Western interview invites/regrets 2021

[gliostudies 34]

16 minutes ago, Philosesquipedalian said:

Hi Voldy, 

First and foremost, CONGRATULATIONS ON THE INTERVIEW!!!! 

I have been able to set up up Western student ID. Make sure to only write the six-digit OMSAS number, removing the 2021 before it. When you get to the part asking for your Western number ID, make sure to enter the nine-digit Western student number included in your invitation email, not the Western user ID they give you; it took me a moment to figure that out, lol.

If all else fails, email them. I hope that helps you and other folks!

Sending you loads of positive vibes! Good luck with the interview, you got this! 

Cheers, 

Philo

Were you able to also activate your Western identity or just get you access code? I got my access code but now I'm attempting to activate my Western identity and it keeps saying my ID has already been activated.

[Voldy 4]

54 minutes ago, Philosesquipedalian said:

Hi Voldy, 

First and foremost, CONGRATULATIONS ON THE INTERVIEW!!!! 

I have been able to set up up Western student ID. Make sure to only write the six-digit OMSAS number, removing the 2021 before it. When you get to the part asking for your Western number ID, make sure to enter the nine-digit Western student number included in your invitation email, not the Western user ID they give you; it took me a moment to figure that out, lol.

If all else fails, email them. I hope that helps you and other folks!

Sending you loads of positive vibes! Good luck with the interview, you got this! 

Cheers, 

Philo

Congrats to you too! And thank you so much, your advice worked! Good luck with your interview too! I really appreciate the positive vibes, much needed

[Voldy 4]

39 minutes ago, gliostudies said:

Were you able to also activate your Western identity or just get you access code? I got my access code but now I'm attempting to activate my Western identity and it keeps saying my ID has already been activated.

I was just able to get my access code, I didn't get an "Access your student center" email yet, I think you have to wait for that. Not completely sure though lol this is kinda complex.

[Philosesquipedalian 20]

20 minutes ago, Voldy said:

I was just able to get my access code, I didn't get an "Access your student center" email yet, I think you have to wait for that. Not completely sure though lol this is kinda complex.

Hey again!

I was redirected to a browser that let me enter the access code and Western student number ID. I set up all my security questions, password and then (out of curiosity, and maybe a little excitement) I hopped onto https://student.uwo.ca/ and was able access my student center account! Please note, the student center will be unavailable on Sundays until 6am due to maintenance; so you better hop on before or after that to see it while it's working!

Hope that helps, and thank you for the kind wishes! 

Cheers,

Philo

[runner19 0]

3 hours ago, Apex said:

I have the same issue.

I also have the same issue. I'm a South Western Ontario applicant and now im worried they looked at me as a general applicant, because my GPA and MCAT are well above the cutoffs for southwestern ontario students..

[Philosesquipedalian 20]

1 hour ago, gliostudies said:

Were you able to also activate your Western identity or just get you access code? I got my access code but now I'm attempting to activate my Western identity and it keeps saying my ID has already been activated.

Hi Gliostudies, 

First and most importantly, CONGRATULATIONS on the interview!!! 

I was able to activate my Western Identity, I entered the access code and student number from my email. Are you by any chance a current/former Western student? If so, the email says that you do not need to activate your Western Identity because it is already active.

If not, maybe reach out to them by email to figure out what's going on? I hope that helps.

Cheers,

Philo

[premed uwo 12]

Time Stamp: 3:17 pm

Invite/reject: INVITE!!

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): N

2YGPA: 3.95

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 130/127/130/130

Essays (X/8): 8/8 - no repeated activities

Gap year

[tennie 44]

Time Stamp: 4:30 PM EST

Invite/reject: regrets

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N):  N

2YGPA: 3.98 (i think... not sure which years they used for the calculation because of a program switch)

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 127/127/127/129

Essays (X/8):  8/8 + about me — probably quite weak :/ did them right before the due date because that was when i received my mcat score lol

a little bummed ngl but it's alright!! congrats to everyone who received an interview, it's such an incredible accomplishment!!

[PharmD2MD 1]

Time Stamp: 12:19 PM PST

Invite/reject: Invite

IP/OOP: OOP

SWOMEN (Y/N):  N

2YGPA: 3.88

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO): 128/129/132

Essays (X/8):  8/8 & edited by multiple people

[newtouoft 4]

Time Stamp: 4:12 pm

Invite/reject: Regrets

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN: N

2YGPA: 4.0

MCAT: 130/128/131/130

Essays: 8/8+about me, no repeats

I am sad about the regrets, since Western was one of my top choices. I spent months working on the essays and had them edited by friends. Not sure where to improve for next time :/ 

[110s 1]

Time Stamp: 3:11

Invite/reject: Invite 

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): Y

2YGPA: 3.8

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 128/125/131/127

Essays (X/8): 8/8 essays and about you section. Wrote about different activities in each essay. Made sure they were written with a lot of honesty and were genuine. 

[Borat Sagdiyev 31]

Time Stamp: 3:15 PM (EST)

Invite/reject:  Invite

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): Y

2YGPA: 3.99

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 130/125/129/130

Essays (X/8):  8 - rewrote them the night/morning before bc of anxiety

[RD2MD 7]

Time Stamp: 4:34 pm EST

Invite/reject: Rejection

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): N

2YGPA: 4.0

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 523 (130/131/130/132)

Essays (X/8): 8/8 essays and repeated two activities. Worked on them for about a month and had another person read them and give me feedback. But I still felt unsure about them and thought they had some weak spots. I also wrote an academic explanation essay because I didn't take a full course load in my upper years and switched programs so I ended up taking some lower level courses in my upper years. It sucks not knowing what part of my application is to blame.

[Apex 4]

Time Stamp: 1:19PM Jan 29th

Invite/reject: R

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): N

2YGPA: 3.78

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 129/128/128

Essays (X/8):  8/8

Was initially rejected for not meeting cutoffs despite meeting them. I emailed them to let them know of the situation and it appears that they re-evaluated my file and was still not able to give me an invite due to my non-academic assessment.

While it wasn't the news I wanted, just going to keep my chin up and work on those essays for next year. Good luck to everyone who received an interview!

[ImReadyNextCycle 19]

Time Stamp: 3:57 pm EST

Invite/reject: R

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): N

2YGPA: 3.85

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 514 (130/128/128/128)

Essays (X/8): 8/8 and wrote About You. Worked on them quite a lot and asked several people to edit. But I know my ECs are not strong in terms of the length and variety.

Was also rejected yesterday because not meeting academic cut-off where I did. Upon emailing them they replied today and said my non-academic is not competitive enough. Glad that they give this timely response and I hope they truly gave it a fair consideration. Anyways, congrats for those getting an invite. Good luck!

[albertahopeful21 18]

Invite/reject: Reject

IP/OOP: OOP

SWOMEN (Y/N): N

2YGPA: 3.97 on OMSAS, not sure for Western? 

YEAR: 4th year undergrad

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 131/127/131/130+ can't remember the exact P/S score lol

Essays (X/8): 8/8 and wrote About You. Doubted if the CARS cutoff would stay at 127 so I only spent about a week, but thought I chose good activities and lessons and had a Western med student edit. Followed a formulaic writing style 

I wonder what I did wrong for Western. As the first school with 'proper essays' I've heard from, this news makes me nervous that maybe my essay writing isn't very good, which doesn't bode well for other schools I'm still waiting on. Very grateful and surprised to have received any interviews at all so far though!! 

EDIT April 5th: So now that I've hard back from the rest of the schools I applied to, I'm even more curious exactly what went wrong for Western. Obviously I know receiving any interview invite is a bit of a lottery given how many qualified applicants there are, but my Western essays shared very similar content/activities to other essay schools (UofT, Calgary) where I did get an invite. If I had to speculate, for Western I did follow advice to make these essays more formulaic and focus on the quality of the lessons (i.e. This is the activity, this is my role, Lesson 1, Lesson 2, Lesson 3) because I was told it's not really meant to be a proper essay. At the other schools, I took a narrative/story/reflective approach so maybe that's it?  Again, this is all speculation, but wanted to expand more with hindsight since I know I personally found it incredibly helpful when I came across this type of advice when writing my own application this past summer. It doesn't seem like it was my ECs themselves since they were fine at other schools, so it must've been more about how I approached the essays themselves. 

[itski 33]

 

Invite/reject: Invite! So grateful 

IP/OOP: OOP

SWOMEN (Y/N):  N

2YGPA: 3.9-4.0 somewhere in between... I'm not very sure about the 4.0 scale lol

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO): slightly above cutoffs

Essays (X/8):  8/8. I actually didn't get anyone to edit but I felt I spoke genuinely about my experiences

[kiwi30 2]

Time Stamp: Jan 28, 3:12PM (EST)

Invite/reject: Invite!

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): N

2YGPA: 3.98

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 129/128/131/129

Essays (X/8): 8/8 Fairly diverse activities overall, with one repeat. Worked on them for about a month and had multiple people edit. Really tried to make sure what I learned was relevant to the question, different for each activity, and genuine. I also focused on how exactly each lesson would help me in the future as a physician.

Good luck to everyone!!!

[gooeydog17 3]

Time Stamp: Jan 28, 3:39 PM

Invite/reject: Invite!!!!

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): Y

2YGPA: 3.83 (Conditional, praying I can sustain a 3.7 this year)

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 129/127/129/131 (Above CARS cutoff for SWOMEN).

Essays (X/8): 8/8. Very personal and genuine. Was able to talk about my extremely rough first 2 years of my undergrad, in which they were maybe able to view as heartfelt? I have no clue! Pretty good EC's, not the greatest but were sufficient enough to get me an interview. Was able to get them edited by a few people as well. I cannot believe how crazy this is. Hoping everything goes as planned in March!!:)

[vitae 3]

Time Stamp: Jan 28, 3:13 PM

Invite/reject: Invite!

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): N

2YGPA: 3.98

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 132/129/130/132

Essays (X/8):  8 + about me. Tried to choose experiences that were personal and unique and made it clear what the three lessons were. I linked the lessons to CanMed as much as possible. Asked current med students' advice on selecting which activities and reading a few of them, which I thought were super helpful! Really grateful for the opportunity!

[EmilyStowe 10]

Time Stamp: 4:20 pm

Invite/reject: R

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): Y

2YGPA: Not sure but cGPA was 3.89

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 129/125/131/130

Essays (X/8):  8/8 + about me + academic exp. Re-used a few of last year's but tried to make small improvements. Diverse ECs including varsity sport, another sport at the international level, working with the disabled, working with underprivileged children, physician shadowing, 2 lab volunteer positions, some advocacy, and employment.

After being placed on the waitlist last cycle I am extremely disappointed with this one  Especially being a SWOMEN applicant. Not really sure where to go from here, I thought my app was a lot stronger (had some new sketch items and also only wrote 7 essays last year, this year I wrote 8). Wondering if it's worth re-writing MCAT (when I wrote the second time my CARS dropped to 125, but I met all the SOWMEN cut-offs anyways and my other sections are high... don't want to write it a third time).

[UWOnerd 4]

Time Stamp: 1:56

Invite/reject:  Invite

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): N

2YGPA: 1 year conditional acceptance (3.97 for the one year)

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 127/128/129/129

Essays (X/8):  8 (and filled out the about you section)

Hey guys I know I'm a little late to posting this. If anyone at all has suggestions for interview prep, I would greatly appreciate it. Also anyone who has gotten in via conditional acceptance, please let me know! I feel like I'm already a little doomed for not having 2 good years like many of the other applicants (depending on how much weight GPA is given in the post-interview scoring).  I truly believe it was my essays and personal experiences that got me the interview, but I'm scared it won't be enough to make up for GPA. 

[newmy88 368]

A little late, but I’m very excited to be posting here for the first time!!! 

Time Stamp: 3:14pm EST

Invite/reject: INVITE!!!! 

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): N, but did apply through the ACCESS pathway! 

2YGPA: 3.97

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 130/126/129/128

Essays (X/8):  8/8, repeated one activity twice but in a completely different context. Really poured my heart into these essays and was very proud of them!

I haven’t been able to apply to western in the past as I didn’t have the MCAT score and last year I couldn’t get the proper documentation in time for the ACCESS pathway, so I am very thrilled for this opportunity and extremely grateful!

Congrats to everyone else who received interviews!

[Heartbreaker 0]

Sorry I am a little late, but the rejections from this cycle got me debating my life...

Time Stamp: Jan 28, 4:13pm

Invite/reject: Rejection 

IP/OOP: IP

SWOMEN (Y/N): N

2YGPA: 3.95

MCAT (CHEM/CARS/BIO/PSYCH): 128/128/129/130

Essays (X/8):  7/8 - Leadership did not have a strong second essay, had a really good first one. Really put emphasis on the volunteering and employment experience in my essays, outlining what my impact was and why it made me a good fit. Worked with professional support for applying to med school given by my university, had a mentor med student too. Had many people read over my essays. I met cutoffs academically, as stated in the email they sent, but clearly something did not impress with my ABS and essays.

Extracurriculars: Personal trainer for two years, Hospice Resident volunteers two years (1-1 resident interaction not info desk or kitchen), Systems anatomy volunteer at my university (2 years, frontline and senior coordinator). that's only a few of the volunteering places I have been at. A bunch of shadowing in the medical field, no research. 

Really disheartening this rejection was, I thought I had a good chance. Congrats to everyone who got an interview, you guys worked hard! Stay strong anyone who got rejections, this is a tough road.  

[gtrkt 0]

What dates are available for scheduling interviews? (what dates do interviews start/end)