application Q

[Guest Tara191]

Hi everyone,

 

Could you tell me whether this year there is a separate section for academic awards? I couldn't find it in this year's application - so unless I'm completely blind, I think they're scraping that section.

 

Thanks a bunch!

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there Tara191,

 

I had the exact same question last week and wrote to the Admissions Office about it. Here's their response:

 

"...unfortunately this is not available on the online application; type it in a chronological order and submit it along with your must sign form."

 

(In the above, "this" and "it" refer to a specific place to report academic awards.)

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest Tara191]

Hi Kirsten,

 

Thanks for the info! Also, do you know whether everyone will be interviewed during the same month/week now that the interviews are going to be panel style? I wasn't able to get any insight into this matter when I reviewed my file with someone in admissions in June.

 

thanks again,

TARA

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there Tara,

 

That question I have no response for--no idea! If you're hugely curious, you could always ask the Admissions Office, I suppose, although they may change their strategy later in the year, so it may be a bit moot.

 

FYI, yesterday I was working on the extracurricular section of the application--wooo, do we have a lot of room in which to enter activities! The UBC electronic application is the same as that of Calgary and Calgary offers way less space in which to enter items.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest thatuvicguy]

hi folks,

 

I've had a few questions for the UBC Admissions Office and they have been very helpful but I am a wee bit concerned about a situation where because of info obtained by phone some candidates might submit an additional form listing academic awards while others, oblivious to this option, risk appearing less qualified. No doubt those candidates who are "in the dark" will try to present that info as best they can within the categories provided on the app, but still seems kinda sketchy no?

 

Just a thought!

Best,

thatuvicguy

[Guest not rex morgan]

Yeah, that's sticky. If they don't get the additional forms from enough people, they might just scrap using academic awards at all. Just a guess, though. This would sort of be fair, but a drag for those who actually recieved outstanding academic awards.

[Guest thatuvicguy]

hi again,

 

Hhmmm, it seems that the more i ponder this little problem, the "stickier" it gets. While we might agree that a significant portion of the applicant pool will inquire about where to list academic awards and thus receive the submission tip, a nonetheless substantial number of applicants will not. Agreed?

 

So, assuming that the issue of equity on this front is brought up with Admissions, what are they to do? An a priori option would appear to be simply trashing those lists that were submitted, but then these candidates would presumably be left with no mention of academic awards anywhere in their application (except perhaps for tidbits in the autobio submission). Other applicants who had decided to somehow weave the academic awards into the categories provided (this would seem a bit over-creative to me as there is quite clearly no space designated for this category) would either have a clear advantage, or, some poor Joe or Jane in Admissions would be left to the overly-subjective (IMHO) task of deleting "academic awards" from the remaining applications -this is unlikely. I guess another possibility might be asking all other candidates to submit the list once the deadline arrives - again, unlikely and still unfair. Both of these seem like far-fetched scenarios and this a nit-picky discussion, yet the matter strikes me as important. Perhaps i need to pull the pickle out my *ss...?

 

I'm not even applying this year (just practicing with the app) since i'm taking care of two prereqs this year (one of which will be Bioc300 at UBC next summer- read: BUMMER), but i'm still curious about how such an issue will be resolved. Is it even an issue or am i missing something in my reasoning?

 

Perhaps I'll just phone the Admissions office this week for their response...I would appreciate any of your thoughts though.

 

Best,

thatuvicguy

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

Then again, those students who are smart, observant and inquisitive enough to snag big academic awards may also be smart, observant and inquisitve enough to notice that no academic award section exists and to call the admissions office to find out what to do with theirs.

 

Within the application it is noted that an extra sheet may be submitted with publications. I can't see UBC throwing this out. Also, I can imagine plenty of instances when there may be applicants who have other questions that are not made public on fora such as these, but with which they approach the admissions office. They may receive information which would motivate them to send in an additional item, or write something a different way on an application and, in turn, receive some sort of a small edge in the applications process. They may not share that with anyone else. Literally, on a micro- and macro-scale, famous Darwinian principles are in place.

 

Cheers,

KIrsteen

[Guest thatuvicguy]

hi kirsteen,

 

thanks for your thoughts. in regards to your points:

 

those students who are smart, observant and inquisitive enough to snag big academic awards may also be smart, observant and inquisitve enough to notice that no academic award section exists and to call the admissions office to find out what to do with theirs

 

that's kinda what i was getting at with the statement that a good number will proactively get the scoop, but it's quite possible that some number will not. many medical schools seem to be fairly sticky about not making submissions above and beyond what is requested in the application and indeed the UBC instructions say:

 

additional pages which are not requested will be discarded

 

The fact that they explicitly state that you can hand in a list of publications kinda distinguishes it from a list of academic awards handed in by some but not all candidates thanks to talking to perhaps one secretary versus another.

 

The "Non-academic Experiences" section of the application has a section labelled "Other Experiences" which includes space for research, and publications (but then you are told to put these on a different sheet...) and awards. So....some people will squeeze their academic awards into this section of the Non-academic Experience (!) page, while others (who may or may not be advantaged in a Darwinian sense ) will submit a separate sheet. These two applications put side by side might come across differently and i think that for the most part this is what medical schools are trying to control for by being strict in the application protocol. That's it really.

 

I completely agree that being proactive pays off and that self-motivated people usually rise to the top - i can't imagine a world that didn't intrinsically work this way

 

Not a huge deal, but an interesting one to bandy about since I have a feeling this was an oversight that UBC would have rather avoided had they realized it sooner. I think i'm just taken with this whole issue since i can't apply this year and it keeps me vicariously involved in the admissions process during study breaks. I'm sure if i was actually applying this year I'd just get the answer from the office (which we already know!) and then move on!

 

Best of luck to all applying this year,

thatuvicguy

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

So is anyone else having a bit of fun trying to fit the two responses into the two question boxes in the "Additional Information" section of this year's application?

 

How is everyone's application coming along this year?

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest Climbing]

Is anyone else having troubles logging in.....it keeps saying that "an error has been detected and the admissions office has been contacted"

 

anyone else with this problem?

 

cheers

climbing

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

I just logged on to the UBC application today without incident, and didn't have any access problems yesterday, either. :rolleyes

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest mt1]

hi all! for the non-academic experiences, is there a maximum allowed? thanks!

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

Yes there is a maximum for the non-academic experiences: 3 pages (as formatted by their software). The system will prompt you once you've reached that maximum.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest mt1]

thanks kirsteen...i don't suppose you can guess about how many experiences takes up 3 pages?

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there mt1,

 

The filling of the three pages is determined by both, the number of experiences you list, as well as the length of your text description for each. Although UBC and Calgary use the same, customized application software, UBC have specified a much longer section for extracurricular activities. (I guess this may be to reflect the relatively large size of the extra-curricular activity sections in the previous, paper applications.)

 

To give you an idea of one configuration that fills the three pages, I have 49 activities currently listed, (just one more than the OMSAS application ), but my text descriptions for each range from one to five lines, not including the contact information. The average length of my descriptions is probably ~3-4 lines and in this format. :rolleyes

 

By the way, for you or anyone else who has started the UBC application process, has anyone received confirmation of receipt of any of their documents at UBC?

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest liz80]

Hi Kristen,

I mailed my transcripts to them about a month ago, and it still appears as "not received". I hope that they will update it soon. I know that they will update the MCAT scores later in the fall.

LIZ.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi Liz,

 

Almost all the documents required by UBC, I have had sent in quite a while ago and like you, it's not reflected on the on-line application. I'm sure those red letters shall turn to green ones shortly.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest Ollie]

Hi,

 

Where does it say that a supplemental list of publications can be entered? I can't seem to find it. I have quite a number of published abstracts, and (crossing fingers) hopefully a first author paper (should hear soon).

 

Thanks!

[Guest walkorbike]

Hi, Ollie,

If you go to the non-academic experiences section and click on the instructions link, you will read about the separate page for publications. Which leads to my question, what exactly is a publication? Does a master's or honour's thesis count, since it is bound and in a library somewhere? What abt. a gov't report or a book review? Or is it only an article in an academic journal? Thanks. -walkorbike

[Guest Ollie]

Hi walkorbike,

 

Hmm, I guess I should read the instructions a little better!

 

For my publications, I have a number of published abstracts (from poster presentations at conferences), and hopefully I will soon have a published article. I don't think that the thesis itself counts. A government report sound like it might qualify. I guess the best thing to do is check with the admissions office.