Guest avisee Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 So according to the Accepted/Rejected thread, it seems that Queen's has actually gone beyond its waiting list this year to fill the class. As far as I recall, it sounds like the waiting list this year is pretty similar in length to the last 2 years. Any idea why it took so many people to fill this year's class? Do you think this trend will continue next year? (asked a bit selfishly, for those of us with our eyes on interviews next February...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve U of T Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 One of the Queen's medical students posted a list of "what needs improvements" comments made by members of the graduating class on the Queen's student forum, and that was copied onto these forums a couple of months ago. Of course, "what needs improvement" can only include negative aspects about the school, and that list wasn't balanced with good features of Queen's. I noticed that one or two people commented that they were less interested in attending Queen's after reading these comments. Some people may not have researched the positive aspects of Queen's, and used that list of deficiencies to make their decision. That may possibly be a part of why Queen's had to make more offers this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest seedstrike Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 It's quite unfortunate that some people may have based their decisions solely on that list without considering the positives offered by queen's...it is not an accurate description of Queen's Meds. I can pretty confidently say that most of the problems highlighted in that list are problems that you would encounter in most medschools. That said, some of us actually considered taking that list down from the 2008 website forums, because we strongly felt that it did not represent Queen's Meds accurately...However, we decided that doing so would not serve the purpose (and would have been censorship) and if anyone was seriously considering Queen's they would have researched our med school more closely rather than relying solely on a list of negatives. Everyone, good luck at which ever med school you end up at. I'm sure any Canadian Medical School will prepare you to be an excellent physician, ready and prepared to tackle the problems facing our healthcare system. If anyone is still interested in discussing Queen's meds, email me at rqlink@hotmail.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest drews97 Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 I agree with what seedstrike had to say. Taken in itself the list seemed to paint a pretty damning picture of Queen's. But the list was from someone who had already graduated so they are at least 4 years removed from next years entering class, and a lot can change in 4 years. As an example, between our class (2007) and the class in front of us, the totally revamped the MSK unit, taking out over 100 pages of notes and generally making it a more pleasant experience. Of course, if you talk to others in just about any school, a surprising list of negatives can be made as well too. One of my best friends goes to U of A and he had some major complaints as well, no where is perfect. Of course, I highly doubt that this one list was enough to make Queen's have to extend many more offers than other years. There aren't THAT many people who use this board and I'd be surprised if that many crossed Queen's off their list just becuase of some negative comments from the class of 2002. Anyway, it's possible that the other universities did a really good job at interview weekend. Maybe a lot of poeple are turned off living in a smaller town. Who knows why there were so many offers this year. It flucuates alot, last year they actually had to make relatively few offers (only 170 or so). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest avisee Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 Was it really the list that made all the difference? Wow. Other people have mentioned that UWO and U of T filled up uncharacteristically quickly this year, which is either fallout from negative Queen's perceptions, or maybe it's just that those schools did a relatively better job at branding themselves as school worthy of your first choice. Maybe it also had to do with a slightly different applicant pool than previous years. By the looks of it, Queen's cutoff rose a lot more this past year than it had in previous years (a big 0.03 on the GPA and 2 points on the MCAT), so maybe Queen's ends up with a lot of redundancy in who they interview relative to other schools - so with few applicants not receiving interviews elsewhere and a reputation that isn't completely clear among premeds, it probably has a harder time selling itself to applicants who also receive acceptances elsewhere. I'm not saying that Queen's is any less worthy than any other Canadian med school (I think it has the program that sounds the most attractive to me), but Queen's strength sort of comes from its ability to offer balance, rather than more of a niche brand, like the PBL School, or the Research School, or the School with The Good Clerkship. Maybe Queen's would be just as enjoyable or better for many students who choose to go otherwise, but I think the fact that Queen's is unable to define itself by any one strength (rather than just being all-over good, but with no defining feature) ends up being a weakness in the eyes of many premeds. That's just my thought, anyway. Maybe the weakness list added to the mess this year, but you still have to account for why Queen's generally has to go further into its waiting list than most other schools. Maybe the small town has to do with it, but I honestly think it's just as much a brand identification thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest shadowguitar Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 This is not that unusual a happening. It is the reason Ottawa has adopted the good waitlist/bad waitlist policy. The good waitlist is the "real" waitlist, and the bad waitlist is essentially the rejections. So when Ottawa starts pulling off the bad waitlist it means they have exhausted the "real" waitlist. It saves the school from having to call up people they have previously rejected. No one bats an eyelash when Ottawa draws off it's bad waitlist. Maybe Queen's should adopt the same policy. I don't really think it is that big a deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve U of T Posted July 30, 2004 Report Share Posted July 30, 2004 Does anybody know if the Queen's class is full yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jixe Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 I don't know if this helps, but I know for a fact that the waitlist moved at least 30 spots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Floating to the top... Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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