Do you think UAlberta/U of C med schools will become easier to gain admission from Alberta's failing economy?

[MDee2B]

On 1/26/2021 at 6:52 PM, silver_08 said:

I agree with you on most of these points.

Fighting grade inflation is a challenging issue for most universities, especially in the context of professional schools where a couple points difference in GPA can make or break someone's hopes of getting accepted. I think the best way for ad coms to approach GPAs is to complement the evaluation of marks with a more subjective evaluation, to see if things add up. Or an even better way is to just apply cut offs after which point it's a moot point whether you have a 3.9 or a 3.91. Personally, I think it's gotten so competitive that these razor thin differences in GPA (3.9 vs. 3.91) should not be seen so objectively as a sign that someone doesn't have what it takes to be a doctor. Someone could have easily just had one bad course (like I did) that skewed their GPA off by a couple points making all the difference between getting an interview or not. Having one mess-up of a course shouldn't make or break someone's professional aspirations. We all experience failure and have difficulties in life from time to time, and this shouldn't reflect on our character or how well we'd perform at a professional career like medicine.

Otherwise, if schools don't tolerate these "mistakes," are they not just indirectly conveying the message that they only want perfect students? By studying medicine you're committing yourself to a life full of learning and making mistakes... shouldn't med schools admission committees be focused instead on looking at the candidates with the most potential to grow, rather than those who have already achieved everything in life? There are numerous tragic stories of high-performing overachievers in med school who ended up taking their lives because they couldn't handle experiencing failure for the first time in their life during med school.

Personally-speaking, I think the best way to combat grade inflation starts with professors caring more about how the impact of distributing out too many As to their class can have on how university marks get perceived. I'm saying this from a perspective of someone who is working towards an alternative career to medicine, where employers don't give a hoot about your grades, which makes perfect sense. Employers want to see that you are willing to learn, are coachable, can adapt quickly to the job, and you have a pleasant, approachable personality. Shouldn't med schools arguably be adopting a similar approach to evaluating their candidates?

I would even argue to some degree that ad coms should be weighing in more strongly alternative parts of your application, like work experience (no, grad school doesn't count). After all, medicine is a career and you should have already demonstrated some job skills and ability to work in collaborative, high-stressed environments like workplaces. But this discussion about work experience is another topic and I don't want to derail the discussion from the main issue of grade inflation.

I totally hear you, as someone who’s been rejected.

I understand your point of view and I find the admissions process, which at times can seem arbitrary, to be frustrating sometimes.

But on the other hand, I will say I think it’s important to remember: the adcoms are made up of human beings, working jobs, with limited time. They need criteria by which they can measure thousands of applicants within that limited time. The system may not be 100% “perfect” but with all these criteria that do exist already (ex GPA, ECs, personal statements, Casper, interviews etc), I think they’re probably doing their best, given the time they have, to filter out and keep a certain number of applicants on a given cycle.

Even if they do “mess up” and miss out on a worthy candidate, the best thing that candidate can do to “correct” the error is to keep applying. By persevering, I truly believe that if the candidate is worthy, they will eventually find a way to get their foot in the door, one way or another.

[bearded frog]

9 hours ago, offmychestplease said:

 @bearded frogno one thinks your comments "poking fun" at other places in Canada is funny

Don't take things personally, my friend. And I stand by my statement that GDP per captia doesn't mean anything in this context. The Yukon has a higher GDP per capita, so it must be a better place to live right? Nunavut has a higher median income, so obviously far superior to Alberta.

[GH0ST]

Love how derailed this thread became 

- G

[Ali-oop]

On 1/21/2021 at 2:59 PM, Olle said:

A mass exodus of foreign and domestic companies are expected in the oil sector over the coming years. Many people are considering to move from the province to seek job opportunities and better educational environments for their children, elsewhere. Educated immigrants and their families will increasingly choose other provinces as well...

U of A already announced they may be decreasing the number of faculties in response to Alberta's new budget plan. 

So in the wake of the changing energy market, do you think admission to UAlberta/U of C will become less competitive over the next few years?

There is no doubt what you're saying is true wrt Alberta's fate in the next while. https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/braid-escalating-exodus-of-young-people-a-major-challenge-for-alberta But that will have no bearing on people willing to study there so as to have home province advantage when it comes to applying for med school. They can flee the province as soon as they're able and practice elsewhere if they wish. 

[Redpill]

3 hours ago, bearded frog said:

Don't take things personally, my friend. And I stand by my statement that GDP per captia doesn't mean anything in this context. The Yukon has a higher GDP per capita, so it must be a better place to live right? Nunavut has a higher median income, so obviously far superior to Alberta.

Using GDP per capita as your only metric for evaluating quality of life is just as wrong as completely excluding it

[Psych]

@silver_08 I completely agree with you! That's exactly why I said it would be nice for each school to have some sort of AEE type thing where you can explain your situation so that one bad grade/year doesn't completely derail your chances at getting into med school. But as @MDee2Bsaid, the issue is that there are thousands of applicants to medical schools and criteria has to be made so that adcoms can get through all the applications. In an ideal world, each applicant could be given a thorough and individualized review, but realistically that just isn't possible. There's no question that the med school admissions process is flawed, it's just impossible to find a solution that is fair for everyone and doesn't take too much time to carry out. Maybe in the future someone will come up with a revolutionary solution that makes things better/more fair but for now, but at this point all you can do is try your best to make the most of it