselves.

[Jjjhsil 1]

hey just to confirm invites and rejections come out on dec. 14th?

[Excel-erate Your Breath 142]

33 minutes ago, Jjjhsil said:

hey just to confirm invites and rejections come out on dec. 14th?

We don't know, but hopefully that's when they start letting us know. Typically it's all the rejections first for a day or two, and early invites after, and then normal invites. I previously had a gut feeling that we weren't gonna see the first rejections until December 21st, but that's changed - I can't see UBC sending out invites during Christmas week (most uni faculties are off, so it doesn't make sense for UBC med admissions to be "on.") so yes, we are expecting UBC to start letting us know on Monday

[immune 7]

UBC just emailed! We will find out between the 14th and 24th.

[newmy88 273]

Thanks for the heart attack UBC, thought the e-mail was them sending me a nice and early R 

[WaitingTooLong 7]

8 hours ago, newmy88 said:

Thanks for the heart attack UBC, thought the e-mail was them sending me a nice and early R 

Same! Lol literally had a heart attack when I saw that oasportal@med…

[immune 7]

8 minutes ago, newmy88 said:

Thanks for the heart attack UBC, thought the e-mail was them sending me a nice and early R 

Me too! Heart stopped....then I was like okay we good and went back to being stressed out.

[socialdistancingking 1]

Exciting news today! It looks like they have changed the window for interview invites/regrets considering that it runs longer than a week now.

Do you think they might send out all the regrets next week and then the invites the week after?

[Thefirem4ster 6]

1 hour ago, socialdistancingking said:

Exciting news today! It looks like they have changed the window for interview invites/regrets considering that it runs longer than a week now.

Do you think they might send out all the regrets next week and then the invites the week after?

I think they would release the rejections and invites fairly close together. From my understanding, after they calculate the TFR, all the applicants are ordered from highest to lowest. Therefore, they will know who is invited and rejected at the same time.

[Excel-erate Your Breath 142]

Guys we're about to get set up so hard lol

UBC (not exact quote) said in that email that they'll start letting us know on the 14th but that they plan to make sure everyone knows by the 24th

I feel like that means the waves are gonna be even more staggered this year lol

So I will say as a PSA

You don't have an interview offer unless you see an interview offer email/interview tab on OAS
DO NOT count your chickens before they're hatched

You will see the optimism of those who will say "oh wow! I haven't been rejected yet! And it's already Wednesday December 16th! That must mean I'm getting an interview offer tomorrow/next week/whenever!"

NO! Wrong! You don't know yet.

Hate to be a downer but it's true y'all, keep grounded, don't live in the clouds

[Givemeapizza 1]

I wonder why UBC mentioned in the email that “they would post the explanation of the results on their blog”, not sure if did that for any of the previous cycles!