Interview invites 2022

[RV099]

Apparently invites are out but i got no email so may not for me, eh! Sigh

Please indicate if you got invite

GPA

MCAT

Connection

[pumpkin17]

got Rejected

UAA: 95% 

MCAT: 522

Connection: none

[pumpkin17]

13 minutes ago, RV099 said:

Apparently invites are out but i got no email so may not for me, eh! Sigh

Please indicate if you got invite

GPA

MCAT

Connection

Even if you didn't get email, check the application portal the decision letter should be there.

[RV099]

2 hours ago, pumpkin17 said:

Even if you didn't get email, check the application portal the decision letter should be there.

Ya got rejected: strong connection 81% gpa and 503 mcat

[BeauAndLyla]

2 hours ago, RV099 said:

Ya got rejected: strong connection 81% gpa and 503 mcat

That sucks, I’m sorry. Lots of OOP people are getting invites on another forum, no SK connection, only rural. I don’t know if I love this new system.

[RV099]

6 minutes ago, BeauAndLyla said:

That sucks, I’m sorry. Lots of OOP people are getting invites on another forum, no SK connection, only rural. I don’t know if I love this new system.

Did you get invite?

But they said interview invitation is based on 50% mcat and 50% mmi

And i am originally from rural. I think its my GPA and loe mcat

[BeauAndLyla]

25 minutes ago, RV099 said:

Did you get invite?

But they said interview invitation is based on 50% mcat and 50% mmi

And i am originally from rural. I think its my GPA and loe mcat

I got an invite, my gpa is 82% and MCAT 508. So they must be taking the essays into consideration because our applications are very similar. 

[RV099]

38 minutes ago, BeauAndLyla said:

I got an invite, my gpa is 82% and MCAT 508. So they must be taking the essays into consideration because our applications are very similar. 

Hunh weird! I have been living in SK for the past 15 years and have put my experience in rural background in the essay too! 

 

Have you ever applied in the past?

[bootsandcats]

INVITE!!!! 

GPA: 3.85 (not sure what the conversion would be, but ~90%?)

MCAT: 500 (124/126/122/128)

Connection: Grown up my entire life in rural settings (SE Alberta most of my life, NE BC) heavily reflected in essays. 

Heavily emphasized my lived experiences in essays and how they reflect to the values of the school. 

Honestly, very surprised but elated over this!

[HelpMeImLost]

12 hours ago, BeauAndLyla said:

That sucks, I’m sorry. Lots of OOP people are getting invites on another forum, no SK connection, only rural. I don’t know if I love this new system.

what forum? are you looking on **DELETED**?

[AnxiousApe123]

Rejected. OOP and no rural connectedness 

GPA: 94%
MCAT: 528
Casper: 4th quartile 

Absolutely gutted because I got interviews there the last two years and even made the OOP waitlist last year. 
Although I don’t meet their criteria for Saskatchewan connectedness, I was born in Regina, spent the first 10 years of my life in SK, and my entire family lives in SK. I thought my essays were okay, but I guess not :/
 

[BeauAndLyla]

5 hours ago, HelpMeImLost said:

what forum? are you looking on **DELETED**?

The R word lol 

[Blankbla]

52 minutes ago, AnxiousApe123 said:

Rejected. OOP and no rural connectedness 

GPA: 94%
MCAT: 528
Casper: 4th quartile 

Absolutely gutted because I got interviews there the last two years and even made the OOP waitlist last year. 
Although I don’t meet their criteria for Saskatchewan connectedness, I was born in Regina, spent the first 10 years of my life in SK, and my entire family lives in SK. I thought my essays were okay, but I guess not :/
 

Wow that’s insane, I’m so sorry. Your stats are amazing.

[AnxiousApe123]

1 hour ago, Blankbla said:

Wow that’s insane, I’m so sorry. Your stats are amazing.

Thank you for saying that, I’m glad that I’m not the only one who finds it insane!

U of S has always been my top choice, but it’s been tough because 10 years of living there doesn’t meet the cutoff to be “connected”. I don’t like this new system because now I doubt I’ll ever get to go there  

[pumpkin17]

3 hours ago, AnxiousApe123 said:

Rejected. OOP and no rural connectedness 

GPA: 94%
MCAT: 528
Casper: 4th quartile 

Absolutely gutted because I got interviews there the last two years and even made the OOP waitlist last year. 
Although I don’t meet their criteria for Saskatchewan connectedness, I was born in Regina, spent the first 10 years of my life in SK, and my entire family lives in SK. I thought my essays were okay, but I guess not :/
 

Are you sure that you have 528 MCAT ? I got rejected with a higher UAA than yours. The way that USask have handled the interview invite selection this year is a disaster. You have people with 521, 90%, no rural and no sask connection getting invited while you have people with 528 and 94% rejected. The criteria was (50% MCAT + 50% UAA ) x (connectedness index). How is it possible that the former applicant was ranked over the latter applicant if both had no connection but the latter having higher mcat and gpa?

[AnxiousApe123]

That’s for sure my MCAT score, but my UAA might be even a bit lower, like 93% or 92% 

They also say that they’re “considering” personal statements and Casper scores and my guess is that the personal statements must be a big deciding factor. The rural connectedness must also be a really big factor too

[pumpkin17]

16 minutes ago, AnxiousApe123 said:

That’s for sure my MCAT score, but my UAA might be even a bit lower, like 93% or 92% 

They also say that they’re “considering” personal statements and Casper scores and my guess is that the personal statements must be a big deciding factor. The rural connectedness must also be a really big factor too

CASPer is used as a cutoff which is set very low (like 5 percentile). If you don't meet the CASPer cutoff, they would send email earlier telling that your application will not be reviewed further. The pre-interview selection formula is (50% UAA + 50% MCAT)x (connectedness/DSAAP index). There are OOP students with no rural/Sask connection with lower GPA and lower MCAT than you that got invited, that's the weird part. 

[pumpkin17]

20 minutes ago, AnxiousApe123 said:

That’s for sure my MCAT score, but my UAA might be even a bit lower, like 93% or 92% 

They also say that they’re “considering” personal statements and Casper scores and my guess is that the personal statements must be a big deciding factor. The rural connectedness must also be a really big factor too

They also said that they would admit up to 5 people with no rural/sask connection in the application document. There is an OOP applicant with no rural/sask connection who got invited with 525 and 3.99 OMSAS GPA. 

[bootsandcats]

I think that one thing that people here are forgetting is that they have two additional criteria which are also being used, and applied as a modifier the same as the Sask connectedness, which are the 

•  Indigenous Admissions Circle: Implementing an Indigenous Admissions Circle will add a more holistic and cultural lens to the admissions process for applicants of Indigenous ancestry and will increase Indigenous representation in our admissions processes.
•  Diversity and Social Accountability Admissions Program (DSAAP) opt-out questionnaire: The DSAAP will transition to an opt-out program where all applicants will have the opportunity to respond to the DSAAP questionnaire and a DSAAP index will be calculated based on those responses.

[pumpkin17]

1 hour ago, bootsandcats said:

I think that one thing that people here are forgetting is that they have two additional criteria which are also being used, and applied as a modifier the same as the Sask connectedness, which are the 

•  Indigenous Admissions Circle: Implementing an Indigenous Admissions Circle will add a more holistic and cultural lens to the admissions process for applicants of Indigenous ancestry and will increase Indigenous representation in our admissions processes.
•  Diversity and Social Accountability Admissions Program (DSAAP) opt-out questionnaire: The DSAAP will transition to an opt-out program where all applicants will have the opportunity to respond to the DSAAP questionnaire and a DSAAP index will be calculated based on those responses.

Indigenous circle is not a modifier. They accept 20 people from the indigenous stream so it's a separate pool. They use only Sask/rural connectedness and DSAAP index as "modifiers" which are applied to the composite score.  I didn't forget about this. I literally wrote in my previous comment that the interview selection criteria is: "(50% UAA + 50% MCAT)x (connectedness/DSAAP index)". 

[cinnamonstick]

Sorry I am a little confused regarding the "(50% UAA + 50% MCAT)x (connectedness/DSAAP index)" formula. What about casper and personal statements?

[pumpkin17]

1 hour ago, cinammonstick said:

Sorry I am a little confused regarding the "(50% UAA + 50% MCAT)x (connectedness/DSAAP index)" formula. What about casper and personal statements?

CASPer is used solely as a cutoff before they end up proceeding with your application. So if your CASPer score is below the cutoff they won't review your application. Based on previous two years when they had started using CASPer, the cutoff was very low like 2 to 5 percentile.  Personal statements is also read to assess your personal attributes but it's not included in the selection formula so I don't think it has any quantitative effect. So once you meet all the criteria they use the (50% UAA + 50% MCAT)x (connectedness/DSAAP index) formula to rank the applicants. 

[cinnamonstick]

11 hours ago, pumpkin17 said:

CASPer is used solely as a cutoff before they end up proceeding with your application. So if your CASPer score is below the cutoff they won't review your application. Based on previous two years when they had started using CASPer, the cutoff was very low like 2 to 5 percentile.  Personal statements is also read to assess your personal attributes but it's not included in the selection formula so I don't think it has any quantitative effect. So once you meet all the criteria they use the (50% UAA + 50% MCAT)x (connectedness/DSAAP index) formula to rank the applicants. 

Have they ever explicitly said this though? The Applicant Information Manual says:

Quote

In addition to consideration of an applicant’s CASPer score and their written submissions, the weightings of academic and personal factor variables (including calculation of the admission rank number) to determine interview invites and acceptance to the MD program will be as follows:

● Prior to MMI: 50% UAA and 50% MCAT

I interpreted this as the academic variables are split evenly between UAA and MCAT, but that they will not disclose the weightings of casper and personal statement essays. The reason I think those two components are considered (beyond cutoffs) is:

1) It seems like a lot of work to read all these essays from so many applicants, just to use them as a cut off to weed out a few people.

2) In this information session, the admissions committee said they use casper in "numerous ways". They specifically mentioned the cutoff, but to me, "numerous ways" implies it is weighted after the cutoff. 

[RV099]

12 hours ago, pumpkin17 said:

CASPer is used solely as a cutoff before they end up proceeding with your application. So if your CASPer score is below the cutoff they won't review your application. Based on previous two years when they had started using CASPer, the cutoff was very low like 2 to 5 percentile.  Personal statements is also read to assess your personal attributes but it's not included in the selection formula so I don't think it has any quantitative effect. So once you meet all the criteria they use the (50% UAA + 50% MCAT)x (connectedness/DSAAP index) formula to rank the applicants. 

Highly doubt that! I checked off 8 q for dsaap and was previously considered under dsaap and even had fees waiver. Grew in rural area and have been living in sk for the past 15 years. If anything, my personal statement would have caused me refusal. 

[bootsandcats]

16 hours ago, pumpkin17 said:

Indigenous circle is not a modifier. They accept 20 people from the indigenous stream so it's a separate pool. They use only Sask/rural connectedness and DSAAP index as "modifiers" which are applied to the composite score.  I didn't forget about this. I literally wrote in my previous comment that the interview selection criteria is: "(50% UAA + 50% MCAT)x (connectedness/DSAAP index)". 

I don't know if that is entirely true or not-- I believe that in addition to the indigenous talking circle that happens as opposed to a panel interview to be more culturally applicable, they are also reviewed by an indigenous admissions panel (similar to U of C). 

In the end, who really knows, but I do think that Casper and personal statements are not just cutoffs and are utilized in admission selection. Something made up for my low MCAT stats, and it may be Casper/Personal Statements/DASAAP?