Manitoba & Saskatchewan OOP Cutoffs?

[tungsten44]

Finalizing which schools to apply to this coming cycle, are Manitoba & Sask OOP worth my time + money? My MCAT Score is a 518 (128/131/129/130).....I feel like that may be a little low for Sask but unsure if there's a chance with that at the UofM

[zoxy]

Sask only uses GPA and CASPer as cutoffs and it's the MCAT that's used to rank OOP applicants for interviews, with the CARS section being used as a tiebreaker. Last time they would have interviewed a 518 is the 2015-16 cycle where they had 10 OOP seats to fill and interviewed 115 OOP. Now that they have 5 OOP seats to fill they usually interview 55-65 OOP applicants and the MCAT cutoff for an interview hovers around 519-521. I don't see the MCAT cutoff dropping unless they get more aggressive in applying their CASPer cutoff which is currently very easy to pass. I think their MCAT cutoff was 519 with a CARS of 131 this current cycle (their data is not out yet).

Manitoba actually only interviews 20-25 OOP applicants but since they're very aggressive in using the CASPer, it's likely that you could get an interview with a 518 and a really great CASPer score. I think there were a few people these past two cycles with 518-519 that got an OOP Manitoba interview while not getting a Sask OOP one.

So paradoxically, even though Manitoba interviews less OOP applicants than Saskatchewan, you probably have a better shot at Manitoba with a 518.

[tungsten44]

23 hours ago, zoxy said:

Sask only uses GPA and CASPer as cutoffs and it's the MCAT that's used to rank OOP applicants for interviews, with the CARS section being used as a tiebreaker. Last time they would have interviewed a 518 is the 2015-16 cycle where they had 10 OOP seats to fill and interviewed 115 OOP. Now that they have 5 OOP seats to fill they usually interview 55-65 OOP applicants and the MCAT cutoff for an interview hovers around 519-521. I don't see the MCAT cutoff dropping unless they get more aggressive in applying their CASPer cutoff which is currently very easy to pass. I think their MCAT cutoff was 519 with a CARS of 131 this current cycle (their data is not out yet).

Manitoba actually only interviews 25 OOP applicants but since they're very aggressive in using the CASPer, it's likely that you could get an interview with a 518 and a really great CASPer score. I think there were a few people these past two cycles with 518-519 that got an OOP Manitoba interview while not getting a Sask OOP one.

So paradoxically, even though Manitoba interviews less OOP applicants than Saskatchewan, you probably have a better shot at Manitoba with a 518.

Thanks for the insight! Guess I'l keep an eye out to see if Sask changes their CASPer evaluation. If not, then it sounds like Manitoba might be worth a shot & saving the cash with Sask might be a better idea

[zoxy]

On 5/7/2021 at 8:56 PM, tungsten44 said:

Thanks for the insight! Guess I'l keep an eye out to see if Sask changes their CASPer evaluation. If not, then it sounds like Manitoba might be worth a shot & saving the cash with Sask might be a better idea

They won't announce if they change it and this is actually their first year using CASPer. They don't actually say how they evaluate it. The admissions director, Dr. Domes, said they're going to look at the data and see if CASPer works for them so I don't think one cycle is enough to analyze this. Their dental school is also going to trial CASPer for four years and uses it for data collection only, they don't actually use it for admissions purposes.

We only know it's lax because some people who got rejections at Ottawa and Mac despite great GPAs & CARS scores got interviews at USask. Also Manitoba tells rejected applicants how they did on the CASPer and some people with terrible CASPers from UManitoba got USask interviews.

[AB27]

10 minutes ago, zoxy said:

some people with terrible CASPer's from UManitoba got USask interviews

It me 

[drdean]

I'd definitely still apply to Sask. It is potentially the easiest application in the world to fill out because there are no extracurriculars or anything to input. No time cost, only a bit of cash that is well worth the potential for an invite.

[TheFlyGuy]

On 5/6/2021 at 11:36 PM, zoxy said:

So paradoxically, even though Manitoba interviews less OOP applicants than Saskatchewan, you probably have a better shot at Manitoba with a 518.

Agree, for all the same reasons. Probably not worth your money for the USask app given you're probably dead in the water there with their silly high mcat cutoffs, but you stand some chance at UMan with an awesome Casper, so might as well give it a shot if you have the $.

[tungsten44]

8 hours ago, TheFlyGuy said:

Agree, for all the same reasons. Probably not worth your money for the USask app given you're probably dead in the water there with their silly high mcat cutoffs, but you stand some chance at UMan with an awesome Casper, so might as well give it a shot if you have the $.

That makes complete sense. And it seems like Sask is just collecting data on Casper so I don't think it'll bring the cutoff down this cycle anyway...good thing is it seems like Casper is giving feedback starting this cycle for the first time ever (they tell you your quartile) and and I'll be writing in August I'm guessing for MUN so I'll know my Casper quartile before the UofM app is due (if it's 75-100th percentile then I'll definitely give a shot there)