Update on the U of M Admissions Site (Old news, though)

[Guest NRC boy]

Thats right Jag and Sun-e, you go girls, lol.

[Guest fromtheperimeter]

ok well now we're just talking about how much smarter u of w students are when compared to their u of m counterparts...which is clearly the reason for this bias...

 

I don't think u of w is the "easier" route for sciences...I don't think u of m is either...it just depends on the style which you would thrive in

 

There are many students with high marks at both schools....perhaps u of w doesn't have as many people with low marks to drag down the average

[Guest Jag]

I have to agree, this conversation has completely degenerated

[Guest silverjelly86]

Lol; I created a monster

[Guest akinf]

Manitoba I really think has backwards thinking when it comes to the MCAT. Medicine is a life-long commitment, and you'd expect them to want people who have shown a consistent degree of commitment to something. The MCAT is not an indication of that, GPA and ECs are. I am not bashing MCAT because I haven't even written it, but the idea of letting in someone based on a one-day test is absurd. I know there are other things involved in admission, but MCAT at 50% pretty much means if you ace it, you are in - providing you don't say something dumb during the interview. But, I really think Queen's almost has it down packed. There are cut-offs for GPA and MCAT to gain an interview, after that, it is purely interview. The process places more emphasis on knowing he applicant and ensuring that they are competent enough for the practice of medicine. That is not as bad as Manitoba, but could also use improvements as well.

 

Ideally, I think there should be MCAT and GPA cut-offs weighted at 50/50 to gain an interview. After that, MCAT, GPA, ECs, Reference Letters, and Interview should be weighted at 20% each except for reference letter and interview. Interview should be at 30% and LORs should be 10%. The reason for this is because some people tend to paint individuals they know in a way that is not always objectively accurate. By making it 10%, there is recognition that it is still important, but the panels opinion of you during your interview will carry more weight. Even though MCAT/GPA were included to gain an interview, it still remains because they are still important. However, in the interviewed group, the applicant stats. become closer to each other, so slight differences should not carry such great weight.

 

I think this would really be effective in obtaing the students most suitable for the field of medicine - while giving you the opportunity to make up poors performances in some areas with strong performances in others because like the MCAT, you chances shouldn't all be based on the day of the interview either.

[Guest Freedom]

Then the question arises.. how do you mark a letter of reference, extra curriculars, etc. It can be done, but how accurately? 2 points for being on SSA? Similarly, it's difficult to accurately score an interview, but thats why they have standardized questions.. sorta

 

GPAs are not as standardized as the MCAT(ie easy courses vs hard courses, etc). Look up about 3-4 posts. Some would argue that it takes commitment to do well on the MCAT. Plus your undergrad knowledge helps on that monster which goes into your gpa thinking

 

Sometimes it takes a few attempts to make it in. As well, there's also the special applicant route where there's a different breakdown of mcat/gpa/interview.

 

Anyways, my 2 cents is that you can always retake the mcat(take up to 3 times a year starting next year with 27 dates), you can always reapply, and there's that MMI(google u of calgary) if it gets implemented

 

Plus, it sucks to be declined admission, but you learn from it and learn a little more about yourself.

 

 

*** you know that sorting hat in Harry Potter, thats what medical school needs. ***

[Guest akinf]

You make good points, assessing ECs would be difficult. However, UBC does it, and I think it's working for them, so it's not impossible. GPAs aren't as standardized as the MCAT, especially across schools; so I should have mentioned looking at the rigour of the program as well. When they took a full course-load, which courses they took, if it is an honours program, those I think would give a better understanding of how strong the student is. A 4.0 while taking Micro, Organic, Biochem, Human Phys says more to me than a person who has a 4.5, but took all of those separately. Rigor definitely makes a difference, and it's something that is often over-looked.

 

Also, who are you?

[Guest Freedom]

www.umanitoba.ca/facultie...ereqchange

 

The Faculty of Medicine will no longer require applicants to have specific English or French literature courses as a pre-requisite to Medicine. We have, as a result, increased the Humanities/Social Science Requirement.

 

As a result of change in the entrance requirement applicants must now have completed at least 18 credit hours in the humanities/social sciences. Applicants who complete a 4 Year Major or Honours program may waive up to 12 credit hours of the humanities/social sciences prerequisite. Applicants with a BSc (General) or BA (General) must complete the full requirement. The Admissions Committee is currently considering reducing the number of credit hours that may be waived. Students planning to apply in future years should consider taking the full requirement. The Faculty of Arts describes the recognized subject fields for humanity and social science requirements in section 5.1.1 of the Undergraduate Calendar.

[Guest silverjelly86]

Interesting . . .

 

They probably did that because OOPs were complaining that hardly any of their English courses satisfied the U of M's requirements.

[Guest sunE]

.....So now if you do a 4 year Honours degree (120 credit hours) you may only drop 12 of the lowest credit hours....

 

 

Before, I know with a 3 year Bsc or BA (90 credit hours) you could drop your lowest 15 credit hours.

[Guest Freedom]

"Applicants who complete a 4 Year Major or Honours program may waive up to 12 credit hours of the humanities/social sciences prerequisite."

 

I dont think it's referring to the AGPA calculations, just the prereqs.

[Guest JGracie]

that means i better get in this year because i don't want to go back to undergrad.

[Guest Jag]

wow, that sucks for people who have finished undergrad and have been applying freely to U of M all this time already. I wouldn't want to go back to undergrad either just to take more humanities and social sciences, the faculty didn't even give people enough warning either.

[Guest sunE]

Too bad they don't offer some sort of grandfather clause where if you've already graduated by April/May 2006, you don't have to take those extra humanities or social sciences.

 

But yeah that does suck. Thinking you're all done and then you have to go back and take some more courses.

[Guest VS12]

I wonder what they mean by this:

 

"The Admissions Committee is currently considering reducing the number of credit hours that may be waived."

 

Does that mean that if you took 90 credit hours, they'll no longer waive 15 of those?

[Guest Jag]

that's exactly what it sounds like

[Guest ConfusedStudent]

I think they're talking about the 4 year major people who can wave up to 12 CR of humanities/social sciences. Because they state, that even people with majors should fullfil the entire requirement, because in the future, they may require even those with a 4 year major to have the full requirements of humanities and social sciences.

 

No where do they talk about the AGPA and the amount of CR dropped (note they used dropped for AGPA, not 'waved')

 

"Applicants who complete a 4 Year Major or Honours program may waive up to 12 credit hours of the humanities/social sciences prerequisite. Applicants with a BSc (General) or BA (General) must complete the full requirement. The Admissions Committee is currently considering reducing the number of credit hours that may be waived. Students planning to apply in future years should consider taking the full requirement."

[Guest daryn]

Applicants who complete a 4 Year Major or Honours program may waive up to 12 credit hours of the humanities/social sciences prerequisite.

 

Applicants who are *completing* their honours degree? Or Applicants who have already *completed* their honours degree?

[Guest akinf]

If you look closely at the new requirement, this doesn't change anything. Right now, if you are working towards a BSc Major or Honours, it says you can only waive up to 12 credit-hours, however, you need 6 credits of English to graduate anyways. The only difference is you just can't use Intro. to University 1 (which should have been established a long time ago). For those doing the general, you currently need the 6 credit hours of English, plus 12 credit hours of Social Sciences and Humanities. However, for the BSc(Gen.) you still need to the 6 credit hours of english to graduate. For U of M students, this won't change a thing; for OOP students, the issues with their english requirements may improve because now they won't have to take english to get in here.