U of A Admission and GPA (Please give your input)

[Guest osindy]

hi there, I was wondering if you would be acle to please tell me in a more detailed way how the u of a looks at gpa's. Is there any minimum gpa you must get in all your course work or in prereq courses? I am going to be doing a 2 year second degree in science and those grades are going to be much higher than my mediocre grades right now. The reason why U of A could be good for me is that they only weigh your overall gpa 10% and the rest of your app is 90% so it can make up to some extent for the rest of your academic record.

 

Please what are your thoughts or input. Thanks in advance.

[Guest Lactic Folly]

The minimum average for consideration is 3.3 (7.0), but competitive averages are higher. The prerequisite average has a greater weighting than the overall GPA, so people often try to upgrade their prereq average by taking higher level courses.. summervirus's admissions guide has some more info, as does the faculty web site.

[Guest osindy]

Thanks. I looked on the website but couldn't really find any mention of minimum gpa needed for consideration. Also,is this 3.3 gpa a difinitive cut off, and for in-province applicants? I ask because I believe the U of C cutoff was 3.0 as a minimum to be considered and that's for in-province applicants. I thought U of C was harder to get into?

[Guest fox]

I don't think it's fair to say that any one med school i easier to get into than another. Each school looks for different things. Calgary and U of A have different systems for evaluating apps and for inviting people for interviews. At U of A they rank everyone based solely on marks/pre reqs/MCAT and call the top 265 for interviews (between the different pools). At Calgary they consider the entire application. Therefore, someone who doesn't have high enough marks to get an interview at U of A may get an interview at Calgary based on their life experiences and overall application. Likewise, someone who has stellar marks may not get an interview at Calgary as marks aren't as important there.

 

Under the FAQs on the U of A website is a table showing the mean GPA for the class entering in 2002 for pre reqs, MCAT, and overall GPA. This is probably much more informative than knowing the cut-off required in order to apply seeing as marks solely determine who will be called for an interview. In the end the overall package counts for a lot at most Canadian med schools, so don't forget to have fun and a life outside or school! Good luck.