So the McMaster cutoff is 3.0? Isn't that everyone's GPA??

[mac_attack]

I just had a thought, the McMaster GPA requirement is just a 3/4. So does that mean that they look over the entire sketch + questions to decide on who to interview??

 

Cause I know other schools just have the academic cutoff and then look at the profiles of interview candidates only.

 

TY!

[bustylegs]

As indicated in the link below detailing the GPA breakdown of the McMaster Class of 2009, 9 people were admitted with a GPA between 3-3.49

 

http://65.39.131.180/Admin/Assets/DisplayAsset.aspx?id=96039a27-fdad-4b5b-834d-72d76c295b85

 

This was not the case for the Class of 2008 when no one with a GPA between 3-3.49 was admitted:

 

http://65.39.131.180/Admin/Assets/DisplayAsset.aspx?id=6f42ef8e-8ae0-4b8c-83b3-081f5dd65a7b

 

Although I'm not involved in the McMaster selection process, judging by the info above, it is safe to assume that the admisson committee at Mac does look at all applications with a GPA of 3.0 and above (alternatively, they could have internally set the cut off at 3 point something... hence marked as 3-3.49). Please correct me on this if I'm wrong.

 

If the above links do not work, try this one:

 

http://65.39.131.180/ContentPage.aspx?name=MD_Prog_-_Admissions_-_Selection_Process

 

Hope this helps

[Grandmellon]

The Undergraduate Medical Program uses two formulae to rank applicants - the first provides a rank order list for invitation to interview, and the second provides a rank order list for offer of admission. The overall weightings reflect our commitment to consider the cognitive and professional qualities of applicants equally.

 

Formula 1 - 53% Undergraduate Grade Point Average, 43% Autobiographical Submission Score, up to 4% graduate experience.

 

Formula 2 - 33% Undergraduate Grade Point Average, 67% Multiple Mini-Interview.

 

So you can see from the Above the ABS has a large part to play in your application. GPA is equally important. This has been discussed on many threads but it is possible to gain admission with a low gpa if you have a really good ABS

[aintnogame]

From what i've heard - it depends on the year. THe committe in some years changes things around, and has very high academic cut-offs or very low cut-offs. As you can see, the MAC admission criteria changes a bit from year to year - indicating they are still working to find a "solid" way to proceed with admissions.

 

Thats just what I've heard.

[Grandmellon]

McMaster has implemented a new curriculum called the compass curiculum. (details can be found on their website)

This happened last year so rumour has it that they had people with higher GPA's to test it out and work out the kinks for the first year of it. It's hard to say if this was the reason for the high GPA. It's obvious that the GPA has dropped since last year. The weighting would therefore appear to be different from the previous year.

I think now that the program is in it's second year they may use the same criteria for admissions as last year.

GM

[trustwomen]

This is tangential to the thread, but since Mac counts all studies you have ever done equally, it actually CAN be a cutoff for some. Me, f'r'instance. I did two simultaneous humanities degrees a decade ago with bad grades, then recently a whole new degree (science) with a 3.7, while working full-time. My overall average at app. time, counting those ancient grades, was 2.98 so I didn't bother applying to Mac. They also don't look at MCAT (13V, 35S total). I would have been "computer cut".

 

Shame though, I'm a longtime social worker with community/volunteer/life experience dripping out the ears. I think the humanistic approach of Mac would have suited me fine.

 

But I got into McGill, so I'm not even remotely bitter.

[Zuckman]

Hey Grandmellon,

I PMed you to ask some questions concerning Mac. Thanks

 

Zuck

[The Soccer Guy]

As indicated in the link below detailing the GPA breakdown of the McMaster Class of 2009, 9 people were admitted with a GPA between 3-3.49

Hope this helps

 

I was just looking through those 3 documents and realized that not too many people are being accepted from the field of Medical Sciences, well at least not as much as I was hoping to see. Is this because the undergraduate degree of medical sciences is difficult? Is it because people are able to find good jobs right after they are done so they don't need to pursue further education, or is it maybe that there is not too many students in those fields?

I do know that your area of study doesn't really matter, but I would assume that most of people who take this degree plan on going to medical school later on, so if they do get a good GPA, etc there should be a lot of them applying and changes of having more than 4-8 accepted per year would be a lot higher.

 

Does anyone know what the deal with medical sciences is?

[Grandmellon]

It is hard to determine why the numbers of medical sciences students admitted seems low. It is probably related to the fact that there may be such a small number of people applying or perhaps they get in elsewhere because they write the MCAT and have the background to apply to other schools. I know there aren't a lot of schools that offer medical sciences degrees. So you can't say many of the medical science graduates are not accepted because you don't know how many applied. Maybe it was 100% of those that applied.

Don't go based on the number of people accepted from each discipline it changes from year to year based on the applicants ABS submission and their GPA / interview scores.

GM

[clkt]

sorry to bump up an old post... but I just want to clarify... that 48 item sketch of my extracurricular activities isn't considered at all during the application process? That really sucks

[anatomist]

Newp.

Not for mac

[eise]

Newp.

Not for mac

 

Really? I definitely did not know that! So they don't even look at it post interview to see what you've done? Obviously they don't get any information out of you during the multiple-minis....How do they know what your experiences are if you did not include them in your responses?

[Grandmellon]

That's right CLKT... only the stuff on y our ABS is considered. I believe that when you go to the interviews they have access to your sketch.

GM

[Peebs]

Hold on a second... so you guys are saying that if someone applied to Mac and did all of that stuff through OMSAS (48-item sketch, references, etc.), they did not look at it when they considered the person for an interview spot... and maybe they won't look at it EVER? They only looked at your GPA and your answers to the 5 questions. Is this what you're saying? If it is, I think that is just ridiculous.

[TonesRN]

Hey Peebs,

 

Yes, you're right. For an invitation to interview they only look at GPA and ABS answers. The sketch should be looked at for people invited to interview and I guess that one could include some of the EC's in their ABS answers (although there isn't a heck of a lot of room with only 700 characters!). So I can understand your position. A lot of the admissions process is left to luck. Is this the way that admissions should occur? Well that's open to debate. But I don't see any changes happening anytime soon.

[Peebs]

Thanks for the response!

 

I just can't bear to think that all the work I put into my sketch plus the work my referees put into their letters might not have been of any use to my application. Those are the components of the application that I believe most accurately reflect the applicant, as opposed to GPA and answers that the applicant could conceivably have gotten some help writing! Anyway, I'm just ranting slightly, but I wanted to clarify this fact for other applicants.