What are my chances? High GPA, good extracurriculars

[livelife]

Hi everyone!

 

I am 23yearold perminant resident of US. I just graduated with double major of Biology and Chemistry, GPA 3.96/4.00. I have done extensive medical volunteering, 4 years research technician with medical research lab, shadowing, hopefully great letters, extensive club and organization activities. Please let me know what my chances are to get accepted to McMaster. Please give me advice on what to watch out for, how to find out about the interview questions, what to do and what not to do...I realy want to go the school and have researched them and read about them on the web. Please guide me.

[TonesRN]

Well you sound like you could be a potentially strong applicant, but I'm sure a lot of individuals would as well. The thing is that you'll be competing for the 10% of interview positions given to OOP (out of province) applicants. The university doesn't differentiate between students from another province or another country. So as you can imagine, this is very competitive. If you look at the admissions stats for the past 3 years on mcmaster's website, you can get a general idea that they interview between approximately 400-700 students per admission year. So by this information, one can assume that approximately 40-70 of those spots would be for OOP applicants.

 

Your GPA is certainly competitive, but your ABS scores carry a lot of weight (43%) of your chances for interview. That being said, I know that 2 assessors look at and score these ABS submissions, but I have no idea what is given points of credit. So unfortunately, from now until early February there isn't much that we can do but wait.

 

If you want to prepare for potential interview questions, students from previous years have submitted feedback from their interviews here: http://www.studentdoctor.net/interview/interview_read.asp

 

Best of luck,

 

TonesRN

[livelife]

Well you sound like you could be a potentially strong applicant, but I'm sure a lot of individuals would as well. The thing is that you'll be competing for the 10% of interview positions given to OOP (out of province) applicants. The university doesn't differentiate between students from another province or another country. So as you can imagine, this is very competitive. If you look at the admissions stats for the past 3 years on mcmaster's website, you can get a general idea that they interview between approximately 400-700 students per admission year. So by this information, one can assume that approximately 40-70 of those spots would be for OOP applicants.

 

Your GPA is certainly competitive, but your ABS scores carry a lot of weight (43%) of your chances for interview. That being said, I know that 2 assessors look at and score these ABS submissions, but I have no idea what is given points of credit. So unfortunately, from now until early February there isn't much that we can do but wait.

 

If you want to prepare for potential interview questions, students from previous years have submitted feedback from their interviews here: http://www.studentdoctor.net/interview/interview_read.asp

 

Best of luck,

 

TonesRN

 

 

Thanks, What is ABS and how would i be able to learn more about my competetiveness.

[TonesRN]

The Autobiographical Submission (ABS) is the 5 McMaster specific questions that you answered during the application process. The scores from these, your cGPA, and graduate degree, if applicable, are whats used to determine if you receive an invitation to interview. As I said before, I'm not sure how the ABS scores are determined and McMaster wouldn't divulge this information either.

 

As far as your competitiveness goes, you can check the previous years' admissions statistics of applicants to the program on McMaster's website. This will give you a general idea. However, it's important to note that each year's application pool of applicants will vary, so there is no way to definitely say if you are competitive or not. It will depend on how you rate compared to the applicant pool of the year in which you apply. Hope this helps.

 

TonesRN

[livelife]

The Autobiographical Submission (ABS) is the 5 McMaster specific questions that you answered during the application process. The scores from these, your cGPA, and graduate degree, if applicable, are whats used to determine if you receive an invitation to interview. As I said before, I'm not sure how the ABS scores are determined and McMaster wouldn't divulge this information either.

 

As far as your competitiveness goes, you can check the previous years' admissions statistics of applicants to the program on McMaster's website. This will give you a general idea. However, it's important to note that each year's application pool of applicants will vary, so there is no way to definitely say if you are competitive or not. It will depend on how you rate compared to the applicant pool of the year in which you apply. Hope this helps.

 

TonesRN

 

 

I see. you mentioned that Mac has not taken any international students in the past 3 years. how sure are you? and how can i find more info about that? thanks

[TonesRN]

Perhaps you have me mistaken for someone else's response. I did not state that mac hasn't taken any int'l students for the past 3 yrs b/c I don't know the answer to that question. I'm actually not sure how many of the OOP admissions were international students. I would check with the the admissions coordinator at mac, she might be able to give you a better answer.