Chance that Western will change its 2 best year policy?

[Guest deamented]

I am very curious.

I got an interview last year, but rejection this year because of my P writing sample.

 

Western is generally my only shot, simply becuase of this policy.

 

My GPA in my first year is abysmal, and second year is mediocre. 2.19 and 3.33. Basically, this kills me in any school that doesn't weight or average. UofT changed their weighting system, eliminating all hope there. (They used to drop lowest Year, and 1/2 of second worst, if you had 4 years behind you.)

 

I am .05 off from Ottawa's weighted cutoff.

Mac does not weight, and my personal profile is not nearly good enough to balance my GPA.

 

My 3rd and 4rth year GPA is 3.83 and 3.88 on the OMSAS scale, which would get me an interview at western (and Queens, I think, they will look at best two years if done 4 years).

 

I know I can write the MCAT again (I have 9/10/11/P)and do better, but my GPA is set.

 

Has there been any talk of changing the best 2 year policy?

[Guest aneliz]

This is totally unknown long term....but remember, any changes to ANY admissions policy would take at least three years to happen from the time they are 'decided' at the ad comm level....Any changes must first go through multiple levels of bureaucracy - from the admissions committee itself (and there are a lot of diverse views on that committee alone) to faculty council, to the dean..... all the way to the senate of the university....

 

I wish that I could give you a better answer...but unfortunately things like potential changes to the admissions policy are very confidential until they have been fully approved and are printed in official policy. (And at that point you would know about the change too.) Western makes every effort to make sure that any changes to admissions policy is published as early as possible so that people have the maximum amount of warning...pre-reqs changed slightly for this application cycle, but they were up on the web by early in last year's cycle to give everybody over a year worth of warning.

 

The short answer is that the 'best two years' policy cannot (and will not) be changed by next year but I really can't tell you if it will remain the same forever....or even if the possibility has been discussed given the confidentiality issues involved in the meetings. My personal best guess (and this is NOT the official word from the ad comm!!!) would be that the best two years policy will remain as is unless there is a real reason to change it - and so far, I haven't heard of one.

 

Best of luck!

 

(But I would suggest that you re-do the MCAT if at all possible. Your 9 VR and P have the potential to hurt you.)

[Guest deamented]

Hahaha, there is no potential, it DID hurt me!

I will be re-writing, but it might not be worth it if Western suddenly (like UofT) altered their GPA weighting system.

[Guest aneliz]

While I can't give you a guarantee...the chances of UWO abandoning their 'best two years' policy for next year are pretty darn low (like as close to nil as possible) given the reasons that I outlined in my last post....go ahead and rewrite...

 

Best of luck!

[Guest Chieka]

Have you considered American schools? They are not so strict with MCAT cut-offs, plus Canadian grades tend to transfer well on their scale.

 

I think it wouldn't hurt to write the MCAT again (I agree that the P and the 9VR are weak spots), but I'd also consider applying to both Canadian and American schools next year.

 

All the best.

 

C.

[Guest peachy]

Aneliz,

 

I was wondering about this three-year lag that you mentioned. It seems very strange to me - I've watched policy pass through the various levels (from departmental to faculty to senate) at my own school, and relatively minor changes like admissions requirements would normally get through all levels within one year (or two, if started late in an academic year). Only big proposals (like starting a new program) would take longer. [Okay, really big stuff, like changing T&P rules, can take decades. But that's different ]

 

Three years from being passed at a departmental committee to being ratified by senate is an incredibly long time! Western can't possibly be THAT unresponsive to change in general, can it? Is there something strange about admissions policies that slows down the process significantly?

 

peachy

[Guest therealcrackers]

It's not just the school policy change that counts for the length of time. While it may take a few months to go through the various committees, be signed off by the appropriate people, and sent off to the powers that be to be "proclaimed", it then has to go to OMSAS to be printed in the manuals for incoming students. Their lead time is AT LEAST a year, because of the availability of OMSAS materials in July or August for an acceptance date of September the following year. If anything got passed through committee now, the class of 2007 would be picked this year, the material for class of 2008 is already in the hands of OMSAS and might be slightly changeable but I'm not 100% sure, so we're looking at changes that would impact only for the class of 2009; those students are in their first and second year of undergrad for the most part right now.

That makes sense; big changes and a swiftly moving target are much harder to catch up with. And that way students who are planning for the long-term have time to adapt to anything that will be coming in the pipeline.

[Guest peachy]

Yup, that makes sense. Thanks therealcrackers.

[Guest aneliz]

Crackers has it exactly right...

 

Hypothetically if the ad comm reached a decision at their next meeting (and they only meet monthly) it would have to go to a faculty committee (and I don't think that they meet all that often)...then on to the dean...and to several other committees higher up before reaching the university senate. If the senate approves it (in principle) it must then go back to be 'worded' correctly and submitted to be published in the university calendar (which is only published once a year). It also then has to go to OMSAS. As Crackers pointed out, it is already too late to influence the class of 2007...they are about to be interviewed....and, because the application cycle begins in July for the NEXT Sept, the 'rules' for the class of 2008 are already in the hands of OMSAS so they are also unchangeable...there are may also be some timing incompatibilities so that official approval at the UWO level misses the OMSAS change deadline by a day or something and UWO likes to give a 'warning' of impending change before it becomes effective but it cannot publish 'proposed changes' until they are all approved...these factors together would likely give a year of 'warning' of a change coming after everything was approved by UWO, submitted to OMSAS and before it was implemented, so, likey the 2009's would also be under the current system too even if a decision had been made and approved and forwarded to OMSAS, etc. So, realistically, the class of 2010 would be the first to be affected by any new rules if they should happen to be passed by the ad comm this month...and they would be applying in 2006...which is three years from now.