Competitive GPA

[Guest codloghorn]

What do you all think a competitive GPA would be for medical schools in Ontario?

[Guest aneliz]

Obviously each school calculates the GPA a bit differently...

 

It also depends on where you live (ie if you live in Ottawa, you can get away with a slightly lower GPA than if you don't)

 

Here are the stats as they stand:

 

Ottawa - usually requires around a 3.8 from Ontario residents that are NOT from Ottawa.

 

UofT - who knows - probably between 3.65-3.8ish

 

Western - requires min. 3.70

 

Queens' - requires 3.62 but has an insane MCAT cut

 

Mac - requires a 3.00 but probably should be a bit higher to be truly 'competitive' (think 3.6ish)

 

Those are my guesses - anywhere from ~3.65 and up should be good at most schools in Ontario.

[Guest mydream88]

though I think that the higher the gpa the better and the more competitive. With a lower gpa, even if it is within plausible ranges, in order to remain comptetitive* one should partake in lots of extracurricular activity/volunteer work, research, etc.

 

Not to sound cynical though, there is always hope

Perhaps 3.85-4.0 would be considered very smooth sailing.

 

mydream88

 

*for most schools, though Western's competitive gpa this year is minimum 3.7, and Queen's gpa cutoff is lower than that however their mcat cutoffs are quite high

[Guest codloghorn]

i believe 3.7-3.75 would be competitive if enough volunteer work/extra curricular activities have been done.

3.85-4.0, while VERY competitive, is not necessary, IMO.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I agree with most of what's been said, but I'd argue there's no such thing as "smooth sailing." The interview counts for too much for that. . . if you're a jerk in the interview, or the chemistry between you and interviewers just isn't right for whatever reason, you get have a 4.5/4.0 and it wouldn't matter.

 

In fact, I have classmates who were very close to the 3.60 cutoff of my year and didn't have a mind blowing resume. They were just human in their interview, and fortunately impressed the interviewers enough that they made the cut.

[Guest EMHC]

What sort of GPA would be competitive at UBC?

 

Do the west coast schools have a relatively lower GPA competition compared to Ontario schools? But on the other hand have really high expectations for extracirricular activities?

 

Curious...

 

EMHC

[Guest Ollie]

Check out this site for UBC's admissions stats:

www.admissions.med.ubc.ca/stats.html

 

The interview cut-off has traditionally been a 50/50 combination of academic and non-academic. With the expansion happening this year, the rumour is that the evaluation criteria will be different from past years. Just how different? Who knows? But I would bet it would still be a combo.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there EMHC,

 

For UBC and U. Calgary, at least, the academic requirements are a little tighter for out-of-province candidates than for in-province candidates. (Sorry, but I can't speak to the other schools near the west coast.) In the U. Calgary case, the requirements are clear: out-of-province candidates must have two years at 3.50 or above to proceed in the selection process (on the U. Calgary scale, which is a little different from that of OMSAS).

 

For UBC, however, the requirements are a little fuzzier as it is a score out of 50 that determines whether or not an applicant will receive an interview. This score is composed as follows: 25 points for non-academic activities; 25 points for academics. The higher your overall GPA, last 60 credits and pre-requisite GPA, then the more points out of 25 you will earn for academics. UBC determines cut-offs out of 50 for both in- and out-of-province candidates and again, the cut-off for out-of-province applicants is perennially higher than that for in-province applicants (~40 or so out of 50 for the past few years). So in the case of UBC, outstanding non-academic activities are a definite advantage as they may help bolster the points earned from a sagging average.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen