Guest LIPOSUCTIONATOR Posted July 31, 2002 Report Share Posted July 31, 2002 I write this message for those wishing to apply to Ontario schools (sorry for those of you from the other provinces). My philosophy in preparing for the MCAT is to concentrate extra hard on the verbal reasoning and writing sample assuming that your sciences are up to par. Why? Well assuming you are doing your undergrad at an Ontario university, you have the best chance of getting accepted into an Ontario medicine school. Most schools tend to favor applicants from their own province. This intuitively makes sense. Why would UBC select over 50% of their applicants from Ontario? Of the 5 Ontario med schools, you only need the MCAT for 3 of the 5 schools. U of T looks at the MCAT as a flag. You either pass or fail the MCAT and their minimum requirements are 9s in all three sections and an N in the writing sample (this is up from 8 in the previous years). For Queens and Western the MCAT is viewed as the "equalizer". As most of you know these two schools tend to accept students with lower GPAs than U of T, probably due to the emphasis they place on the MCAT. I know the websites for these schools are updated, and Western no longer requires a Q in the writing sample, but if you think about it, if these schools accept everyone who makes the cutoffs posted on their websites, I think they will have too many applicants to interview. Since these schools place less weight on GPA, I think they will select the students with the highest MCAT scores for their interviews. Therefore you if you're an Ontario student, you only need to excel in the MCAT for two schools: Queens and Western. And because Western places 1/3 of their formula for admissions solely on the verbal and writing sample, and Queens has a cut off of 10 for the verbal reasoning, these are the two sections you must focus on during the next 2 1/2 weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TimmyMax Posted July 31, 2002 Report Share Posted July 31, 2002 Hey, Just felt I should clarify. Queen's (unlike UWO) views the MCAT as a flag as well- your MCAT score will carry ZERO weight in their final decision. Therefore, all you need to do is come out above the MCAT and GPA cutoffs posted for Queen's and you will be invited for an interview. Once you reach the interview stage, all applicants are equal- it doesn't matter if your GPA is 4.0 (or 3.57) or you got 13-15 (or 10) on VR- their final decision is 100% interview. Moral of the story: do well on the MCAT, because it will open many med school doors for you! Best of luck! Timmy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LIPOSUCTIONATOR Posted July 31, 2002 Report Share Posted July 31, 2002 Thank you Timmy for your feedback. I wrote that message based on material from Dr. Ferdinand's Black Book on Canadian Medical Schools (this book is highly recommended!) On p. 97 it mentions that for Queens the second cutoff (after GPA) is based on the MCAT scores. The top 400 students are invited to the interview. I bought the book 2 years ago and didn't realize it was already out of date. Thanks again! The Liposuctionator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TimmyMax Posted August 1, 2002 Report Share Posted August 1, 2002 Hey there Lipo, Yeah, those books get real outdated real fast- I myself got burned by some bogus (outdated) requirement data I read in some book the first year I applied. Be sure to check the years data from a book such as that you mentioned is taken from- minimum requirements can and do change on a yearly basis for some schools (ie: UWO). The best approach IMHO is to call the schools themselves and get it straight from the horse's mouth. Best of luck in your VR quest! Timmy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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